Spiritual Bedroom Makeover

 

Rachel and I recently celebrated our 15 yr wedding anniversary and I surprised her with a DIY bedroom makeover. We have wanted to transform our bedroom for years but procrastinated. She was particularly uninspired by the blah nature of it ever since we moved into our home years ago. We did not take before and after photos but it was the typical 1990s/2000s mashup of beige colorless walls, yellow carpet, and mismatched everything else. 

The "mission" was to infuse the space with "passion." Passion for our Faith first, and then for each other. Red became my anchor color and the artwork (purchased specifically for the makeover) above our bed became the centerpiece and inspiration for the interior design. Everything was selected to accentuate the the original work which was purchased from Reza Mostmand mostmand.com and Kate Vestlie katevestlie.com

The calligraphy comes from Baha'u'llah's Hidden Words and Mostmand explains:

The piece was an effort to create a modern take on the ancient Persian art form with the traditional illumination style, mimicking the concept of “paradise”, but displayed in a modern and unlike arrangement. The large stroke in the middle is the Arabic word for love “Hub”, which is what Bahá’u’lláh refers to in redefining the idea of “Paradise” in His Arabic Hidden Word. 

It reads:

“O Son of Being! Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.”

A bedroom is such a sacred space. It's the most private of spaces. It's where we rest, let go, become our most vulnerable. It's a place where we retreat, dream and for the fortunate where we pass beyond this mortal, carnal world. 

So, stop procrastinating! :) Try spiritually making over your bedroom little by little.  Here are some steps that helped us along the way and could help you:

1. Begin your project with an anchor spiritual concept. Ours was passion, which, in a more elevated sense was love. 

2. Consider a centerpiece artistic expression of your spiritual concept. For us, this came to be a singular Bahai-inspired original work of art. In a way, we borrowed a tad from the Jewish Ketubah tradition of the marriage hopes and dreams expressed through a work of art. 

3. Consider if your anchor spiritual concept and or art can be expressed more potently with color.  Color that compliments your anchor spiritual concept or art. 1 or 2 contrasting walls will often suffice. Don't overdo it! And if it does not look or feel correct...redo it. I picked out a brownish/peach color for the other walls and after painting for an hour it became apparent it was way too peachy. I remixed the paint and started all over again but it was necessary.  

4. Many Feng Shui principles can help along the way. But don't get too hampered or discouraged by these principles. For example, we decided that in our case the heavy artwork above our head would work, but we stuck to other principles like keeping the foot of the bed toward the entrance doorframe, removing all clutter, and absolutely no television in the space. 

5. More often than not- less is more. Sometimes the better question to ask is... what does this space NOT need? 

6. Have fun! Remember the feeling you had as a kid when you changed your room around and afterwards felt on top of the world? Get that stagnate bedroom energy moving! For a brief moment you will feel like a kid again. In the long-term, though, spiritually making over your bedroom can edge you a little closer to inward transformation. 

Thanks for reading!