Monday, August 3, 2009

Master Bedroom Design Plan

As most of you know, we moved to our new house a couple of months ago. We've been working on it pretty much non-stop. Usually when I move to a new place, the bedroom is the one place I get feeling good right away... not so this time:

Above is our bedroom when we first moved in. Clearly I added in some functional things like blankets on the bed & a lamp but we pretty much lived like this for a while. About a month ago we painted the paneling white and I got to planning it out on a super-tight budget. I'd had designs on a homemade upholstered white linen headboard... until we found an antique brass bed for trash on the side of the road: (It's not exactly like the pic below... it has no porcelain knobs & is a bit thicker.) I LOVE free things. Really love them. And it's just so old & beautiful & has the perfect patina.
I know we all got sick of brass a bunch of years ago, but to be honest, I'm actually starting to love it again in the right context and when it's a bit burnished... (hahah should I be allowed to write a design blog??!! ;) ;) I want the whole house to feel like a fusion of modern & antique with a serious nod to the outdoors... SO, in this room I went with the antique bed and paired it with these (really cheap!!) ikea "MALM" dressers as nightstands:


I love having a dresser as a nightstand. No knocking off my water (I really used to do that a LOT) and I get to have fun with vignettes (flowers don't get in the way) and now on top of of my closet, I finally have a dresser too!! (There's so much room and I feel so much more organized!!! hahah I know it's such a normal thing to have, but when you're without one for long enough, you really appreciate it!!)
Anyway, since we're going with major color shots in every room of the house, I really wanted this room to be my white haven. I want to be able to add in color (with accents) or take it away on a whim. Below is the duvet cover I ordered from West Elm... I ordered it specifically because it looks good even when unmade. And with baby #2 on the way, I know this bed will rarely be made for a good 3-6 months.


For now we have these ikea curtains and I'm adding in white roman shades from Sears. (wish me luck!- I'll let you know how they do.) (The curtains are super-light and are really summery-feeling but the price was right! ;) hahahah PS- IS IT WRONG TO BE JEALOUS OF CLIENTS??!! "custom shades, custom curtains, custom bedding.." hahah ;)
I've been using my Chinoiserie ginger jar lamp that I found on the flea market trip with Eddie & Jaithan last year. (I had been searching for one for SO LONG!!) I paired with with a modern linen drum shade from Target and it's not the perfect fit, but it's gotten me functional for now...
On the other nightstand, I ordered this beauty from Arteriors Home. It's about the same size and I love its modern juxtaposition against the Chinoiserie one.

It perfectly pulls the warm brown out of the wooden mirror I found at the Old Lucketts Store. (Sadly, no pic but this mirror is CRAZY.) It was the one splurge in the room (okay $250 but for me that's a splurge) and I'd had my eye on it for months. It's huge and hand-carved and really ornate--- again, I'm loving it against the modern lines of the ikea dressers.
Above the bed, I hung 2 of my botanical prints. At $1 each, they added the touch of nature I wanted in the room. (Found the frames for $1 each with bad art on them, and ripped pages out of a book I had for the prints.)
I found a yard of the PERFECT greeny-goldy ikat in the clearance section at Calico Corners. I'm having a large rectangular bolster pillow made out of it. (I 'd been stalking this fabric for a while... When I saw it in the clearance section for a few weeks, one day I finally carried it around the store with me- haha more like clutched it protectively to my chest- until it hit me that it would work in the master bedroom. yay!!!)
And finally on my list is this chandelier (below) with the same burnished brass as the bed. As you probably remember, I've been also stalking this one since last December. (oh please cross your fingers it's still there... I check on it every couple of months!!)


Anyway, when we get home from our trip, everything should be in & I'll take some after pics!!
I also wanted to say thank you again for all your kind comments & wishes--- Christian is doing great & we're off to his check-up right now!! He's healing so quickly!! (I'll do a little trip recap soon with some pics soon)
xoxo,
lauren