Master bed/bath in Technicolor

For some reason, I tend to neglect the master bedroom the most in terms of design. Design probably isn't even the right word. It really just gets no attention...not to say I haven't thought extensively about what I want for it...but I just can't come up with any decisions.

So I've recently decided that the master bedroom is the best place to put this rug, which has recently been living in the den:

and some of my favorite details:

My father-in-law gave us this rug and it's never been used (to my knowledge), so it's in spectacular shape. Now, I know navy oriental rugs are not really on-trend, but it's too high quality of a rug to not be used. Since it's been in the den, I've spent way too many hours looking it and I've discovered so many neat components in the design. I love the peachy blush pink and cool celadon found in parts of the design. I began to think about a pink and navy bedroom. I liked that idea, but I couldn't think of a way to pull it off in that room without it being too matchy matchy.

And then......I saw this:

Elizabeth Bauer's apartment in New York City, seen in Lonny.

Now I had seen this room before, but I hadn't really SEEN it, I guess. At least not thinking of how I could use it to inspire our master bedroom.

I'm not sure I can really express how much I LOVE that sofa. Obviously, I have a thing for stripes. And apparently for striped sofas. But this is just too fun. It's mostly cool colors and yet it just feels so....warm. I think that's because it's velvet. And if you look closely, the lines are kind of raised in different colors, so there is another dimension of texture. SO when I saw that, I thought of this chair, recently purchased at an estate sale and currently feeling very lonely in our basement:

Wouldn't it be soooo cute in this velvet stripe? It would be the perfect place to snuggle in the morning while I'm still groggy, but need to get out bed. Anyone who's seen me in the morning knows what I'm talking about. The stripe I'm considering is by Designer's Guild and is called Cordellina (Ocean colorway):

So then, I'm thinking that I would either paint the walls a crisp, light aqua OR paint the walls a really fresh white and then paint the ceiling a really crisp light aqua. I've been dying to copy Suzanne Rheinstein's use of grosgrain in her foyer:

Pictures from Mark D. Sikes...more pictures of her fancypants home in that link. Y'all, that is GROSGRAIN. Trimming out every piece of molding. I love it so much. 

We need to add some crown molding to master bedroom (and every other room, for that matter), so I would need to do that first, but then I think it would be super cute to put some navy grosgrain ribbon along the trim like this. Of course, our molding will never be that fabulous, but we can make it work. Then, I could also do it in the master bathroom, and instead of doing crown molding, just do ribbon instead.

So that brings us to this:

(this photo is from the realty listing. sadly, it does not normally look like this.)

The tile in the bathroom is a hard color to describe. Sometimes it just looks like your standard almond color, and then other times, it looks kind of green...almost a pale pistachio. Once I saw Elizabeth Bauer's apartment, I decided her sofa and bedding would inspiration for the room, but the wallpaper in her bed area is my inspiration for the bathroom. I'm thinking I'd like to wallpaper the wall (just the top 3ft...the rest of the wall is tiled) and the ceiling of the bathroom. I think it'd be a fun way to bring some drama to a simple bathroom. We will most likely re-do this bathroom, but it's the lowest priority on the remodeling list so it probably won't happen for some years. Also, I think it would take less than 2 rolls to do the walls and so I could choose a pricier wallpaper that I wouldn't be able to use in a bigger space because of the cost.

So, these are some of the wallpapers I'm thinking of. I want to start with the wallpaper for the bathroom because I want that to be kind of crazy and the actual bedroom to be more calm.

OPTION 1

Linnaeus from Designer's Guild. Love the funky topiaries, love the large scale of the print, and I think the color would be so pretty. Plus, right now I'm currently reading a book called The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession and in this book, the author talks about Linnaeus (A Swedish Botanist). Apparently Linnaeus knew he was amazing at botany and was so prideful that he used the third person in all his notes and diaries so that it would be easy for his students to write biographies about him. When I read the section about that, I laughed out loud. I'll save you from my feeble attempt at a literary review, but this wallpaper is very pretty and will remind me of the pompous botanist (who we can all thank for organizing plant species).

OPTION 2

Scene Indigo by Prestigious Wallpapers. Pretty park scene that has all the neat elements of a toile but in a cleaner, more modern way.

OPTION 3

Sussex Downs by Sanderson.

I love this one for similar reasons. I love that it's a scenic print, but so much looser and less formal than traditional than the typical blue and white toile.

OPTION 4

Aspen by Sanderson. 

I like this for the same reasons as the others. It introduces more colors, but is monochromatic so it doesn't get too crazy.

OPTION 5

Shibori by Scion.

The only geometric of the bunch. It's probably the most true to the the inspiration pictures, but I think the blue might be too bright for my taste. I'm going to order a sample so I have a better idea...unless y'all veto it before I get that far.

So, what do you prefer? Is there a pattern you really love? I welcome your thoughts. Actually I want them so that I don't spend $ on something no one else likes, except me.

The oriental rug from a family member arrived today, along with the 5th (and final?) sofa, so hopefully I'll have some thoughts and photos on that later this week.

Den Decision, Option 1

Well, we've had an action-packed month. Phil went on a 8-day "vacation" to the hospital with meningitis (don't worry, he was never contagious). It's a long story, but he's home now and starting to feel better. Guess this means he has a free pass on being my handy-man-husband for a few more weeks until he's back to 100%

So as a result, our house looks....the same. Actually, surprisingly, it's somewhat cleaner. When he was in the hospital, I would come home every night and do some unpacking/organizing/cleaning/etc. I FINALLY caught up on laundry (but the secret to that is that he was wearing hospital gowns and not clothes, so I had fewer clothes to wash). Anyway, during all this time, my mind has been going crazy with different rabbit trails for ideas for the house. The minute I decide "oh, I'll do [insert idea here]," I then come across some new fabric/inspiration picture/furniture arrangement that makes me totally change my mind. OR, even better, one of our loving family members gives us another item of furniture and things get switched up in my mind. So not all the rabbit trails are bad rabbit trails.

Well, the den should be the highest priority, but it's the room that has me the most ambivalent. I've liked this idea I had of black/white/greys/greens/reds for that room, but I think our (free, beautiful, high-quality antique) oriental rugs are dictating a different direction. They arrive this week, so hopefully I will know where to put them.

Oh and by the way, as you will soon see, we obviously did not go the route of the Lee Industries sofa...long, boring story, but basically, we now own 5 sofas and we paid $200 for all them total...so we're just going to slipcover some of them.

If we go with the original color scheme, I'm thinking that I want both sofas covered in black and white stripes....something like these:

I can't find the source on this one....working on it. 

from Vogue. Pretty sure that is Carolina Herrera. 

Then I like the simplicity of this one from Moth Design

I love the subtlety of this one, but I don't think I'm brave enough to do a mostly-white couch in the most-used room. I don't need the sofas to look exactly like the ones above, I just want the fun/classic look of black and white stripes.

So there are three fabric options I'm considering for the sofas in the den:

OPTION 1 - Thick Black and Cream Stripes (stripes are about 2.5" wide)
 I have not felt this with my own hands yet, so I'm unsure of how durable it is.

OPTION 2 - Thin black and cream stripes (stripes are about .25" wide). Durable enough for upholstery. Most expensive per yard.

OPTION 3- Stripes that aren't of equal size....cream background, black stripes (black stripes are about .5" and the cream part is about 2"). This one is also durable enough for upholstery. Also, plus side: the fabric weave is a little different in the black parts and for some reason it is REALLY soft and yet still sturdy. Least expensive per yard.

So to help you help me make this decision, these are the other [potential] components of the room:

And the bookcase at the back of the room (as seen in the picture below) I would probably paint a glossy charcoal grey and paint the back of the inside red....

So, with all that info, what do you think? Which fabric do you think would be a good choice for the sofas? I haven't decided how exactly I want to use the pyne hollyhock....I'd love some crazy roman shades with simple cream curtains with some black pom-pom trim....but that may be a little too crazy.

There is also this fabric to consider for shades or curtains... I'd like to use it on something like that, if that helps your decision :)

The Front Room

Now for the as-promised update of the front room. Speaking of which, I never know what to call it. Since it's all one big room, it feels silly to call it the dining room, but for the same reason, it doesn't really work as the living room either. So I usually just call it the front room. Any suggestions for what else to call it are welcome.

For about the first 5 weeks, when people got the house tour, I called it our "flea market." Here's why:

We all know the truth about rooms like these. If there isn't a TV in it, then it doesn't get a lot of use. So this is where we put ALL the furniture until we decided where it went. We slowly arranged the furniture in the other rooms and this room slowly emptied out. While the den was being painted (for 4-5 weeks), the TV was in this room and so it did actually end up getting more use. I really enjoyed those weeks because the view from this room is really wonderful (as long as the sun isn't shining on you - then it's just really hot).

I knew from the beginning that I wanted a crisp grey in this room. Greys are so hard! Most looked like a baby blue or a pale lilac. I ended just making up my own color by mixing the colors I liked. You can notice all my samples on the wall on the right.

Once the grey was finally selected....we called in the professionals. We were too worn out from the other room. The prepping and painting began:

And then it was OVER and it was one of the best days of my life.

I wish I was joking, but I was soooo happy to have my house usable again. And just in time too, because we had a baby shower in 4 days. The next 3 days were spent making the room look like a real home so that the shower guests didn't think they entered a construction site.

All of our breakable things had been stored in the guest room up until this point. Most of these things final home was to be in the front room. So the unpacking of all these things began and the room turned into a bubble-wrap newspaper mountain.

Somehow, it all got together in time with the help of lots of people (thank you Janie and Ro).

Pics from the shower:

And now what it looks like today:

 It still needs a lot of work, but at least it's usable and half-way decent looking. I need to work on the wall above. It looks a little lame right now. My favorite part of the room is the patterned club chair next to the window. It's the most comfortable chair in the house and the view and lighting is great from there. Phil has read books there all week long. I'll try to get a secret pic of the bookworm in his chair later.

All the dining room chairs and pink chairs should be recovered, but I'm unsure if I want to do it now and work with the current colors if I want to hold off until we do the big remodel. Maybe I'll do half and half or something. Opinions welcome.