Showcase Sunday: The Master Bedroom

When you walk into our bedroom, you're immediately bombarded with a full frontal view (ok, side view) of our shoe rack and 5 door closet. We do not have any built in closets in our apartment. This 5 door closet is our landlords and has been there since we've moved in. We're unable to move it, so it makes entering the bedroom a bit more of an annoyance. However, it does afford us a bit more privacy than we would have otherwise.

Yes, that is an ironing board leaning against the five door closet. In tight spaces, you find places like this to keep big things. Guests usually don't come into the master bedroom, so I don't mind having an unsightly ironing board here.
Here is a more frontal view of the entrance to the master bedroom.

 

The mirror on the wall was a moving sale find, and the shoe shelf- my husband found that in the dumpster, made a few renovations to it, and it now has a home in our room.

 

Here is a closer view of the shoe shelf. Dollar store baskets to store deodorants and other hygiene supplies. Those "tupperwares"? Free- my husband used to work behind a deli counter, and these were the large containers in which the companies shipped their spreads. These containers were headed for the trash, but after a good rinsing, they became the perfect home to store all sorts of odds and ends. All over my house you'll see even more of these recycled containers.

Our five door closet from out landlord- its huge and could not fit entirely into the picture.

Here is a partial view of the beds  and night tables as well as our laundry basket, space header, and port-a-crib. 

Remember my post about keeping warm at night? We never turn on the apartment's central heating. One winter we tried that and our bills were outrageous. Instead, we try many other methods of keeping warm. When all else fails, we put our radiator (hand me down from my mom) on the lowest setting and on a timer, and that warms up the room enough.

That night stand? That, and its twin (in later pictures) along with the beds which you'll see clearer in the next picture were received for free from a family redoing their bedroom. Freecycle.org is amazing. That laundry basket is a dumpster dive find. More on the port-a-crib later.

When I was writing my post about keeping warm at night, I forgot one of the most useful methods of keeping warm at night. In addition to having a heavy down comforter, we have fleece pillow cases, sheets, and a duvet cover. There is nothing like snuggling into fleecy instantly warm bedding. I feel like I'm using 2 extra blankets when using this sheet set. Its a taste of heaven to get under these covers.
The beds are two separate twin beds that fit together to form a queen sized bed. As I mentioned, free from freecycle. The second one has a headboard as well but it fell off and I haven't had the energy to put it back on. There is a pull out drawer underneath in which we keep our shoes. (Did I mention that I have way too many pairs of shoes?)

See these racks on the wall? One of the ways to save money on utilities is to not stick clothes in the wash every time you wear them, but only wash them when they're dirty. I don't know about you, but I have a hangup against putting pre-worn clothing back in the closet with the fresh from the laundry clothes.
These racks are where we hang our worn but not dirty clothing, as is that suit hanger (hand me down).
There is a story behind those racks. Do they look like curtain rods? They are. More to follow.

I had many kids in my playgroup last year and most of the children took naps. I did not have enough places for them to sleep, so I needed to invest in some compact sleep solutions for the kiddos. Because my home is too small to keep many open cribs, I decided that I needed to buy pack-n-plays, as they fold up quite compactly when not in use, so I could keep them out of my living area when playgroup was not in session.
I bought 3 second hand pack-n-plays for a fraction of retail price. This one is a Fisher Price one that was supposed to be able to be a bassinet as well, only it was missing two long poles for the side to hold up the bassinet. This was not of great concern to me, as the toddlers using the pack-n-play for their naps during playgroup did not need a bassinet.
Before my baby was born, I decided that a bassinet would be lovely place for my baby to sleep during the times that he was not co-sleeping. (He starts off the night in the bassinet and ends up in my bed.) I looked and looked in many places to find suitable poles for the bassinet. To my chagrin, of the 20 stores I entered, none had anything even remotely like what I was looking for. 9 month pregnant me was just about finished traipsing around the city, ready to give up and then in the last store I entered, I found curtain rods that were just the right thickness and strength to be bars for my bassinet. Only they were too long.
I brought them home, my husband sawed them to the proper length... And the extra parts became racks for clothing on our wall.

I hoped you like getting a glimpse of our bedroom. And oh, one last thing- the room is a sealed room, useful in case of atomic warfare. :-P Its well insulated and the warmest room in our home, so on the frigidest of nights we huddle up, all 4 of us, in our cozy, comfy, family bed.


Is your bedroom furnished with newly purchased things, or do you have second hand bed sets?