Switching It Up: The Story of Dropping the Mattress into the Dining Room

A few weekends ago I thought it would be a good time to take a chance on an idea Chad's Mom suggested when she visited a long time ago, which was to turn the office on the main floor into a proper master bedroom.

The main issue potential buyers seemed to have with our house was that the bedrooms and closets were too small. Unless we wanted to add an addition, the rooms and closets weren't going to be getting any bigger. Although the footprint of the office is not much bigger than the master bedroom upstairs, the closet in the office is significantly larger. 

Time for a quick switcheroo!

The office before: I stupidly forgot to save the old real estate pictures we had. We have a new agent who took new photos which obviously happened after we made the switch. The only photos I have are ones that don't show the full room. What you don't see in these before photos is a large wrap around desk and several computer monitors. For me the highlight of the room is the great solid wood built-ins. This is also the only room in the whole house I haven't repainted because I liked the colour (it's hard to like dusty rose).

In order to make this change my poor Dad and Chad had to figure out the logistics of getting our king-size bed back downstairs. If you remember from my moving in blog post here, we managed to do this:

Oh hello ugly carpeted stairs! This time we decided the best way to move it was to simply drop it over from our open hallway (balcony, gangway whatever you call it). There was debate over lowering it slowly with ropes or straps but in the end it was just a "one, two, three, let go" kinda operation. Thankfully nothing was harmed.

Chad and I trapped upstairs the last time we moved the mattress

After some re-arranging and hauling all the office things into the basement, here is the new office space, now our master bedroom:

I was worried that the bed wouldn't fit into the nook in the built-ins but I think it ended up framing the bed quite well. I also quickly whipped up some new artwork for the far wall that went with the lighter, tranquil, more relaxing theme I was going for in this room. I'll write up another post about that because it was a great, cheap way to fill up a wall using coordinating room colours. 

I'm not going to show you the new basement office because it's boring but I will show you our old master now staged as a third bedroom. 

Old Master Bedroom Before:

I will admit that my beloved king-sized bed did not really fit in the room but I think we made the best use of space by placing wall mounted reading lights.

New Third Bedroom After:

This room now has a double bed it in and there is definitely more room to breathe. I've put back in the old side tables and even managed to put my old lamps back in. Since I didn't just have another double bed lying around I rigged one up using storage bins and an air mattress. I also borrowed bedding and pillows from my mom (not throw pillows because Lord knows I have enough of those for two more bedrooms). Here's a picture of the bed underneath:

I had to restrain myself from adding too many layers and colours. Since this is for staging purposes I know a lot of people want things to look simple and clean. 

I'm actually enjoying having the master on the main floor and wonder if I should have done it while I still lived there full-time. What do you think? Do you prefer a main floor master or having all the bedrooms on the same floor? 

Also, just in case you're interested, here is our new listing. Feel free to pass it along to someone looking for a cozy cottage with a main floor master.