Bedroom Befores and Afters

So here’s the room (sans bookcase, not here yet). Before pics follow.

Last Friday I picked up the 8’ x 10’ jute rug from Lowe’s ($168.00 – I’m almost afraid of how cheap it was, makes me wonder if the jute is hiding some exotic parasite or something) and a palm from Costco ($20.00-John’s mom gave me that tip).

Dave and I foraged through T. J. Maxx, William Sonoma Home and Pottery Barn for accessories on Saturday. Found some decent deals (especially at WS Home—candles and a great nautilus shell, which they sold to me even though I think it may have been for display only) and a very cool carved tree root basket from T. J. Max, which we thought John would like (he did). Had to go back on Sunday to return a few items, but not many.

Oh, and I found really good plant deals at Smith and Hawkin. I usually don’t even bother going in there (a little out of my league), but I was sort of desperate for something already potted (even I get tired of shopping eventually). P.S. Did you know S & H offers complimentary potting services for any plant you buy there?

I wish I were a better photographer. You can’t see the rug under the bed very well. The bedding is from Target, except for the square pillow (Pottery Barn) and the bed skirt which we already had. It’s wrong how much I love Target.

I think my favorite new things are the chandeliers. They’re drippy and sparkly (you all know I like some razzle with my dazzle). Oh, and I went with the poly sheers. They look pretty good. I probably would have loved the silk organza, but I decided the sunlight would decimate them in a couple of years, and for the money, well, it was $80.00 vs. $240.00 and this was a budget job.

John and I both read a lot in our room, so I still have to bring the books back in (maybe just not all of them) and get the leather piece made for the small chest. We want the room to have a little bit of a library as well as a “Bahamanian” (as Dave says) feel to it, to it. It doesn’t without the bookcase and our usual stacks of books everywhere.

I’m having to enjoy the beachy serenity alone this week. John is gone to Puerto Rico for work again (ugh!). At least he has a nice retreat to come home to. He says he really likes it, though I know it’s hard to compete with an actual beach.

Thanks to all of you who gave us moral support and expertise. And to those of you who contributed time, talent, product and trouble (Linda, Dave, and Mindy), we owe you.   Our psyches are eternally grateful.

Tucked In

I love WordPress’s Tag Surfer. It pulls a bunch of stuff together for me and suddenly some ideas start to click. For instance on the issue of storage:

John and I do not spend time taking care of our shoes. I’ll come out and say it: it’s a fault. Shoes are expensive, so we should do a better job of protecting our investment.

The shoe problem is a storage issue. John and I have always struggled with the best way to store shoes. We have a rack that is only used when one of us finally gets tired of tripping over our shoes as they lay like lazy pets on the closet floor. The rack takes up too much room in our closet and the shoes slide off of it.

I love this solution. Letting gravity do the work makes a lot of sense. And it would help keep shoes’ shapes.

One person didn’t have room for this product so she made her own. (Thanks to Lucy at Lu Terceiro for the tip.)

Speaking of gravity, check out this set-up for keeping newborns near mom at night without the fear of the kid getting squashed by a snoring parent. A lever tucks under the mattress and supports the cute little bundle. I didn’t post a picture, but click the link. It’s worth it.

And while we’re on the subject of leverage at home, check out this collapsible book case.

Master Bedroom – More Upholstery Lessons

I’ve been under the weather lately, so I hope you’ll forgive me if these aren’t the best pictures. They at least give a clue of the direction we’re headed.

As I’ve said before, this particular room makeover is about using what we already have when possible and inexpensive items when I have to purchase something. (Yes, I realize how cheap that sounds. The shoe fits.)

The rocker was a gift from John’s mom, one of her auction finds.

The armchair is one of my auction finds ($50.00 at Greenfield, Indiana auction). It is more comfortable than it may look. The red (more of a paprika?) chenille fabric was leftover from another chair project, and the upholsterer (not the same one who did the gold striped chair) used every bit of what I had left.

This brings me to some further thoughts on upholsterers—T & H required me to buy new fabric because Tom wanted 9 yards to do the chair. Upholsterers ask for that much not because they will need it, but because they MIGHT need it if they make a mistake and have to redo a section, which I don’t have a problem with since I make mistakes, too. T & H also noted that a new cushion was needed and just built it into the project price.

The upholsterer for the red chairs, a Mr. Brown, who I tried at the recommendation of a fabric store here in town didn’t do quite as fine a job as T & H (the rocker cushion needed to be a refurbished and wasn’t, but in his defense I assumed he would do that and didn’t ask him to). At the same time, I know when he looked at the amount of fabric I had he knew he there was no margin for error. He could have easily said, “you’ll need 2 more yards for this project” but he didn’t, which saved me a lot of time and money. He charged me $200.00 to do both. So all in all, I’m okay with how these two turned out. They are both comfortable, and I like they way they look. Mr. Brown was the right person for that job, and T & H for the other.

I got the lamp on the table above at Midland Antiques Market, which is just down the street from our house. Here is their website with a few directions that come in handy. Midland usually has what I need when what I need is a particular and interesting second-hand something. Some of the staff can be a little frosty, but the selection is awesome (two floors of an old factory building). Don’t expect to find outrageous bargains (they know their stuff). But many times the price is right. This brass accented glass pillar lamp with foil barrel shade was $49.95. (Lamp needs to be raised, will probably put it on a stack of books later.)

The chest, an East Side Auction find ($60.00) used to be John’s bedside table. Dave suggested moving it here and I think it works. John’s mom is going to help me size a piece of leather for the top, which it was always meant to have.

Here is what we have left to do:

-Make a leather inset for the top of the chest
-Pick up 8×10 jute rug I bought from Lowes
-Put together book case
-Purchase a good sized palm
-One accent pillow for the bed
-Accessorize (the last few details that can typically bog me down)

None of this is insurmountable. It just takes time and energy to pull together and I need to feel a little better before I can tackle them. Hopefully soon.

A Good, Small Book Case is Hard to Find

I know I haven’t posted in a coon’s age, but I’ll have a photo update soon, and the room is almost finished. In the meantime, here is what’s been going on:

• Victorian rocker and arm chairs are back from upholsterer (more on those two tomorrow).
• Purchased a lamp.
• Just bought this book case from Overstock.com. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for colorwise, but it is solid wood, the size is perfect, and with shipping and taxes it only cost $109.00, which is pretty decent deal.

Have you ever used Overstock.com?  I’ve eyed their stuff for awhile, but never ordered anything.  They have interesting things (not just funiture) and a similar book case to this one at International Furniture Imports here in town was $240.00.  I’m anxious to see if I like what I get. 

In any case, I had NO luck at any of my second-hand furniture sources and I don’t have time right now to get to auctions. I’m surprised by how hard it was to find decent and small book cases. Hope this one works. Worst case scenario, I may have to paint it, but again, the price was right.

Dave the installer just called and said he will come and install the last two brackets on the shades and hang my sheers tomorrow a.m. Will take pictures. I promise.

Matchstick Shades Install Coming Soon

Dave, the installer from Lowes called to tell me that they would  install our shades next Thursday. 

Have I mentioned that for a small fee you can have someone from Lowes come out and measure your window and then let you know what kind of treatments it will structurally support?   It costs about $35.00. 

If your project requires an inside mount, like mine did because of our roofline (see skanky before picture above), accuracy and structural information are both really important.   A half-inch off and you just paid for a pile of wood (or bamboo in our case) that won’t be going in your window without some major alteration.  And if your window frames aren’t hefty enough, heavy blinds can pull out. 

I decided to go ahead and have Dave install them, too, and that’s a decision I’m second-guessing.  Two windows ended up costing 100.00 for installation.  The shades were only a little over 100.00 for both sets*.   Still, I’m glad we don’t have to install them, and by “we” I mean John, because I’m really more “eyesy” than “handy.”  And I suspect he probably would tell you that the $100.00 bucks is a bargain.  Besides I intended for this bedroom redo to be as hassle-free as possible.  Professional measurements and installation save a lot of prep and clean-up time. 

*This might be an argument for using a moderately priced designer rather than the semi-do-it-yourself route with help from Lowes.  Had I gone through my beloved former boss, Susan Ertel, who is a designer here in Indy (1114 Walnut St. Franklin, IN 46131, 317.736.9823), she would:

A. Measure for free.
B. Bring catalogs and sample books to my house and provide design advice.
C. Get a dealer discount. (A designer charges the client a percentage above wholesale, which is typically still below retail if they are reasonable, and she is.)
D. Handle shipping, delivery and installation, and if I’m not mistaken, for less than what I’m paying.The reason I didn’t use Susan in this case is that I’m on a short timeline, and designers usually juggle many clients, which draws out the time required to get things finished. Probably the only thing I’m saving in this project is time.

Sheer Off – 2007

As the bedroom evolves it is taking on a coastal feel—probably due to the gold accents, the blue paint and the dark wood furniture. John noticed it first. Then Dave mentioned that the space was making him think “British colonial” (more the Caribbean island colonies, than the original U.S. 13).

All of which is fine, but if that’s the direction the room is going, the window treatments need to follow. I’ve already ordered Ambria matchstick shades (color: Fruitwood) from Lowes, unlined so light can filter through. This leads me to my next seemingly ridiculous design quandary: What fabric to use to soften them up. Dave suggested something light, which I think is a good call. Sheers are perfect (typically cheaper than other kinds of coverings), but which sheers are right? There are hundreds.

Well, after shopping this weekend I narrowed it down to two. So I’m presenting anyone who is interested the opportunity to weigh in on Sheer-Off 2007.

Here are the candidates side by side in two photos. Lefty is a polyester. Righty is a silk organza. FYI- the window is east facing and we keep it open a lot of the time. Let me know which you prefer and why. I wish you could touch them.

Since it will be two weeks before the blinds are installed I don’t have to make a decision right this second, but it’s hard for me not to have an opinion now. John has one, too.

Crewel Rules!

Master Bedroom redos must be in the air. During a recent visit to Dave and Ken’s to watch So You Think you Can Dance I also got to see the big reveal of new bedding and Chinese Hu lamps, all from William Sonoma Home. Dave or Ken, what is the bedding pattern called? Is it still available?

Lovely, no? Still earthy, warm, and balanced (signature Dave and Ken) but with an atypical (for them) punch of color contrast in the fabric design.  And of course, I love me a big, fat pattern.

I’m crazy for crewel–so American (though much older than the U.S.), so crafty, so graphic, and so easy to place in pithy phrases.  The light color is actually a soft blue, not gray as it reads in this photo. 

Good job boys!

Quick! Pop quiz!

Dave and I weren’t the only bloggers on the Canal last night. Can you guess the name of the mystery blogger with her back to me in this picture?

Master Bedroom Don’ts – Before Pictures

Okay, I found the “before” pictures of the master bedroom.
  I promise I didn’t unmake the bed and turn the sofa over just to make the room look extra wrong.  We were in the process of moving the sofa out to give to a friend when I realized I needed to take the before photos. And John had just gotten back from Puerto Rico, so that’s why the suitcase is in the middle of the room.
Try not to judge the strong green (Porter Paints, Bayou Bronze) too harshly.  It is part of an incomplete design concept that would have incorporated a canopy for the bed and some other cool fabrics and lighting that probably would have made it work.  Lesson learned:  Know my limits.  Homemade canopies and vintage lighting that requires additional fabrication are out of my league at this stage of my life.  I just don’t have time for that many steps.       The sofa, btw, was an early design decision mistake.  I bought it because it was comfortable—best nap couch ever!  I wasn’t crazy about the fabric, but thought I would just have it recovered.  Lesson learned: Don’t buy furniture new with alterations in mind unless you get to choose the fabric before it is delivered.

I find it hard to believe myself, but the shades above the bed are the same temporary ones we’ve had since we built the house FIVE YEARS AGO!   Whatever that says about my ability to see a project through, it speaks volumes about the quality of those temporary shades!  Impressive!

The bronze drapes don’t fit in the Palladian window.
  They were also “temporarily” thrown up (again, five years ago) on a tension rod because I wasn’t sure what shades I wanted and the way the window fits into the dormer makes mounting a rod outside difficult.  The ugly globe light fixtures (2nd photo) were the cheapest thing I could find because I wanted more time to think about lighting than I had when the builder needed a decision from us.  So there you have it—a recipe for design disaster.  Be gentle.

The good news is that I bought new bedding on a very successful shopping venture to Target with Dave.  Pictures to come.  The new shades are ordered (delivery in two weeks).  I bought a great 5 x 8’ jute rug (currently under the bed, but I may move it) for $68.00 at Lowes. 

Oh, and John put the chandeliers on a sliding rheostat for me so now we have infinite lighting possibilities.  I’m a big believer in putting rheostats wherever I can have them.

Paint and Lighting is Up, Cleaning Tid Bits

Well, all the painting is done except for the detailing. After climbing over furniture to find a spot to sleep Tuesday and Wednesday, we actually slept in our room again last night. The redo isn’t done yet, but here is the wingback we had reupholstered (labor at T & H Upholstery in Indy – $260.00). I apologize for the crassness of posting prices, but I find the lack of readily available information about this kind of stuff kind of frustrating, so I’m putting it out there.

I think the fabric (Calico Corners – 9 yards – $200.00 [discounted price]) Dave helped me pick looks pretty good with the paint color. You can see both here.

The redo has been a good op to clean things that I never would have otherwise (My tendency to ignore baseboards is one of the reasons this blog is called “Good Home” and not “Great Home”). When our next door neighbor Mindy heard we were going to hire professionals to clean our rugs she insisted that we let her bring her rug cleaner over and have a go at it.

So Wed. night while John and I painted one half of the room, she cleaned the carpet in the other. THEN she came back the next day to do the other half! She refuses to let us pay her. We’ll have to figure out another way to thank her because the carpet looks really good. Mindy rocks!

To clean the screens on our windows we decided to put them in the shower and just hose them off with a little attachable sprayer that I got John from Restoration Hardware one year for Christmas (it was actually on his wish list). I’m thinking I may clean all of our screens this way in the future.

Here is one of the chandeliers.

I think they are hanging a little low, which we can easily fix (going the other direction is a little harder). I’m going to see if I can talk John’s mom into sewing sleeves for the chains—either in champagne or wheat colored linen.

My favorite thing so far is the paint color. It’s the only one besides the yellow in our living room that I’ve ever liked the minute it went on the wall. I usually have to get used to new colors even when I like them a lot. This blue is hard to photograph though.

Some potentially bad news. I know I promised before pics, but they may be lost. When my computer hard drive went a couple weeks back they may have been erased. I’ll know next week, I think. Keep your fingers crossed.

Bedroom Status Report 2

Looks like I have a deadline for finishing the bedroom. June 6. Our friend Scott is coming to town for a conference and he’ll need the guest suite, so it will need to be free of the furniture from our bedroom placed there temporarily while we work.

For the sake of scheduling ease (our lives are too complicated to work around someone else at the moment), we’ve decided to do the painting ourselves. Know that I will say at least fifty times as we are painting, “we totally should have hired someone.” John will ignore me, as he should in such cases.

BTW, I like Benjamin Moore paints (also Sherwin Williams, Porter and even Behr-I can’t afford Farrow and Ball), but something it took me awhile to realize is that not all paint stores are alike. Their mixing skills vary. So either get all of the paint you need on one trip or find a good paint store because if you run out, you may well end up bringing back a slightly different color or finish the second time.  That happened to me once, and it annoys me everytime I see the result in our kitchen.

We’ll be using:

Palladian Blue (HC-144 – Eggshell)
from Rollie Williams Paint Spot
5292 E 65th St
Indianapolis, IN 46220
(317) 842-6772

Rollie’s is a Benjamin Moore dealer here in town that I’ve used before with good luck.

Dave, who is in the residential leasing biz, says a cleaning service could do wonders for our carpet and that we really don’t have to replace it. So that should save some trouble and a little money. If I can get him to provide the company’s name I’ll call them and post their info here as a resource for Indy folks.

John is on vacation next week, so we’ll hit the ground running with painting next Tuesday when we get back from Batesville.

I still need to:

Call and order paint
Measure for, then order matchstick blinds and window hardware
Pick up the reupholstered wingback
Take two other chairs to be reupholstered

Keep your fingers crossed and pray for John. As much as I try to be good, I get antsy in the middle of weeks long projects. And I can get kind of sullen towards the end when it seems like the details will never come together.

Upholstery Lessons Learned

 

 Though I watch HGTV I hate that it dooms real life interior designers by creating the impression that an entire room can be properly redesigned over a weekend.   I do believe a weekend redo can happen IF:

 

• The clients agree to disappear and chuck their opinions.

• You live in a place like LA where quality materials stores are on every street corner.  And they have a million selections, all of which are in stock. 

• You have a traveling troupe of carpenters, painters and upholsterers following you waiting for something to do.

   But for us schmoes living in the Midwest trying to do it ourselves or with a single professional who has several other projects on the table it takes much longer. 

  And here is a perfect example of how it happens for the DIY’er like me. 

I’m trying to redesign our bedroom on a budget, actually on almost no budget—2,000.00. (The 500.00 you see on Design on a Dime never takes into account labor costs.  How does that sweet Joan Stephan sleep at night?). 

  I’d hoped to use fabrics leftover from other projects for the three chairs I’m having upholstered. 

The two fabrics above will go on the front and back of a rocker and a Victorian arm chair (large print on the front) I have. 

  John’s mom gave me a perfect wingback auction find from her garage.  It’s beautiful and this is the fabric I was GOING to use.  It’s a light gold matlasse. 

 

   Here’s the snag I ran into: Not enough of the gold fabric.  4.5 yards is all I had.  I forgot I originally bought it to cover an ottoman I was going to have made. 

  Learn from Troy’s Mistakes Tip 1:  When having a custom piece made, have the piece finished or at least ordered before you buy fabric for it.   If you are not at that stage, you may not be committed to the project, and obviously I wasn’t.  So I still don’t have that ottoman, but I do have fabric I can’t use.  

 

  Learn from Troy’s Mistakes Tip 2:  Know how much yardage you need.  My upholster says it will take them 7 yards of a small print or 9 yards of a large print to finish a wingback chair.  Don’t think I won’t be filing this away for future reference.

 

  So in addition to the 250.00 it will cost to reupholster the chair.  I will spend probably another 110.00 (conservative estimate) for 7 yards of a small print fabric. 

Some of you may be asking, “Troy, at  $360.00 (before tax), why not just buy a new chair?“  Good question and one I always ask myself before I pay to recover something. 

  To match the quality of the chair Linda is giving me I would probably have to spend a minimum of $1,200.00 (upholstery included).  The construction and form of the auction chair are that good.  It isn’t fancy, but a good, classic chair costs that much.  

  So there you have it.  Now I have to find time to go fabric shopping, something I love to do, but not something I have a lot of time for right now.  Oh well, Calico Corner, here I come. 

New Bedroom Update

Just a few updates on the status of the bedroom.

1. Benjamin Moore’s Colorado Gray turned out to be too dark. The final color will be Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue. It is actually much closer to the color I posted last time than the actual picture was.

2. John’s mom came over Friday night to wait for the arrival of her youngest son (who oddly enough is also named Benjamin Moore-Linda must may have been channeling her designer instincts with that birth). Ben was driving with his wife Lise here from Texas to unload their furniture into a storage unit and then do some house hunting in prep for their big move. Anyway, we had plenty of time to kill so she helped affirm my color and fabric choices. Then she showed me this great lighting website: lampsplus.com. If the words “free shipping” and “discount” mean anything to you, you should check it out. These are the two chandeliers we picked out for our room:

At 12 1/2″ x 14 1/2″ the two of them should be just the right sze. And at $159.00 a piece the price was right. Linda said she would make some fabric sleeves for the chain- have I mentioned how much I love my mother-in-law today?

3. We also picked out a comforter set online from Macy’s (also on sale! Linda has great price karma.). It will be here this week.

4. Finally my friends De’Amon and Tim came to haul off the way-too-big for the space sofa that was in the room, which involved a total of four people and taking two doors off of their hinges. P.S. That sofa was my “measure first” lesson. You only have to learn it once. And Benjamin Moore, the son, not that paint company, helped us get a dresser to the basement.

This week I will:

-Contract a painter.

-Shop for carpet.

-Get furniture to an upholsterer.

I took some before pictures of the room. I’m almost too embarrased to show them. But I suppose “befores” are supposed to be dramatically bad, right? I’ll have to think about whether they’ll go public or not.

Update: Per a request from Mom Underground to see the bedding we ordered from Macy’s:

12 Piece set $119.00. You can find it here.

New Beginnings- Benjamin Moore – Colorado Gray

Sunday as I lay on the sofa in our bedroom staring at the ceiling, listening to Claire snoring on the floor next to me and a lawn mower hum down the street, I finally made some decisions.

I think a soothing blue will allow me to use the mocha colored silk drapes I already have. This means I can keep our cheap red plaid comforter that I still like even though it’s old.

Behind the drapes I’ll use matchstick blinds.

I’ll keep two comfortable chairs and a rocker and reupholster them with fabric I have already.

We need new carpet. (Thankfully John agrees!)

I’ll replace the two over head light fixtures (word, try to avoid putting overhead light fixtures on a gabled ceiling) either with some shapely milk glass ones that disappear or with two old gold chandeliers. These days Home Depot is making some that are nice.

This is a color I will test for our walls. It is actually much lighter and softer than it appears here. Otherwise it would be too heavy for the space. Of course, it could look all wrong once it goes up. I never know until I try it.

Hotel Chelsea- A Home In Bohemia

I refuse to stay at hotel chains in NY when there are an infinite number of more interesting places to be that are really no more expensive.  On my last trip I decided I needed creative inspiration so I booked a room at Hotel Chelsea, historic host to folks like Jasper Johns, Joan Didion, Dee Dee Ramone, and Janis Joplin (the list is infinite).    

Online reviews and stories from friends who have suspiciously vague recollections of parties there had me a little worried—no coffee makers in the room because they can be used to cook meth (who knew?).  But the hotel website won me over.  I especially like the resident blog, which is like eavesdropping on conversations in the hall.   

You’re never denied the reality of living in an old building at the Chelsea, but considering the borg-like ethics of Manhattan developers, I was grateful for the lived in smell and the still kicking creaks.  Besides, only the halls smell like everybody’s homes rolled into one (people do still live there after all).  The hotel rooms smelled like hotel rooms.   

Rosie got several good looks at the halls.  She won’t ride an elevator in NY that she can’t see out of, so she walked up to my room on the 9^th floor several times (I would make fun of her, but all of her neuroses keep her looking 25 even though she‘s 40).  Good news is that there is art lining the filigreed stairwell all the way up and in the lobby, too.   She never got bored.

 

Isn’t this a fun room?  Believe me, for an old NY hotel, it’s huge.  I had a dressing room, walk-in closet, a kitchenette and a really nice bathroom.  I fell in love with these black patton woven dining chairs.

Oh, and a nice bouquet of impossibly colored and dead (real, but dead) flowers.   In fact, one flower was actually just a stem.  I would say it was a sign of neglect, but my room was always impeccably cleaned.  And the flowers kind of worked with my minimalist/traditional fireplace. 

 

My friends Kris and Robin who were attending the same conference came down for breakfast one morning.  We popped over to Big Booty Bakery across the street at the recommendation of one of the hotel’s residents.  Big Booty doesn’t open until 9:00 a.m., but they warm the milk for your coffee, which I think more than makes up for that shortcoming.  Plus their baked goods are baked greats—try the Nutella Booty Bun.   

HC doesn’t need concierge services.  The gentle residents, who all seem to own smallish dogs, are constantly draped around the desk with the most useful advice (Good bagels?  Melvyn’s, around the corner. Where did you get that breakfast sandwich?  Venus on 9th.) I maintain that Manhattanites are the Southerners of the north.  New Yorkers would surely hate the comparison, but they are so friendly and helpful.  There are some differences.  If you annoy a New Yorker they are more likely to stab you in the front than in the back. That and they are less likely to pay retail.  

When I arrived on Thursday morning, staff happily offered to let me check in early.  They didn’t have a key for me (“Our engineer is making your key. You’ll go have lunch.   It’ll be waiting when you get back.”).  I may be a rube, but I’ve learned to do what New Yorkers tell me. They know the lay of the land and that they and you don’t have a lot of time to waste, so their recommendations are usually the most pragmatic and logical in the end.  Oh, and they use metal keys, handcrafted evidently and impossible to lose, a winning combination.  

 I’m sure the Chelsea has been tidied up some for timid Southern/Midwestern boys like me, but I can gladly say it hasn’t lost all of its happy hospitable edge.  Hopefully I can call it my Bohemian home away from home again someday.      

In The Bedroom

…not our bedroom, though I sure wouldn’t mind lifting this one and tucking it into our house.

A new coat of paint, which I would describe as a “moonglow” (Dave and Ken, what was the name and brand of the color again? I need to do a better job of giving sources) presented a good op to highlight Ken and Dave’s bedroom style.

I asked Dave to talk about what he and Ken feel are qualities of a good bedroom:

-Keep color easy on the eye. He limits his primary color choices to any shade between gold and brown, with the occasional pop of robins egg blue. (I would add that he uses creams to keep things from getting too heavy.)

-“I like bedrooms that are living rooms with a bed in them.” They get bonus points if they can serve more than one puprose. Dave, an artist, often turns this room, which is actually their second bedroom, into his painting studio. I know, I don’t know how he keeps it clean either, but he does.

-Keep it personal. Dave likes to go to sleep and wake up surrounded by pictures of his family and friends. They both feel there is never a wrong place in the house for reminders of family.

-Texture is important. Obviously physical comfort is key in a bedroom. Limiting color allows Dave to focus more attention on the “look” of how things feel. There are no fewer than six different textures on the bed alone.

The principles above can be found in their master bedroom as well.

Ken helped me style this photo (the poor lighting is all me). The first thing Ken did to ready the room, which was already cleaner and neater than ours ever is, was adjust the bears on the bed, “This one is kind of slouchy.” We took some photos without the bears, but since this is a personal blog and not a design magazine, I decided they should stay.

In Praise of Small Spaces

More from Wood’s book on Nancy Lancaster.

I love small bedrooms. Maybe not as small as the one above, though I would love to sleep here if I were traveling alone. It’s handsome and handy at the same time.

I totally get largish closets, but I’ve never understood the need for a ton of floor space in a bedroom. Am I not making the invitation lists for parties people are hosting in their huge bedrooms? (Miles Redd has been known to host dinners in his bathroom, but with a space like this (scroll down once you get to the page), who can blame him?).

In my opinion, small does not exclude comfort. In fact, comfort is typically an issue of convenience, and those problems are usually best solved by having things closer to you rather than farther away; also how the senses are cared for–the feel, the look, the smell. For my money, keep the floor space–give me good sheets, towels, a few nice rugs, a good mattress, a couple of decently upholstered chairs and if I were really splurging, a kickin’ TV. As long as my behind isn’t knocking things over when I turn around I feel like I have enough space.

Having said all of this, I should confess that I don’t like our bedroom at the moment (too big, among other problems). And bedroom design is not my strong point (yet). More on that topic later. Do you like your bedroom? Have you been in one that you loved? What should I be thinking about as we redesign ours?