So to give you a little background information here : my mother is an interior designer. I spent a good part of my life in renovations as we renovated pretty much the entire house, and I changed my room decor a fair few times when I was still living there. I'm a homebody, I spend a lot of time in my flat and I firmly believe that if you like the place where you live, it can definitely make you feel happier overall!
I currently rent an apartment in Dublin, where most apartments come furnished. I do have a few pieces that belong to me but having a furnished flat can make it difficult to adapt and make it your own. I think I've still done a great job at it in my living room, which is the room you see in pretty much all of my blog photos (No shame!). I'm always thrilled at the idea of hanging out in my living room, but I never felt the same about my bedroom.
While my bedroom is by no means tragic, it's nothing special either. When I moved from Canada I brought my duvet cover & cushion covers with me so I've ben living with them for a long long time. For the last few months I've been thinking of things I could do to improve the comfort and decor while keeping things functional. Obviously it was also important to me to try and keep things as eco-friendly as possible and to buy things from brands I can trust. I should also mention that I am not a millionaire so even though I don't have a set budget, I'm trying to keep the costs to a minimum. I started by making a list of things I'd like to change or fix :
- I need bed sheets for the summer
- The room isn't "even". Everything is at the back and the styles don't quite go together
- The bed base is horrendous
- The ceiling lamp shade doesn't match and sticks out because it's so dark
- There's almost no plants in the room
- I like to keep my mat out because I use it almost everyday, but it gets dirty and it's not particularly cute
- I need to keep the area around the mat fairly free so I can move around
- The cable from my side lamp is in the way of the bedside table
- I'd like to have lighting around my dressing table for the winter mornings when the sun isn't up
THE BED
What's a bedroom without a bed? I figured it was a good place to start. I met with one of the girls from White and Green, who make organic fair trade luxury bed linen, at the Irish Craft & Design fair back in November and I had told myself that next time I needed bed sheets, I would get it from them. I ordered a flat sheet & a fitted sheet. I will admit this is the biggest splurge of the project, but the sheets will last me for years so I don't mind investing. Their sheets are also made very deep so they fit all mattresses and very wide, so they hide my ugly bed base!
I also wanted to refresh the room and change the duvet cover for something brighter. Mine also came from Canada and doesn't fit the european duvet size, so I'm happy to finally get something that fits! I opted for this one from Ikea, it's white but the texture bring something more to the look and makes it a bit more interesting.
I kept my silk pillowcases that come from the Ethical Silk Company, as I love them and would never trade them. I did change my cushion covers too though. I ordered 3 new ones from the H&M Conscious Collection (Here, Here and Here). I usually prefer to support independent brands and I agree that the conscious range has its issues, but for budget reasons I thought it was a good option for my simple cushion covers.
COST : €182,50
KEEPING THINGS FUNCTIONAL
The one thing that bugs me the most right now is my yoga mat. I prefer to keep it out because I use it almost everyday and it keeps it flat. That also means that it gets pretty dirty pretty fast and that it's not the best decor element. A few months ago I had the idea to hide it with a rug! It's easy to put on and remove when I need to use the mat, easy to clean and it should protect the mat from dirt. Yoga mats aren't standard rug sizes though so I struggled to find something suitable in a style that I liked. I finally landed on this one from TK Maxx. I know it's not from a particularly eco friendly brand but the good thing about places like TK Maxx & Homesense is that a lot of things come without packaging! Plus it was on sale.
The other thing that annoys me is the cable for my reading lamp is in the way if I want to open my bedside table. I didn't want to buy a new lamp just for that though so for now I turned it and the cable is burried on the side of my bed. It's still not ideal but a bit better and no useless purchase was made!
I also couldn't quite figure out how to add a lamp to my dressing table, but since dark mornings aren't going to be an issue for a few months, I decided to wait until I knew what I wanted better. I think it's important to refrain from making impulse purchases and buying things that don't really suit us. I will keep you guys updates however!
COST : €18
THE DECOR
The first thing I decided to tackle was the empty side of my bed. I found these two plant stands in Homesense and I think they're absolutely perfect! They had no packaging, fit with the room and while they don't take that much space, I can easily move them around if I need to. I decided to add plants in them but depending on how they grow and what I need, I could keep one for nighttime skincare or something like that!
I finally got around to changing my lampshade! It might seem like nothing, but I really feel like it evens out the room and becomes "invisible" which is what I was going for. I decided to go simple and picked the JÄRA from Ikea. It also matches the lamp on my bedside table which helps. I struggled a bit when the time came to install it but hey, I'm a strong independent woman.
I also ended up moving things around in my drawers to make room for the makeup bits that were on top of the dresser, that way I could clear up things and make them look less cluttered. I also got this gorgeous jewelry box from a vintage store here in Dublin. I love it because inside it has the name of a jeweller from the neighbourhood I used to live in! So it will be a nice Dublin souvenir.
COST : €59
THE PLANTS
I wasn't planning on making a whole section out of this but I jut couldn't resist! One of my goals was to introduce more plants into my bedroom, as I think it warms up a room so much. I'm also completely slightly addicted. So just to recap, at the start I had : the succulents on my windowsill, the rubber plant on my dresser, the mini succulent on my bedside table and the aloe on my shelves. Which were all doing good and pretty happy.
The ones I moved in : I brought in my Bird's Nest fern, which is one of my favourite plants of all time. It got too big for its original spot and couldn't stand being next to the window. This is perfect to create volume as it's growing quite massive, so I put it on my dresser to get a decent amount of light without the direct sun. I also brought back my random foliage plant (for a lack of a better name). This one started out in my bedroom a year ago but nearly didn't survive my summer trip to Canada, so now that it's back to being healthy, I figured it deserved to get its spot back! The last plant I moved around is my ivy, purely because I think it looks great on that shelf!
The new joiners : I tried to be good and not go overboard, so I only bought 2 new ones! I got this beautiful Calathea plant in one of my Dublin expeditions. From what I read these are great air purifying plants so it seemed perfect to go in a bedroom. My second purchase happened in Ikea! It's a magnificent Elephant Ear plant. I've been looking for one for ages and I'm so happy I found one this big and beautiful at such a cheap price (around 15€, I can't find the bill!). They both seem very happy in their new homes and certainly make ME happy as well.
COST : €25
THE WASTE
It was very important to generate the least waste possible when working on this, so I tried to keep everything to see how I did in the end.
Unwanted textiles: The duvet & cushion covers that I removed aren't wasted, I will be bringing them back to Canada and my mom will reuse them.
Cardboard & paper : I will recycle all the paper price tags, these are often forgotten but are still cardboard! The bedding I bought also had some cardboard inserts and the Ikea lampshade has an instruction leaflet. H&M sent my order in a box 3 times bigger than necessary, but at least it's a box and not a plastic pouch. I also have a paper order confirmation.
Biodegradable plastic : White & Green's products came packaged in biodegradable plastic bags. My job has industrial compost so I will bring them there to make sure they are disposed of properly.
Plastic : The biggest culprit is definitely H&M. The box was held together by plastic ties, and every product came in a plastic bag that I can't recycle. Apart from that I have the plastic ties for the price tags. Since soft plastics can't be recycled, I'll just make sure they are in the bin and won't fly away into the wild.
All in all I think I still managed to keep my waste to a minimum, which I'm really happy about!
THE FINAL RESULT
I'm super happy with how the room looks now! There is still some fine tuning left to do but I prefer to take my time and only buy things when I know what I want. I had great fun in trying to find elements in a more sustainable way instead of just buying everything impulsively. There's a lot more thought into every piece and now I feel good hanging out in there and going to sleep.
