The Romantic.com

Here is the “before” mental picture of my boyfriend’s bedroom: No décor whatsoever, random mismatched sheets/pillows with an old ragged blue patterned quilt on top and dirty laundry everywhere, not to mention general disorder of pretty much everything in the room (he doesn’t have a washer/dryer at his place and he lives out in the sticks, so taking his laundry somewhere is quite a hassle.)

Last summer he spent two months in Wales on a mission trip, so I decided it would be really neat to give his room a “makeover” while he was gone.  First, I did somewhere between six or seven loads of laundry.  (Of course, I added love notes/Bible verses in the pockets here and there).

Then I organized and cleaned the entire room which, only takes one sentence to write but it literally took me days.  Then, because of my budget I could only afford to buy a black fleece overthrow to replace the quilt, however, it came out great.  Also, I found some black/tan throw pillows at the thrift  store in excellent condition.  (note: if you are a woman, seeking to redecorate for a man, be sure to keep “manly” in mind.  It will make him much happier in the end instead of just picking colors/motifs that YOU like.)

I found a throw rug at Wal-mart that matched perfectly, as well as a picture frame at the dollar store and in that I put a cute new picture of us he had not seen yet. I labeled all the drawers with post-its so he knew where I’d put everything.  I painted a shoebox black and put one small red heart in the center and used this to put in all of my letters and cards and notes that he had kept (yay for him) but were scattered all over everywhere.

Then, his dream is to live in the Alps so I found a cool picture of a cottage in the Alps and printed it 3 times on photo paper, and then cut it up in different layers.  I put it in a black shadow box with crumpled papers between the layers to give it a 3-D look, along with a neat quote that I wrote underneath, and I hung it on the wall.

The last touch was to hide a few little notes of what I missed about him while he was gone.

When he came home, he was SO shocked (LOL he’d never seen his room that clean) and SO pleased.  He must have told me three or four times that night how much he loved it and how much it meant to him.  He still has the little notes around his room to this day. It definitely doesn’t stay as clean but he tries.

And also note, he is now my fiancé and we’re getting married in July so I’ll have lots of more decorating to do soon and I can’t wait!  I consider it such a privilege to decorate and create a “home” out of a “house” for the person you love.