All of the things I have shared have definitely helped to tone down the chaos in our home. But the reality is that it is not possible for my house to be as quiet and clean as I would like. Even if I spent every minute of the day cleaning, people live here. Precious boys and their pets live here. And you can see the evidence of it everywhere you look! But for my own sanity, I needed one space that was clean. One space that I could go to escape the clutter and the noise and the toys and the pets.
A couple months ago I mentioned that I was working on a master bedroom makeover with several ideas I found on Pinterest. I decided to do it as a surprise for my husband. He works from home in our bedroom twice a week and I knew the chaos and clutter were getting to him too. I tried to keep everything a secret over several months. I worked on the projects during the times he was out of town and I put it all together one day while he was at work. I went as all out as I could on our budget. Even bought a new (used) canopy bed on Craigslist.
Now it is complete, and like so many other parts of our family life, it has rules. No clutter allowed. No rowdying allowed. No toys allowed. Quiet, calm, still boys with no toys are absolutely welcome. In fact, our bedroom is the only room in our house with a VCR, so we occasionally have a family night with all of us snuggling under that canopy watching some of our old Veggie Tales & Thomas the Tank Engine videos.
Don’t have room in the budget for a makeover? No problem! Just instituting a few of these boundaries will go a long way toward creating a sanctuary in your home. And most of the Pinterest projects were fairly cheap. One of the cheapest & easiest things I did that really makes our bedroom my favorite place in the house was filling every surface in the room with pictures of us and places we’ve been. Old and new. Years of memories pulled out of a box and tucked in frames.
The last thing that really helps to make it a sanctuary is keeping it clean. I know that I can’t possibly keep the whole house as clean as I would like. But I can handle one room! The bed is made first thing every morning. I dust at least once a week (if only that room) and keep it vacuumed and clutter-free.
So summer is here and school is out. Now is the perfect time to create a sanctuary of your own!
Surviving Life with Boys Series:
~ By Kendra, Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tales
Kendra – you have done a beautiful ‘redo’ of your master bedroom! Brilliant use of Pinterest inspiration with your own talented spin. You have renewed my resolve to keep ours a sanctuary as well. We have the same type rule for ours – no toys, etc. The children have the whole rest of the house!
Awesome Kendra~~ Post is great, room is BEAUTIFUL!!
Kendra,
You are so smart! I did a room make-over a while back (you’ve given me more ideas) but wasn’t realizing it would become the one clean, calm place in our house like it did! It is so nice to step into our room/ master bathroom area…. peaceful & it smells good too! 🙂 Highly recommended!
I can relate to the desire to have one toy-free, pet-free, quiet sanctuary. We just made a major move to the family farm, the old house has no a/c so we are staying with the inlaws and us, pets, and child are sharing 2 bedrooms and living out of boxes. I would add that I want my santuary to be cool! Never knew my pets and kid made so much mess! Your pictures are beautiful and I dream of something as calm and soothing! Thanks for the inspiration!
Linda, homeschooling one child amid the chaos!
I love this! Especially the initials. Where did you get the letters? I need a B and K.
=)
Kim – not sure if you can tell in that picture, but those letters are covered in moss! I love them! I ordered wooden letters from http://www.woodlandmanufacturing.com/ . I’ve seen them cheaper at Hobby Lobby and Michaels, but I was able to get exactly the size, thickness, material & font that I wanted and they did a great job. I think they were around $30 including shipping. I bought sheet moss from Hobby Lobby and then just glued it on the wood letters. You can see the pin that inspired the letters on my Sanctuary pinterest board.
Love this! The chaos of homeschooling with 5 kids at home ALL.THE.TIME. is getting to me today. So I’ve been cleaning my bedroom and thinking about how I can transform it into a sanctuary. A Pinterest search for sanctuary bedroom brought me to this post. 🙂
Great job with the room I love the wall color. what color is the wall?
Thank you! Unfortunately I can’t remember the wall color. I’m pretty sure it was Behr, but that is about all I can remember. We painted it that color when we moved in 9 years ago and it worked well with everything I wanted to do in the remodel, so I kept it the same.