One Room Challenge | Week 5: Budget Master Bedroom Makeover

Welcome back!

It's week 5 of the One Room Challenge where I have insanely jumped into the madness and am madly trying to finish the space.

What is the One Room Challenge? It is where 20 featured designers are making over a space in 6 weeks. All of the featured designers will create amazing spaces, armed with sponsors and the ability to renovate and make drastic changes to their homes. I jumped on the guest participant bandwagon and feel like melting into a puddle of tears right now.

If you are new here, my hubby and I live in a rental home where I  have been slowly adding our touch to our home using creativity and ingenuity! You can visit my last 2 One Room Challenge makeovers where I re-designed our kitchen with renter friendly updates and I revamped our son's old bedroom into my sewing room!

It's the home stretch and my biggest regret is NOT HAVING A PROPER PLAN BEFORE I BEGAN!

It has been the thorn in my side, it has caused me so much agony and sleepless nights. Not sure why I do this to myself.

But the end is in sight, my only dread it to photograph the space which I find so stressful.

What I managed to accomplish this week:


  • Put the room back together
  • Hung curtains
  • Gave the Liberace gold mirror an aged treatment (check out my Instastories for that!)
  • Spray painted the wall sconces. 
  • Hung up wall sconces
  • Added new hardware from Lee Valley  on the Ikea dressers.
  • Purchased new duvet.
  • Began sewing the slipcover for the armchair.
  • Assembled artwork, hung a few pieces.
  • Cut out fabric for a long lumbar pillow. 





What is left to do:


  • Finish hanging art work
  • Sew lumbar pillow
  • Finish slipcover
  • Photograph space
I'm loving the whole modern Parisian vibe the room is taking on! Can't wait to show you next week!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram or Facebook to get more current updates!

For more inspiration, follow the hashtags #oneroomchallenge and #bhgorc.





One Room Challenge | Week 4: Budget Friendly Master Bedroom Makeover

Welcome back! It's week 4 of the One Room Challenge where I have insanely jumped into the madness and am regretting my decision right about now.

What is the One Room Challenge? It is where 20 featured designers are making over a space in 6 weeks. All of the featured designers will create amazing spaces, armed with sponsors and the ability to renovate and make drastic changes to their homes. I jumped on the guest participant bandwagon and feel like melting into a puddle of tears right now.

If you are new here, my hubby and I live in a rental home where I  have been slowly adding our touch to our home using creativity and ingenuity! You can visit my last 2 One Room Challenge makeovers where I re-designed our kitchen with renter friendly updates and I revamped our son's old bedroom into my sewing room!

I am giving our master bedroom a refresh. My goal is to stick to a very tight budget, and re-use what I have and shop the house as much as I can. I have been searching Facebook marketplace for a few things, nightstands in burled or flamed wood or a large area rug, but I have fallen short. Fingers crossed something will pop up in time!

What I have managed to accomplish is to paint the walls, TWICE! The initial colour wasn't speaking to me, so I switched to Cloud White by Benjamin Moore. The throw pillows I had on my bed, now don't seem to jive with the rest of the space, so in the last hour I am sewing new ones.


New hardware was purchased and ordered from Lee Valley, waiting for their arrival this week!

I was wanting to use O'verlays to beef up the current Hemnes dressers in the room but the turn around time for O'verlays for our Ikea dressers was too long, so I am not going to be using them at this time.

This Liberace gold mirror followed me home from Homesense.


My plan is to tone down the gold this weekend. 

This is the inspiration for my mirror, from A Glass of Bovino.



The basic wall sconces got a makeover with some spray paint.




The end is in sight and I still have so much to do:


  • sew slipcovers
  • sew throw pillows
  • find frame for art work
  • hang up artwork on one wall
  • find accessories
  • re-do Liberace mirror
  • hang up sconces
  • find an area rug and/or nightstands on Facebook marketplace??

Thanks for popping by! This blog gets lonely from time to time!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram to get real time updates!






One Room Challenge | Week 3: Budget Friendly Master Bedroom Makeover

Welcome to week 3 of the One Room Challenge where I am making over our master bedroom on a very tight budget. Who am I kidding? I don't have a budget, my goal is to spend VERY little!  I started out with a very loose plan of what I was going to do, but this past week nailed down the direction I am going to go! Feels so good!

If you are new here, my hubby and I live in a rental home where I  have been slowly adding our touch to our home using creativity and ingenuity! You can visit my last 2 One Room Challenge makeovers where I re-designed our kitchen with renter friendly updates and I revamped our son's old bedroom into my sewing room!

Currently, I am re-imagining our master bedroom. If you want a recap, you can visit week 1 and week 2. I am trying to re-use items that we already have in our master bedroom, and shopping the house.

Lately I feel the whole influencer/blogging world is all about creating discontent with what we have and the feeling that our homes are inadequate. My goal is to show you that you don't need to tear down walls, buy all new furniture or rip up flooring to have a beautiful home! I am being very selective in what I am bringing into this space.

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen how I managed to paint half the bedroom this week.  I painted the walls where there was no furniture, and hopefully, I have a free evening where I can move furniture away from the other walls to finish painting. But when I was done painting, I didn't like the colour, so I re-painted with Cloud White!

In addition, I managed to track down an ornate mirror at Homesense. It is a bit too Liberace gold for me, so I hope to tone it down.

One day I want to reupholster the mid-century arm chair that was part of my parent's living room set from the 70's but in the meantime I am slipcovering it.

This chair is the inspiration! Hello, gorgeous!
Not wanting to spend a fortune on velvet fabric,  I tracked down forest green velvet drapes on clearance at Ikea!

This week's to-do list:


  • Finish painting walls
  • Slip cover arm chair and sew bolsters
  • Find longer legs for armchair
  • Tone down gold on mirror
  • Spray paint wall mounted light fixtures
  • Replace hardware on dresser.

Be sure to pop by the One Room Challenge blog to see what the featured designers and guest participants are up to!


One Room Challenge | Week 2 : Budget Friendly Master Bedroom Makeover


Welcome to week 2 of the One Room Challenge! I'm linking up as a guest participant and joining in the decor fun!

If you are new here, we are empty nesters that our currently living in a rental home where we are adding our personal touch with creativity and some elbow grease! You will find rental friendly tips and inspiration here on my blog! 

Has much happened in our master bedroom? No! In my usual One Room Challenge style, it takes me a while to decide what I'm going to do and then I go for it. So let's say I narrowed down a paint colour, decided on what I am going to do with our vintage armchair, and how I am going to arrange the furniture. The rest I will decide as I go along.

Here is the plan


We moved into our current home about 5 years ago. The bedroom wall colour was chosen by our landlord but after 5 years I am tired of it. I placed the furniture the way we had it in our previous house. I am ready for a change! It's not that I am dissatisfied, as this is one of the reasons I so hesitate jumping into the whole Instagram/blogging world again because I struggle with the madness of it all. But I am a visual person who finds peace when things are visually appealing to me. Our bedroom is our sanctuary and I am wanting to zhush it up!

This was our room when we moved in 5 years ago.



Our current space is stuck. We purchased a king sized bed and mattress two years ago and it was the BEST decision ever. Our bed is from Crate and Barrel and mattress from Sleep Country Canada. All the other furniture is from Ikea. I am hoping to find some vintage night stands on Facebook Marketplace, but if I don't stumble across what I like, I am fine with what we have despite their smaller size.




Hoping this upcoming long weekend will allow me to paint the walls. And start on the slipcover for the armchair after a quick visit to Ikea.

Be sure to visit the One Room Challenge blog to see the 20 designers latest updates and all the guest participants!

One Room Challenge | Week 1 : Budget Friendly Master Bedroom Makeover


Hello and welcome!

If you are new here, my husband and I live in a rental home situated in the suburbs of Vancouver. We never planned on renting for as long as we have but with the crazy real estate market we are still here.

Renting our home doesn't mean we can't have a beautifully decorated home, so I don't shy away from adding my touch! I have used the One Room Challenge as a way to add personality to our rental home. You can see what I did with a spare bedroom here and our kitchen here! Fun fact: I used to be a "feature" designer for the One Room Challenge, waaaaay back when Linda first created the event. Think dark and grainy photos. It has been very exciting watching her idea blow up into this fabulous event! Follow along as I make over our master bedroom for 6 weeks as a guest participant. 

THE PLAN:

Since we are renting, our bedroom will get a cosmetic refresh. There will be no fancy wall moldings, new doors or flooring happening here. My goal is to buy used, paint, shop the house and zhush what I have. I might buy a few accessories but really want to show you a realistic budget, in real time and where I don't have a handyman OR handy Instagram husband helping.

Lately I am feeling so inundated with the commercial feel of Instagram and blogs and even this challenge, so I'm rebelling a little and going at it alone and trying to re-use what I have! There is a feeling that you aren't something unless you have your whole room sponsored or you are gutting and re-doing the whole space. That's just not my life!


So if you still want to stick around, here is my plan: (it is going to be VERY fluid as I don't always stick to my plan and have a tendency to wing it)


  • Paint the walls - most likely Pale Oak or White Dove by Benjamin Moore
  • Move furniture around.
  • Switch armchairs
  • Possibly slipcover an armchair with green velvet
  • Switch out artwork
  • Get an oversize mirror from Target (unless I can find one locally without breaking the bank)
  • Switch hardware on dressers.
  • Find a floor lamp.
  • Add a few more pillows  - did someone say Tonic Living?
  • New duvet cover
  • Possibly an area rug

Come back next week to see if I managed to get anything done!

Follow along on Instagram ------> @markovadesign for real time and real life updates!