House tour: Master Bedroom

I feel a little bit funny about inviting y'all into our bedroom! It's such a private space, and yet still such an important part of a home. It's where we start and end our days. Where we relax and read. Where the kids know to come for help and comfort if they need it in the night. Where deep and difficult conversations take place. Where smiling children burst through the door with breakfast in bed and hand-made cards on birthdays and holidays. It's a little like the second heart of our home. 

Is there anywhere that feels more "at home" than your own bed?

Our bedroom is easily one of the most untouched rooms in the house. We basically moved our furniture in here, put some sheets on the bed and called it good. And short of hanging some pictures on the walls, that is basically how things have stayed for the past year. However, it is a really pleasant room, and there is honestly not that much I would change about it. In my opinion, it's just about the right size for a master bedroom. Lots of room for a queen-sized bed and two nightstands, but still room to fit a king-size if we ever decide we want one. And thanks to a big window, the room still gets a lot of light, even though it faces East. 

The door on the left leads to the hallway and the kids's rooms, and the door on the right leads to our bathroom.

One of the reasons I like about doing these house tour posts is that it gives me a fresh look at each room. Do you ever get so used to seeing something that actually sort of stop seeing it at all? I feel like I do that a lot with our home. So taking photos and looking at them as I put each post together really helps me to see what is working and what needs some help in a space. Plus I like the honesty of it. I try hard to show you photos of our home as it really looks (on a good day!) without staging or styling, so what you see is really what you'd get if you were visiting and I was showing you around in person.

We filled the big empty space above our bed with a few framed photos of our family.

Something that is working for me in our bedroom is the little personal touches we have added throughout: I have a little tea plate that belonged to my Granny on my nightstand, as well as a handkerchief case that she made, filled with handkerchiefs made by some of the women in my family. I never met my great grandmother, but it is a special thing to hold some of her handiwork that she made over 100 years ago in my hands. I like how it makes me feel connected, and like my own little family is part of something much bigger than just the four of us.

On my nightstand: A plate from my late Granny's kitchen for catching earrings, hair ties, etc., a little figurine Nick and the kids gave me for Mother's Day last year, and a photo of me and my dad.

Nick has a bridal photo of me on his nightstand, and uses a keepsake plate from when he was a baby to keep change in (you can just glimpse it in the bottom right corner of the last photo). And then there's the big photos of us and the kids that we added above the bed! We just found a few favorite photos that Nick took, printed them big and hung them in large, matching frames. I love how they fill the space and the personal touch they add, but the best part might be how much the kids love them! They both like to find themselves in the pictures, and I think it is a good reminder of how much we love them.

On the dresser: an heirloom handkerchief case, a silver jewelry box I was given as a baby, some favorite perfume and a wooden jewelry box handmade by my bestie's dad. 

We never really got around to doing very much to the master bedroom in our previous home, and I think we're fairly determined to not let that happen this time around. So we'll be adding some color and interest in the form of curtains, new sheets, maybe a slipper chair or two (I like these ones from Target, but am just waiting for just the right print), a few more pictures on the walls, and maybe a bookshelf. I'm kind of in love with this one from World Market, but would like to see it on sale before taking the plunge. I also quite like this IKEA one, but don't really know what we'd store in it that would be actually useful, rather than purely decorative. It has to be useful, y'know? As for color, I'm thinking accents in various shades of green (trust me, it looks amazing in my head!), but green is completely not in right now, which makes it tricky to shop for. I'm just trying really hard to not use blue, because I end up using blue in every single room.

Looking in on the bedroom from the bathroom. 

And that's our master bedroom! Do you love your bedroom? Is it the first place you decorate in  new home, or does it get neglected (like ours!) because you're the only one(s) to see it anyway? What would you change about your bedroom if you could?