5-day “lipstick on a pig” bedroom transformation

Watch the full 5-day bedroom transformation video here.

To watch the full tutorial for this project, head over to my Instagram page and watch the “Lipstick on a Pig (in emojis!!)” highlight bubble. 

When my high school friend, Alex, reached out to me about updating her primary bedroom, I was really excited to help. She said she had the following challenges with the room:

• There was this weird fireplace piece that stuck out that she wanted to minimize without having to do additional framing
• She wanted a fresh coat of paint
• She wanted to incorporate black without making the room smaller
• She wanted some millwork done
• She wanted to incorporate some art from her children
• She wanted to keep all existing furniture and lighting
• And she wanted this done on a budget in less than a week
• She said: basically, put some lipstick on this pig!

Here’s what the room looked like before.

I started by giving the full room a coat of paint – white for three of the walls, and black for the bed wall. 

I took some 3 ½” MDF baseboards from Home Depot and ripped them on my table saw into 3 equal pieces to create the ‘slats’ for this black feature wall. Once I had about 100 pieces, I sanded all the sides down to make sure they were smooth, and then painted them. Here’s what I looked like after cutting the 100+ slats.

Don’t skip this step! It’s super important to paint the slats before you put them up, as it’s really difficult to fit your paint brush into such narrow gaps later on! I learned this the hard way when I ran out of slats, had to cut some more, and skipped the pre-painting step! 

Once I had all of my slats, I used a combination of glue and Brad Nails to attach the boards to the wall. My personal preference is to just use Brad Nails, but the homeowners requested that I use glue. Once this part was done, I caulked the seams, used wood filler to fill any holes from the Brad Nails, sanded, and then painted. I did the same process for the little white trim boxes that flanked the bed.

Finally it was time to stage, hang the kids’ artwork, and voila! This baby was done in less than 5 days. 

Thank you Kristen for spicing up our primary bedroom 😉 You envisioned a bold design, worked tirelessly on the stubborn feature wall, and found the most amazing decor items to tie it all together! I still smile everytime I walk into the room, all because of YOU! It was a pleasure working – your charisma, organization, and ability to work at lightening speed were greatly appreciated. We are looking forward to re-designing the rest of our house with you and your team!!!

– Alex, Lipstick on a Pig project

Here are some links that you might find handy:

• Wood for feature wall
• White paint colour: Behr Marquee Bit of Sugar 
• Black paint colour: Behr Marquee Satin Black 
• Sander
• Table Saw
• Nail Gun
• Caulk
• Caulk Gun
• Wood filler
• Pampas grass decor