How we created a co-sleeping minimalist hippy bedroom!

Guest post by Goddess Leonie
#Home#Australia#bedrooms#bohemian#hippie#minimal#sleep

Goddess Leonie is an Aussie who’s happily graced Offbeat Mama by sharing her experiences. Now, we all tour her co-sleeping hippie-fab bedroom.

How on earth can you create a minimalist bedroom with hippy decorating tendencies? Especially when you happen to be a family of co-sleepers who resides in a 100+ year old cottage.

I know. You’ve probably wondered this question A THOUSAND TIMES.

Wonder no longer, dearest. I’m here and I’m happy to help!

So, let’s get all Sound of Music and start at the very beginning, mmmmkay?

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We moved into our home a year ago. It’s a 100+ year-old wooden cottage in tropical paradise: Australia. It’s the same cottage my grandmother lived in for 40 years. It’s all wonky wooden walls and creaking floors.

We’re also a bunch o’ hippies: my hunky love is a musician, I’m an artist and we both have crystals, books, and sacred paraphenalia out the wazoo. I’m not buying crystals as a hipster decor move. I’m buying them as a hippy healing dance move instead.

And we co-sleep with our 18-month-old daughter Ostara.

So stuff! We haz it.

And yet — and yet. I wanted to create a feeling of Calm. Space. Peace. Ease. I wanted rainbows, but I wanted soft creams as well. Art and crystals, without feeling cluttered or hemmed in. Style theme: Minimalist Mermaid.

Here’s how we did it.

Our bed

Gosh I love our bed.

It’s a kingdom size bed. We pushed a single bed up against a king size bed. Hunky hunky love man usually ends up on the single bed while me and Ostara do our night time nursing dance across the other bed.

And yes, we all have separate doonas/blankets — my love & I have been doing this for years.

We each pick one that sings to us — I’m all turquoise and indigo with butterflies, hunky love is all navy and white with Aztec patterns, and baby girl is all groovy rainbow gifted quilt.

Want to know our secret to sleeping harmoniously with your partner?

A very large bed and separate blankets make happy, happy days.

Beside our bed

The table is a mixture of us.

A mermaid toy.

A pile of books.

Crystals.

You know.

The important things.

Hanging over our bed is this beauty: an ocean goddess print by Penelope.

Want to hear a miracle?

I went to boarding school when I was 16. On my first day, I met a beautiful, earthy soul named Helena. She is the epitome of kindness and loveliness.

Years later, she moved to the same city I was in.

And the first time I went to visit her apartment?

She had this exact same print framed on the wall.

Of which there are only 20 in the world — Penelope did them as a super-limited print run; they sold out within just hours.

And my dear friend and I own two of them. And we didn’t even know.

I heart synchronicity. /end hippy monologue

Leonie is very, very happy here.

The old glass pane windows.

Tying curtains in knots reminds me of dreamy beach cottages.

An old wooden cupboard fits all of my love and my clothes! We pared everything down so we could just focus on having a beautiful, simple, joyful life here.

The dreamcatcher I was given on my 15th birthday, and has followed me everywhere since.

The FAITH painting I did for my word of the year last year which became Ostara’s middle name.

A quartz crystal chunk.

Buddha hand bookends.

My hunky love’s “To Read” pile.

And of course, Charlie doggy at my feet. He’s never far from them. Since we first laid eyes and hearts on each other, that’s how it’s been.

Oh!

And the floor! Sorry! I got distracted by adorable puppeh. I love our floor. It looks and feels like old distressed wooden boards. Instead, it’s lino OVER old distressed wooden boards. I feel like an old Italian grandmother sweeping it.

And how could I take an aerial shot without including this beauty? She is perfection.

I hang necklaces and prayer beads on door handles. This one is a japa mala I made for my love one Christmas. It is handmade from tiger’s eye and orange calcite.

And one of my very very favourite parts of our bedroom: an antique dressing table that belonged to one of my mum’s friend’s grandmothers.

I’m so in love with this dressing table it’s not funny. The wood. The mirror shape. The blue mirror insets.

My drum. I found this beauty in a music store, and knew it was mine. I use it in ceremonies and at retreats. I use it to create sacred space. I use it as a shield. Mostly, I like to look at it with love pouring from my eyes.

And now for some details…

Check out my flipping adorable fairy hairbrush holder.

And a dish from my grandmother: a shell. Holy dinger adorable! Perfect for a mermaid cottage!

Also: Please note my beauty products array: a bottle of Bio-Oil to splash on my face as moisturiser every couple of days when it gets dry. A stick of Eve Perez almond oil moisturiser that gets used twice a year. That’s it.

I have a very complicated beauty routine.

And the rest? A startling array of Australian Bushflower Essences, Rescue Remedy cream, and aromatherapy.

Two of my favourites: One of my mermaid friends, and my beloved buffalo.

And kisses in the bedroom window. What do you think dearest hearts? Do you think I got the right combination of creativity + space? Can you feel ze minimalism and hippyloving mermaid cottageness?

This was fun! Thanks for coming over, possums!

Guest Post By: Goddess Leonie

Goddess Leonie is a professional goddess, optimist & gigglesnorter who blogs from a tree. She's madly in love with her hunky love, their baby girl, two fluffy dogs & their life in tropical paradise.

Comments on How we created a co-sleeping minimalist hippy bedroom!

  1. Love it! Of course I am also a hippie minimalist with a kid that coslept til he was five (he’s just about three weeks into sleeping in his own room, actually!)!

    You’re the first person I’ve ever met who knows the “everybody gets their own blanket” rule! It took me a long time to figure that one out (like, seven or eight years in to a now 17 year relationship?). Separate blankets are a Good Thing. I have issues trying to make the bed with so many blankets, though. So usually the beds don’t get made, which is sad but also easy and I like easy 😀

    • Make me the second person you met. My partner and I stopped sharing a blanket the second I moved in. Once we were officially living together we each had our own blanket and sheet. We’re terrible sharers.

      • I feel so much better now…when me and my lover man graduated and got a big bed I bought this really nice duvet…that ended up on the floor every morning in lieu of our own cuddly blankets. And I always feel bad and think, “oh dear, what would Martha say?” and now I feel totally normal. And yes, it DOES make for a happy relationship!

        • Don’t feel bad! My husband and I are longtime 2 blanketers. That and my body pillow are the only things that allow us to share a bed, we’re so different in terms of sleep styles. He likes fuzzy microfiber, I like thin cotton, he kicks his covers off and I burrito.

          • Two blanket rule estabilished in 1998! I have my own blanket…. I ‘cocoon’. My husband ‘nests’. We mesh in our daily lives, but not at night!

  2. I don’t have children, but I can definitely second the large bed, two blankets arrangement. My husband is a horrible blanket stealer but he also like to throw the covers off his side of the bed when he gets too hot. So we have two separate covers so that I don’t freeze through the night. It makes me not want to kill him, so it is definitely endorsed by me!

  3. Ahhh I want to be in your room right now. Looks like the perfect place to escape my stressful day!

    Although me and the boy shape share a duvet we do have seperate blankets over winter so no one goes cold and my skinny boy sleeps on another blanket too as he feels the cold so much. Our bed is so small though (just over single size) That really does sound like to many blankets. 🙂

  5. THIS is what Offbeat Home is for: you are nothing like me and yet I love you and your life and your home. Thank you so much for sharing. Made my day.

  7. Yes! Separate blankets are key! We’re different people with different blanket needs. I love the idea of the extra big bed. Wouldn’t work in our bedroom, but I feel like it would be fun to have so much room to roll around!

  9. I love this! I feel at home just looking at the pictures. I’ve got crystals and other hippy-dippy type stuff everywhere as well. My boyfriend and I follow the two blanket rule. He’s of the “kick it off as soon as I’m asleep” party. I’m of the “I will have a nervous breakdown if so much of an inch of my shoulder is showing” party. It makes for more peace and better sleep. Oh, and the story about your friend and the pictures is amazing.

  10. The first time my now-husband slept over, he cuddled with me. The next time he slept over, he told me he had his OWN blanket and did not like to share. My feelings were a little hurt at first, but now there is no way I’d ever share a blanket with him again! 🙂 Separate blankets rock for so many reasons…I have a soft down quilt and he has a microfiber monstrosity. I do share my blanket with our 7 month old and I am totally going to steal your idea about putting a twin bed next to our bed. Currently we have two adults, one little boy and two boston terriors in a queen sized bed. It’s getting a little tight.

  11. I might need to try that idea of double dosing on blankets. My man does seem to hog and steal blankets as if there are no more blankets left in the world.

  12. we do the separate blankets- a necessity! and Ive never thought of adding a twin to our king size bed! genius! in our next house with hopefully more space we’ll make it happen! 🙂

  13. Leonie, you are so wise and cute/funny at the same time! You know, the blanket idea is so obvious, yet I never tried it! Great idea! I will have to send you photos of some of my mermaid things. I love your cottage and the way you have it arranged. Very nice! I can see how much love you have put into everything. Thanks for sharing it with all of us!

  15. I love how minimalist you are. I have no idea when I will get more like that, but I’m hoping. My mom and sister would go ga-ga to look at this, if I remember I’ll show them later :).
    I’m such a cuddler I’m not sure always having two blankets would help us, but my mind feels expanded by knowing its an option that helps others. We keep several covers we aren’t using down the crack by the wall or at the foot of the bed so occasionally we grab more than one to fit our moods.

  16. im totaly a mermaid freak myself. im trying tolearn how to do the minimalist thing. my husband has to sleep in a hospital bed so we have my bed squished up nest to his and we have seperate blankets. which is great because he gets so cold at night and needs alot of blankies and i like as few as possible. thank you for sharing your fantastic beautiful home and your precious puppeh!!!

  17. I am sooo with you on the big bed and separate covers! we got a king size bed last year and it was the best idea ever! and we always have to comforters on the bed especially in the winter. : )

  18. I love that so many other people use separate blankets too! People always laugh when I tell them my husband and I each have our own blankets. But it truly WORKS!

  19. John and I haven’t shared a blanket since 2007 and I couldn’t be happier! We both have king size blankets so that if we are feeling particularly cuddly, we can snuggle under one, but the other is always nearby to be called into the line of duty.

    My sister, her hubs and her baby have just started co-sleeping with a couple of giant beds and OHMYGOD I can’t wait to babysit overnight! Soooo comfortable!

  20. I am totally stealing your idea! I am soon to move into my 100 year old cottage we just bought in the Blue Mountains (near Sydney). My little girl co-sleeps with me and hubby is on a mattress on the floor. Pushing a single bed up against our big bed is a fantastic idea! Do you have the mattresses on the ground or have you got bed bases of similar heights?

    • heyyy a local lady! *waves* we have a single bed next to a double bed, same base heights. single bed is a teeny bit higher but close enough it wouldn’t make a difference. I wouldn’t put a mattress directly on the floor unless you’re prepared to stand them up frequently. Blue Mountains are notorious for mold issues. Especially in 100yr old cottages 😉

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