How Leanne Ford Styled Her Most Spacious Bedroom Yet

UpdatedOct 12, 2018 3:55 PM EDT

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Leanne Ford never intended to settle into a rental, yet when she and her husband, Erik, learned they were expecting a baby, the cozy cabin they had just restored no longer suited their needs. They secured a temporary but far more spacious retreat by the ocean and have been making the most of it ever since. The designer shared glimpses of the finished space on Instagram throughout the week, though it was the bedroom that truly captured our attention.

“My happy place,” Ford wrote in the post. Browsing through the images, we discovered an array of inviting features that would make us equally content, including a wood-burning fireplace, built-in shelving (the couple boasts an impressive book collection), and oversize artwork. “It’s the biggest [room] I’ve ever had the pleasure of waking up in,” she notes. Below are a few strategies Ford employed to make the expansive, though temporary, retreat feel like home:

Notice that oversize globe? A ceiling fan once hung in its place. Ford swapped the two to introduce ambiance, and, per the designer, it can be “easily switched out when it’s time to move.”

For an added layer of warmth, Ford layered a large white area rug beneath a smaller patterned one. The touch of texture delineates the room’s seating area, carving out space for two vintage armchairs and a side table to rest.

Artwork lends a space a sense of completion, yet who says you must drill a series of holes in the wall? In a rental, minimal spackling is ideal. On one side of the bedroom, Ford simply leaned two oversized panels by The Cartorialist against the wall. By the fireplace, she mounted a portrait to a bookcase, Drew Barrymore–style.

If our bedrooms looked like this, we would never end the lease.

See more stories like this:Maybe You Should Hide Your Bad Rental FloorsDo Your Rental Bathroom a Favor and Buy These Peel-and-Stick TilesI Tried West Elm’s New Bedding Rental Program—Here’s What Happened

Lydia Geisel has been on the editorial team at Domino since 2017. Today, she writes and edits home and renovation stories, including house tours, before and afters, and DIYs, and leads our design news coverage. She lives in New York City.

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