Behind The Scenes: Bargain Mansions Episode - Main Bedroom Remodel with J Thomas Home

While we loved the natural light and beautiful, hand-scraped White Oak flooring, as you can see, our Main Bedroom was one of the rooms we were in very desperate need of Kansas City local designer Tamara Day's help bringing to life on our home's episode of Magnolia Network's hit-show Bargain Mansions.

BEDROOM BEFORE

Along with the rest of the house, including the kitchen, dining and living room, and exterior, the main bedroom was of course... very brown and boring.

The furniture we brought with us from our old house obviously did not fit the new space well, and we needed help creating a cohesive coziness, with a more modern motif.

BEDROOM DESIGN

We let Tamara know we love natural colors like deep blues, rich greens highlighted by wheat tones. Owning a woodshop ourselves, Walnut is a staff favorite, by far, as well as one of our favorite wood types, too!

Since our White Oak LED Floating Shelving had been incorporated into other areas of the house like the kitchen, coffee bar, and shelves next to our fireplace, seeing Tamara's design ideas for this space was really fun!

She recommended we use a show-stopping Salamander green paint on the walls, and complemented it with a full feature wall of Walnut wood built-ins for more storage.

To top it off, the center of the tiered ceiling would be filled with three glamorous staggered-glass chandeliers!

BEDROOM DEMO

At first, the main bedroom housed all of the demo equipment needed for removing the original kitchen island and the wall between the family room and dining room!

Then, the bulk of the work in this space was creating the custom Walnut built-ins, some of which we did ourselves at our woodshop! But it was a big job!

So while Tamara and our amazing team at Canes Construction had it under control, we occasionally had a few extra helping hands report for duty, too.

One of our kids' favorite parts of the whole renovation was getting to help us paint the sample swatches on the walls for the lighter green kitchen cabinetry of the island, and this Salamander green used here in the main bedroom!

 And we can't forget about those chandeliers -- look how incredibly gorgeous they are against the green wall color!! It's almost like art!

MAIN BEDROOM REVEAL

How amazing does that look?! The built-ins came together beautifully, especially against the cool calm rich green wall color. Perfect room for sleeping soundly -- especially with the amazing fireplace! 

 

CHANGES AFTER THE SHOW

After the show, we decided we want doors on the bottom left and right sections of the built-ins as more closed-storage cabinets, and added lighting to all of the shelves and behind the TV.

Another thing we did on the entire main level immediately after the show was sand down the flooring, restoring it to it's beautiful, natural color, and finished it with a clear water-based top coat. Read more about "why" in the Dining Room + Living Room Blog Post, here!

We had also selected two pieces of live-edge wood from our friends over at KC Custom Hardwoods. On the show, you'll see us chatting with Tamara at our woodshop about which one we should use for the vent hood (see blog here).

But what did we use the other live edge piece for?

You guessed it -- our headboard we made at the shop!

And yes, it also has built-in smart LED lighting just like the Walnut built-ins that is controlled by an app on our phones that we can make any color we want.

It's pretty cool! Especially when everyone piles onto the bed for family movie night -- it's basically like being in the theater now!

NOT FINISHED... YET! TELL ME YOUR TIPS!

This has been an interesting room to try to pull together after the staging from the show was gone.

The bed used on the show was only a queen, so Tamara was able to nestle in a cute little side table and chairs in the bay window.

But our real bed is a king... so even though we loved the chairs, there really isn't room for them now, so we moved them into the living room.

We made the king-sized bedframe in the metal shop of J Thomas Home and then had it powder-coated black.

And before we knew we'd be on the show, we had actually already ordered dark brown dressers for night stands, the light gray bench at the end of the bed, and the shaggy multi-gray rug.

So we've been pulling pieces together for this space for over a year (before we even knew the show's design elements) before actually seeing it all come together now.

There are things I already want to change... but we're keeping it as-is for now.

To help tie everything together, we installed the gold-frame full mirrors above the night stand dressers and complemented them with beautiful brass lamps.

But something is still a little off? What do you think?

I ordered the bedspread and it's reversible! So we actually started with the dark gray side showing. But the room just felt SO dark with it that way. In person, the tan color of the bedspread aligns well with the headboard, so I'm trying it that way for now.

But we may soon swap the comforter to the guest room and finding another option for us, because in addition to the color, I must have ordered the wrong size -- if you take this photo from the right side of the room, my sheets are always showing, ha! It's not wide enough left to right.

I'm also on the hunt for amazing decor to put in the Walnut built-in shelving. Right now, I have a vintage globe and a copper horse (that Josh is not sold on)!!!

Knowing I have a BLACK thumb and no plant is safe with me...

Let me know in the comments if you have cool decor ideas for those open shelves and above the headboard, as well -- it feels empty!

And, as always, please reach out with any questions you have about custom floating shelving for your bedroom, kitchen, or other rooms of your home!

IS THAT ALL?

Nope! Not yet! We've got one more room to reveal that was featured on the show -- the Main Bathroom! PLUS stay tuned in the coming weeks for exclusive behind-the-scenes snippets of rooms that were designed but didn't make it on the show!