Welcome to My Cozy (smaller) Bedroom

If you think “cozy” is a euphemism for small, you may be partially right. Size matters in many aspects of life, but sometimes diminutive makes a difference for the better.

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Our bedroom at our new house is the smallest I’ve ever slept in since childhood, but it’s made me think differently about room size because I’m sleeping better and appreciating the cozier space.

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Honestly, the room seemed small to me when we first looked at the house. But we went back to our condo, measured our bedroom there, and compared it to the measurements on the builder’s layout. Our condo bedroom was 15-by-15 feet, and the floorplan of the new place said 12-by-15. Not so much difference, we thought, especially since the long wall was where the king-size bed would go.

We anticipated having as much space for furniture as at the condo, where on Chris’ side of the bed there was a nightstand, on my side of the bed there was a vanity/dressing table, and across from the foot of the bed were two occasional chairs and an end table.

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What we forgot to take into consideration at the new place was the location of the en suite bathroom door, which precluded a wider piece of furniture on my side of the bed because it would block entry into the bathroom.

We also didn’t reckon on the builder’s floorplan being dead wrong. The room is actually 13’10” by 11’6″. Yeah, I THOUGHT it looked smaller. Ditto our experience in the garage, but that’s another story.

I was a little freaked on move-in day when I realized the chairs and end table would in no way fit in the new bedroom. I knew I could live without them there, but where to put them in the meantime? Suddenly the new great room–in spite of it’s GREAT size–was filled with chairs.

I told the moving guy in exasperation that it looked like I was preparing for a Bible study. I let it all sit for a couple days while I stared at the space and figured out where it all could go.

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But in the bedroom, I punted. I already had planned to angle the armoire across the corner. And I had a narrower nightstand I’d been using in the condo guest room that I immediately swapped out for the dressing table, which moved to the garage to await donation to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.

To solve my hairstyling needs–because before my knee replacements I could not easily stand in the bathroom to dry and style my hair–we mounted the mirror that used to hang over the vanity on the wall across from the foot of the bed.

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I bought a beautiful Ghana Bolga market basket to hold my hairstyling appliances, and now I dry and style sitting on the bed. It works just fine, and, unlike the glass-topped wood vanity, the basket tucks into the corner of the armoire and doesn’t need dust and fingerprints cleaned off of it every other day.

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My point is, I like this smaller bedroom a lot. The closet is much larger than our condo closet and the en suite bathroom has more counter AND shower area. So how much time do you really spend in the actual bedroom part?

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You sleep there, and the smaller size, to me, makes the room seem extra cozy. I wouldn’t want it to be any smaller, mind you. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to climb across the bed to get into it. As it is, I can walk around the bed easily without bumping into walls or other furniture.

About a year before we moved, we painted our condo bedroom a lovely tropical green, and I thought I’d miss it.

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But I find the taupey-gray (Sherwin-Williams Anew Gray) on the walls of our new bedroom soothing, especially with the white woodwork. I knew immediately how I wanted to decorate it.

My daughter bought these Target Opalhouse tasseled curtains for her dining room in the ivory with black trim, and they are so pretty and such a great value. As soon as I realized they came in ivory with yellow, I knew what would go in this bedroom. The shades are custom Bali woven wood in Gemma Restful Tan.

I planned to keep my gold Ink & Ivy Kandula quilt with the embroidered elephants I used at the condo but wanted to change out the pinkish-peach pillow shams I had there.

A hunt through my fabric stash produced two fabrics I already owned that worked perfectly. The primary shams I did in a green, gold, turquoise and charcoal gray on ivory ikat, while the secondary shams–a splashy palmetto palm leaf print on gold–were a remake of our condo shower curtain.

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I even found a place for the quilt my mom made when she was 14. Her flower-garden pattern sported multiple colors but was backed in a solid chartreuse and edged in a kelly green and chartreuse. Mom was obviously a green lover. Never have I had a room where those colors even remotely worked, but I gotta say her quilt looks lovely folded over our headboard with that bright border showing.

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And how about this cute elephant accent pillow? Our realtor loaned us an elephant pillow for the photo shoot and showings at our condo, and it seemed to bring us good luck. So I looked until I found one in the right colors for our new bedroom and added it to the mix.

It is, after all, the details that make a room.

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Take the armoire, for instance…

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There’s this fun arrangement on top consisting of a reproduction temple jar (center), flanked by vases of dried hydrangeas and fronted by two pottery animal figurines. The vase on the left is a 2010 American studio piece patterned in the midcentury modern style, the elephant and camel figurines are South African, and the vase on the right is vintage 1960s-70s West German Bay Keramik.

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Not to overlook the sweet boho curtain tassel zhuzhing up the armoire doorknob!

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And on the wall next to the mirror is the ever-present jewelry cabinet Chris made me for Christmas one year.

Next to it is a copper-over-tin antique Persian sweets platter centered between two smaller vintage brass engraved plates made in India. And hanging from its knob is a reproduction Chinesse carved shoehorn.

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On the wall between the closet and bathroom doors is a fan handpainted by Chinese artist Li Xing Bai. It’s a painting of plum blossoms and on its reverse is a poem in Chinese calligraphy. Chris’ and my first “date” was at an exhibit and sale of Li Xing Bai’s art when he was visiting artist-in-residence at Indiana University; I bought the fan there.

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I thought the fan needed some verticality in the space where it hung, so I added this wood ornament and jade pendant below. The wood ornament, which I picked up for a dollar in a Goodwill store, appears Asian, but I’ve never been able to discover its significance. If you know, please leave me a comment explaining. The handcarved jade pendant is Chinese, and I bought it on ebay for $3.

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I still hope to refurbish the nightstand that replaced my dressing table. Back at the condo, it was paired with the bed in the guest room that also housed Chris’ home office. We decorated that in a midcentury modern “Mad Men” motif, hence the houndstooth-covered drawers.

The print works okay in this room, but I’d like something a little more girly As I mentioned in a previous WEEK ENDNOTES, I’m thinking of decopauging the drawers, sides and possibly the top in vintage wildflower field guides (when I locate some). Here’s my inspiration for that:

You also might have noticed there’s no television in our bedroom. The experts actually recommend keeping our sleep areas free of electronics, and I have to say I agree. The TV’s little “on” light always bugged me at the condo when I was trying to sleep. All that and we seldom used the TV in there because it bothered our necks and backs to sit in bed and watch it.

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Here, the bedroom is right next to the great room anyway, so why have two huge TVs back-to-back? Chris does a lot of video calls for his business, so we repurposed it in his office as an oversize monitor.

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Do I recommend a smaller bedroom? I absolutely do.

At least, I wouldn’t be wary of one.

Think of the areas in your home where you spend the bulk of your waking hours: the kitchen, the great room or living room, a study perhaps? My kitchen and great room are HUGE. My study is more than adequate.

And my bedroom is cozy and cosseting. I’m one happy clam.

Here’s wishing you sweet dreams,

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