Getting Knotty in the Bedroom

Our new (tiny) bedroom!

We finally finished converting this small room in our 500 square-foot “cabin” to a bedroom. Its our first “real” bedroom since my wife and I got married over two years ago. Previously our bed was in a loft, which makes this feel huge in comparison.

The beautiful quilt you see was hand-stitched by my mom and grandma. It took them over 6 months. It was a big part of the inspiration to remodel. This room was previously a small office.

We are renters, so when I decide to make improvements to the building I keep it simple and cheap. All the trim and furniture I made for the bedroom is knotty pine assembled with a 15ga finish nailer, distressed with a hammer, and stained to match the local old-growth 100% heart Redwood ceiling.

• I built the two matching night stands one night after work. No fancy joinery here. Knotty pine, nail gun, distress, stain, done. Simple and cheap, and I think they look great. They are made to fit (to the inch) on either side of the bed.
• I also built a small “bin” to toss the throw-pillows in at night.

• I knocked out half of the ceiling (The other half supports a loft from the living room). This made the space look a lot bigger
• Since the ugly 2×4 joists were then exposed, I covered them with knotty pine and continued the trim all the way across to make them look like solid beams.
• Installed recessed lighting in the beams.

• I knocked out two old single pane windows (one of them was just plexiglass) and replaced them with two recycled duel-pane windows from a salvage yard.
• I trimmed the outside with redwood and added two redwood planter boxes which will get flowers in the spring.
• The inside is trimmed with knotty pine.

• We painted the walls blue
• My wife tediously applied most of the dark stain on the knotty pine trim.
• We hung curtains… The 8’ long “curtain rod” which separates the room is actually a $10 grounding rod from Home Depot.

The great thing about knotty pine is that it is so cheap. But you can really do a lot with it, and the look is perfect for our little rustic cabin in the woods. Here is my kitchen remodel which I finished last year:

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