Master Bedroom Makeover: Bedding

It all started with the Pottery Barn Design-Your-Own-Bed tool. It is wonderful, yet monstrously evil.

Why do I say it's evil? Because it allows you to build the beautiful bedding combinations, and even choose a paint color. Then makes it look all easy to bring it home, until you see the total at checkout:

I know the screenshot is small, thanks to my stunted cutting and pasting skills...but do you see that? $495.00. Yes, four hundred and ninety-five dollars. For bed linens. And as the fine print says, that's not including shipping (which at PB, is no small amount) or tax. As one of my good friends would say: Shut. The front. Door. Oh, and that price isn't not monogrammed or organic stuff. Nor does that include a bed skirt or the pillows to put in the shams. Waaaay over this girl's budget.

So, I set out to get the look I wanted without breaking my $555 budget.

At $79, this Pottery Barn duvet was a bit of a splurge, but I fell in love with the greyish-blues and warm red-oranges in it. I was able to save on shipping, even though it was a "catalog/internet only" item by heading to my local Pottery Barn and seeing it on display. I asked if it could be sold, and perhaps at a discount since it was out of the package? No dice on the latter, but they happily wrapped it up for me and sent me on my way. I gave it a good washing with some fabric softener and threw it right on the bed. I love the way it looks against our natural cherry headboard!

They didn't have any standard shams in stock at the store--which wasn't a surprise since I wasn't expecting them to stock the duvet either. Later I went online to find the matching shams, but to my horror, discovered that they were sold out! So no shams for me...yet...more on that in another post!


I found these sweet ivory sheets at Tar-jay on the clearance rack in January for $35. The set was the last one of its kind and just sitting there with a halo of light shining on it waiting for me to snatch it up. A damask stripe in a warm ivory to complement the ivory in the duvet. As a bonus, it came with 4 pillowcases instead of the standard 2! I keep four pillows on the bed plus shams, so this was exactly what I needed. Hooray!

They're wrinkled, but that's because tomorrow is the day that I iron the sheets. Haha...apparently my great-grandmother used to iron her bedsheets. I've never heard of anyone else doing so. Anyone?

Next, I needed a new bedskirt. I really loved the little button on this little guy from PB. So did my husband, who is normally kind of ambivalent about cute little details:

But, at $99, I couldn't stomach it. That's more than the duvet, which we actually snuggle with! Plus, none of the color choice were exactly what I wanted.

I found this guy on Amazon for $26.99 and free shipping instead:

Color: check. Pleats: check. Cute little buttons: Nope. But, to save about $74? Just fine!

I'm thinking of adding some kind of DIY button to the top of each pleat in the future. We'll see if I get around to it! Hopefully it won't take me three years like starting this project did.

For the time being, we decided to skip a quilt. We haven't been able to find one we are happy with, nor are we certain it's needed. So instead we shopped the house and found this blanket, which is a pretty nice match to the dark blue in the duvet. And it adds a little extra warmth. Of course we don't see it when the bed is made, but I know that it's there. And let's face it: the bed doesn't always get made every day, so it gets seen a lot.

Finally, It wasn't an exact match, but I tossed our oversized throw pillow on top without feeling to clashy. I think it will make more sense when there's more on the bed. If not, I'll move it somewhere else or recover it.

So, to wrap up, here's the bed before:

And here's after:

I know, it's not fair that that so many other things have changed, too. I just didn't take pictures at the right time. You'll have to trust me that this is a huge transformation even without the paint! (and dresser, and curtains, and lighting, and improved camera skills...) I'm new at this whole blogging thing.  Bear with me, please!

Here's the actual cost breakdown:

• duvet- $84 (with tax)
• sheets $37 (with tax)
• bedskirt $25

Still needed:

• shams
• another throw pillow or (two, or three or four...we'll see)
• possibly, a quilt

Total spent so far: $146

Bedroom budget: $555

Amount left in budget: $409

Next up: master bedroom paint colors and flooring

Linking up to:

Thrifty Decor Chick