I tend to wait to post pictures of rooms until I feel they are done, but I'm trying to change that with this house. I'm trying to share more of the process, the planning behind the scenes, and the evolution of the rooms as we figure out what works best in each case. So,, expect to see more posts here with lots of ideas and plans and inspiration, as we slowly figure out what this house wants to be. Overall, our approach is very different in this house. We're trying to pace ourselves, not live the house, and tackle things one at a time. So far we've focused on making the kitchen work for us (and adding some pretty in there), making the downstairs guest friendly, and getting our master bedroom done enough that it was relaxing and clean and somewhere I wanted to spend time.
This is what we started with when we closed. The view from the hallway was the big window that overlooks the backyard, and some dingy white walls. Oh and a dated ceiling fan.
To the right is the big master closet - not a walk in but huge none the less. We've actually talked about adding a washer/dryer in this closet to have first floor laundry - it's that big. Note the gor-ge-ous fabric decoupaged onto the closet doors. Seriously, it's actually pretty cool fabric, with peacock feathers and butterflies. I'm not saying we're keeping it long term, but I don't hate it. Behind those lovely pink silk panels is another skinny window. (Both of the windows in this room really need to be replaced with modern, functional ones that don't sound like an 18 wheeler is rumbling by when you want to close them)
And, if you stand right in that corner by the skinny window, this is the other view of the room. The doorway all the way on the right is the master bathroom - I love having a bathroom in our room. It's super convenient (and definitely, definitely got our money's worth out of it during the last months of pregnancy!) and someday we'll freshen things up in there and make it all cute. Until then, everything works and that's great.
So - while we were still in the apartment, I found a bedspread that I really, really loved. It's gray and white and turquoise, and so pretty. And then we bought light turquoise curtains from IKEA that went so nicely with the bedspread.
and I already told you that when we moved into Amherst we bought the perfect neutral gray (Ralph Lauren's Saltaire) to paint all of the rooms with to start. So that is where we started - gray walls, pretty comforter and turquoise curtains. Then I decided that I wanted to experiment with some high contrast color in our room. At Wendhurst we pretty much went with light, neutral and classic colors throughout, so I'm really excited to try out some color and drama in this house. That's when I started thinking about navy blue walls in the bedroom. I've seen pictures of rooms painted in Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy for years, and I've always loved the color.
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So, I talked to Lover about it, and he was on board - sort of. He was concerned about the room being too dark if we did all the walls in the navy, so we settled on just two of them. Then we headed to Home Depot to get some paint! Of course, HD doesn't sell Benjamin Moore paint, so we just looked for a deep true navy that would work well with our comforter. The closest we could find that we liked was a Behr Marquee paint called Mirage. It was a deep blue with some green undertones that played so nicely with the grays and turquoises. We went up to the counter to have it color matched (because Behr Marque paint is upwards of $50/gallon) and as it turns out, Behr puts some kind of magic in their marquee paint to make it impossible to color match it. Darn the bad luck! I was seriously irritated. At that point I was ready to scrap the whole "accent wall" idea, since it was turning into a headache, and we really wanted to get our bedroom and the kids room painted before moving in. But - in a stroke of divine providence, we walked past the "oops" paints, and lo and behold, a nice deep navy was on the rack for $9! The only catch - it was a semi-gloss finish. I always, always buy eggshell - it has the slightest bit of sheen to it and therefore is quite cleanable, but it is not shiny. BUT - this paint was only NINE DOLLARS, and would let us try out a new, crazy idea for not a lot of moolah. So, into the cart it went. And up on the walls it went. Ta da!
We decided to paint the two walls that do not have windows the dark blue, and leave the window walls gray.
Surprisingly, the semi gloss doesn't bother me too much. I think I would still prefer it in either eggshell or even a flat finish, but the gloss adds a bit of reflection and sparkle that is pretty cool. In another post I will show you the other walls, along with some details about the nightstands and dresser I refinished for this room, but let's talk about the bed wall for a minute. So - a few things I have been thinking about. This room seriously needs some personal art to make it ours. Our bed is from IKEA, and let me tell you why I love it. The mattress rests on the combination bed frame/boxspring/storage space, and that sits directly on the floor. We had the option to buy legs, but I didn't because, and here is my stroke of genius, you never have to clean under the bed. It isn't the place where lost socks go to die, or little newborn diapers roll underneath never to be heard from again... it's amazing. I love it very, very much.
So, we need a headboard of some sort, and some awesome art above the bed. I think I have figured out what I want for the art, and now I need to sort out a headboard. I think the headboard needs to be white, to provide some contrast with the dark blue wall. This means that the headboard needs to somehow be washable - because I guarantee it will get dirty. I would also like it to be fairly deep, so that we can access the plug that is directly behind the center of the bed. That would be nice for plugging in lamps and our phones at night. Eventually we will need to pay for an electrician to rewire that plug, since it is currently on the wall switch and we are therefore unable to have a light on a switch and our phones charging overnight. #firstworldproblems
The other thing I keep seriously considering is painting the door trim and the door to the en suite bathroom the same blue color. On the one hand it sounds crazy, but on the other hand, I think it would make this wall feel bigger and less choppy. The doors are decently solid and nice, but are still just hollow core doors from the 70s. So I don't think it would be a great loss to paint them. Or at least that one.
On this wall, there is still a whole lot of crazy going on. Ironically, the little "I love u" art I hung up kind of ties in with the colors of the fabric on those doors, which I still don't hate. But, that fabric does clash with the rest of the room. I could paint the doors blue, recover the doors in a different fabric or, I don't know, come up with something else brilliant for this wall. I like the I <3 u that I made, but I think it needs to go somewhere else, it's too small for that wall. I think I want to hang a few pictures of Lover and I on this wall instead.
So - that is the story of how we painted a couple of walls really dark in the master bedroom. Hopefully you can see where I am going with this room- a little contrast, some pretty wood tones, a calm and relaxing place to retire to at the end of the day. Little by little we are getting there!
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