Refreshing Our Space

Lately I've been in the mood to refresh our home. It sort of feels like I'm always tweaking little things, like adding another framed photo here or replacing a torn thrown pillow there. You know, little stuff. Since I "finished" decorating most of my home while we were writing Happy Handmade Home (about two years ago), I really haven't made any big changes since. As you can probably guess, I love home decor, like, a lot. And lately I've just gotten the bug again. But, I didn't want to spend a lot of money or get rid of any major pieces as I really liked everything we already had. So instead, I decided to try and find ways to refresh our space without giving the rooms a total makeover. This month I focused on our bedroom. If you want to see what our bedroom looked like before, you can see our room tour here.

If you're thinking about refreshing your bedroom or other space this season, here's a few things to try:

1. Rearrange your furniture and rugs.

Giving our room a different layout really made the space feel totally different. Of course you have to be mindful of doorways, furniture lengths, and other considerations. But, armed with a measuring tape, I bet you can find a way to change up your space and maybe even make it more functional.

2. Repurpose an item.

One thing we changed that made the room feel totally different was repurposing our pallet headboard into a bed frame. To be honest, this was partially by accident. I wanted to change the headboard because it's just such a large, bulky feature in the room that it draws a lot of attention. So I knew that changing it would make a big difference. I didn't really want to get rid of it though—but how do you store a giant wood headboard? I measured, and it turned out to be the perfect fit for a bed frame. Go figure! Pallets are built to hold a lot of weight too, so I didn't even need to reinforce it. I just moved it from the wall to the floor.

This is what the pallet headboard looked like before.

Now it sits under our bed, elevating it. I'm thinking about using the space underneath to store magazines or shoes or something. We'll see.

3. Move items to different rooms/spaces.

Like I mentioned before, I'm still in love with pretty much every piece in our home. So instead of getting rid of items or buying/making new ones, I simply moved some things to other rooms. I moved the wicker chair from the corner to our guest bedroom (I *might* put it in the living room someday though, we'll see). And I moved the record player and cabinet from the living room to the bedroom. You could also move curtains or a rug from one room to another. Just small little changes like this don't cost a dime but can make your space feel so different.

4. Declutter.

I tend to collect clutter as time goes on...like magazines I don't store or toss, or little rocks I'll pick up on vacations but then never really do anything with, so they just sit around on dressers or nightstands for months at a time. When you refresh a space, this is a great time to declutter. This might not mean throwing anything away, just finding the right home for it in your space. If you've been meaning to store all those old movie ticket stubs in a photo album but never have, now is the time. I think of this as deep cleaning. It makes any space feel more spacious, and it makes it easier to just do a little light cleaning now and again to keep it looking this way longer. I like light cleaning, I can live with that. :)

For me, refreshing our entire bedroom only took one long Saturday afternoon, and I love the difference it's made! Our room feels more like an open, blank slate which I'm loving right now. Anyway, thanks for letting me share, and if you've been feeling a little stuck in a decor rut lately, you might try refreshing your space. Do it, do it. :) xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman, Photography: Janae Hardy. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions. For a list of sources for many of the items you see in our bedroom check at the bottom of our room tour. Updates include: comforter/Target, throw pillows/West Elm, record player/UO and record player table/flea market find.