As I mentioned many weeks ago, one of my bigger nesting projects was to redo our bedroom, by updating our headboard, and giving the room an overall neutral and relaxing feel since I knew with a new baby around I would be spending a lot more time in our room during wakeful nights of nursing etc... The finishing touches came with the artwork, which was hung shortly after our son was born. And so I wanted to share the final pictures with you as well as some process pictures...
BEFORE: Master bedroom when we moved in, October 2012.
(yes there's a dog on the bed. eye-spy)
The original window treatments in our rental were a bit dated and didn't move very easily without breaking... so per our request our landlord bought faux white wooden blinds for every room in the house, which was awesome and instantly updated the house and especially our bedroom. Since the biggest uninterrupted wall is basically a series of windows, curtains can either make or break this space... and these felt visually overwhelming and like we were living in an old motel.
After installing the blinds in late winter, we lived without curtains for a while, as I shopped around and weighed our options. In the end I went with pre made gray linen curtains from Ikea. They were very inexpensive at $49 for two panels, and since we needed 5, this would work well with our budget! Much cheaper than buying fabric to make them myself, plus I was running out of sewing time before our baby's arrival.
They are a bit sheer and perhaps some day I will line them, but they soften the room and keep out the extra light that peeks through the blinds. But since they are sheer they don't feel as visually overwhelming as the opaque original curtains felt. (yes that's a baby on the bed!)
I wrote a post about my search for artwork above the bed, and I chose this landscape I found on etsy by FallowPhotography. It was a picture she took in England that she gladly had printed in a larger size for me! I really wanted a landscape with a lovely atmospheric quality that was also very simple. Since it came with a white border, I simply bought a frame at Michaels, slipped the photo in and hung it!
As for the other new additions to the bedroom- I recovered our large red pillow with a new blue pillow cover (sewn by yours truly). And the linen pillow case came from ikea for $12, can't beat that! I also updated my lamp with a smaller and more tailored paper lampshade. It fits the lamp so much better, plus I'm no longer worried about knocking it over!
As for the other artwork in our room, I went around the house and gathered together a little tryptic for above my bedside table. These two paintings were perched on our mantle, but the mantel was beginning to feel a bit crowded, so this was the perfect- two birds with one stone- solution! Plus I wanted to have older oil paintings in the room as a balance to the more modern photograph above the bed and to add texture and visual interest in contrast to the neutral color pallet of the headboard and bedding. Plus I love how they look above my ISIS lamp. And the metal piece, that houses sea glass I gathered from lake como, adds a sculptural balance to the two paintings. (The lighthouse was painted in Maine in the late 1800's and I found it on etsy for a song. And the floral painting has been in the family... and I acquired it somehow!)
Above: is my inspiration for our bedroom makeover.
This was my first decorating project where I came up with an inspiration board in order to fine tune what I wanted our room to have and to reflect, with more specifics, etc. Then I worked with what we already had on hand as well as adding a few new things to the mix- updated headboard, curtains, and a new photograph. I think it would be functional and fun to also have a colorful throw at the end of the bed (pictured is our striped seasonal only- winter down duvet). So I'll be on the look out for a cotton throw that adds a pop to the room, while providing a cozy layer for snuggling with the kids post nap time.
This was a very fun and perhaps a more grown up way to decorate a space. I look forward to one day doing the same for our family room!
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