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Leanne Ford hadn’t planned on moving into a rental, but when she and her husband, Erik, found out they were expecting a baby, they knew the small cabin they had just finished fixing up wouldn’t do. So they found a temporary but much roomier spot by the ocean and have been taking full advantage of the place ever since. The designer has been sharing photos of the finished space on Instagram all week, but it was the bedroom that really blew us away.
“My happy place,” Ford wrote in the post. Scrolling through the images, we found a bunch of dreamy features that would make us pretty content, too, like a wood-burning fireplace, built-in shelves (the couple has quite the book collection), and supersize artwork. “It’s the biggest [room] I’ve ever had the pleasure of waking up in,” she points out. Here are a few tricks Ford used to make the expansive, albeit short-lived, dwelling feel like home:
Swap Out the Lighting
See that oversize globe? There used to be a ceiling fan there. Ford swapped the two to add ambiance, and, according to the designer, it can be “easily switched out when it’s time to move.”
Double Up on Floor Coverings
For an extra layer of cozy, Ford topped a large white area rug with a smaller patterned one. The pop of texture defines the room’s seating area, including spots for two vintage armchairs and a side table to land.
Get Creative with Art Placement
Paintings make a space feel complete, but who says you have to put a bunch of holes in the wall? In a rental, the less spackling, the better. On one side of the bedroom, Ford simply leaned two giant panels by The Cartorialist on the wall. By the fireplace, she mounted a portrait to a bookcase, Drew Barrymore–style.
If our bedrooms looked like this, we’d never break the lease.
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