Small Master Bedroom Decor on a Budget (The Before and So far)

I am so freaky excited to share what I’ve done so far on our master bedroom decor. I decided to go with a neutral look with rustic touches and light and bright colors. Decorating a small master bedroom is a challenging task, especially on a budget but I think I’m getting there pretty nicely. Today I’m sharing with you the Before and So Far with tips I’ve found useful when space is seriously limited. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Small Apartment Decor Series: Small Master Bedroom Decor on a Budget (The Before and So far)

I read this recently and I related so deeply: “Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark.” ― Pierce Brown, Golden Son. It’s not a secret that I’ve been looking for my home for so long. I’ve lived in so many places (different countries even) but I learned that until you get to finally put a piece of yourself in it and all your pieces are together, it’s not home.

We recently moved into this apartment and somehow it feels like home. I recently shared all about tour new apartment on my Small Apartment decor, The Before post if you would like to check it out.

It’s not the structure itself, it’s how you feel in it. I don’t feel home now just because the apartment is perfect (because it’s far from perfect) it’s because here I had the opportunity to start from scratch with a lot of effort to make it mine and ours. This is not our house, it’s, of course, rented so my biggest goal is to one day buy my own but what makes this apartment my home now is that I have my family together and every little thing I have in here is ours. Either made by us or bought second handed or inherit LOL. But most importantly has our vibes, energy, and love. If we move out tomorrow all that will come with us.

I’m not going to lie, one of my biggest desires was to decorate my home. Sleep in my own decorated and styled bedroom is a must. Wake up in the morning and see everything as how I dreamed them to be. Right now I feel like I’m very close to making it come true. Our Master Bedroom Decor is on the go!

All these years collecting Master Bedroom decorating ideas are finally paying off. I gathered so many awesome decorating ideas. Even though I might never get it like those gorgeous photos, I learned a lot about styling and decorating plus I have to make it work on really small spaces. I particularly LOVE the style from Angela over at Simply Beautiful and Beth over at Home Stories A to Z they have created so much beauty at home that it’s hard not to get inspired.

Our master bedroom design is not finished yet. When working with very limited budget things tend to be painfully slow but, also so gratifying I must add. I just wanted to share how it started and what I’ve done so far with a little bit of how. I’m loving how things are turning out and I so can’t wait for it to be completely finished.

I’ve bought things on thrift stores and second-hand stores, some people have given me some decor items. I’ve had to go to so many stores to find an affordable bed. The rest of the decoration pieces I’ve bought them on sale, cheap shops and bargains. Ikea is one awesome help too. They have some nice credit options that I’ve used as well. It hasn’t been easy but absolutely worth it!

Small Master Bedroom Decor: The Before and Now.

Ok so, this is the raw reality. This is how our master bedroom used to look when we moved in. I had only our mattresses (ours and Em’s) and a few other stuff. We had to sleep with the mattress on the floor for over a month while we could decide what type of bed we wanted.

The Bed Choice

Since space is a huge deal here and we have no storage room whatsoever, we had to get creative and practical. We decided to buy a foldable storage bed. It’s amazing all you can store in there. The hard part was finding the affordable part. I went to countless stores and end up on a factory-price store where they were manufaturers so they give really good prices.

I just Love it

We decided to use the storage bed to store our luggage trying to also put smaller bags in them. We also use those bags to store our winter/summer clothes. That saves A LOT of space.

I also decided to somehow store our linen and towels. It kind of make sense to have the linen where it actually will be anyways.

After leaving behind my beloved pallet headboard before moving here, I knew I would have to make another one and, I kind of did but it didn’t turn out as I expected. So, I removed it for now, and I’m working on revamping it, I’ll show you when it’s done.

*UPDATE: I finished the rustic wooden headboard and you can check it out HERE.

The Walls

I absolutely love how bright our master bedroom is. That being said, I wasn’t sure I wanted to paint it at all. One part of me was saying paint it, paint it, and the other one was like, you will lose your brightness. My solution was painting ONE single wall as an accent wall with a very neutral color and very light, kind to just make the white pop up more.

I reached out to you on my Insta-stories asking for your advice on what wall to paint and 100% of the answers was “paint the wall behind de headboard” and so I did. I’ll share all the details about painting an accent wall on another post.

I decided I wanted a light grey color but since most brands would sell me a huge bucket of paint and also kind of expensive in my opinion, my husband came up with the idea of making our own grey. The white base is a lot cheaper than prepared colors and we found concentrated coloring bottles, It’s like coloring food but for paint. What we did was adding a few drops of black coloring until we got the shade we liked. We spent half of what a prepared color costs.

I wanted to install a picture ledge above the headboard and play with different frames with photos and printables.

Guess what I did after the wall was painted?

Yup… I installed a pretty white picture ledge! LOL. I’ve been playing with what frames to put in there but I’m still working on it.

As you can see, it’s not finished. How fancy are those frame size sheets on the frames? LOL. I’ll update you on how I style the ledge once the whole master bedroom decor is done. Each frame is from different places on sale baskets LOL. I’ve been preparing for this for a while, you might have noticed.

If you look closely you might see the headboard hooks (I even hung a cute sign on one of them LOL). As soon as I finish revamping it I’ll put it back and update you.

Bedside Tables

I bought these bedside tables at Ikea but I’m not totally happy. I discovered that those tables with doors instead of drawers aren’t that functional. I’ll probably change them in the near future for ones with drawers but for now, I love the look.

I also would like to change the lamps. I’m thinking about wall lamps so I get more usable space on the bedside tables. I’m thinking about making something like what Misty over at MisDIY did.

For now, I just decorated with frames, flowers, cute bottles and books. Bedside table styling is a work in progress at this point.

Another thing I’m planning is to hide those ugly wall sockets maybe with a couple cute frames or something because I totally hate having the plugs so visible. What do you think about this?

Some decorative shelves don’t hurt anybody.

I have this wall right in front of my bed that is completely interrupted by a column that creates a space perfect for shelving. It’s not too deep but it’s perfect for decoration purposes.

I doodle some ideas and this one was the best one I could think of. I actually loved it but…

…The measures were not helping and I felt like using shelf brackets wouldn’t look good there. Also when I did my math I would be spending a lot more creating pretty shelves than just going for floating ones. Easy decision!

At some point, after much analyzing the space and what I could get, I decided to play with smaller floating shelves on a zig-zag pattern. So I installed one to the right, one to the left, another to the right and another one to the left. That way I could even use taller items that would style it beautifully.

Again this is not completely finished, BUT I do love how it’s turning out so far. Actually, I think this part will never be done since we can just switch decoration items as seasons come, I don’t know. I love that about this particular corner of my bedroom.

One thing I do know and it’s about cleaning and I’m not planning on having too many items there. Cleaning is one thing I think about before starting anything on the house. Will I clean that easily later? Yes… Then let’s go! No… Then let’s find another option. LOL 4 Shelves (5 if I count the ledge) is a good number and a few items per shelf is manageable to clean so I’m happy with that.

I love mixing textures and colors but keeping a bright white overall look. Being such a small bedroom I need to optimize the light so it doesn’t feel smaller. I love accent colors so I added a few pops of pink, teal and brown.

One of the shelves is quite a special one because I’ve always been a huge fan of the Disney Movie Beauty and the Beast so I dedicated one to that childhood memory. I placed a few old books below a frame still no picture in it yet). right next to them, I put my BATB Rose and then some candlesticks.

All the shelves are styled mixing heights and shapes to make a harmonical composition. I’m still learning so please bear with me here. Feel free to leave some ideas or suggestions in comments.

Nothing about home decor is easy for me and I’m a learning curve so I know I might not get it all right at first but our master bedroom decor is my most dear and special of all so I’m putting a lot of love into it.

The Floor.

Sounds weird? I know. The thing is, I have a space about 30 Inches wide to walk around the bed. Yup. You heard that right. I’m not kidding. Here’s a blueprint of my bedroom.

I hate to need to lift everything from the floor to clean so my main goal is to have the least number of floor items as possible. My solution is: everything goes up. Up, up, up. Whatever I can hang on the wall is my best option or just keep it simple!

I have a cute crate where I put a furry blanket and one of my handmade pillows just below the shelving. The crate was on a huge sale because it was broken. I got it, fixed it and tadaaa! I just LOVE how it looks but I want to find a small cute stool or bench to put them on so the floor gets free.

Another thing I need to point out is that I need a place to put all the extra pillows rather than on the floor. Right now, I use a shoe rack LOL Not too fancy. I have to find a creative way to solve that.

The Closet.

That’s a story for another time and post. It’s another huge challenging task that requires a full post for itself LOL.

Well, friends, That’s our Neutral Master Bedroom Decor, hope you find some extra inspiration and useful ideas either if you have a large bedroom or small master bedroom to decorate. Stay tuned for a follow-up post as soon as the bedroom decor is completely finished with more ideas and tips. I want to help you create a cozy and homey Master bedroom of your own which can be done with little space and a small budget.

I’ll leave you with more photos of our master bedroom decor and the added details.

But before you go…

If you like what I’ve done so far, would you be so kind as to share it???

Hope you enjoyed all these small details.

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