DIY Cozy Cottage Inspired Main Bedroom Makeover | Thrifty Decor Chick

A beautiful DIY cottagecore inspired bedroom transformation.

I gave our dark bedroom a beautiful, cottage decor inspired makeover with a
bunch of fun DIY projects!

We loved how cozy it was, but I quickly realized the dark gray was hindering
my decor choices. I wanted to brighten and neutralize the space, but didn’t
want to remove the wallpaper in the process. 

So I wanted to work with what I had — the wallpaper and chair rail I
installed a few years back. I love all of our furniture and the rug, so I knew
those would stay. 

Almost everything got new DIY/decor touches and oh my…this turned out to be
one of my favorite makeovers ever! 

Tongue and groove shiplap walls 

I’ve slowly been replacing the baseboards around the house, so I installed new
ones in here while I was at it. 

I felt like the chair rail still needed something, so I later added a strip of
the backband trim (that I used on our windowsills in here) to the top of the
railing:

It was the perfect finishing touch! Check out that linked tongue and groove
project post to see pics and more details of that trim. 

Here’s that same spot now: 

New neutral/lighter drapes

Next up was replacing the dark drapes. I have to have absolute DARKNESS when I
sleep, so they had to be blackout curtains. 

This is a little detail I remembered from my decorating days…it adds a
little bit of a custom touch to store- bought drapes. 

The drapes made a HUGE difference in here! Let there be light! 🙂 

I only used one curtain on each window by the bed, instead of two like before.
This definitely « lightened » the room — all of that dark fabric before was
really weighing it down.

Painting furniture 

Next up was the dresser makeover that I had been thinking about for
years. I adore the lines of this vintage dresser, but it had an
orangish tone that I didn’t care for:

I also shared how I cleaned that brass hardware and made it shine again. I
love that beautiful green (Jasper by Sherwin-Williams) with the brass: 

Small DIY updates

The color was blending in too much for my liking (and one of our cats LOVED
this fabric and destroyed it with her claws), so I found a scrap of this cute
checked fabric at Calico Corners and recovered it again: 

It’s such a small thing, but it adds so much character to this space! 

New cozy bedding

All of the DIYs took about five weeks to complete. The tongue and groove
treatment on the wall took the longest and was the biggest expense, but made
the biggest impact for sure. 

Here’s a look at the room with the dark gray accents before: 

And here’s that view now: 

Another before and after of this dresser and TV wall: 

I tried to add some color to this room before, but it never felt right: 

The room now, with
the Loloi rug
that I brought up from the basement: 

It has green and a little bit of blue in it and is SO lovely. 

I added a white frame around that artwork above the bed to beef it up a little
bit…it looks so much better: 

As you can see…the cats LOVE this room. 😊 They’ve always napped in here,
but do so more than ever now:

Here are a few more random pics of the space: 

We love love LOVE how it turned out. It’s still as cozy as ever (so pretty
with the lights dimmed at night!), but also fresh and pretty. 

It turned out even better than I imagined. I find myself spending more of my
day in here…folding laundry or whatever. It’s such a lovely room. 

I hope some of these DIY ideas inspire you to try one in your home!

Here’s a source list of the items in our bedroom. Let me know if I forgot
anything: