When you’re the mother of an interior designer, you don’t just get flowers as a gift—sometimes you get a whole room makeover. So when interior designer, Sam Cram of Sam Cram Interior Design wanted to do something nice for her mom, she decided to surprise her with an all white bedroom refresh. “She’s a single mom and has done everything for us (her four kids) and owns her own business,” she explains. “The house was built in the nineties and basically hasn’t changed. The room was painted a butter yellow, the furniture was all hand-me-downs, and even the bedding was old.”

Before

After

Find the perfect white paint for your walls

So step one was updating that old wall color with something that felt cleaner and brighter. Sam knew she wanted a white paint — so she chose one of Clare’s most popular shades: Fresh Kicks. The beauty of this white paint color is that it’s a true white, which means that it has no warm or cool undertones, making it incredibly versatile and the perfect base for the room Sam was designing.

“I really loved how white paint can make any space updated and fresh,” says Sam. “We painted the base boards the same color as the wall but used a different finish for a little bit of contrast.” The rest of the room was decorated in different shades of white, but when thinking of white bedroom ideas that didn’t feel too match-matchy, Sam varied the surfaces and textures.

In a white bedroom, layer on the texture

The bedding was a mixture of woven blankets, a fluffy duvet, and textured pillow shams that balanced the clean lines of the campaign style nightstands on each side. The gold hardware gets picked up throughout in other accessories, adding warmth to the cool whites, while a subtle patterned rug in soft grays helps ground the room. Sam incorporated kept two pieces her mom already had into the bedroom makeover:, a real marble vanity that she set up as a desk, and the wood chair that goes with it. Both pieces offer an interesting complement to the rest of the all-white bedroom decor. The lighting also became an important piece of the design, a beautiful statement fixture on the ceiling was outfitted with a dimmer, while table lamps were placed around the room to offer warm, ambient lighting.

The only thing that almost derailed the big reveal was the fact that the furniture and accessory deliveries took more time than anticipated, but Sam got a lucky break when her mom went out of town. Thankfully by the time her mom got home, everything was pretty much set-up.

Keep everything white and light

“I led her into the room and she was totally ecstatic,” says Sam. “The room was completely her style! But the best part is that this little makeover has motivated her to work on updating the rest of the house. It’s crazy how energized a new room can make you feel, she now gets to start and end her day on a good note, and she definitely deserves that!”

Related article: How to make white walls work in every room.