Before & After: Our Bedroom

I have always been a small bedroom type of gal. I like my bedroom to be just for sleeping and napping and chilling. I like it to be a serene, quiet place where no one will go unless they also plan to be silent. Luckily, B feels similarly.

When we first moved in to our apartment, our bed was located in a room that had a bathroom connected to it. This was my first time sleeping in a bedroom with a master bath and I quickly realized I hated it. Is there anything more embarrassing than having to use the bathroom in the night and wondering the whole time if your sleeping significant other is actually listening to you tinkle? And don’t even get me started on other bathroom possibilities. Yuck.

So when I began to rearrange and redecorate our apartment, I began trying to think of ways to make that bathroom off limits. But B’s practicality always prevailed…

Me: Let’s just shut that door and NEVER use that bathroom.

B: But that toilet has the most powerful flush.

Me: Yuck. Well, then fix the other two toilets, so we can shut that door and NEVER use that bathroom.

B: The toilet across the house is fixed, but it is too far away to walk to in the night, in the dark, when we have a toilet RIGHT HERE. (Gestures to toilet that can be seen from bed.)

Me: But that’s the problem, it is RIGHT HERE. (Now I gesture, but construing it as a negative thing.)

B: Seriously, babe, I am not going to walk across the house when I stumble out of bed at 2 in the morning. If you don’t want to see or hear me, then you are going to need to move our bed away from the bathroom. (He shrugs and leaves me to my plans.)

But honestly he had just given me a genius idea; I could move the bed into the office room. The office room has one small window and four walls. No bathroom, no noise and just large enough to fit one king size bed. Perfect.

Thus began the redecorating of our bedroom. First I replaced the curtains, because I genuinely hate mustard yellow – it is in my top 5 most hated colors ever. Next, I painted the walls gray – which I loved. It gave the room a very mellow vibe, good for sleeping, napping and relaxing. I decided to keep the walls mostly empty, except for right above the bed, where I created a small gallery wall of prints we had collected throughout our travels that year.

I hung my first ever shelf and placed a few books, a candle and vase upon it. The room looked great. I was so proud. Then B’s practicality came walking in.

B: You hung a shelf full of breakable things directly above where I sleep.

Me: I totally did! All by myself! Doesn’t it look great?

B: (Tugging on shelf.) It looks dangerous. Like it might kill me in my sleep. Is this screw stripped?

Me: Maybe. I messed up a bit, but it’ll stay up there.

B: (Lifting heavy vase.) This looks heavy. Seriously, are you trying to kill me? Why would you put glass candles and a heavy vase directly above my head?

Me: Stop worrying. And because it looks pretty. And it does look pretty. Admit it.

B: Yes, it looks nice. (Smiles.) Want to bet how long it takes the kitten to break everything on that shelf by dropping it on my head?

Me: No.

The final additions to the room were a standing mirror and a banner from our wedding. I hung the banner on the wall we would wake up to every morning. That way we could be reminded of our “much love”. I placed the mirror in the room because we have a very vain cat, and I knew she would love spending hours curled up on the corner of the bed, basking in the sunlight, admiring her beauty. And she does. That is basically where she spends the majority of her time now. (But, of course, she is a cat, so when I wanted a photo of it she hopped off and walked casually away -  such a very "cat" thing to do.)

Except for every Saturday morning, when she jumps on to the shelf above B’s head and drops books, candles and plants on him. Turns out we were both right: the shelf is dangerous, many things have been broken, but nothing has killed him, not yet.