I recently read a blog post on Apartment Therapy about making design or life decisions, and it suggested a simple and smart philosophy. They said, “If it’s not a strong yes, it should probably be a no.” This resonates with me and I think goes along with how I have approached our current house, for the most part. Like I said in my home style post, we’ve really taken our time decorating our house. We plan to stay here a long time! I don’t want to waste money trying to fill rooms and rushing to make rooms look “finished” if I won’t be happy with it in the end.

Our master bedroom is kind of like our main floor bathroom…NOTHING has been done to decorate it. It’s still builder white with a collection of mismatched furniture – some dressers that were Parker’s when he was growing up and some Ikea furniture we have purchased over the years. Parker brought some weird sleeping habits to the marriage that I have now adopted as my own. This will be its own post. Because it deserves to be its own post. But it leaves the bedroom looking less than put together.

Here is our bedroom – on a very good day.

I’m always on the lookout for master bedroom stuff. However, until recently, I just hadn’t come across anything that was a “strong yes.” The only thing that I had fallen in love with was a bed that is out of our league!

I had a vision for the master bedroom based around some art we already own that is special to us as a couple. The bed above fit into that vision, but as I said, it is too expensive.

Luckily, over the last few months, I have found some “strong yes’s” that have changed my vision. I am in several local buy and sell groups on facebook, and just before Christmas, this dresser came up:

I loved it, and we were in the market for a dresser because of our son’s recent move to a big boy bed in a new room without a dresser. We could use this dresser in our room and pass on one of ours to our son. I felt like this dresser was one of those things I would continue to think about if I passed on it. The seller was asking $375, which I didn’t think was a bad price, but it kind of came at a bad time. I thought about offering $325 but instead decided to just ask if she would consider anything less than $375 since I probably shouldn’t be buying a dresser around the holidays. She came back with $300! Yes!

So, my original vision for the bedroom went out the window because this dresser won’t look right with our art. This dresser could go with a lot of different looks that wouldn’t feel like me, but I also feel like it could fit in to a more modern look. I don’t have a clear direction at this point, but I’m having fun trying to figure that out!

The next “strong yes” came when I ended up on the restoration hardware website a few weeks ago. I saw a bed that I loved, and it was on sale! (It no longer appears to be on sale, and now there is something called a member price that wasn’t there even yesterday. Yesterday it was on sale for the same price we paid, which is a couple hundred less than the member price.)

Even though the bed was on sale for a price I was okay with, I felt it was still a little too expensive when shipping was factored in. I made a few calls, and getting rid of shipping wasn’t an option. This bed felt like such a yes that I decided to go look at a sample of the metal finish at the store. On the way there, I told Parker that if we could just get rid of the shipping, I thought it was something we should buy. I like it even better than the Ethan Allen bed, and it was significantly cheaper! I honestly can’t imagine I would find something I like better. At the store, I loved the sample and wanted to find a way to justify buying a bed when our real focus is suppose to be working toward converting our “office” to a mudroom. In a last stitch effort, I said, “Is there any way we could avoid the shipping cost?” Her reply? “Sure, we could wave the shipping for you.” And I was sold #neverhurtstoask #evenmorethanonce. So here is our bedroom now:

I think the bed and dresser are both beautiful and can work together. But again, I still don’t have a clear vision. So, I figured out how to design a mood board. This is my first try and is probably not what the room will end up looking like, but its fun to be able to try out different looks!

Links starting top left and going clockwise (ending with flower in the middle):

Green paint / light / bed / dresser / ikea dresser / knobs / succulent / lamp  / flower

I’m really dying to do more with this room now, but I’m not going to rush it. I guess I will just have to continue to look and wait for another “strong yes.”

What do you think of the mood board? I’d love feedback! Any other ideas? Comment below! The more ideas, the better. Maybe I can make another mood board based on your feedback.