The Master of All Bedrooms, Guest Feature

When i saw this post over at Kelly's blog DesignTies I had to ask her if I could feature it.  And I was crossing my finger that she would say yes.  I love what she did, and I love the wallpaper... just wait til you see how beautiful the final product  is.  This is what Kelly said.


If you’ve been following my home makeovers, you know that our house was almost entirely pink and green when we moved in. And not good green — it was icky plasticine green.The bedroom was one of the green rooms. I took these pics at the inspection in June 2001. (This was before digital, so the quality isn’t great. I did a bit of retouching at picnik.com). But I think you can see the overall badness of the colour and the decorating!! Yes, those are dolls on the bed. There were dolls all over the house. Creepy.

That’s my grandma in the doorway, and you can see the pink hallway and pink guest bedroom (door on the left) and pink laundry room behind her. *Sigh* (I shared the guest bedroom makeover with you here. I’ll be sharing the laundry room makeover soon…)

Right after we took possession of the house in December 2001 and before we moved in, I painted the master bedroom. I had this great idea to paint it orange. The inspiration was the Leta Rachel room at My Mother’s Country Inn, the B&B in PEI that we stayed at on our honeymoon a few months earlier.

But it didn’t quite work out as planned…

HAHAHAHAHH!!!! Holy crap, that’s bad!!!  Maybe it would look better with the bed in the corner…

Nope!!! Man, I can’t believe I’m showing you these pictures… I think I can safely say that my decorating skills have improved over the last 9 years!!

OK, so anyway, try to put that orange monstrosity out of your head, and let’s move ahead to around 2006 when I finally gave up on the orange and decided to go grey with a dark brown accent wall…

 

Better, but that bed totally wasn’t working. And the accent wall was kinda dark and overbearing. So I painted it a lighter grey than the other walls, and then gave up on that idea and painted it the same colour (Debbie Travis Manta Grey). Then I bought new furniture and bedding and a chandelier.

Still not working. More new bedding, lamps, and artwork… and a piece of brown velvet over the headboard to mock up what the soon-to-be new bed would look like. Better, but not there yet.

Hubby and I (well, mostly hubby) designed and built a chocolate brown upholstered bed complete with nailhead trim. And finally, the room was done!!

 

NOW we’re talkin’!! Much better!!

But… there was still something missing. Other than the curtains and a few cushions on the bed, there was no pattern. And the room was on the masculine side. I wanted to add some more feminine touches. What to do, what to do…

Well, my friend Lisa at Lisa Goulet Design solved that dilemma for me when she sent me a picture of her in-progress powder room makeover. She had used this beautiful wallpaper from Graham & Brown, Charming:

Ooh-la-la!!! Love, love, LOVE IT!!! I picked up a sample at Home Depot — yes, Home Depot carries this beautiful paper. It was a perfect match to the other colours in the room. YAY!!! Well, OK, you can’t really tell in this picture, but trust me, it really does match!!

I switched out the lamps with a pair of lamps I bought a couple of years ago for the still-to-be-completed dining room. I hit every store I could think of to look for new bedding, and finally found a subtly patterned grey duvet cover at HomeSense and euro shams at Bed Bath & Beyond. A few accessories on the night table, and now, finally, after 9 years, the master bedroom makeover is DONE!! Well, mostly done. I need to buy new blinds, a few accessories, maybe some new throw cushions, and a new chandelier. The other one went back to Home Depot after it started making popping noises. Yikes!! And the artwork that was above the bed needs a new home, because I want the wallpaper to be the focal point.

So here it is, the almost-finished bedroom makeover!!

 

Here’s a close-up of the paper:

His-and-hers night tables…

More hers, ‘cause it’s the prettier one :-)

The colour in this shot is closer to the real colour of the wallpaper.

The cushions spend 99% of their time on the floor, so let’s give their moment of glory while they’re actually ON the bed :-)

The Euro covers are Nicole Miller. Normally they’re $79.99 each — I found them on clearance for $14.99 each. Score!!

 

This is a shot of the other side of the room:

And here’s one of the original before shots with the new and improved colours and decorating…

 

The bedroom isn’t quite done, but the wallpaper really brings it close to the finish line :-) It needs some more accessories and artwork, I think. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them :-)

Lisa recently finished her powder room makeover that inspired my latest bedroom makeover. You HAVE to go check it out — she did a fabulous job!!

And while you’re at it, you also have to check out all the great Met Monday makeovers at Between Naps on the Porch :-)

What did I tell you, it was worth the wait wasn't it!  

I would love to do some wall paper in my house... 

I wonder if I could find one that would be universally loved?...