Surprise Bedroom Makeover for my Brother

My little brother got engaged, closed on his first house and then went on vacation with his fiancé. What a life right? While he was gone my family and I were demoing the lower level of his house but I thought I would be the best big sister and also surprise him with a bedroom makeover when he got back from his trip. Best part was I only had a week! Keep reading to see if he liked it!

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Tools + Materials + Decor

Tools

Materials

Flooring

Decor

Before he left for his vacation I sort of tricked my brother into telling me what kind of bedroom he wanted to have. This set the vision so I could get to work as soon as he was out of town.

1. Demo

When I renovated our house it was really helpful to have one room that was finished so we could comfortably stay in the house. This was my inspiration for making over this bedroom for Rob.

I tried to salvage these cabinets so we could repurpose them somewhere else, but they were glued to the walls and that made it impossible to remove them and keep them intact.

The walls are going to need a lot of patching…

The running joke with this house is that everything inside the house is built better than the house itself, and this corner mirror shelf really tested my patience as I tried to pry it off the wall.

In an effort to not let that mirror drive me crazy I took a break from it and started working on the carpet.

Carpet removal was non-negotiable, Rob has some really bad allergies and he had actually already purchased new flooring for the house.

My dad decided that I was too young to potentially have 14 years of bad luck, so he kicked it into dad mode and took this mirror out himself…yes, in a bunch of tiny pieces.

2. Patching & Painting

Like I said before, these walls needed a ton of patching, so first I started by scraping any lifted areas.

Then it was time to add spackle smooth it out.

Timing was a bit tricky this day, it took way longer than I expected. By the time everything was dry and ready to be sanded I only had 4 days left to finish this bedroom makeover!

Once everything was patched and prepped I got to painting the ceiling first. Of course this took me way longer than expected, it was so humid, the AC in this house isn’t the best, and for some reason this ceiling needed way more coats of paint than I had anticipated.

My brother wanted beige tones in his house so I picked a shade and got it up on the walls at first daylight with just 3 days left to go!

3. Install Laminate Flooring

I was seriously feeling the crunch on getting this flooring in. But I do love the way it looks with the paint color I chose. (Not pictured here is my jig saw blade needing to be replaced when I was on the last row before finishing the flooring…ugh)

In the meantime I got to nailing in the quarter round because I was fighting daylight, this room has no lights, which I will fix! But I wanted to get as much finished while I still had sunlight because there was only one day left to decorate and finish the space.

I used my cordless miter saw to cut the trim for the ceiling.

Then it was time to get that ceiling trim up while I could still see.

4. Finishing Details

Earlier in this project I realized that if I wanted to put a queen sized bed into this room we wouldn’t be able to get the closet door opened, not ideal. So I removed the closet door so we could replace it with a sliding barn door and gain access to the closet while not compromising on the bed size.

With 1 and a half-ish days left it was all hands on deck. I had to finish that last row of flooring (I cut the pieces on my table saw at home before coming back to the house) and I also caulked the trim along the flooring.

5. Decor

One thing I know I’m good at is working under a time crunch. It was time to get this ceiling fan out and replace it with something much less outdated.

I opted for this ceiling fan and light fixture combo that has a remote, fancy! But why didn’t I install it earlier so I could’ve had longer nights…???

I rolled out this area rug and we were finally ready to assemble furniture.

My sister in law Isabel was a huge help. We ended the day with the bed and night stands assembled and in place.

Of course Rob had to switch his flight so he was getting back earlier than planned, but we still managed to get it all done. Here I am putting up the Barn Door hardware.

Then Isabel and I were able to get the door up on the tracks.

6. The Big Reveal

Once my brother was at the house I was able to get him to come look at the bedroom by telling him I was able to install the floor while he was gone. He was a little surprised…..but do you think he made that face because he noticed I didn’t have time to iron the bedding??

Jk he loved it!

I am so happy with how this room turned out. I am so proud of my little brother and I am so stoked to go on this journey with him as we renovate his first house. It was a race to the finish line but he couldn’t stop talking about how much he loved it which made me so excited. To be able to turn this small and outdated space into the vibe he was looking for is any big sister’s dream. If you enjoyed this bedroom makeover make sure to stay tuned because there will certainly be more projects like it. Until then friends, Happy DIYing!