It's National Cleaning Week, and we're in the mood to freshen up our clean spaces with bright colors and greenery galore! If you're looking for inspiration, enjoy this thrifty room refresh from our friends at Goodwill Industries International.
All winter I look forward to opening the windows when spring arrives so I can feel that first fresh breeze blow through. It’s such an inspiring feeling that I wanted to capture it to enjoy year-round. Well, I can’t do that. But I can give my bedroom a refresh that reminds me of it! Read on to find out how I brought a spring-like feel to my bedroom to keep that cheerful mood all year.
When I look at the before picture of my bedroom I think “Yikes! Does someone even live there?” It’s an oddly shaped room which presents its own challenges, and it has never felt cozy. Having spent forever on the back burner to our other home projects, it was clearly time for a new look. A fresh start for spring.
I started this revamp the same way that I start every organization or cleaning spree—by pulling out everything I don’t like about a space. I eye and assess each item as I go. If I don’t need something and don’t like it, I’ll toss it in the donate bin. If I do need something (like all of the fabrics that are hiding in the paper bag in the before photo), but hate the way it looks, I remove it temporarily until I can come back with a solution. Whatever’s left after I sift through everything will serve as the foundation upon which I build a new decor scheme, so I try to look at what’s left with fresh, objective eyes before I go out shopping.
The solution for the fabric pile ended up coinciding with one spring-like theme I knew I wanted to bring in: picnicking. It was easy to capture the mood of this fun spring activity by adding in basket-weave textures so that was one of the first shelves I swung by on my latest Goodwill trip. Both of the winnowing baskets that I hung on the wall plus the large basket that is now home to my fabrics jumped right out at me. Fabric storage problem solved! Picnic mood accomplished. The rest of my issues pretty much sorted themselves out as I updated the space using these room refresh tips…
Tip 1: Bring in spring colors. First, I removed the heavy, dark colors that were clouding up my bedroom. Of course, pastels are a spring staple, so I knew I wanted to include more pink and light blue when I was ready to add things back in. Two easy ways to do this are with books and blankets. You can’t have too many of either! I never skip the book section of my local Goodwill for exactly this reason. Books can be displayed in so many beautiful ways and they’re entertainment at the same time!
Tip 2: Shop your own home! Although you will need to bring in a few new (to you) pieces for the space to feel really fresh, you can first walk around your house looking for the right colors or items to rehome. If you don’t absolutely love something where it is, try it in the room you’re reworking. I do this a lot and end up seeing new potential in items that I never saw before! For example, you may recognize the little ceramic bunny from a previous post. I got it from Goodwill last year, but rabbits are so perfect for spring that I wanted to try it in my room. I did a little brainstorming and realized that with some antlers (which I made from Sculpee), a shallow thrifted bowl, and glue it could become a bedside jackalope ring holder. It’s a giggle and good storage all at once.
Tip 3: Add height for an uplifting feeling. If you look at the before and after photos, you can actually see the room rise a little after being restyled. Just by adding height to the arrangement on the right side of the headboard, putting the winnowing baskets up, and fluffing/bringing in more pillows, the room feels lighter and more uplifting. I thrifted the green lamp from Goodwill years ago and added that floral fabric to the shade myself. It worked in the space where it originally lived in our old apartment, but it has never felt right in this home. So, for this room refresh I peeled the old fabric off and replaced it with a fresh white. It felt so cramped down in that nook where it was. Moving it up shows it off so much better and elevates the space!
Tip 4: Bring in plants and flowers (even if they’re fake). Rooms feel instantly more alive with greenery and blooms, so I made sure to include some in this refresh. I already had the faux flowers on the left side of the headboard, but I brought in two real plants as well and they made a huge difference! There’s nothing more exemplary of spring.