The change of seasons can be a wonderful reason to refresh your home. With the holidays behind us and winter months still ahead, we can use this season to create a sanctuary where we feel snug, warm and cozy all winter.

We recently moved into a new home so we haven’t yet set up our bedroom other than to just “move our things in!” so I’m excited to give this space a little more thought in the month of January. To even dream a little.

Even if you don’t need or plan to do any room makeovers in this season, a time for rest and dreaming is good for the soul!

In my upcoming book A Lovely Life I talk about using the winter season for just that, a season to rest and rejuvenate yourself! I definitely spend more time in my bedroom in the winter. Of course, I also love sitting by the fire or warming up in the kitchen, but I especially love to retreat to my bedroom early so I can snuggle in and get cozy — so I need it to be a welcoming spot for a long winter’s nap :).

If you saw my last post, we are doing a home challenge this month called A Lovely January! It’s simple–just pick any room in your house to make progress on this month. You can read more about how to participate here. I’d LOVE to have you join us and share!

I chose to work on my bedroom for the challenge.

Our main budget and priority time this year will be going to a kitchen remodel and addition, which I will talk about on the blog as well. But because the bedroom is my retreat in the winter, I want to give it a little refresh so it feels as cozy and comforting as possible.

We are going to use the furnishings we already have, which currently consists of our dresser which has been so versatile (over the years we’ve used it for clothes, moved it to the living room and used it in the guest room closet!). We plan to use our same cane bed, the bookcase we painted at our old house, a couple of lamps, a mirror or two as well as two nightstands that came with the house as well as an IKEA chair that also came with the house! We may update any of these items over time if we find pieces we like better or that fit the size or organizational needs of the room, but for now we are happy with what we have.

So what will we do for our refresh?

We took down our garland this week so we will be working with a clean slate!

Lighting:

I want to address the lighting in here to make it feel as cozy as we can. We already got a new brass floor lamp (shown above), which is perfect for reading in the chair. We will probably keep the floral lamp that we have on our dresser (shown below), it’s so pretty! I want to start looking for a ceiling light, the one that is there is not terrible so it’s not an emergency at all but I always love changing out light fixtures in a new home to bring in more character and personality. I am also going to order plug-in wall sconces for by the bed so we will have more room on our nightstands. To bring more soft light around the room I will need one additional lamp or wall sconce, so I will look for something affordable.

Mirror:

Hanging up this mirror was one of our to-do’s that we already completed! I love how it reflects the view out the windows. Mirrors always make a room feel bigger, too! We’ve had this mirror for years, but I found two similar ones if you’re looking for something similar: here, and here.

Bedding:

While I still love some of the quilts I’ve acquired in the past few years (including this blue and white one below), I am feeling inspired to switch a few things up with bedding this winter. I don’t really have a “winter look” for this room so I think that will be fun. I love to be able to mix and match pillows and duvets and quilts and even get something new for the season, so I’m looking forward to that. I don’t have any other rooms with beds right now, other than my rattan daybed in my new office, so this one will be the one I get to have fun working with in every season!

Color Palette:

We thought about repainting our room this month, but decided to hold off on it. The paint color (Bunny Gray by Benjamin Moore) is actually very pretty and really complements the colors of the water and sky outside so it’s very soothing in here. Once we live with it for awhile we can change the color if we want to, but for now we can save our time and energy for other things. I will have fun with the bedding and mixing in colors and patterns so I think the backdrop will work well for a variety of options!

New Slipcover:

I thought about putting a different chair in here, but again, it doesn’t seem necessary right now. The chair that is here is super comfy, so I can update it with a slipcover and keep it or at least enjoy it until I have a better idea!

New Bench:

We need a bench for the end of our bed. It’s how our dogs can safely get up or down (yes, we let the dogs up on the bed. It wasn’t my original plan to allow it, but it happened and now that they are 8 and 10 there’s no going back. They mostly sleep in their beds at night but they love to snuggle with us in the morning and take naps here during the day. I think it’s comforting to them. ANYWAY it is what it is ha).

Art:

I’m not sure yet what I want to do for art in here, right now we have a few things but nothing has to be permanent so I’ll keep my eyes peeled! Art can add style and color to a room and be switched for the seasons as well. By the way, we shared lots of great art sources over on our new The Inspired Room Style Instagram–we saved them to the “Art” highlight here on our profile!

Window Treatments:

I wasn’t sure I would put curtains in here, but I do think they are so cozy for a bedroom. Right now some windows have paper shades and some don’t have anything. Privacy isn’t much of an issue on the windows that don’t have anything on them yet, but it would be nice to be able to darken the room more as well as add softness. I’ll share my ideas for adding curtain panels and maybe even to add shutters on a window to add privacy to the bottom half.

Function:

There’s a lot of need for organization in here and in our closet, so gathering ideas and working on organizational systems will be on my radar this winter as well!

Flooring:

My ultimate plan is to add hardwood flooring in here and throughout the house. Since we are doing a remodel we may end up doing all of the floors at one time. Or, I may get started with the upstairs first. We’ll see. I will show you my inspiration as we go! In the meantime, a throw rug or two might be cute by the exterior doors or chair to add a little color or pattern.

Dream List:

I will happily work on this room for years! I would love to add wallpaper or a wood wall treatment, wood ceilings, crown molding, a fireplace ….no end to the fun ideas I could dream up for this space!

Well, I think that gives me a great list to look at this season! Making a big list doesn’t mean I will do them all. I’m certainly not in a hurry so there’s no pressure to do any of it. I will enjoy doing what inspires and looking for things that I can do now, even if we decide to make other changes in the future. My goal for January is to end the month with updated lighting and a cozy winter look for the bed.

****UPDATE: We’ve made progress on the bedroom! Come see HERE!

You can also see the post sharing the lantern ceiling light I ordered HERE!

What are you working on this month? Share your ideas, plans, dreams, lists and progress in our The Inspired Room Facebook group or on your social media with the hashtag #alovelyjanuary (tag me @theinspiredroom too so I can see!).