yeah! I'm leaving all the bedding and stuff to her xD she loves marshalls and TJ Maxx, mainly because I get discounts for working there but I think she'll be stoked about how the room looks with just the paint and electrical done! her mom is loving everything I show her and my gf is picking out curtains and stuff based on what she likes for the color of the room I chose. So I know she won't dislike the curtain choice or anything. I'm going to get some side skirts for the beds and leave the understorage boxes, bedding, and possibly even the nightstand up to her on an IKEA date. :)

also quick question, the window is 32" tall, should I get 36" curtains or 63"?

If nothing will be under the window, I’d do full length.

That might also be a good one to wait on her for, color and length. I believe you said she chose a gray color, thinking it was for you. She might not choose a dark color for herself, and in any event, I would not choose curtains until you (and she) have seen the newly painted room.

With the beds under the window and the appliance (air purifier? air conditioner? Forgive my ignorance) I think your only option is curtains that hang to the windowsill.

Speaking of that appliance, is it able to be enclosed in a box? Or even just two sides and a top with the front left open? The box could serve as a nightstand with a lamp and room for two glasses of water, books, eyeglasses... In that scenario I would turn the beds so the heads are both adjacent to the box. You could even turn the two beds, nail a couple of boards between the headboards (one across the top and one attached to the sides, if allowable), and have the headboards provide the structure for a "shelf."

A light curtain color would look much better than those dark ones. The dark color does not go with the light wall color and light colored furniture and carpet.

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Lindsey that is such an amazing idea! I'll run it by her mom to see if she'd let me do that (she was the one who bought the beds and wants to keep them). Also, I think I'll just line them up to the windowsill, I was afraid of it coming down to the bed. (also it's an AC, no worries because I didn't know what it was either when I first saw it)

Partim would you suggest a lighter grey?

TJW that is true, Ill wait till I paint and then get the curtains, or I'll have a few choices and lay them out at the window so when she comes home she can choose from the options that match the paint (If she isn't too fond of any I can always exchange them)

A lighter color - not gray since I don't see any other gray in the room and it's hard to tell the color of the carpet from an online picture. It needs to look good with the carpet and the bedspreads, as well as the wall color.

Exactly, Patim! She will want to choose her own bedding, and yes, the curtains should 'go with' it all. This is such a fun project, such a nice idea and so much effort, Hu.

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The easiest way to decorate a bedroom is to choose the bedding first. That way, the only restrictions are that it should look good with the carpet color, and fit the budget. Then choose drapes (lots of selection available in solid drapery colors), then wall color (pretty much an infinite selection).

If the wall color is already in place, then she needs to choose bedding that is a pattern that she likes, that is in budget and that goes with both the carpet and the wall color. Not as easy.

That's why I wish you would wait and involve her before painting. Also, I personally hate surprises on something that I will have to live with. I would much prefer to make my own choices, and don't think the surprise element adds anything to the gift. It's just as nice without being a surprise, even nicer really.

Partim, I agree with you re: the surprise. I would feel the same.

Eta: I was surprised with a new bedroom when I got home from camp when I was 12. I hated it and I hated the thought of my mom feeling bad if I expressed that, even more.

Some people do love and appreciate these types of grand gestures though, and not everyone has a strong interest or desire to engage in interior design decisions. So it's entirely possible that OPs girlfriend will be overjoyed to have a pretty new room that she didn't have to put a lot of thought into.

I think her mom would speak up if mom thought GF would be less than ecstatic here.

It sounds like OP is going with a more neutral blue-grey paint. That colour works as a perfect background for lots of different colours. It shouldn't be hard to find bedding that coordinates with it.

What a nice guy!

Just go easy on the colors, nothing too strong. And don't be offended if she doesn't like every choice, especially if she can return/exchange it. It's hard guessing someone's wishes and desires, but good for you for trying.

Yeah a little background about my girlfriend is that she wouldn't really want to put in the effort to do the whole room. It would stress her out too much to have a huge selection of choices, so narrowing it but not taking it away completely is a good compromise to me :) the blankets they all have now are fairly new black and white designs, two have striped bedsheets, my gf has a flower design, all white and black though. For the sheets, I'll have them all get new ones that match.

Yeah I didn't want to keep the tags for everything because I don't want them paying, or trying to pay me back but I'm leaving the option to return it open to them. Even the kitchen table has tags all over there is one thing I know for a fact that she will absolutely love and that's the memory foam mattress topper so that receipt will be with me at my house. As long as she likes that one thing, I'll be more than content :)

'tis the season for gift receipts!!

Can’t wait to see the pictures when it’s finished! Sweet gift.

This is probably too little too late, but SeaSalt by Sherwin Williams has been a long time fave color of everyone on Houzz.....that being said you might buy three sample colors you think she might like in grey, blue, and aqua, paint them on art board and give them wrapped so she can decide the color......or buy bedding that is colorful and choose three paint sample. When picking paint look at the chip you like then go two to three shades lighter....paint intensifies when it is reflected on all four wall....

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If her mom wouldn't object to having the beds painted white, I would be inclined to do that. White can be a relaxing element in a lady's boudoir, and white IKEA nightstands would work well with that. To make things more restful, you might invest in a set of Comphy sheets, which are ultra-soft and heavenly (my hubby doesn't like to use any other kind) but, at $132 for a twin set, would eat up more than a third of what you've budgeted. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, you might (if you know her preference for thickness, firmness, and type of stuffing [foam vs. feathers]) invest in a new pillow or two (I see that Target has feather pillows available for $10). An inexpensive, flat, full-length stick-on mirror for the closet could also be a consideration, if the ladies don't currently have easy access to a full-length mirror.

I was looking around for a mirror like that and could not find one :( where would they be?

Also sorry all, just seeing the other comments y'all left and

TJW I forgot all about gift recipes :( but it's okay for now because they'll harass me for the prices if iI do have them

As of currently, the bulk of the work is done, sadly I'll be 50$ over budget after the items I need to return are gone. I have a wall mounted remote switch for the ceiling fan as well as a remote to turn on a few of the lamps once they enter the house, (one in the living room and one small one for now in the bedroom). I was going to buy bed skirts, but I'm leaving that, and possibly the curtain choice up to my girlfriend when we go on our ikea date next weekend :) I put some nice rods up and for now have the curtains I had bought for sizing up just because I didn't want the inside to be visible to everyone from outside on the street.

Let me know what you all think! It's all painted already and I think it's looking pretty swell. I stayed working since 7am till 2am just because they changed their timetable and eillwill be arriving this evening, so in about 16 hours from this post.

I have yet to wire and place the fairy lights on my GFs bed, and properly install some small curtains (which will probably be a really light shade of grey sheer, curtains up now are just for size reference) but yeah that's pretty much all for now. I feel like I'm missing some stuff, but it will all come back to me later :)

The paint looks great.

Not a Pro.

Not sure if this was brought up, maybe room darkening shades and a valance, Room darkening roller blinds are usually inexpensive.

Wow, it looks so much better! The wall color is beautiful, and the curtains will certainly make things more restful for your girlfriend!

As far as the mirror is concerned, I Googled "stick-on mirror" and found that Target and IKEA both had them.

Nice job painting ! Let us know what she thinks!! Lucky girl!! :)

I'll run to ikea and check out the mirror! I have a smaller mirror that's the height of the ladder for the bunkbed, so iI was also thinking about going to walmartWalmart and getting some of those stick on hooks and sticking them upside down to the back of the mirror so that way I can hook it on to the steps of the ladder. Ideas on that? It's super duper light and would be removable should her family come over and use the top bunk

Also the curtains will be Blackout curtains and the white sheer is going to be on the back rod for daytime use :)

Double also, those are 63" curtains, I don't think they look too long, but I'm really undecided on that as of now. I know I need wider curtains for sure, they are 40" wide at the moment and leave a gap on the sides, but what are your thoughts on the length?

Curtains should just touch the floor. The next length will be 84 ". Better to get longer length because you can always raise the curtain rod up higher over the window frame. This will give the appearance of a higher ceiling.

I can't actually raise the rods without drilling into asbestos filled cement :(

Well, we want your girlfriend to stay healthy so forget that. :) You could still get the longer curtains and get them shortened at an alterations place if need be. Another option if you wanted to raise the curtain rod without drilling holes in the wall is use the largest Command Hook for a curtain rod bracket. Preferably the nice stainless steel looking ones that hold 7 lbs. I used that option in a home I rented when all my curtains from my previous home were too long and the landlord said we couldn't drill holes in the wall for new curtain rods.

I'll look into that! I am going to a place called Las fallas which I was told has a ton of curtain sizes, colors, and styles and is fairly inexpensive :) so should that not pan out for me, I'm going to try your idea to raise the curtains! Also one problem I'm still facing is how I should set the curtains for the bunkbed. Mainly how I will mount them. Any ideas?

How did the reveal go? I’d hang the curtains on a tension rod using cafe clips for easy movement. Mount the rod on the inside of the board of the top bunk.

The reveal was amazing!!! They loved it all even though I didn't get to steam the curtains, but here's the final besides bedskirts and blankets and stuff that will be bought on my ikea date :)

Bravo! You did it! What a prince you indeed are! Thanks for sharing. I love America for this very reason; amazing people who support others in their endeavors and all kinds of price points for every project!

I just wanted to thank all of you so very much for all of the help! You don't understand how grateful I am for every single one of you and the suggestions and comments you left here for me. Although I did not use all of your ideas, I did use them to change my approach to different problems I was facing to overcome them. I've learned so much from all of you and I respect you all. Much love from me and the family that is completely in love with the room that you all helped make happen!

Also for those of you who are wondering how I hung the mirror and the curtain for the bed, I bought some of the "command" branded plastic hooks from Walmart for like $3. 45 for a pack of 5 large ones that could (when placed upside down) fit over the rungs of the ladder, $2.97 for a small 8 pack of little clip type hooks. I used paracord which is about $2.83 for 16 feet, and tied it to the three clip looking hooks I placed along the upper bunk (three because im going to get one more curtain for the side where her head will be). The fairy lights are also hung with the command hooks, specific ones actually made for string lights, which were about $1.97 or something for a 16 pack

Good for you! You're a swell guy for taking on that project.

A very Happy New Year to you!

Looks great! Congratulations on a job well done! Happy New Year!

Happy new year all :)

Beautiful :-)

Well done! congrats!

Great! You are such a nice guy. I’m glad it turned out so nice for everyone. Glad you were able to get some advice along the way. Thanks for the photo of you.

It really looks great! You did an amazing transformation in such a short time! Wow! Thank you for sharing the great pics and hope you all have a very happy new year!

Outstanding job! Happy 2019 to you and yours!

I might have missed it but did you name the paint color you used?

Earlier, Hu said " I really like the waterscape 6470 that Lindsey suggested! I'm having a friend pick that up for me today, aiming for eggshell finish "

Thank you TJW

Thank you TJW! Yes, waterscape 6470 that the lovely Lindsey suggested! I got it as eggshell finish as well as single coat paint, which dries within an hour and is low odor