If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I am nothing if not laser-focused, completing whole projects before moving on to new ones, focusing all my efforts on one room at a time to quickly finish projects.
Wait – No, that’s some other blogger.
In the spirit of jumping around from project to project, I wanted to tell you the story of my (future) master bedroom. This is the most neglected room in the house. No curtains, nothing on the walls, no furniture except our bed and temporary nightstands. We enjoy the romantic mood lighting cast from a lightbulb hanging from a cord in the middle of the room. It’s a tragedy.
And it’s not because I haven’t tried. Here’s what my process has looked like so far, which can also be titled:
How to Live in Your Home for Three Years Without Creating A Decent Master Bedroom:
Step One
Agonize over paint chips. Waste too much money on paint samples. Stare at wall of paint splotches for weeks deciding which I like best.
Step Two
Choose a color. Paint entire room. Immediately hate my decision.
Step Three
Reassure husband that I finally know what I want and just need to repaint ONE. MORE. TIME.
Step Four
Repeat steps 1 – 3 at least five times. I’m not exaggerating. We’ve probably lost square footage in our bedroom because the walls are so thick with paint.
Step Five
Finally give up and settle on a color that I like a little bit. Try to find fabrics and other pieces to match that exact color. Come up empty.
Step Six
Stop trying for several months, hoping inspiration will strike.
You can see the current color in this pic of my bed. It’s Benjamin Moore Silver Sage, color-matched to Valspar paint, which I swear by.
NO MORE WAFFLING, MY FRIENDS! I’m starting from square one, doing it right, and paint color will be the very LAST thing I choose.
Please say hello to my starting point:
That fabric is Suzani Jewel by P. Kaufmann and the more I look at it, the more I think it’s hypnotizing me into a lifetime of devotion to it.
Here’s what it looks like in a pillow from my sponsor Lily on Blue:
Isn’t it SO happy? It wants to live in my room as a giant lumbar pillow on my bed. And it wants to be friends with this fabric:
Of course they’ll have to quickly befriend the only thing that’s currently staying in the room, my good ol’ DIY bed:
…which – you’ll be shocked to learn – I still kinda love.
There’s a bedroom mood board party going on over at Remodelaholic, so using my MASTER photoshop skills which always produce completely accurate renderings of things like space and dimension, I came up with this little preview of how it might look all together:
(Pretend like the walls are some exact perfect color.) I still want to add a rug of some kind. Maybe something fluffy and textured? And I’m not sold on black nightstands, either. We’ll just have to change and re-change and change them again about five times, characteristic of my decision-making process.
Did you finish your bedroom first like a smart person because that’s where you spend 1/3 of your day? Or leave it for last like me? Have you ever had to repaint something 47 times?
Hi, I'm Kelly. Glad you're here! This little blog is where I chronicle our efforts to fix up our beaten-down home on a tiny budget. We're not there yet, but here's a peek at the view along the way...
That fabric is gorgeous!
LOVE those fabrics together! I just discovered a little fabric shop about an hour away from me that sells all the Premier Prints fabrics for $6.99 a yard!!!
Wow Kelly you sound just like me. I have redone my foyer, kitchen,den and master bath which included removing popcorn ceilings, tile ,paint and more paint and I am just stuck ! Just yesterday I picked up two more paint samples for my bedroom and honestly I am scared to put them on the wall for fear they won’t be right yet again ! Besides , I turned 56 yesterday and I think I’m just getting tired ! anyway, just wanted to let you know you are not the only one with the dreaded BEDROOM BLOCK!!! Also, I love that fabric you picked for the drapes , I collect blue and white china and this would be gorgeous for me too! Thanks for letting me vent ! Have a great day.
Lol! Oh you and I are sisters separated at birth! I painted my kitchen at least 3 times and would have again but we moved, thank goodness! Our poor master bedroom, it’s neglected and we have poop brown walls which I hate and tell my hubby how much I hate the color every night. I can’t decide on a paint color, fabric, anything. I’ve changed my mind at least 75 times since the end of June when we moved in so instead, we sit with poopy walls, an unattached headboard propped behind the bed and a dresser with paint chipping off of it. Oh wait, I forgot we added some red curtains that were originally in the living room when we moved in. They add that extra touch of “wth” that I needed to complete the look..
I do love what you’ve picked out and can’t wait to see it!! 🙂 That fabric is gorgeous!
I love that avery fabric. We were going to use it as our bedroom curtains too til I found a clearance ikea duvet I’m going to rip apart! muahaha. And girl I get you with the paint colors. We have every paint color picked out and bought for our new house… except the master bedroom where we’re TOTALLY stumped. Why is that?!
Well, at least you have an awesome starting point … your bed is GORGEOUS! And, I love your inspiration fabric …. excited to see how it all turns out.
Hi Kelly, I totally like your bedroom mood board, esp. the cute colorful pillow, although I’d rather combine it with something dark green than dark blue. But the overall picture is really harmonious. Let me tell you we’ve lived in our new house for a little more than a year now and yes, we put our bed in there and I walllpapered one wall in a supernice wallpaper that I LOVE. That’s it. Our bed is still the little one – we’ve been planning to buy a new bigger bed for AGES. We don’t have a single picture on the wall, no mirror, no chair, no nightstands, our bedside lamps stand on the floor … It seems people neglect their bedrooms, because they regard dining rooms and entryways more important… in my case, even my laundry/mud room gives me less of a headache than my bedroom. *sigh*
Jule (from Germany)
LOVE it! Especially that Suzani Jewel fabric. Goodness.
And don’t worry about design desicions and then re-decisions…half of my house is in a current state of “I don’t know”. I’ve decided that though that I would rather spend most of my time investing in the good of what happens IN the house than what it looks like.
You know, sometimes I think you and I share a brain. I just did a room board for my daughter’s room and I just ordered a sample of the Kauffman fabric for our master bedroom as well. I LOVE your room design. That curtain fabric is stunning.
I’m loving that Suzani fabric. It may be just what I need for my dining room. I like the idea of finding the fabric first before the wall color. I have the same problem you do with not being able to make up my mind even after painting “swatches” all over my walls. Your bedroom is going to look great! Love the curtain fabric too.
How funny! We both created a mood board for a master bedroom on our latest post! Great minds? Lovely mood board and your photoshop skills are fantastic! Looking forward to see the finished room!
Happy weekend, Kelly!
P/S: Come by and enter my giveaway for a chance to win a stylish book by Kerrie Hess: ‘Shoestring Chic’!
http://www.mixandchic.com/2011/09/giveaway-shoestring-chic.html
Jessie
http://www.mixandchic.com
No way–just this week I bookmarked that fabric to possibly buy for dining room chairs because….we are repainting it. Even though we painted it in March. (This is what happens, I think, when I paint a room without any sort of plan whatsoever.) 🙂
Happy weekend!
Good idea to start with fabric… Much easier than the other way around. The curtains will look beautiful and I think you’re right about being iffy about the black nightstands. I added white nightstands and they just make my black headboard look like a black ink splotch, so I’m trying to figure out how to blend everything in together. That bed… you can’t go wrong with that bed though!
I’ve done steps one and two and am trying to avoid going down the other steps! I love your new inspiration!
Love the suzani colors and that premier print fabric is absolutely stunning..will look amazing in the bedroom. And yes, my bedroom will be the last room to be done…some day:)
so you use photoshop to create the pictures of what you want your rooms to look like?
Can you share any other technical tools you use to get the concept out of your head and on your screen?
Yes, but I’ve only made a mood board once… I know a lot of people like picmonkey for making photo collages, and it’s free. Usually I don’t make a plan first… 🙂