If there’s one thing the quarantine has made Glyzel Anne Sapla realize, it’s that her bedroom is in need of a major transformation. With full-time job duties to carry out at home and graduate school to get through in the middle of a pandemic, she says it only makes sense to improve her personal space.
Her goal? Turn a chaotic and “gubat” room into a “minimalist-looking” space.
“I wanted to find quick fixes for improving the comfort and convenience of my room,” she tells Manila Bulletin Lifestyle.
This “quick fix,” however, required Glyzel to tackle all the clutter that she had accumulated through the years. She says decluttering her closet, in particular, was the most challenging task.
“Even the most organized among us can have a messy closet and now is the time to make it right,” she says. “I started by taking everything out of the closet and purging what was no longer used.”
Among her strategies was segregating most-used items from rarely-used pieces “so you can better decide which to keep, which to sell, and which to hand down or donate,” as well as separating clothes which no longer fit, which were damaged or no longer wearable.
“People, including myself, tend to feel sentimental about our stuff, which is why we have a hard time letting them go,” she says. “The key is letting go of stuff you don’t or rarely use. Always think if you can hand them down to relatives or donate them. This way, you will feel that your treasured stuff would be given a new home where they are much needed. Selling is also an option to add to your renovation project fund.”
After getting rid of the clutter, Glyzel then proceeded to redesign and organize her room.
As the room is only small, it’s best to make adjustments that make it seem bigger.
“To have an ample amount of sunlight coming into the room, I opted to have a sliding window installed,” she says. “I also added a large mirror, and chose to paint the ceiling and walls white.”
The 23-year-old professional chose a frameless bed box in place of her old bulky bed to open up the space further. She says it has given her enough space for a bamboo shoe rack, as well as storage boxes—labelled to easily locate what’s needed—for any other item she wants to keep out of her way.
She has invested in space-saving pieces, too, like a computer desk, a new work chair, floating book shelves, a side table with several drawers, and even a new air conditioning unit. She retained some organizers, wall-mounted bag hangers, and her old dark brown wardrobe, which she painted white to match the room’s new theme.
As for the room’s design, Glyzel says looking at Pinterest and watching room renovation videos on YouTube gave her some design inspirations.
“I chose white, black, and wood accents as my central theme. I tried to match my furniture and basic decors to those colors,” she says. “To give my bedroom a pop of color, I chose avocado green and painted only one side of my wall. This is in addition to other decor such as a wall tapestry, a metal wire grid I painted gold where I hung Instax photos with wooden clips, pendant night light, and a wall clock.”
If anyone finds all these difficult to do, Glyzel suggests keeping in mind what minimalism is.
“‘Less is more,’ they say, so remember your goal, which is to achieve a simple, clean, organized, and minimalist room,” she says. “It’s comforting for the eyes. You’ll feel like you’re in your own safe place in no time.”