Dark Green Bedroom Refresh

As we were building our home, we had both time and budget restraints. We made sure to get the shell of the house done, framing, drywall, cabinets, etc. and left all the details for later. Well, here we are 3 years later and we’ve finally finished our dark green bedroom in a way that feels cozy and homey. We still need to update the bench at the base of our bed but other than that, it’s done for now.

I know this isn’t my usual content, but I get in the mood to do a little house project each Fall as the garden winds down. Hope you enjoy this little before and after! 

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The Evolution of Our Dark Green Bedroom

First, the white box

This was a project that evolved over the time we’ve lived in our home. First, we started out with a white room. For the first several months our mattress was on the floor, and we had no other furniture we brought from our old home other than nightstands.

Even though our room had west facing windows, when I would wake up in the morning the room was extremely bright. We had no curtains and the white walls bounced light everywhere. As you can see above, we eventually added a bed frame and curtains but it still was pretty sparse.

Next, a coat of dark green paint

About a year in, I decided we needed to paint the room. I’ve never had a super dark room before because I actually love natural light in my home, but for a room where sleeping is the primary purpose, it felt right. 

After looking at all kinds inspiration pictures, I settled on a dark green bedroom. I chose Benjamin Moore’s Vintage Vogue as the color and went dark on the ceiling too. Having the room be one cohesive color helped it feel larger even though it’s dark.

As a result of painting it dark, I was sleeping better! And I’m not just saying that! I left it as-is for 6 months then changed up the bedding for winter. We found out 9 months later we were expecting a baby (our fifth) and added a crib and changing table to the room as a necessity.

Finally, adding crown molding and lattice board and batten

Fast forward 16 months later and here were are expecting baby #6. My sister Sara came over as we were working on this project and said, “You’re nesting!” I guess so! I felt motivated recently to do one more change to the room to add another layer and make it feel more finished.

We added cove molding and trim to the ceiling. Then strips of lattice detail to the walls. It transformed the room! It no longer feels like a builder-basic box but has some style and warmth now.

I also got different lights and will sell our old ones. Our nightstands are small and I wanted to make room for plants. Plants make me happy and I smile when I come into this room now. 

How we added the cove molding and lattice

We started out the project with the idea that we would knock it out in a day. In truth, Cam was the one who would knock it out in a day, since I’m pregnant and wanted to avoid the paint fumes.

Cove Molding 

This was Cam’s first time ever installing cove molding. He was nervous about it because he didn’t have lots of extra molding to mess up on. The molding was expensive so he bought the bare minimum amount we needed plus a couple board feet.

We decided to match the molding to what we have on our cabinets, which is 2” trim with a beveled edge, then 5¼” cove molding over top.

Thankfully Cam was careful and even though he did have some struggle getting the crown molding right at first, he figured it out and we had enough for the project.

DIY Board and Batten

Next the lattice board and batten was installed. Technically, this isn’t true board and batten, it’s a board and batten “look”.

Cam and I discussed spacing of the lattice strips and decided to have it be 16 inches apart so it would hit studs. 

Cam explained to me, if we didn’t have it on a stud, it would need to be glued and nailed into place. I’ve done enough home renovation and remodeling to know if we ever wanted to remove it, glued on boards would shred the drywall and be a nightmare. Consequently, we decided against that idea and used the 16 inch spacing.

The only exception was the wall with our bed against it. We still did 16 inch spacing but the studs were not symmetrical between the windows. Unfortunately, Cam did need to glue the lattice down on that wall since we were not hitting studs.

Painting

We were incredibly optimistic (perhaps naive is the better word) and thought that we could prime, caulk, and then paint only the new trim pieces and the cove molding. It is the same color as the wall after all! 

But apparently it’s difficult to perfectly color match after two years of fading on a wall. Cam worked all day and into the night to finish this project. But it was 1:30am and he realized the first coat of paint needed to dry so he went to bed.

In the morning I was totally freaked out by what I saw. The paint was splotchy and quite frankly it looked horrible. 

I had anticipated the lattice looking crazy prior to painting but not after. I went through a bunch of doubt and thought maybe I needed to pick another color entirely.

But after thinking about it more, I really loved the color and all our decor was picked to go with it. So we decided to do another coat of paint and also paint the walls too so it wouldn’t be so blotchy. 

It worked! The finished walls looked so much better and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. 

Pricing Breakdown

I know whenever I see someone else do a project, it always helps to get an idea of cost involved. So I will be transparent and share those details!  

We had calculated that it would cost about $400 for the lattice detail but we were a little off. And like most projects it went over budget and not under. 

Then we needed to add the cost of the cove molding, trim, and paint. The decorative additions for the room were a rug and lamps. All the other things in the room came from what was already there or using items we had in different areas in our home.

• Lattice – 380 linear feet @ $1.24 per linear foot = $471 
• Trim Pieces-16 ft pieces @ $12.47 x 4 = $50
• Cove Molding -$340
• Primer – $40
• Paint – $73
• Paint Brushes, Rollers, Tray, etc. $20
• Caulk – 4 @ 5.98 = $24
• Wood Filler – $8
• = $1026

• 9×12 Olive/ Charcoal Rug– $233
• 9x 12 Rug Pad– $128
• Wall Swing Arm Lamp – 2 @ $329 (plus taxes and shipping) = $707
• =$1068

The lamps were a crazy expensive splurge. Unfortunately, I’ve learned through experience that inexpensive light fixtures break so fast. 

All the budget friendly lights in our home (built three years ago) have either broken completely or the finish is literally chipping off. When it comes to lighting, you really get what you pay for. 

Total Bedroom Refresh Cost: $2094

The Rest of the Dark Green Bedroom

As I mentioned, we’ve never really had much in our bedroom. When baby #5 came in 2023 we moved a crib and changing table in here. The changing table and the swivel rocking chair stayed and the crib is now out.

So what you see in the photos is functional even if it isn’t traditional. Also, I like that even though the walls are pretty bare it doesn’t look boring anymore because of the lattice detail.

So that wraps up our little bedroom refresh. If you prefer to see the whole process on video, you can check it out below!

To see the rest of our home, here’s the house plans for our homestead. Additionally, here is a photo tour and all the sources of our modern farmhouse.