Jen By Design – Making an Old Rustic Room Look Cozy and Nice – MomTraNeur

Jen by Design… I should have made this official a long time ago — I LOVE INTERIOR DECORATING! It’s one of my natural-born gifts! Since I was a kid I love making things around me beautiful! My mom and dad would usually be surprised when they wake up each morning coz our living room would have a different design from the previous day. I’d rearrange the sofas and put some potted plants inside, and organize other home decors I had made. Even my regular-sized childhood room has different nooks for all my hobbies (I have a sewing nook, a play nook, a small library, a drawing nook, my bedroom in the corner arranged diagonally, etc.) And it’s off limits to everybody! Hahaha! Because even before I hit puberty, I already slept naked but that’s a different story. 😉

INTERIOR DECORATING I DID BEFORE

My house in Alabang was all me.

Our humble abode… my 1st dream home come true.

The tiny studio pad we’re renting down the mountains here in Northern Mindanao was also designed by me.

This was how our tiny pad was like before I designed it.

And now my greatest challenge so far — the bedroom in Mahal’s’ family’s old farmhouse up in the mountains where we are setting up our mushroom farm which looked like this for over 30 years:

INTERIOR DECORATING A VERY OLD BEDROOM IN A VERY OLD FARMHOUSE

I dunno why I never thought of trying to make this old room beautiful before. Maybe because I didn’t want to invade their privacy or step on certain boundaries. After all, it’s not my house. But then, I couldn’t bring myself to feel comfortable living here even just for a few days a week coz it really feels like living in a haunted house! The house is about 30+ years old and a few people already died in here like former caretakers, etc. So I told Mahal if we can set aside a bit of budget to at least make our room look a little cozy, comfy and nice. The rest, we can just use some stuff we already have so it won’t cost us too much.

First Interior Design Update

So that’s what I did! Mahal was actually happy to know that I want to make it look comfy and cozy. His exact words were: “Sa wakas, gaganda na rin ang room!”(Finally! The room will look pretty!) Lol! All the while I thought it was okay for him to sleep in a haunted-looking room. Lol!

Second Interior Design Update

I had a bit of spare money so I took out the old canopy net (and used it for my mountain office instead) and bought a new one from Unitop. I also got a nice green sturdy plastic table and chair set at 71% from Mandaue Foam so I can work offline in the bedroom and have coffee too while enjoying the mountain view.

Jen by Design

THIRD Interior Design Update

We added some string curtains on the walls to make it look a lot cozier.

Jen by Design

So with the limited budget we have (most of the new furnishings and stuff were bought from Cogon Market, Unitop in downtown CDO where everything is super duper affordable, at SM Store and Mandaue Foam), and the available materials we have like this decade-old canopy net I bought for my house in Alabang but was never used (nawala na nga yung wooden ring sa luma), plus curtain rods made of bamboo from a nearby bamboo tree which Mahal cut himself, I faced the challenge of making the room we sleep in (it’s his parents’ room actually from when they used to live here every coffee harvest season) as cozy and comfy as I can. Perhaps, little by little, we can add some more home decor stuff. But for now, here’s what I did. At least it doesn’t look as haunted anymore. It just looks vintage! Hihihi!

Check out again the BEFORE and AFTER pictures. ^_^

What do you think?

To summarize, here’s basically what I did to interior decorate an old rustic room and make it look cozy and nice:

Go slow. Take your time visualizing how you want the room to look and feel like. Pinterest can help you with ideas. I got my inspiration from the designs I pinned on my Pinterest – DIY Canopy Bed
Work on your budget. Not all of us can afford to splurge on expensive furnishings and home decor. Find a shop that sells cheap home stuff and choose those that look sturdy and classy. You can make your own too! As for me, my go-to place for these are Unitop (everyday seems like a sale day), SM Store (watch out for those buy one take one promo) and Mandaue Foam (they sell expensive and really classy looking furniture but when they give discounts, they go down up to 70+%!!!)
Be patient. Sometimes, what you visualize doesn’t come out the way you want it to look like. Do it again. Or sometimes, the money or check you were expecting to come so you can already buy that home decor stuff you want did not clear, just be patient.
Enjoy the process. I did mine in a period of two weeks and I enjoyed it every step of the way. When finally, I was done, I felt like the room was mine. It’s so me and I like it!

So that’s it, folks! I hope I was able to inspire you a bit in the home decorating / designing front.

I will update this post as we try to add or change some more home decorating stuff. We’re currently asking some carpenters how they can put some insulation in the room because it tends to get very hot during the day especially when the sun is out and freezing cold at night. For now, it’s cozy enough. It reminds me of those native beach cottages I used to rent before whenever I’d travel and beach hop. Good enough for me. ^_^

How about you? Have you tried interior decorating your own home?