As you know if you've been paying attention, I want to redecorate, and it appears I am starting with my bedroom. I have my fabulous bed in there, which I definitely would not want to replace, though it could probably use a new box spring, one of my past cats (not Evil Kitty) having made a hole in the underside of it so as to get into it to sleep. One of the canopy bars on it is also slightly bent, thanks to the human child having hung off of it in pull-up position at an age when he really should have known better and a weight which was apparently just a bit too heavy. (Oh, they have laws against child abuse. I couldn't actually beat him, though I did think about it fondly.) But other than those slight problems, my bed rocks and I love it.
I have a lime-greenish comforter (which is another similarity to that photo I bought!) and the two sets of sheets I use most often are 1.) dark brown leopard print, which looks surprisingly lovely with the lime green and 2.) off-white with bright tropical-colored fruit on it, including the same color green. I have sheer curtains which are sort of plum (?). I have my amazing desk that I painted gold like C3P0 last autumn. The desk chair is slipcovered in a goldish (much yellower than the desk color) velvet; unfortunately the slipcover doesn't fit well, because it's an extra wide dining/desk chair. Also unfortunately, the original upholstered seat of the chair is stained beyond help, hence the ill-fitting slipcover.
All the other visible wood furniture (two tables and a trunk/chest) is the same color the desk was before I painted it--that very light, whitewashed look. I have a small bureau that's much darker, but it's actually inside one of the closets. (I'm thinking the tables and chest should be painted too, but I'm not sure if even *I* can live with three pieces of gold furniture in the same room. I might need to decoupage them to tone it down.) I have a floor lamp that is black wrought-iron-looking like the bed. It definitely needs shade help. I have one--count 'em--picture on the wall, a framed three-dimensional looking photo, gate-themed. Obviously I can't adequately describe it. The only object d'art that absolutely needs to stay displayed is a tiny gilded glass stoppered bottle, which looks as if a genie should live in it, and which was given to me by a friend for my 41st birthday for just that reason.
We won't discuss the corner that is The Graveyard of Computer Equipment That Has Died, nor the shoebox filing system, nor the $5 CD tower that doesn't really have any CDs in it any more, nor the two clear plastic storage tubs full of clothes that will never fit me again.
We will discuss a few hideous things that do not involve my inability to purge junk properly. There's the carpet which I cannot afford to rip up. It's from the 80s. It's some nondescript earth tone, goldish brownish beigish. It's seen better days and it was always ugly. The 80s were not a good design period. The walls are off-white and dingy. The ceiling is white and dingy. The closet doors are ugly louvered folding things; I don't know how to categorize wood tones, but it's reddish (cherry?). The woodwork is similar.
I am thinking that besides painting and decoupaging the furniture, adding wall art, and getting a new shade for the lamp, I really ought to paint the walls. The last time I considered that, I was thinking earth tones, because what the hell else will blend with the ugly carpet and woodwork? But I am so over the bland earth tone thing after living in this 80s house for 13 years, lemme tell you. My gold desk has helped liberate me.
So I've been looking at other people's decorating projects on the internet, and I came across this : http://norrishomeprojects.blogspot.com/2008/04/master-bedroom.html
I would never have believed *black walls* would look so awesome, but there you are. I think that's a gorgeous room, though it's too glam and deco to work for my particular style. It has me considering dark walls, though. And, y'know, I like my bedroom to be cave-like. None of this "shades thrown open to let the early morning sun in" for me. I'm thinking, gold desk, lime comforter, plum curtains--the walls ought to be...purple!
Except that in 1981, before there was even Goth, my cousin had dark purple bedroom walls and I'm not sure I can get past my association with "depressed teenager who dyes her hair black." That's not the look I'm going for either. So, wall color suggestions cheerfully entertained! Maybe a reddish-plum color? Or would that be like sleeping in a giant welt?
This non-boring non-earth-toned crap is hard, man.
xoxo
3 comments:
I don't know, black walls would get me kinda depressed. Maybe they'd look good in a club or a funky hotel room, but I wouldn't want to live with them every day. Plus absorbing all that light, you'd probably have to use twice as many lamps to be able to read, and hence your electric bill would go through the roof.
Purple, though, I could see. You know, back in the days when only rich people could afford... paint, they seemed to use a lot more colors than just some sort of white and maybe a pastel or two. How about some sort of medium/lightish purple thing rather than dark purple. Reddish-plum doesn't sound so bad either. Or maybe some kind of blue?
As for lampshades, a trip to Ikea may be in order. :)
Eh, I don't really read in bed much. Sleep and watch DVDs.
But, *as I said*, I'm not considering black. I love that room, but it's so glam and early 30's, I'd feel like I was obligated to hang around in a silk peignoir and maybe a feather boa, drinking highballs. The Old Navy pj pants and VitaminWater just wouldn't cut it. :-) (But now I'm going to have to watch The Thin Man tonight!)
Thing is, that woman whose room that is and her husband have a furniture business and do interior design, so I'm sure they probably will be changing the whole house over every five years. That's probably about the limit for the amount of time you'd want black walls.
I did find, after I wrote this blog post, a tool on behr.com where you can play with paint colors and see how they'd look in fictional rooms. I hope it's slow again in work next week, because I can see hours of that in my future.
When my daughter was 16, we let her decorate her room. What she did was confine the solid black to the chair rail. She wallpapered the wainscot area (below the rail) in white, and the walls above the rail in a random black and white wallpaper. With minimal parent labour. Ten years on the room still rocks. Shows what you can do with just the right amount of black. have you puttered with decorator software that lets you endlessly mess with a virtual room?
PS: If you can dismantle the bed it shouldn't be hard to straighten the canopy bar. Unless you want that as a souvenir.
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