Designer Challenge~ The Bedroom

Angela is crying out for help with her bedroom. She specifically wanted me to respond. This is where it gets tricky. Does she want to know what she should do, or what I might do with an endless budget? Grin. There are so many possibilities, but I am going to attempt to give the beginnings of two ideas. I may offer a second post with additional accessorizing ideas later on.





The very first thing I would suggest is to remove all accessories and start with a clean slate. The very next thing is to add color on the walls. I like to work with themes, so I am offering two today: #1~travel and #2~organic.

#1. TRAVEL

Let’s add some paint first. Go with April Mist or Southern Breeze. (They are actually a tad bit greener than they scanned in…)

Add bedding. I like the red. (From Pottery Barn)

Make a statement above the bed. Find a large (and I mean large) vintage travel poster or hang 3 together. Frame them in wood tones to match furniture. These are from art.com:

You could also enlarge your favorite travel photos, frame them, and hang them (3 wide) above the bed.

On the bare wall between the dormers, hang three clocks (close to the ceiling line). Go to a sign company and have them make vinyl lettering for you, naming your favorite 3 cities. Adhere the lettering to the wall below the clocks and set the clocks for the correct times for each city. This picture is from an older Pottery Barn catalog, but I don’t think they are available any longer:

In one dormer window, make a stack of vintage suitcases:

These are available at Pottery Barn:

In the other window, create a window seat using a storage bench similar to this (preferably in a similar finish as the other furniture) (photo from Pottery Barn):

The baskets in the storage bench add great texture! I think bamboo blinds would look lovely on the windows.

In the small wall space between the closet doors, frame 3 vintage postcards or luggage stickers and hang the grouping vertically. Make sure there is a little wall space on the sides of the frames.

On the long hallway wall, mount strips of moulding to create photo shelving. Buy frames all in the same finish (match furniture or lamps, multiple sizes are just fine), insert your favorite travel photos, and display. You could also frame a few maps or sections of maps to add to the photos.

I’ll be thinking about accessories over the next few days.

#2~ ORGANIC

Paint the walls Asparagus (again, a tad bit brighter than they scanned in):

Add the bedding. Go with a simple natural (in the collection above) and accessorize with botanical themed pillows and throws (photos from Pottery Barn, again):Get a vinyl stick on monogram from Pottery Barn or go to a sign shop and have them create a custom one for you. White or chocolate colored would look wonderful.

Hang a trio of botanical prints vertically between the two closet doors or horizontally just below the ceiling line on the wall between the dormers. (Guess where I found this photo…)

In the dormers, place window seat benches as above (in the travel theme) or a comfy wicker chair like this one. Again, bamboo blinds would work well. On the large blank hallway wall, paint (or have someone paint) a large tree shape like this or this (yep, Pottery Barn) (I would go with white or chocolate to match the monogram above the bed):
Turn it into a family tree by making leaf-shaped tags with the names of family members and use poster putty to adhere to tree.Again, I’ll work on accessories over the next few days… But there is a start!