Bedroom Renovation: from 70s to modern day

I’ve been meaning to renovate my bedroom for quite some time now. It’s a room straight out of the seventies, with its main features consisting of (faux) wood panelling and brown carpets. Lovely! *sarcasm*. Now, I love the colour brown in my neutral wardrobe but I’m not quite as much a fan in my bedroom.

Here’s the vision

My main priority is to make this room more modern and bright!

I plan to do this by painting the walls white with beige accents (on the trim, doors, closet, etc.) and installing an easy click-system vinyl flooring in a light-medium tone. I’m giving myself 2 weeks to accomplish the renovation, which is happening during my break between 2 summer courses.

And here’s how it went:

The Prep

After solidifying the vision, I moved on to creating a task and material list for this project (the notes are tidbits of advice that I may want to consider for future projects):

It was also incredibly important in this stage to measure my room in order to calculate the square footage of flooring required as well as the amount of paint I needed to purchase!

Some tasks on this list could happen simultaneously - so not everything was happening sequentially which helped shorten the timeline a little. I also got help from my parents which was really important because a lot of tasks required more than 2 hands.

The Details

The paint colours I chose were:

Behr ultra interior in satin - in the colour Canvas Luggage (N300-2)

Behr ultra scuff defence in flat matte - in the colour Night Blooming Jasmine (YL-W10)

If you want to test out how colours look in pictures of your own room or on sample rooms, the Behr website has a great “colour visualizer” tool that lets you “paint” walls and trim specific colours so that you can see how they work together.

I’m more on an in-person colour person so I selected paint chips and taped them to the wall when I got home to decide. Painting the trim a light beige added a bit of style to the room while still keeping it bright. I really enjoyed how the satin and matte paint ended up looking together. Matte paint was a deliberate choice for my panelled walls because it doesn’t bring attention to textured imperfections, in the ways that a satin or gloss does.

The Flooring

I ended up going with Rigid Core LVT vinyl flooring planks in the colour Davon Grey. This flooring has an easy click installation and is a medium-light greyish brown faux-hardwood style floor. It looks really nice once installed and I think the colour adds a little depth to the room while also bringing in some texture (rather than plain tiles).

The Process

This whole project ended up taking a little bit over two weeks, however I hadn't considered the fact that I started back at work in the middle of renovations (I thought quarantine may have lasted longer!)

The Move In

And just like that, the room has been renovated. It’s so much brighter and fresher looking now! I think adding the beige accents and flooring really helps to warm up the room and keep it feeling modern without being a stark white box.

So far, there's no art on the walls, but you can see in the corner that I've got a painting underway to add some "greenery" to the room that I can't forget to water!

The matte paint was definitely a good choice because the panelling I was painting over definitely had texture and imperfections that the flat nature of the paint helps to disguise. It still allows the panel “seams” to shine through which adds a beach-house feel to the room.

I didn't purchase any new big furniture or decor pieces. However, I did add a few storage bins in my closet and the little woven hamper which you can see in the photo above.

When I moved my furniture back in, I only placed a small carpet at the foot of my bed so I could enjoy my new floors and I re-arranged my lighting (table lamps and floor lamp) to be well-positioned in the darkest areas of my room since adding brightness was my priority.

In terms of design details, I prioritized a bright neutral colour scheme with warm toned woods (like my bamboo desk).

To add to the warmth, I included woven textures in my rug and hamper along with linen for my bedspread. I combine both eclectic and industrial decor. The eclectic comes from unique knobs on my bookshelf and stone or painted tile coasters which contrasts the galvanized steel on one of my side tables, and the metal lamps and legs on my desk and chair.

I really love the finished product of my room because it's so much brighter and serene in comparison to the dreary colour palette from before. The flooring feels like such an upgrade compared to the old carpet and I find that it's much faster and easier to clean.

Have you been doing any reno projects this summer?! I finished this whole project on July 1st and have only gotten around to taking and editing pictures now! Let me know about your home renos in the comments!