Boho Chic Bedroom Makeover

It all started with the bedspread.

I was looking for new brown and turquoise bedding to go with the painting above our bed. I was sick of the heavy brown duvet that we currently had that lived in a crumpled mess at the end of the bed under several layers of clothes.  Luckily, I couldn't find any that were just right because then it dawned on me:  Why was I creating the bedroom around the hand-me-down (albeit, beautiful) artwork when it didn't truly suit me and make me happy?  I was continually drawn to colorful, vibrant bohemian inspired bedding, so why not completely redo the bedroom to suit this theme?

I found this beautiful bedding from Bed Bath and Beyond:

And so it began--and a Pinterest board was born!

I would love to say that this process was super fun and easy, but alas, nothing worth having comes easy.  As I worked to redo the bedroom, I had to battle lies in my mind such as the following:

Lie #1: I need to be content with what we have.  The former bedding was very expensive from Crate and Barrel, and I didn't need anything else.

Lie #2: It was selfish and foolish of me to use money to makeover my bedroom when there were other ways to spend it.

Lie #3: Ultimately, I didn't "deserve" to have a nice bedroom of my (budget) dreams.

Lie #4: Since my room was a failure and a mess, I was a failure and a mess.

The TRUTH was that the rest of the house looked great.  I'd worked diligently and intentionally to make our house a comfortable, attractive and organized home.

The TRUTH was that I deserved a beautiful refuge that made me happy where I could read, rest, relax and… you know.

The TRUTH was that I am an educated, vibrant, creative, fun, beautiful and capable adult woman who could makeover her bedroom if she darn-well pleased!

So now the time has come.  Every makeover has a set of dreaded "before" pictures.  I am slightly extremely embarrassed to show you these, and I must beg your mercy.  But I know the truth: All of you at least have one area of your home that resembles Monica's closet from Friends.  #dontjudge  And if you don't, then why are you reading this?  Don't you have something to go clean? ;)

Sadly, this is how my bedroom looked for the majority of the time.  It was brown, depressing and messy. As you can see there are signs of effort to make it look nice at some point, but it never felt like it was my bedroom.  "Good enough" was the theme.  I never made the bed because the duvet was so cumbersome and the pillows were so many.

Our bedroom had become a hodgepodge of hand-me-downs (for which I am very grateful) and a graveyard for things in our home that didn't have a home.  It was a sort of purgatory where things got shoved in the five minutes before company came over.  Can I get an amen?! LOL!

And here are the BEAUTIFUL and GLORIOUS "after" pictures:

I styled the dresser with a mirror we had from Crate and Barrel, lamp from At Home, box and candle from Home Goods, picture frames and greenery from Michaels. The decorative balls are from Kirklands.

I styled the book shelf with cute magazine holders, frames (which have photos from our wedding and five year anniversary when we renewed our vows in Vegas) and vase from Home Goods, and an ethnic looking chest from At Home.

The heavy brown chest at the end of the bed was replaced with this beautiful grey one from Home Goods.  The large artwork was a steal on clearance for $6 at Big Lots.  I got the smaller art from Target.  And of course there is the gorgeous bedding from Bed Bath and Beyond styled with pillows from At Home.  

My desk was finally neat, tidy and nice-looking.  I had everything except for the yellow vase that I got at Michaels.  

The other small artwork is also from Target.  

The night tables proved to be the most difficult to get "just right," but I found these on Amazon and replaced the knobs with cute ones from World Market. They are perfect! 

And I finally had a cute sitting area!  The chair and curtains are from World Market, the pillow is from At Home and the table is from Home Goods.  

I absolutely love the finished product!  It is exactly what I wanted, and I couldn't be prouder. It is so much easier to keep the bed made and the room free of clutter now.  I often find myself sitting in bed at night smiling as I look around at my beautiful made-over bedroom.  My mood is instantly lifted when I am in the room now.  It is so peaceful and comforting to be surrounded by beautiful things that say: Brittany.

And I saved the best part for last:

Long after the things in this room are put in the trash or passed on, what I learned about God while giving my bedroom a boho chic makeover will last forever.

I learned that God is a good, good father.

He cares about the things that we care about.  He wants to make us happy by giving us things that bring us pleasure no matter how small they might seem.  We actually didn't have the money to allow me makeover my bedroom due to unexpected medical bills and other expenses that came up that month.

But God….

The day that my husband, Ashton was going to have to tell me that we would have to put off the bedroom project due to lack of finances, a rather large, unexpected check arrived in the mail minutes before he planned to tell me.  I believe that because we are faithful and tithe, God protects our finances and provides everything that we need.  The Bible says that if we delight ourselves in God, He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4) and God knows how to give good gifts to his children (Matthew 7:11).  He knew that the desire of my heart was to have a beautiful place I could call my own and He provided the means to do so!

A little while after my room was complete, I was doing my quiet time with God and I prayed that He would give me His perspective of my life and of me.  I felt that He said, "Look around you.  Look at the bedroom that you made look so beautiful.  I created you with a gift to make things better--to make them beautiful."

I just love the heart of our Father God.  In my bedroom project, God gave me both what I wanted and what I needed.  I wanted to give my bedroom a super-cute makeover, but what I needed even more was to see that God created this desire within me, and that He cares about me enough to give it to me--exceedingly, abundantly more than anything I could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

God, Help Me to Be a Good Mother

Lord, I need your peace, comfort and strength to be a good mother. 

That was my prayer as I began to journal.  And as I got the word “good,” I stopped dead in my tracks.  I was reminded of this scripture:

Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good (Luke 18:19 NLT).

If Jesus didn’t even consider himself good (even though he was perfect), what sense does it make for me to try and be a “good” mother?  Actually, let me be honest.  I want to be a perfect mother.

I want to always respond to my children in a calm and loving manner, taking every opportunity to patiently teach them and train them.  If I don’t explain something with the utmost grace and gentleness, I feel incredible shame and guilt.   God forbid I snap and yell or threaten to spank their butt [and do it] or take away all her toys [and do it] if she can’t stop throwing them all in the floor. 

I want to always engage with them or lead them into independent play, so that mommy can get something done.  Every time I turn on Netflix, I shutter with disgust and thus begin the relentless accusations about my laziness as a mother and how my children’s brains are rotting as they spend more time in front of a screen.

I want to always make sure my children eat healthy foods and try new foods out.  To do this I [try to] limit sugar and processed snacks like Goldfish.  But it never fails, and out come the Goldfish as I vow to never buy more once they run out.  And then I do, of course, the next time I am at the grocery store. 

I want to always take time to enjoy my daughter’s expert stalling techniques before bed instead of rushing through the bedtime story just so I can climb into bed and escape into my novel for a while. 

I used to think that I was a bad mother if I gave my baby formula or any non-organic food of any kind.  Then I came to the realization that bad mothers don’t feed their children at all; good mothers do.  My simple desire to be a good mother made me a good mother.  After all, I loved her extravagantly, clothed her, fed her and protected her. 

Yes, this is all still true, but God is taking me to a deeper level of understanding what it is to be a mother and how to surrender to motherhood. 

Some synonyms for the word mother are: look after, care for, protect, nurse, tend.  I do all of those things and much more for my children, so why am I praying for God to help me to be a “good” mother?  I have already established that I am a good mother.  There is not debating that.  I would say that I love my children more than any other mother ever has loved their children, but then again all mothers feel that way.  

As with everything in life the answer to our problems is because we believe a lie in place of the truth.  Whether it is the world of social media that we live in or listening to the opinions and judgments of others, we are believing a lie in some way or another.  The father of all lies is Satan.  When we even engage in a conversation with him or listen to those thoughts that sound like us or someone we know (when they do in fact belong to Satan), we have already lost.  But when those thoughts come, and we refuse them and cling to the truth—that we are dearly loved and chosen, that we can do all things through Christ, that God’s plans for us are for good, we win. 

Satan can even sneak into the motives behind our prayers like he did for me with out me even realizing it. After all, it is a noble and honorable thing to ask for God's help to be a good mother.  But, I needed a shift in perspective to truly release me to experience freedom and God's goodness.  

Now, instead of praying for God’s peace, comfort and strength to be a good mother, I will pray simply for more of God’s Spirit for my current assignment which is to be mother.  To quote Chris Tomlin’s song, He truly is a good, good father and I’m loved by Him.  My quest should not about being a good mother, but rather about resting in my identity as a beloved daughter of the Most High God who happens to be chosen to mother two of his other precious daughters.

God, thank you that I am a simply a mother to two of the most beautiful, sweet and incredible girls.  You are good.