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This post is a long time coming, but since I didn’t make any promises out loud, who cares, right? :) The story starts late last year, when I was brainstorming on ideas for Christmas presents for the resident teen. Those … Continue reading
I’m planning a trip in February, and since I’m having a house sitter stay at my place to watch my critters while I’m gone, I decided it was time to fix up the guest bedroom.
Here’s what it looked like on Friday. I’d already pulled down the most recent layer of wallpaper — you can see one piece yet, above the window on the right. The stripes.
Here”s the room now.
The photo doesn’t do the ceiling justice. The color I chose for it is Benjamin Moore Seahorse 2028-70, a very pale green with a hint of yellow. For some reason the photo makes it look muddy; in person it’s very fresh & light. (The swatch on the website doesn’t look anything like the color either, at least on my monitor.)
The walls are Ocean Air 2123-50, the window trim and baseboards are done with Ice Mist 2123-70, and the molding at the ceiling is Sea Star 2123-30. They’re all in the same family — swatches here.
I picked the ceiling color because I wanted something warm to offset the cooler colors I chose for the walls and trim. Now that it’s up, I love the effect — I’m crazy about it, as a matter of fact. Particularly against that dark trim — I’m crazy about it.
Next: the floors, which I’m outsourcing ;-)
Then accessories. As I was drifting off to sleep last night I suddenly pictured drapes in a broad, vertical black and white stripe. Hmmmm . . . may be going to much toward Deco tho, we’ll see . . .
For beds, I have a twin set of antique Art Nouveau frames with carved swan heads. I’m a little nervous on them — need to pull them into the color scheme somehow — they’re finished in a cream — and unfortunately when I reupholstered the headboards years ago I picked a dark pink fabric — didn’t like it much at the time, really don’t like it now. It has to go.
Once I have that, the bedding, the drapes, and a rug sorted out, though, I’ll post another pic.
You know those “weekend makeover” type shows on cable, where a team comes in and redoes a room or two or three in just a couple of days?
And you know how about 1/3 of the way in, the designer opens up a can of paint and shows the homeowner and the camera catches the homeowner’s face as he/she recoils in horror, because the color is so much more intense than anyone in his right mind would choose?
Well I did the solitaire version this weekend :-)
It started yesterday morning. It was pouring down rain, so I decided maybe it was time to take down the broken-down shades from my bathroom window and sew up a set of curtains.
I grabbed my daughter and we drove out to JoAnn fabrics. The only requirement was that the fabric be multi-hued, with some greens in it, because my bathroom tub and the bottom half of the walls are vintage 50s green tile. I found just the thing in the remnants department: some gauzy tie-dyey stuff, marked down, two pieces, just the amount I needed.
So I got home and held it up next to the window, and thought, “man, wouldn’t it be cool to paint the window frame to pick up one of the other colors in the curtains?”
Hmmmm.
Only one problem. Somebody, at some point, had installed a homemade valance above three of the bathroom walls. It hung down over the top of the window, so it would need to go if I was going to paint the frame . . . I poked around at it a bit, and it looked like it would be easy enough to pull down. I’d never liked it, any way.
I got out my tools and an hour or so later it was in pieces on the curb.
Of course, the valance was also wallpapered. As were all the bathroom’s non-tiled wall surfaces. But I’d never liked the wall paper, either, and it was dingy and curling at the edges . . . and besides, it was still raining outside . . .
Fifteen hours later, I’d de-wallpapered, prepped, primed, and painted the entire bathroom. And sewn a set of curtains.
My only crisis of confidence happened about 11:30 last night, when I’d put on the first coat of paint. The trim color I’d picked — in the spirit of adventurousness — is a deep lilac. Looking at it by incandescent light in the middle of the night, I had that “oh no, I can’t live with that color” feeling — Home Decorator’s Remorse.
But when I woke up this morning and looked at it again, I was absolutely rapturous.
Here’s a pic.
I am rapturous. And thinking, wow, you know what would look great with this? A yellow ceiling . . . and for the floor, maybe purple, or robin’s egg blue . . .
lol
