Styling My Dresser: Before and After
I’ve learned something about myself from years of blogging about my home or sharing great ideas from fellow bloggers. I am seriously happy with 85% done (meaning, hopefully painted.. no decorating) Decorating is so much harder to actually get right than remodeling (to me!). Let me rip out a wall, revamp a floor plan build, fix bad traffic patterns, build stuff, paint, add moldings… All of those things I really love. Putting tchotchkes on a dresser? Not my happy place. Let me built the dresser and we’ll put stuff in it and call it good.
However, in the spirit of needing to learn how to really pull my house together into a finished space (and knowing my comfort zone tends to stop me from doing this), I decided I needed to do a little studying and learning some tips for ACTUALLY using my decor stuff (of which I have TOO much). And there really is not a better time to do this, since my home is almost reaching 85% complete, so there are a lot of unadorned, empty spaces in my house, just calling to be polished up so it can really shine.
To put me on the right road, I teamed up with Jackie and her School of Decorating. Jackie let me preview the Styling Secrets workshop to see if I wanted to share it with all of you, and it is AMAZING! And she is offering it, for a limited time, FREE to our Remodelaholic readers. This course is normally only available for School of Decorating members, so sign up now to have instant access to the class!
Here is the project I worked on, with the techniques I learned in the Styling Secrets workshop in mind.
So our bedroom is about 1/2 way done.
It is a hot mess!! I have a bed, with un-matching bedding, a random yellow locker, old drapes from my daughter’s room back in Texas (that I never showed you… someday maybe) 2 side tables from our living room and because our master bathroom and closet is gutted down to the studs, we have a temporary closet on one wall in our bedroom. Oh and with winter coming on we’ve been finding drafts, so we still have blue painters tape up where we just had to caulk a crack in the ceiling that was causing a huge draft… we keep it real round here.
I have done ONE mindful on-purpose decorating thing in this space. That is it. We hung pictures over our bed 2 weeks ago. I did this to get them off of the floor in my office. No other motivation. But I am so enjoying it.
I guess what I am am asking, nay pleading, is for you to NOT judge my thrown together space. This is real life people. This is not a television show or magazine… And somehow, it is more real life than normal because I usually don’t show completely crazy rooms like this.
Because we are dying for storage space, (we currently have ONE five foot closet in the whole house, which is in my basement office, awful I know!!!), we decided to bring in an old buffet for storage. We bought this at an old antique shop, on our 6th wedding anniversary in Asheville, NC. It needs some love, but for right now we are using it as is, and I am happy with that.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t spend a dollar on this transformation.
I used only what I had in my basement decor stash!
I also don’t want any major color commitments since I haven’t even begun to think about the final plan for this room (bedding and such) So I decided to try and keep it as neutral and light as possible.
Okay, so here is where we began.
We have a dresser and a laundry basket, (with real live dirty laundry… I am proud of the fact that is the current amount of laundry I have in my house at least the laundry is done, if my spaces aren’t!…)
I started by collecting some items that were useful, a few meaningful and the rest just decor. Ultimately I decided there were too many dark items. And like I mentioned before, I wanted more light or neutral colored items, so I returned a few things to other places, and found some other new items. And started messing around with placement using a few of the strategies from the Styling Secrets workshop.
I had to go pick up a mirror that I had at my mom’s house, but until it got here I saved its place with this backward painting canvas.
And after a couple tries, and adding a couple pops of color I am really pleased with the results. I bought absolutely nothing. I only used stuff I had!!
Decorating normally is uncomfortable for me, but I didn’t feel quite as scared about what to do now… It was really helpful to think about the steps that were broken down in the FREE Styling Secrets workshop (that you can sign up for right now, it is free!)
I would definitely recommend the class, really the whole course! Give it a shot and see what you think!
If you feel like you are stuck at the stage of “How do I pull everything together” or even “How do I start?”, then this class is MADE FOR YOU!
If you feel like you are great at decorating, the class is FREE and amazing, and I bet you’ll still learn something. There is no reason not to learn these amazing tips and polish your spaces!!
Sign up here for instant access to the Styling Secrets workshop
Disclosure: Remodelaholic is an affiliate for School of Decorating. If you join School of Decorating after clicking a link in this post, I may receive an affiliate commission. We only recommend products we believe in 100%. School of Decorating gives you the decorating courage and know how you need to create a home you love, and we’re sure you’re going to love it!
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
Cassity, Your dresser looks gorgeous! That tray has amazing texture and helps keep the dresser top from looking cluttered. And I LOVE how you repeated the hand sculptures…repetition of similar elements is advanced styling 🙂
Genius idea to use a canvas to stand in for the mirror. That’s a great trick to use a stand-in piece. If you know you need to buy or find something to fill in a space, a stand-in helps you make sure the size and type of item is right before you go shopping.
I hope this one decorated zone in your bedroom gives you hope and inspiration for the rest of the room.