Our Bedroom Furniture: Opinions, Please!

Friends, I need help. More specifically, I need opinions. Most of the time, I’m pretty decisive about our home decor, but I’m really, really struggling with our bedroom furniture.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know what our master bedroom looks like:

(PS: Those pictures are old. I have since replaced my white broken nightstand lamp with this one, and swapped out those tacky candle holders on the mantel with some stacks of books. Just so you know.)

You may have noticed that the majority of our furniture is black and appears to be from a matched set. There’s a story behind that.

When I got my first apartment my sophomore year of college, bless my parents – they didn’t take me to Ikea to buy me a bunch of cheap particle board pieces. They took me to Raymour & Flanigan and purchased me the most solid, heavy, sturdy dresser and nightstand you’ve ever seen.

As you can see, the past nine years have not been kind to these pieces. I mostly blame my cats – those scratches are their doing. They also could probably stand to be dusted more, and maybe I shouldn’t let reed diffuser liquid pour all over the tops of them, but nonetheless, they’re fantastic quality and would be as good as new with some TLC. (Ignore the one random oil-rubbed bronze knob on the nightstand – I’m testing options.)

When Brad and I moved into our first home in Atlanta and had some more space, he took my tall dresser and my parents bought me yet another piece – a much wider solid wood dresser. I had no idea what my style was at that point, so I picked out another two-tone country piece that would match the dresser and nightstand we already owned.

My dresser styling is sub-par. I know this. Let’s not talk about it right now.

A few months later, Brad and I returned to the store where we got the wide dresser and purchased another nightstand. We couldn’t find one that matched perfectly, so we just picked a black cottage-y style. It’s currently much too messy to photograph (and cleaning it is much too daunting to deal with), so here’s a stock photo I found on the internet:

So, that’s our bedroom set, essentially. My jewelry armoire and our bed are a darker, warmer mahogany-type wood, but for the most part, there’s a lot of black happening. Now that we know what we like, the black is an issue; the matching is an issue; and the country style is an issue. These issues need to be resolved.

The look-and-feel we’d like to have, ideally, would be something like this:

In my dreams, our bedroom is eclectic and relaxed. It has personality and style, but in a very calm way. It speaks quietly so that it doesn’t wake us up at night. You feel me?

So, the way I see it, we have a number of options. None of those options include replacing either dresser. The quality is too good and the sizes are too perfect – plus, there’s an emotional attachment. I would, however, consider replacing the nightstands. They’re actually a little too large for the space now that we have a king-sized bed, and while I don’t want our whole bedroom to match, I would like matching nightstands. I think they’d lend some maturity and symmetry to the room (which would be helpful, considering that the windows and beams are completely off-center). I’d love to bring in some mid-century pieces, like these or these. Or maybe Brad could build something! Eh? Eh? Brad?

In any outcome, though, the hardware on the dressers needs to be replaced, and the two-tone look has to go from at least my dresser. The top of Brad’s is harder to see because it’s taller, so I might let the wood top stay. His dresser is never going to completely escape the country look – the shape is too distinctive. So, I’ve been thinking maybe some chalk paint would be the way to go.

If we brought in another color for the nightstands, we could stay black with the dressers, and do something like this:

Or we could paint it a cement-y gray to lighten things up. We could leave the top as-is, like this dresser:

Or paint the whole thing, like this one:

My dresser, on the other hand, is a little more basic, so I think I could skew more modern and get away with it. I’d probably paint it all black, and then I’d love to replace the knobs with these pulls (two smaller ones on each of the top two drawers and one wider one on each of the lower drawers):

If I kept my nightstand, I’d replace the knobs with these, which come from the same set as the pulls above:

I already brought one home to try, and it looks awesome. I still would have NO idea what to do with Brad’s nightstand, though.

So, as you can see, I’m a bit lost. There are too many options and I just don’t know what to do. Help! Would you replace the nightstands? Keep them and paint Brad’s so that they’re both all-black, then replace the hardware? Paint Brad’s dresser all black, or paint it beige/grey?

Please. Leave comments. I NEED YOU. And if you’re interested in keeping up with this thrilling saga, you can follow my Our Bedroom Furniture Needs a Makeover board on Pinterest.