Master Bedroom Decor | Misawa Japan Home Inspiration

December 16, 2019December 19, 2019 EmilybolanderLeave a comment

It has taken me over two years to finally ALMOST finish decorating the whole house here in Japan. I have been focusing on the master bedroom lately, and I think I have FINALLY finished with it- for the time being at least. I like to change things often, as Drew knows and LOVES. I mean TDYs are only for painting walls and building new furniture while your husband is gone, no?

Also, pro tip. When we got married 5 years ago, Drew told me no florals, no girly things, no pink in our home unless it was in my office. I do not have an office here. It has taken me almost 5 years to slowly and discreetly integrate my love of flowers and pink/purple into our home, but I have done it, and he still lives here willingly. You’re welcome, ladies.

This is a 3 bedroom townhome on Main Base in Misawa. We have the “B” unit, and our style of home is one with the fully covered porch on the front. The front door opens directly to face the stairs with the kitchen to the left.

Below are all the product links for you to shop. These are active as of December 2019! If something doesn’t work in the future, you can always DM me on Instagram, and I can try to find an updated link for you, or at least give you the retailer.

Bed + Bedding

Bed frame

Our bed is a king size, and the frame is the BEST thing we have ever bought. SO easy with moving and assembly.

Flannel Sheets

They don’t currently have the print shown here in stock, but I linked the most similar one. We have like 4 sets of these flannel sheets and rotate them weekly all winter long. SO soft and they wash so well too.

Quilt

My current top quilt as shown in the grey color on the bed is sold out, but I will link the one below from Kohl’s that is the closest to mine! Sonoma consistently makes quality stuff, especially in bedding!

Pom Duvet Cover
(+ Duvet insert)
I have washed this several times since I got it like a month ago (darn dirty kids!) and it has held up beautifully. I even wash the duvet and cover together, then dry it partially and just spread it out over the couch to dry all night. Works great. Not sure why the reviews are only 4/5 on it, because I would give it 5.

Herringbone Purple Blanket

Still searching for this one! Originally got it as a wedding gift from Target. It’s Threshold brand and SUPER heavy, but I do not currently see anything like it on the site.

Striped blanket

The blanket sitting in the crate at the end of the bed is actually originally from Target on clearance, and I can’t seem to find one that is similar or reasonably priced, so I linked the most similar and best priced one on Amazon I could find!

Decor above the bed-

Unfortunately I can’t link these little wood planks, because I created them by destructing a wooden box lamp I found that was soaking wet on the curb haha.

The floral arrangement is also made by yours truly, from a stick I found in my front yard, some twine from a package I was about to throw away, and like 10 stems of Daiso flowers. I may sell these in the future- shoot me a DM on Instagram if you would be interested!

Pom Pillows

Bless This Nest Pillow Cover

Mandala Pillows

I linked the closest I could find to these. I wish I could link the originals, because I have loved them for YEARS. Originally from Kohl’s!

Shelf Decor

When I first saw the setup of the master bedroom, I wasn’t sure our King size bed, dresser, etc. etc. would fit.

Spoiler: put your dressers in your closets if you want more floor space. Makes sense anyway- the rest of your clothes are already there.

We use the top of our dresser to store our towels since the cabinet space is lacking in the townhome bathrooms anyway. Keeps things nice and uncluttered in the bedroom.

Then, to get even more floor space, I built shelves and put everything on the wall.

Be sure to either find your studs (ours are solid metal for sure, so we can’t drill into them) or HEAVILY anchor shelving. Also, I highly do NOT recommend placing anything heavy on the shelves unless you want an entire wall’s worth of drywall on your floor. I’m super careful about putting any weight on these!

All three were a TDY project- just some wood from Homac and stain from Daiso!

Floral Arrangement

“Blessed” Sign

Amy is local to Misawa, so message her if you need something custom made!

Tobacco Basket

This is a set of 3 tobacco baskets from Target, and is only $9 for the set! The white basket on the wall below is also from it. Follow the “bullseye’s playground” seasonally online- this kind of gorgeous stuff is added ALL the time!

The other tan baskets above are all from Daiso or Seria! They are also currently hung with push pins as shown. Don’t judge me, sometimes ya’ just can’t disrupt nap time by hammering into the wall.

“And” Sign

Kohl’s JUST stinkin’ took down the listing for this sign, and I’m bummed because it’s SO beautifully carved! I linked a similar style one.

White Frame & Tan Frame

Both frames above are from Belle Maison from Kohl’s, but neither are sold anymore. I linked a pretty similar one from Amazon above! I have never disliked anything I have bought from the Belle Maison line at Kohl’s, though!

Container for Sand Dollars

So I only add this one in here, because I love this DIY hack. Woodwick candles are one of my favorite candles (despite the awful things that candles release into the air haha) and I LOVE reusing the jars! I use a lighter and melt most of the wax out of the jar when I am down to the last little bit, then just run it through the dishwasher to make sure it’s completely clean. Perfect for cotton balls, q-tips, sea glass, or sand dollars.

P.s.this is the best beach for finding whole, huge sand dollars in Misawa, Japan!

Small plants & pots are all from Daiso!

Diffuser

I have 3 of these in my home, and do not regret it. Join my deals group– I post cute diffusers there all the time. I got both of mine in this style for $7! (Yes, it is originally $28!)

Both floral arrangements are from Daiso. I really like fake flowers, y’all. Both vases were thrifted! (If you’re E4 & below, take full advantage of your thrift store credit each month! The thrift store is the BEST.)

White picture frame

This it the 16×20 and I have like 6 of these in my house and love them. Wait until they go on sale- sometimes they are like $14!

Framed sign

Amy is so talented, and beware- you will want everything from her shop. She’s also local in Misawa, so message her if you need something custom made!

Nightstands

Nightstands

I picked these nightstands up on the curb, but they are originally from Ashley Furniture! I personally think they look better and have more character as they age and get scratched. If I can ever find the EXACT stands I will link them, but for now I linked basically the exact same stand, just slightly less rounded edges.

Lamps

Just got these from Target about a week ago and couldn’t love them more.

All of the florals seen on my nightstands were also made from Daiso flowers.

The wooden pieces that the lamps are on come from the curb (small box) and beachcombing (round planks.) Trash is treasure, y’all! Also full disclosure, beachcombing is massively addictive.

Basket holding my books

These are seriously the best baskets ever. We have the small versions for things like my books, and the large ones for Henry and Ellie’s toys.

Also, I love ALL THINGS from this seller. La Jolie Muse is my most purchased from vendor on Amazon. (Again, join the deals group. I post codes from her all the time!)

Rug

This is the 5’x7′ version, which unbelievably SHIPS APO! Took about 2 months to arrive for me, but so worth it. NuLoom is my jam, you’ll hear me rave about them nonstop. I think we have 4 rugs from them. All have shipped here! (Sorry post office volunteers and staff, I know you hate me.)

Ottoman

Still trying to find this bad boy online. I bought it at Kohl’s years ago on clearance for $5. Story of my life.

Blanket Storage & The Rest

Blanket Ladder

I actually picked this up off the BEACH! Favorite find during beachcombing so far, minus my floats of course. It came from some sort of boat, and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be in my home.

Top Blanket

These blankets from Cuddl Duds are the BEST. SO cozy, and they stay SO soft even after washing. I have 4 and want 3 more.

Middle Blanket

This one came with a comforter set from Target that is in Henry’s room. Don’t try to find it, just buy a Cuddl Duds blanket. You’re welcome.

Bottom Blanket

Wreath

Also a Daiso creation of mine, but I have a tutorial for it HERE!

Letterboard

This one came from Amazon, but you should absolutely join my deals group instead of buying one for full price. I post letter boards constantly there with codes making them $3-$7ish!

Ledge Shelf

It doesn’t have great reviews on Kohls.com, but I love mine! Just don’t hang or put anything too terribly heavy on it, because it is small and lightweight.

Curtains

These are longer than the wall, #1 because the curtain rod is actually currently kind of hanging out of the wall due to my children, and #2 because I can’t stand too-short curtains. I order the 95″ ones for the Misawa housing because I prefer ceiling to ground curtains, 100%.

Also, hack for you: A small floor length mirror fits perfectly for us behind the sliding door to our bathroom! Not sure if every townhome is this way, but it’s the perfect way to hide a $10 mirror and not look like you just rolled out of bed each morning.
(If you know me, you know this door stays opened in front of the mirror a lot, clearly. Haha.)

ALSO, know that 90% of the time, my bedroom has dirty clothes, papers, legos, dishes, and probably the socks I slipped off my feet at 2am on the floor. Most of these photos I pushed crap out of the way to photograph the nice clean composition, and my life is just as chaotic and cluttered as yours. Don’t look at my photos like I look at those on Instagram and wish your house were as clean as mine, because there is undeniably a dirty diaper resting under my bed right now, and I am okay with that.

Tiny Pantry Renovation |Rental Friendly Decorating

May 22, 2019May 23, 2019 Emilybolander1 Comment

We have had small pantries before, but man, this one in Japan takes the cake for BY FAR the smallest. We have tons of drawers that we can pile stuff in, but honestly it’s just so hard to find what we need when things aren’t sorted and organized.

I have found a bit of a love for open shelving, especially when items are displayed in beautiful jars and are so easily accessible. That being said, I also have a deep-seated hate for paying a lot for my home decor. (Hence my DIY hacks that are almost always under $20.)

So of course, I turned to my trusted Japanese Dollar stores for help.

So, I made a trip to both Daiso and Seria (the dollar stores here in Japan) and I got to work. In all reality, most dollar stores will have containers similar to the ones that I bought here. I decided to only stick with glass, simply because I knew it would probably withstand future moves better. (Fingers crossed for smart packers, right?)

I do recommend ONLY buying jars that are airtight for storing food, though. I purchased ones that were airtight, but also totally dishwasher safe.

Daiso flowers displayed in a Daiso feed sack

All jars from Daiso. Top jars were 250 yen each, and the bottom ones were 100 yen each.

The hooks installed on my wall are also from Seria, and are the same hooks I used to make my DIY coat rack. I have not yet gone over the screws with my iron paint to make them not a super glaring silver- oops. 😉 The two small grey baskets can be found at Daiso, and come with the lids. They are also stackable! Jars with the white handle lids come from Seria. These are the BEST with our toddler, because he picks up what he wants and carries it to us.

First, I removed the doors and hardware from the main pantry cabinet in our house. Read below for some tips on successfully removing hardware in rentals.

My white bowls are from Target YEARS ago, unfortunately they no longer carry them, but I am waiting to find some similar to link for you. The regular mason sized jars on the bottom come from Daiso.

Next, I removed the hardware and doors from above the sink, just to give an accent cabinet to the room.

300 yen jars from Daiso- these hold our entire supply of rice, pasta, and several boxes of our cereal. Get rid of ugly boxes, and you can see EXACTLY how much you have. Win-win.

Tips:

Take off hardware, and store them in a plastic baggy.

I mentioned this in my past post about how to convert a small closet to a mudroom, but here is the information again!
So, yes. Take off all of the hardware, and store them in a plastic baggy. Or, simply leave it attached to the doors! We take all the screws and pieces that don’t remain attached to the doors, and store them in a plastic baggy, then tape it with painter’s tape to the door. This way the tape doesn’t damage the door, but we are able to know for SURE that the hardware stays put with the door. When moving out, we just place the door with the taped hardware beside the closet for our housing inspection. (Or if you are required to replace the doors where you live, all the hardware is right there, and you don’t have to go searching for it!)

Store your doors under a couch or bed.

This way kids, pets, or adults don’t damage them in any way, and they are totally out of the way! We store ours underneath our king size bed, so they are totally hidden under there. (Thanks to our sweet friend Sierra, for the idea of storing things under couches or beds. This works so well for us.)

These are 100 yen containers that I believe that have BOTH at Seria and Daiso. If I remember correctly, these came from Daiso. It was just big enough to hold our bag of granola and our bag of quinoa.

All of the above are from Daiso. The cross hatch storage baskets are my FAVORITES too. I have these in our closet upstairs, and you can also purchase lids that allow them to be fully stackable.

I keep my non-refridgerated pantry items in small crates from Daiso (100 yen) that allow air to flow through them.

Very top containers are from Seria, and 100 yen each. I use these for my granola and overnight oats. The beige containers are from Daiso (100¥ each!) Unfortunately my flour and sugar jars (the four across with the pattern) are SUPER old and from Target. I will link some if I find them!

Happy hunting for those dollar store bargains, and be sure to share your pantries on Pinterest with me! (Here is a link to the board this is pinned to.) If you redo yours, I would LOVE to see the results on the “try it” section of my pin!

DIY · Home · Rental Decorating

Coat Closet Turned Mudroom | Rental Friendly Decorating

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019 Emilybolander1 Comment

Living in base housing can be tricky sometimes in regards to decorating, especially if you hate PLAIN. After all, everything has to be basically pristine by the time that you leave, and with usually only 2-4 years at each house, it can be extremely tempting to just live with the plain white walls and ugly fixtures in the house.

But I believe it’s possible to do a few simple things to easily make a rental (or base housing) feel like home, while still being able to restore all the changes to move-in-ready condition easily.

Today I will be showing you how we took our tiny front coat closet and transitioned it into a workable space! On our particular base in Misawa, we actually don’t even have to replace the doors- housing will do that for us as long as we keep all the hardware.

So, here is how I turned our TINY, useless coat closet (that was stuffed to the brim with things we couldn’t even reach) into a brand new, cute little mud room! We actually didn’t even use half of the stuff that was in our closet, so it was becoming a catch-all for stuff that just needed to be put away elsewhere.

If you are reading from Misawa, we live in the 3 bedroom townhome style, so this is the closet immediately upon entering your front entryway. Taking the doors off and creating a small bench opens up the space SO much, and makes your entryway look astronomically bigger- for real. I was blown away the second I took those doors off, and I don’t feel incredibly cramped when walking into the house anymore. You can even store guest shoes in the space in front of the bench, which keeps your walkway more clear!

Here’s a couple tips on how we did it:

Take off all hardware, and store it in a plastic baggy

Or, simply leave it attached to the doors! We take all the screws and pieces that don’t remain attached to the doors, and store them in a plastic baggy, then tape it with painter’s tape to the door. This way the tape doesn’t damage the door, but we are able to know for SURE that the hardware stays put with the door. When moving out, we just place the door with the taped hardware beside the closet for our housing inspection. (Or if you are required to replace the doors where you live, all the hardware is right there, and you don’t have to go searching for it!)

Store the doors under a couch or under the bed

And that’s really it! Super, super easy project, and if you search Pinterest (here is the link to my profile– I have some inspiration under my entryway board) , there are a million ways to build a small bench for whatever size your closet space is. I have absolutely NO power tools, other than a super cheap drill and drill bits, and built this last night in around 2 hours.

And because I’m always asked in my Insta/Facebook DMs where I get my products, here are all the links for the shop-able products shown in these photos!

Mason jar – you can get a mason jar just about anywhere! I pick them up all the time from thrift stores, but I linked one here from Amazon! Almost any thrift store will have jars in their glass section, usually from anywhere from 25 cents to $1.

Peonies – these originally came from EBay, but I linked similar ones from Amazon!

Books- we the bottom book at a 25 cent book sale/ the top one belongs to a set that was passed down from family! I love to find old books that have pretty colored covers both for reading, and for decor.

Linen basket -the reviews state that this never regains its shape- which I believe is TOTALLY inaccurate. If you fill it with items, it immediately resumes the shape it should be. We use ours to hold Henry’s winter gear!

Wire baskets -these are the small size, and they often go on sale for $11.99-$12.99! Wait for the sale, and wait for a coupon code. I believe I got mine for around $5 each when I had a 40% off coupon.)

Twinkle lights – I had a coupon for these, making them around $5 for each strand. We have these EVERYWHERE in our house, because I adore twinkle lights. If I get another code, I will update it on my deal page, found HERE. (I run an Amazon discount page on Facebook!)

Hunter boots – the boots shown are my navy blue pair in glossy! I’ve had them for 2 years and they still look basically new. (Isn’t it funny how these have become a decor piece?)

Wreath -this is my DIY wreath for under $10 from Daiso! You can find the tutorial on my blog by clicking the link.

The white planks and bench are actually all made out of wood that I found on the side of the road. (My friends refer to me as the curb queen occasionally.) So many things that are thrown out on a weekly basis are super super useable, even if it isn’t for their original purpose. My favorite thing to do is to take your trash, refinish it, and post it in my own home. Ha.
I believe the white planks originally came from a small crib, the boards for the bench were from a handmade toy box that was falling apart, and the structure from the bench actually comes from two dresser drawers that were being given away for free. Even the screws came from the destructed toy box, so I have absolutely zero dollars invested in the bench that I crafted, minus an 80 cent bottle of stain from Daiso.

Hope you find some inspiration for your own closets! I am so much happier as I enter my home now, and I love the space that my entryway is after taking off those dang doors!