Welcome to the stunning transformation of our beach house’s middle bedroom! What was once an underutilized space has been reimagined into a vibrant, multi-functional haven, showcasing a harmonious blend of classic charm and modern functionality. This exciting reveal highlights how thoughtful design choices, including a stylish board and batten treatment, a delightful peel and stick wallpaper, and a versatile daybed, can breathe new life into any room, especially one with a rich history like ours.
A Fresh Perspective: Marrying Old-World Charm with Modern Aesthetics
The updated middle bedroom at the beach house truly captivates with the seamless integration of its new features. The board and batten wall treatment pairs exquisitely with the subtle patterns of the peel and stick wallpaper, creating an inviting atmosphere. This contemporary update beautifully complements the room’s original character, particularly the 115-year-old heart pine floors and solid wood doors. The contrast between these brand-new elements and the historic architecture results in a space that feels both fresh and timeless. One aspect we’ve noticed is how much more captivating the wallpaper appears in person; its muted, soft watercolor effect is often lost in photographs, which tend to make it appear brighter and busier. However, we’re content knowing its true beauty shines brightest within our home rather than just online.
From Overlooked to Overjoyed: Reimagining an Underutilized Space
For the past two and a half years since furnishing the beach house, this middle bedroom, despite its aesthetic appeal, remained largely unused. A queen-sized bed dominated the room, rarely accommodating more than one person and frequently serving as little more than a storage area for tools or paint from its closet. The realization that such a lovely room was a “ghost town” prompted us to re-evaluate its purpose. If a room isn’t serving its inhabitants, even its beauty is diminished.
The solution was clear: optimize for functionality. By replacing the oversized queen bed with a more compact daybed, we unlocked significant floor space, transforming the room into an area suitable for a multitude of activities. This strategic change has brought an unparalleled sense of openness and utility to the room, evident in the dramatic difference captured in similar angles from before and after the redesign.
A Journey Through Time: The Bedroom’s Evolution
To truly appreciate this room’s transformation, it’s worth revisiting its earliest days. Our beach house once lacked a central hallway, requiring passage through this very room to reach the back bedroom. Our extensive renovation introduced a crucial central hallway, fundamentally altering the home’s flow and opening up new possibilities for this space. This significant architectural change laid the groundwork for its current functionality. You can explore a comprehensive collection of our beach house before & after photos here to see the full scope of our renovation journey.
The detailed planning behind this specific room’s redesign, including decisions about wall treatments and furniture placement, was discussed in depth in this post. Although the update was completed months ago, its official unveiling was delayed due to an ongoing, never-ending bathroom renovation. This delay, however, offered an unexpected advantage: the opportunity to live with the changes and confidently attest to their success. It’s incredibly rewarding to confirm that the room not only looks fantastic but also functions perfectly, exceeding our initial hopes and expectations.
Affordable Elegance: Maximizing Impact on a Budget
Our middle bedroom makeover serves as a prime example of achieving significant impact through a series of affordable and manageable DIY projects, each completed over a few weekends. Injecting architectural charm and character was achieved with a board and batten wall treatment, costing a mere $194. This simple addition instantly elevates the room’s aesthetic, creating depth and visual interest. Adding vibrant color and playful fun came courtesy of easy-to-install wallpaper, an incredible value at just $85!
A long-desired rattan daybed, a fantastic half-price find at $275, fulfilled a design dream while providing flexible seating and sleeping options. Finally, an affordable desk from Target offered a practical solution to our downstairs paper clutter issue, providing a dedicated space for crafts and work. Each of these elements, strategically chosen for their aesthetic appeal and functional benefits, combined to create a cohesive and highly effective room redesign.
Strategic Guest Accommodations: Beyond the Queen Bed
A crucial turning point for this room was the recognition that a single bed, specifically a daybed, was a far more appropriate choice for the occasional overflow guest we host. It’s important to remember that we already have a dedicated, generously sized guest room with a queen bed adjacent to this middle bedroom. That primary guest room comfortably accommodates a pack-and-play or an air mattress, making it ideal for families. Here’s a glimpse of our front bedroom for reference:
And another angle of the front bedroom, showcasing our favorite inlay dresser—a piece with its own rich history of repair, which you can read about here. It pairs beautifully with the raw, exposed brick chimney, adding layers of texture and history. This setup allows for flexible guest arrangements, where guests with small children can use the spacious primary guest room, while an older child can comfortably sleep in the middle bedroom’s new daybed.
The queen bed, affectionately known as “Ed The Bed” from our second house, had served us well for nearly a decade. Its journey included our initial excitement in acquiring him and even a creative modification. Ultimately, Ed found a new home with a friend who had a much larger room suitable for his grand size. This downsizing was pivotal; it not only addressed the issue of an underused bed but also created space for a functional crafting, writing, and drawing desk that our family genuinely uses.
A Hub of Creativity: The Room’s New Life
The most gratifying outcome of this redesign is witnessing the middle bedroom transform from a “ghost town” into a lively hub of activity. Now, multiple family members, and even their friends, actively spend time here during every visit. It’s predominantly a creative zone for our children, but we’ve seen it buzzing with five kids at once—two on the daybed engrossed in graphic novels, two at the desk crafting flip books with glitter pens, and one on the floor constructing a cardboard masterpiece while cheerfully singing. This vibrant scene is a stark contrast to its previous emptiness, bringing immense satisfaction.
Furthermore, this dedicated upstairs space for papers, cardboard, tape, and all crafting supplies has effectively solved our persistent problem of art-related clutter on the kitchen table downstairs. This allows our kitchen table to serve its primary functions—for family meals and epic tournaments of Exploding Kittens—without being constantly covered in creative chaos. The transformation has truly enhanced our daily living by organizing and centralizing creative endeavors.
Thoughtful Decor: Reusing and Refreshing
We embraced the challenge of working with many existing elements in the room, proving that you don’t always need to start from scratch for a successful makeover. The framed art, brass mobile, rug, and curtains, along with the curtain rods and window blinds, were all part of the middle bedroom’s original furnishings. It was a conscious decision to integrate these pieces, celebrating their timeless quality rather than discarding them. This approach not only saved resources but also maintained a sense of continuity and familiarity within the beach house aesthetic.
Hooray for the enduring appeal of flexible classics and neutral items! A woven rug, subtle brass accents, understated art, and breezy white window curtains form the foundation of this inviting space. The twin mattress on the daybed, a thoughtful hand-me-down from John’s sister, further enhanced our budget-friendly approach and proved to be the perfect fit for the new setup. We celebrated its arrival with genuine enthusiasm.
The pouf ottomans are remarkably versatile additions to the room. They fluidly transition between serving as a low coffee table for the daybed, small side tables, or comfortable seating for our children during their creative sessions. When extra floor space is needed—perhaps for a sleeping bag for a second child—they tuck neatly under the desk. While these cushy ottomans lack a backrest, a deliberate choice we explored in this post, our kids are accustomed to working without back support from their previous art area. They seem to thoroughly enjoy the comfort and flexibility these stools provide.
The same pressed flower art, acquired years ago at a local art fair and framed in our go-to gold frames from Target, now defines the desk area. Hung above the desk, it anchors the creative zone, complemented by writing utensils and craft supplies neatly organized on the tabletop and within the desk’s drawers. The “marble vase” is, in fact, a cleverly repurposed utensil holder from Target, chosen for its clean, cylindrical shape that adds a touch of modern simplicity.
Regarding the desk’s drawers, those who subscribe to our newsletter might recall seeing how we upgraded the hardware. This simple change significantly elevated the desk’s appearance and created a cohesive look by tying into the other brass elements throughout the room. (You can review that old newsletter here, and sign up to receive future updates here—it’s free and we send only a few per month, promising not to spam your inbox).
Speaking of hardware seamlessly integrating with other decorative elements, we lament that Target no longer carries the beautiful brass circle mobile we have. Its delicate design adds a unique touch. However, a similar option is available here for those looking to replicate the look.
The room’s new layout is proving highly successful, not only because the desk sees constant use by the kids but also because the daybed functions wonderfully as a cozy couch or lounge space for reading or snuggling with Burger, our chihuahua, who has also integrated this room into his daily routine! This increased usability is a delightful surprise, as the larger bed previously offered no such appeal for lounging. The super affordable floor lamp from Target positioned over the daybed received a custom touch; we swapped its original glass cap for a white one from old Target side table lamps that once resided in this room, enhancing its aesthetic integration.
Creating an Illusion of Space: Design for Small Rooms
Despite being a very small room, the updated middle bedroom feels significantly more open and airy than when it was dominated by the queen bed. This enhanced spaciousness is partly due to the removal of the large piece of furniture, but also notably attributed to the clever design of the wall treatment and the vibrant wallpaper above it. These elements skillfully draw the eye upward, creating an illusion of greater height and an overall more expansive feel.
Let’s revisit the before picture to illustrate this point. Observe how the single, solid wall above the old bed, while not inherently “squat” or “closed in,” lacked the visual dynamics that create an illusion of height.
Now, compare that to the current view. Notice how the room immediately feels taller and more vertical with the wallpaper gracefully running along the upper portion of the walls and the long battens extending vertically below, guiding your eye upward. It’s a common misconception that molding treatments can make spaces feel more enclosed; however, our experience consistently shows the opposite. For instance, the $57 board and batten we installed in the hallway of our second house similarly made that narrow space feel remarkably more vertical and expansive—a truly magical effect in interior design.
Standing with your back to the closet, this view provides a clear perspective of the room looking towards the entrance door, highlighting the cohesive design from every angle.
The charming gold starfish towel hook on the door holds special significance. It was a thoughtful gift from our friend Carey, found at Anthropologie, shortly after we purchased the beach house in 2015. Hanging it on a finished door, two years later after the completion of our renovation, was a moment of immense satisfaction. For those interested in more design inspiration, you can explore Carey’s exceptional home makeovers here and here.
Your Next Project Awaits: Planning and DIY Resources
That concludes our tour of the transformed beach house middle bedroom! We hope you enjoyed seeing the results of this thoughtful redesign. For those inspired to embark on their own room updates, we highly recommend diving into the planning phase. Our detailed post on planning this room covers everything from determining wall treatment layouts and wallpaper selection to the practical decision-making behind choosing stools over chairs. While reading about room planning might not sound as exciting as a grand reveal, it’s truly where you’ll gain actionable ideas and the confidence to tackle challenging spaces in your own home. We genuinely hope these insights prove helpful!
For those eager to get hands-on, we’ve prepared comprehensive DIY tutorials: learn here, and follow our simple guide for hanging wallpaper here (it’s simpler than you think—you can definitely do it!). Additionally, to see a full collection of dramatic comparison photos from our entire beach house renovation, all those incredible transformations are available here for your inspiration.
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