Luxurious Bohemian Main Bedroom for under $2k

If you know me, you likely know that I strongly prefer to buy things gently used rather than new. It helps me spend less, it reduces waste, and it usually means I find pieces that are unique and charming. I love Facebook marketplace—it’s the only reason I still have any social media account. I’m also a Craigslist fan, but you do have to be a bit more careful there (we like Facebook marketplace’s built-in social accountability that other sites lack). I also scour estate sales, online emporia, yard sales, and thrift shops looking for the perfect pieces to help bring my home’s style together.

Not only do I really prefer this method of shopping, but I’m damn good at it. We’ve found incredible things over the years, some used and some new, for a fraction of the price they’d cost new or even of their value at a vintage market. Since I only have so much room in my wee house and lots of great finds, I’m sharing them with you, reader.

Can you help me with my home?

The answer is YES. We can help you do “bougie on a budget” too! Since my sister Camille is a professional organizer and stylist and since we do commissioned in-home murals together, if you want to hire us to outfit your home, you can! Drop me a line via the contact page, let me know your budget and goals, and we can get working. For a fair hourly rate for our design and acquisition services, we’ll help make your dream home decor a reality. From painting to making sure you actually print and frame that photo, together we can turn any space into your place.

If you’re in Nashville, we will help coordinate the negotiation of prices on your marketplace items, the pick up of said items, and the installation of your pieces in your home. If you’re not located in Nashville, we’ll do a series of virtual consultation appointments where we help you learn our tips and tricks when choosing your own pieces as well as provide you with a smattering of options in your local market.

Luxurious Bohemian Main Bedroom

Here is a complete bedroom, styled and put together for under $2,000. Spoiler alert: the most expensive thing here is the brand new mattress.

Room: Main bedroom for one or two adults

Style: bohemian, retro, high texture

Colors: grey, black, tan, cream, rust, rose

Materials: iron, linen, wood, rattan, faux fur

$100 Upholstered queen headboard

$50 Hollywood bed frame

$200 Persian style 9’x12’ rug

$155 Vintage rug bench

$5 One black and cream embroidered pillow

$50 Three pink and black  Anthropologie pillows

$35 Four black and cream Euro pillows

Style with black sheets ($45) , cream duvet set ($100), queen mattress ($400), duvet insert ($30), and high quality main pillow inserts ($60).

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$160 Pair of midcentury nighstands

Style by replacing the original handles with black pulls ($10) and gently refinishing the top veneers.

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$200 Vintage black and gold dresser

$25 large 30”x30” abstract art

$15 Pair of cream linen lampshades

$5 Rattan tray

$40 Pair of tan ceramic lamps

Style dresser with a lamp on each side and the rattan tray in the middle filled with trinkets. Center artwork over dresser across from the bed.

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$180 vintage rattan chair

(from bed)

$15 faux sheepskin pillows

$60 floor length wooden mirror

Style chair in corner of the room with mirror near it against the wall. Snag one of those Anthro pillows from the bed to accompany the two faux sheepskin shag pillows and complete the look.

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The grant total: $1,940. The value of this room is estimated at $4,500. That’s a savings of nearly $2600! More than double! So now you see why you might want to give me a call.

Why It Works

Your bedroom should be an oasis of comfort, a place where you feel restfulness wash over you as soon as you cross the threshold.

I’ve paired cozy faux fur with the clean and classic linen headboard and duvet to add some softness to the bed. The iron bed frame frame provides a connection point to the black MCM dresser while adding another textural detail of the metalwork. I would paint the wall behind the bed a charcoal grey to bring some depth to the space. (You could go all grey if you wanted to really make a bold statement while still keeping your room like a cozy cave. Contrary to popular belief, a dark wall color can actually make a room feel bigger, not smaller).

The Persian style rug, Anthropologie spotted pillows, and Southwestern inspired vintage rug bench carry the dusty rose and rust colors throughout the room while each adding a unique twist on pattern. Matching patterns like this can feel risky, but it’s what gives your space a lived in, eclectic vibe.

The MCM dresser echoes the actual midcentury nightstands while they’re otherwise contrasted by color. I would swap out the original nightstand pulls for some black iron ones to match the dresser and the bed frame.

Add some fluffy pillows to your newly found vintage bamboo and rattan chair for a funky, cozy 70s vibe that ties in with the wood of the nightstands and the neutral tones of the matching lamp pair.

Feng shui suggests that we not put the mirror across from the bed, so instead I’d situate it in a corner paired with the bamboo chair. The large abstract art creates a colorful statement over the dresser.

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What do you think? Could you see yourself snoozing in this room?

xo,

em

August Finds

Cute and Comfy Sneakers

I put many kilometers on the old model of these walking through Europe. Love.

Knit Weighted Blanket

If you’re like me and don’t want to shell out $250 for a Bearby napper, this one’s for you.

Ribbed Bodycon Dress

This classic style comes in a nice ribbed fabric and I dig this seafoam green color.

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Flamingo Floatie

Milk this last month of hot summer fun by cooling down in a pool with this darling float.

Checkered Oven Mitt

It’s got a new classic kind of vibe with the checker and it’s $9 from Anthro. I mean, how could you not?

Le Pilage Tote

This is a serious discount on these bags! I’ve had the red and the grey and both have lasted years.

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Rainbow Eye Earrings

They’re probably a little heavy but perfect for wearing to an event with all eyes on you ;)

Body Gua Sha

Add this to your dry brush and shower routine and get that lymphatic drainage going!

Daisy Ceramic Mug

How darling is this mug?! Handmade ceramic adds such a coziness to my mornings.

xo

em

July Finds

Poppy Giant Scarf / Top

It’s a scarf. It’s a top. It’s a hair ornament. It’s fabulous and only $40 at Anthropologie. Catch their other summer sale items, too!

Set of 7 Makeup Erasers

You will thank me since you’ll never need a disposable makeup wipe or cotton pad again! I’ve been seriously impressed with these.

Cut Off Shorts

Summer is HOT in the South. Shorts are my least fave cooler option, but these from Free People do a great job of balancing function and form.

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Set of 12 Solar Yard Lights

I’m not a Walmart girlie, but these lights are well-reviewed for the price. I’m ordering like 100 to make my yard a little paradise.

Pink Flamingo Tiki Mug

These hand painted mugs are darling and cheaper than you’ll find them on Etsy or in a vintage store.

People We Meet on Vacation

Everyone needs a good beach read. This one will transport you, even if you’re reading from your backyard instead of the beach.

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KoKo’s Ice Cream (Nashville)

Order yourself some dairy-free, vegan ice cream at a more-reasonable-than-Jeni’s price. We’re a dairy-free household these days and the flavors are delicious!

Intant Pot Air Fryer Lid

Save yourself the counter and storage space by buying this air fryer lid instead of a whole air fryer. Instant Pots are lifesavers (and usually findable on Facebook Marketplace for cheap).

Outdoor Rug

This cute lil 5x8 rug is a steal at under a hundred bucks. It’s perfect for your porch or patio, where we spend most of our time in the summer. I love that the pattern is more neutral than busy.

xo

em

Green Wall Espalier

When we updated our porch, we considered wrapping the bannister around the back side of the swing, but it would limit the mobility of the swing almost completely because of the space taken up by the wood. So, we looked for alternative options that would be minimally intrusive on swinging space and still create a firm barrier for the edge of the porch so that puppies and people don’t tank off the side.

I came across a number of trellis ideas on Pinterest. I saved a few before I realized I wouldn’t have to build the frame but instead could simply add wire and use the porch itself as the frame! I googled until I found out that there are specific trellis styles and that the one I liked best (Parsley and Pom Pom’s image in the top left here) was called Belgian espalier. It felt like a perfect fit since our last big international trip had been to Belgium and we fell in love with the lush gardens in the countryside.

We decided to go for it. You may be surprised to know that the person in our house with a math learning disability (dyscalculia!) is also the person who loves to do all the measuring and designing and math-ing: me. I drew out the plan, measured three times and labeled all the pieces before I called Jackson out to help me.

With a few eye hooks and some 1/4” cable, we laid out a perfect diamond grid.

Next step is sourcing the Swedish ivy plants for the base. These are nontoxic to dogs (we can’t say the same for English ivy) and are evergreen climbers, so the porch espalier will stay nice year round and provide a little extra happy for me in the winter in addition to keeping that side of the porch from being a drop off.

Front Yard Color

I’m not saying we started from the bottom, as the song goes… but we definitely did NOT start at the top and now we are HERE. Ok we’re not there - as in the point of complete cuteness and porch amazingness that I would like us to achieve. But here is a good spot - it’s got a fence, greenery I (mostly) don’t despise, and a porch that isn’t soggy.

Yes. When the folks who renovated our house got to the porch, they looked at it and said “Let’s add some plywood.” Wait, WHAT? Like on the outdoor surface? That gets wet? They added plywood — a material that is notorious for folding in damp conditions? Yes. Sadly. Yes. To the left you can see what the front of our home looked like in the listing photos when we purchased it. Can you say “zero curb appeal”?

We discovered as much when the porch started feeling SOGGY. Ew. By November, we’d gotten nervous. By December, we’d contracted a builder. By the end of February, I’d accidentally fallen through the porch with my foot (over which I put one of my hand orange cones). Fortunately, the builder was scheduled to work one week after I’d stomped through the sogginess. And work he did! In a mere two days, Keith yanked out every rotten board and replaced it with well-spaced, quality wood. We are so relieved! We took the chance to add a hand railing to the porch because I’ve always thought it looked both silly and unsafe without it. For the back of the porch by the swing, we opted for a green wall (more on that later as it grows).

Last spring, I pulled out all the ugly that I could, left a few of the larger greeneries in place, and set to work on bringing more pink into the world. You can tell I was fully in denial of the fact that palms don’t grow well in Tennessee by the recent purchase next to the door. We had yet to put up the swing or replace the door, but isn’t it already so much better?

This year, I wanted more color. I’d already updated the door to the door of my dreams (pink border around full glass window! and yes the natural life is SO worth it). I had plenty of pink. So I figured I’d start by seeing what stuck around from the year before: the tulips came back in March, the bushy broccoli lookin’ things returned and were full and happy, the hostas are doin’ the most. I still dislike the three brighter green buddies that get a little stringy and can turn yellow-red-orange-brown splotchy randomly. But I digress.

We turned to Gardens of Babylon for some inspiration. And now we want a moss wall. And we definitely are going to do some espalier with fruit trees that grow decently in Tennessee (Jackson has taken over as our residential not-in-denial-Reimers-in-charge-of-plant-selection).

We selected some perennials from GoB to accompany a few annuals that I’d gotten early at Homie Deeps (I knew the prices on hosta would be unnecessarily absurd at GoB). Below is our new porch (waiting to be painted and stained) with the greenery as it had grown back in this year. Ok, plus all the weeds!

And here is the update with our bits of color tucked in! I only had enough mulch for the smaller of the areas so I’ll be doing that later this week. Colors were inspired by the fading floral arrangement you can see on the sill: these were my sister’s anniversary flowers from her boyfriend, made by our fantastic florist neighbor across the street, Tara! Add to the some day list: cut flower garden.

Po clearly had a blast playing in the hose spray (his fave summer activity) and seems to know not to go into the garden box anymore. We’ll see if the NEW PUPPY we’re getting tomorrow can learn the same trick!

xo,

em

How to Add Custom Picture Frame Trim to Your Home

[image: my bedroom, which has blue walls with picture frame trim, a plant, a large low bed with white bedding on which my dog is sitting]

BEFORE

This image is from the listing of the home before we bought it.

[image: a room staged with white and orange furniture and beige walls]

AFTER

Surprisingly, the trim and large bed make the room feel much bigger than before.

[image: the same as the first image on this web page]

This master bedroom from Alisa at A Glass of Bovino was probably the most helpful walk-through from scratch to final product on the trim. Reading her post also showed us just how impactful a bit of trim could be. All in, the trim and paint was around $500. We were able to borrow friends’ miter saws, saw tables, nail guns, and TIME (most important - it’s not a quick project). We couldn’t have done it without help since this was very much our first trim rodeo. We would now be much faster at putting up, say, crown moulding in the living room (hint hint, Jackson).

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Measure and Tape Everything.

A big part of this room was the measuring, re-measuring, and leveling of all the trim. The actual nailing-the-trim-to-the-wall part doesn’t take very long at all. Since we had the furniture first (which I highly recommend if you’re doing a more detailed pattern), we used the width of the bed frame to determine the size of the rectangles we wanted on either side of it and above it.

Start by measuring the width of each wall on which you want to put trim. We had a few things interrupting our walls like a closet, a window, and doors to the hallway and the master bath. What you’ll want to do is measure the un-interrupted space and split that up evenly by however many boxes you have. Don’t forget to account for the space you want to go between the boxes. We had 3” between each box here and made that match around the room. So, every box is also 3” above or below the chair rail and the crown moulding.

So if we had a wall that was 100”, we’d want to do 3 boxes that were 3” apart from each other and from the edges of the wall (so 5 segments of 3” spacing)

= 100-(3x5) = 85.

Divide that by 3 boxes = 28.33”

Each length for the bottom and top of the three boxes would be 28.33” long and then the vertical sides of the boxes would be however high up to the ceiling minus the 3” spacing at the top.

It sounds more complicated than it is, but it’s just complicated enough that you’ll want to check your measurements twice. It’s also tricky because everyone’s room is different, so no tutorial can effectively say “Just cut x inches of trim and staple it up and there you have it!” Scaling is a pain in the butt and it’s maybe the most important part of this project. We decided to use blue tape to measure and draw out all the boxes after we’d done the math but before we cut any trim. I highly recommend it.

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Cut all your trim.

First, Jackson and our friend Alec put up the crown molding and the chair rail; this is the hardest part because its continuousness around the room requires pieces of trim to be coped.

Once all the picture frame trim was cut, it took us probably 2 hours to get it all onto the wall.

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Paint it all.

Once you’ve got all your trim on the wall, you’ll want to use wood filler to cover nail holes in the trim and to caulk all the seams where the trim meets the wall. I know this sounds tedious and that’s because it is. But it is worth it for the final look. You won’t want to be going back over your already painted wall to caulk and repaint down the road so just trust me on this one. It’s a little scary to start painting a whole room one color. We even painted the sides of the doors that faced in to the room so it’s like a cozy cave when the doors are shut.

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THE FINAL RESULT

We. Love. It. It’s so lush and romantic. We feel like we sleep in a posh hotel room every night.

More on the details of our bedroom can be found in this blog post.

What do you think?! Would you put picture frame trim in your home?

xo,

em

Office Floating Shelves

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a house update and wow have we been doing some house-updating! We decided like very sane and well-planned people to try to knock out three of our biggest projects in the two weeks before my family came to visit. Yep. One of them was this little office schmooze. We are always in need of shelf space for more books (this is where you pretend to be surprised) and I’d designed these floating shelves over our desks to solve that functional issue as well as have a little flair: they look like piano keys! Beveled and everything. I’m very happy with how they turned out and now I just need Camille to come over and style them for me. It’ll be a fresh challenge for her because these books are more like pantry staples: I’ll be using them and moving them around all the time as I’ve entered the writing phase (cue giant restaurant gong sound) of this Ph.D. journey.

Let’s be very clear: I may have designed the shelves and built the bases, which you can see Jackson installing onto the wall below, but I would not ever have been able to do this project on my own. Not even with two of me. I needed Jackson. These shelves are HEAVY. They’re built to last, cut from the last remaining two by fours we have from taking out the wall (the former fourth bedroom, which no one needs in a 1522 square foot home). I could barely hold them up to the wall. I certainly didn’t have the strength to press them flush to the wall, then grab a drill and push that at a 90 degree angle to the board. Yikes. In, yes, sadly classic Emma fashion, I got 60% of the way into this project and then had to grovel like a child who can’t reach the top shelf. Also, I cannot reach the top shelves in our home. Jackson graciously rescued me and did the massively effortful part of getting these up… then decided he really wanted to see it all the way through and enjoyed using the cute little clamps and the wood glue and the nail gun and voila! We had some finished floating shelves.

We moved a few things around in this room and as you can tell, these iPhone photos are on par quality wise for how finished this room is. HD pics headed your way when the new desks, zebra rug, and roarschach prints are all in place.

What'cha think?

em

Portrait Of A Good Boy

My sister commissioned a portrait of Potato for Jackson’s gift a while back and the artist, Emily Elizabeth Miller, did a fantastic job. Camille’s one request was for a photograph of Tato with his likeness. Wish. Freaking. Granted.

Anyone else have a pet portrait or is it just me….

xo

em

Bougie on a Budget: March

How is it March already? Hasn’t it been March for a year now?

Feeling like these are both relevant questions. How about some spring-ish things that are a little bit hopeful?

Lele Sadoughi Studs

Yoga Block

Marc Fisher Heels

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Acrylic Whiskey Glass

La Neige Lip Mask

Gingham Mask

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Cinq A Sept Silk Mini

Wave Pillar Candle

Wondergloss with Collagen in Spicy Pink

Pastels and the hint of the idea of being outside (with those whiskey glasses): bring on the spring vibes!

xo

em

Bougie on a Budget: February

February is all about sharing the love. You know I’m always trying to share things that are from small, woman-owned, black-owned, environmentally sustainable, and local businesses. So here’s some love from me to your wallet.

Also, I absolutely love Valentine’s Day (my first date with Jackson, as cheesy as it is) and the colors and patterns that come with it so enjoy.

Puppy Love Card

Delicate Pearl Necklace

Floral Heart Bath Melt

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Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Loving Art Print

Custom Love Letter Blanket

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Cookie Mixtape from HiFi (Nashville)

Candle Date Night Kit from Wooden Wick

LBD

The cookie mixtape is the way. to. go. It’s from HiFi, a deliciously local Nashville biz right on the east side (so near us!). And as someone who loves letters and blankets, I wouldn’t be mad about my valentine getting me that custom gift (HINT HINT).

xo

em

Our Painted “Wallpaper” Bathroom

The process of updating our bathroom (which started as a clean and new but very, very blank slate) started with imagining some kind of fun contrast on the main wall. I fell in love with some spectacular wallpaper before realizing what an expense and ordeal adding wallpaper to a home could be. Once I read a little more, I floated an idea to Jackson (ya know, the other person who lives here) and Camille (the person I would ask to do me a major design favor): what if we painted wallpaper onto the wall instead of actually wallpapering the bathroom?

Fortunately, they both said yes and we began to explore designs. I wanted something organic feeling. The wallpaper I liked had a kind of feather or scale vibe to it. I liked that, but we couldn’t settle on a pattern that was a good balance of organized and loose. So we kept thinking.

I wanted to in some way match the colors of this beautiful Japanese woodblock print from the 1940s that my Grampa gifted me. We settled on contrasting dusty pinks to give a femme yet sophisticated feel to the guest bath.

Soon enough, Camille came to me with the absolutely brilliant idea of making some rorschach prints, scanning those, and devising a pattern thereafter. She thought it was a good way to get the organic shapes with some structure since the rorschachs would be in identical halves and we would digitize them and clean them up. We took some pretty pain-staking efforts to get them just right.

They’re available for purchase as digital prints in the shop! And yes, they all have fun names based on what I read into them.

After all the prints were dry, we scanned them at high resolution (1200 dpi) and I began digitally cleaning them. Once all 22 of them were tidied, I started manipulating the rorschachs into patterns and eventually adding colors.

A lot of trial and error led us to a simplified pattern of a single rorschach. No doubt we’ll be producing patterns with them in the future…for, say, some custom “wallpaper” painting templates and wrapping paper perhaps? ;)

We painted the whole wall the lighter dusty quartz color and then got out a $60 projector and some 5 gallon containers on which to gradually stack it. We drew all of the patterns carefully onto the wall in pencil (which you can erase easily later) and began the process of painting.

And so we were off to the (painting) races! Believe it or not, we used some cheapo IKEA brushes to do all the detail work. I loved how the end result included more texture and variability than wallpaper would have.

I know all the images are of Camille but I promise I didn’t make her do all the work. We had a great time painting together, listening to music, and drinking some beer.

In true bathroom fashion, we celebrated by brushing our teeth (as Camille is doing here). That fabulous towel is vintage. Isn’t it awesome?

Would you ever paint your “wallpaper”? Let me know what you think of the room!

xo

em

We Bought A House!

[image: A photo of me, the top of a champagne bottle, my dog Potato, and Jackson, who is holding a house key, in front of our new home!]

On May 13th, we wore our masks into the escrow office and signed 1,342,678 pages with a sanitized pen. We left with a single key to our first home. We ordered burgers from Joyland and called utilities companies getting everything set up in our name. We drove to the house, unlocked the door, popped some champagne, and sat on the floor, sipping and dreaming about what we’d put on the walls, who we’d have dinner with on the porch, whether this might be where we bring children home from the hospital.

We’ve been in this process since April 8th when we put in an offer; I was dreadfully sick and in and out of the hospital for the entire month of April. Home dreams kept me powered through finals while sick. It’s a joy to be able to actually share this news!

So this is home now.

I want to be super transparent about something that I think can be unnecessarily taboo: buying a home is a financially burdensome thing to accomplish. This is particularly true for our generation (#millennials, ya know?) and when you have limited income (two doc students in one house means we’re on a budget). We absolutely could not have done this without the generosity and kindness of our family. We are grateful to have people who could support us in transitioning from rent to real estate in order to build our equity while we complete our degrees. This is a privilege and I hope to someday be in the position to help someone else who otherwise would be renting make the same move. We are so, so grateful for you, familia!

We had an awesome realtor, Adam Blevens, and an amazing loan officer (and old friend), Josh Jeans. We highly recommend them if you’re in the Nashville area and you want real people (not a distant company) who prioritize what you prioritize and help make the process as smooth and stable as possible. Thanks you two! (And congrats to Adam and his family who welcomed their second baby girl the week after we closed!)

Here are a few photos for now. We will be doing quite a bit of work in terms of painting and redesigning a few things (knocking out a wall?). so stay tuned!

[four images: first, a photo of the exterior of our house which is one-story and blue-grey; second, a photo of the kitchen with white cabinets; third, a photo of the main bedroom, with a ceiling fan, a queen size bed and two nightstands; fourth, a photo of the exterior of the back of our house, which has a porch the width of the house]