My Bedroom Is Like a Peppermint

Before we moved in, the room that worried me the most was the bedroom. When Cooper and I saw the apartment the first time, we were dazzled by the wood floors and actual closets and room for two human beings and a cat litter box. It also helped that the current tenants had some good furniture and nice things hanging on the walls. We signed the lease the next morning. The second time we saw the apartment, after we finally got in touch with those tenants about buying some of their furniture, the apartment was mostly boxes. I realized that the ceilings in the bathroom and bedroom were not so tall as in the living room, and worse was the cause: cheap ceiling tiles. The bedroom also has cardboard-seeming paneling, painted white.

It also looked a lot smaller than it had before, and I realized that they had one side of their bed pushed up against the wall, lengthwise, with no room for a nightstand. My long-held dreams of bedside equality, equal bedtime mobility, shattered.

Thankfully, when we moved in we found there was just enough space to position the bed properly—short side to the wall. But after the bed, we have two dressers, two side tables, one desk. They naturally all wanted to be on the same wall, but we were afraid the floor would tip if we left it like that. (Not really.) So I moved every piece of furniture to every possible alternate location (and I took so many pictures for comparison purposes, but I'll spare you our dirty laundry), and this is where we are today:

From the door to the living room. Look at that big empty wall!

From the door to the bathroom; toward the living room.

Bedroom equality. Cooper's nightstand is short, so you can't see it, but it's on the left side of the bed between it and the desk. My nightstand is beautiful, as is the cutey Ikea lantern.

My apologies for the fuzzy iPhone photos; I don't have any free time during daylight until next Saturday, but I wanted to go ahead and finally write this post.

I swear I didn't plan to make it red and white, and that's not really what I'm going for; it's just that I own a lot of red. I do want more variety, including a second duvet cover. The curtains are going to move to the kitchen, where they can be united in one window, show off their pretty border, and regain a little of their former glory. The black chest of drawers will become a color one day, but not now. The star lamp needs an actual hook—maybe above the bed, maybe somewhere else.

In late spring I made my bed with new floral sheets, a white blanket and a plaid blanket, and my cute silkscreened pillows. Reading in bed by the (meager) light of my little blue lantern reminded me of a cabin in summertime.

Cooper's side table, solid and rustic-looking (see this photo) and the weird paneling pattern fit with that as well. Even the star lamp does, a ray of Nordic hope in a time of growing darkness.

Alternatively or additionally, I'd like warmly pinkish curtains, and some sort of richly detailed lamp. Who knows. What we really need is to start putting hooks in the walls for artwork, and I have to go to JoAnn Fabrics to scout out curtain possibilities. Here are some of the things I've been coveting (World Market, Urban Outfitters). Just for fun, because one is discontinued, one is expensive, and one is awfully (neon?) pink, and I think I'm almost over it.