Studio Apartment Sneak Peek: Master Bedroom

Today I'll give you a sneak peak at my master bedroom. You might think that living in a 650 square foot studio means you have to "think small" but you would be wrong. I decided to keep my king size bed, along with matching three drawer chests (I use them as nightstands.) along with everything else I loved. In the end, I was able to create my glamourous master bedroom, despite the apartment's small size. I think Ryan Korban, an interior designer, said it best when he was interviewed recently for Decorati's Designer Profile,

"I would love to see people really let go of square footage. For small spaces to exist with large spaces without turning it into a "small" spaces story. Our obsession with size has always confused. I was always concered with good taste not size."

You can read the rest of his article here, titled, "A Return of Romance".

Let's take a look at the floor plan. My master bedroom is called the "sleeping room" in the floor plan. As you may recall, I used the living area to create Dear Son's room.

Here is a photo of the room before I moved in. Not particularly charming. Since the entire apartment was already painted this taupe color, I decided to keep it. That would save me some time in not having to paint the walls and then re-paint them back. Since I just moved in a month or so ago, I wasn't too excited about re-painting since I had to do that in my former apartment. This color was different for me. It's bolder than what I prefer. I love soft, muted colors and this color is a bit deeper and more modern in my opinion. My design preferences lean toward classic and traditional design.

Every room has challenges. Most of the time, they aren't a big deal; you just figure out what they are and work around them. It's kind of like selecting clothes. Each person knows their assets and liabilities and dresses accordingly (hopefully). Rooms are no different. In this room, we have a few challenges. In a small space, some of them become more important than if you had a home because there just aren't any other options for furniture placement. This room is pretty good except for the return air vent located near the floor. That means that you can't place furniture in front of it or it will block the vent. Had they placed this near the ceiling, furniture placement would be better, although it may not look as pretty. In this space, ceiling placement would have been helpful. The room, at only 11 feet wide, meant that I could only use one of my three drawer matching chest of drawers. Since I didn't want to break up a set, I used the other one in Dear Son's room. I ended up having to purchase a piece of furniture for the other side of the bed, but I'll get to that later. The other issue is that of the smoke detector. Does it really need to be right over the bed? I think not.
I would have preferred to have this chandelier over my bed.

So now that you've seen the before, let's get to the "after".

For this room, I wanted to keep my bed, chest of drawers and crystal bedside lamps. I also loved the picture over my bed that I had in my previous bedroom. It had a grayish blue tone to it so I was a bit perplexed at first as to what color I would use in this room. Since I was short on storage space, I also needed to find a place for some things that I loved, namely the Louis XV reproduction mirror, my crystal sconces and my living room lamps. I tried the mirror over the bed however it reflected Dear Son's feeding pump across the room and it was not a pretty view. The only wall I had left was the wall the mirror is on.

I used the drapery rod and drapes from my former living room. I would like to replace them with gold embroidered sheers. I took the living room lamps that I loved and used them behind the sofa for reading lamps.

I kept my crystal scones, that were previously paired with my mirror in the dining room of my former apartment, and placed them on either side of the print. The print is a favorite of mine. I purchased it at Bombay Company many years ago. The print is by Jack Vittriano and is called, "Dance Me to the End of Love". I used the sheets that I already had as well.

Since the other chest of drawers didn't fit on the other side of the bed, I needed to find a table of sorts to hold the lamp. I measured the height of the chest of drawers and then found a small table for the other side of the bed. I needed the height of the tables to be the same so the lamp height would be identical, otherwise, it would look disjointed. I think the new table turned out perfect.

They say that if you buy what you love, it will all go together. Here is a picture of my living room lamps, which I love. Notice how the pattern on the lamp matches the pattern on the bed. The gold color works as well.Even my cat looks great on this bedding. The gold bedding matches his eyes. Of course, he didn't want to open them for the photo, lol.

Let's talk about the bedding a bit. Once I decided to keep the paint color, I wasn't sure what type of bedding that I wanted. What I wanted and what I could afford were two different things. I like Horchow's bedding but most of that was above what I could afford. So, I went with Plan B, and purchased a bed in a bag. I looked online and found some Donna Karan bedding in gold and Barbara Barry bedding in a pastel blue that I really liked, but I fell in love with this gold bedding. I should also mention that when you select colors for your home, you should always select colors that look good on you, for your room. That way, you'll always look good in your home. You'd never buy an outfit in a color that wouldn't look good on you, so why would you put a color that clashes with your skin tone in your home?

In searching for the perfect comforter, I came across what I thought was the perfect one. It was taupe and blue and so glamourous. When I got it home however, there were just too many decorative pillows. It was overwhelming. While it did look nice I just didn't want to remove seven pillows from the bed every night. I'd like to think it was "too much bed for the room", lol. Instead, I found out that some manufacturers now make a bed in the bag with four pieces: two shams, a dust ruffle and a comforter. That was perfect. My new bedding is just that, four pieces. I purchased one decorative pillow for it and I think the room looks just right.

Not only does this comforter look luxurious, but it feels luxurious. I don't think I've ever had a comforter that is this comfortable. If you put your leg or foot on the comforter, it's like placing it on a pillow. It is that incredible. Although this isn't a great picture, I really love the dust ruffle. They did it in a crinkle fabric; I find it very feminine and very glam.

I plan on adding a pair of gold luxe pillows on the sofa to compliment the bedding and make it seem more like one space.

Here the draperies are down. I like adding draperies to a room for softness.

Moving on in the room to storage. If you look closely, you see that I stored all of Dear Son's formula in here, along with some of his changing supplies, namely bed pads and diaper inserts. Can you find them?

They are behind the sofa. I kept a small bookshelf from my previous apartment and decided to try it behind the sofa as a sofa table. I figured if it worked, I would get a real sofa table that is wide enough. This actually works great. A sofa table would be nicer though since it is wider and I could place the lamps a bit further apart which would be more pleasing to the eye.

Here is a peek at what is behind the sofa. I have Dear Son's bed pads (blue) and diaper inserts (top packages) on the left, my tools are in the three drawer pull out bins. On the top shelf in the center is the drawer hardware and any parts that belong to the apartment (I changed out my kitchen hardware for glass knobs so I have to keep the originals and replace them when I move.) In the next two bins on the top shelf are my office supplies. On the bottom shelf are boots and off season shoes.

Small space storage is a bit more compact than regular storage or organizing. Inside the shoe type bins, I simply used plastic bags to sort contents. If I had more space, I'd use three drawer bins or something else. Since I have such a small space, everything must be edited and I keep only what I use. I'll print proper labels later; I've only been in a month and I've had to edit everything. I do have all of my electronics/cords labeled in their plastic bags.

I did the same thing for office supplies.

To the right of the bookshelf is Dear Son's formula. It has to be temperature controlled since it's real food so I couldn't put it in my storage unit since it would be too hot. He is on gtube feeds to I have 6-8 cases of formula to store at any given time. The cat likes to sit on top of it so he has a little blanket that I use on top.

More unglamours photos. I haven't had a chance to do a whole lot yet, with Dear Son home, but I wanted to show you how I used the space to date. Here is the closet for the master bedroom. This is the only closet in the apartment other than the foyer closet and laundry room closet. This closet needs to perform many functions.

Here's how I planned on using it. Prior to moving in, I had to measure out the exact width of hanging space so I knew how much clothes would fit. Remember all of the functions this closet needs to do. It needs to have space for Dear Son's clothes, my clothes, along with all of the stuff in a typical linen closet. I also needed a place for my file cabinet, Dear Son's medical supplies and some home office supplies and books. Small space storage is about maximizing all of your spaces.

I also installed hooks on the side of the closet for Dear Son's hoyer lift and for his Chicago Bears snuggie. I didn't want these items sitting out so I had to find a place for them. I also had to find a place for my vacuum. Tiny spaces equal tiny vacuum cleaners. Don't be fooled though, this vacuum cleaner is amazing!

Moving around the room, you'll see the hooks for Dear Son's sling and snuggie along with a place for my work bag. On the far wall is home office supplies and books.

On the back wall is the file cabinet, some long hanging clothes and moving around the closet, we see the medical bins on the top shelf and Dear Son's hanging clothes. I keep his off season coats elsewhere. Had I not purged his clothes regularly, this move would have been a nightmare trying to edit an entire household in three weeks along with moving my Mom into a nursing home and all of the associated paperwork, plus selling my furniture and everything else.

I edited my clothes and have two bins in storage with clothes I am not using. Not too bad though. I think I did a pretty good job of editing shoes and everything else.

Here are Dear Son's medical bins.

On the right hand side are the supplies from our linen closet, which I showed you previously.

Overall, everything works pretty well. Small space living is pretty easy. It's easy to clean and everything takes less time. The only rule for studio apartment living is that since everything in your home is on display, you have to be diligent about keeping everything neat. I still have some projects to do like painting the chest of drawers black to match the picture frame (and also to match Dear Son's chest of drawers), re-label the bags in the bins, add some gold pillows to the sofa and things like that. Overall, I am very happy with it. I hope you enjoyed a sneak peek at my new bedroom.