Jane's House: The Master Bedroom

Jane's House as of April 20, 2011

Editor's Note: This post is the second in a series detailing the design of my sister's new house. If you missed last week's installment for Jane's study, go HERE.

Well, the construction of Jane and P.W.'s house continues at a quick pace -- indeed, the exterior is all but finished, the drywall is up and the flooring is going down. As they've set a closing date for the end of the month, I'm going to redouble my efforts to finish the decorating plans for a few key rooms. This week, we'll be focusing on their master bedroom.

                            

The master bedroom is generously sized at 14' x 16', with a nice bay window overlooking the backyard, which will make for a lovely seating area for reading and relaxing. Like many couples, Jane and P.W. are looking for a balance of masculine and feminine, warm and cool tones and all on a strict budget! Moreover, they already have a nice bedroom set and are hoping to get a new look without investing in new furniture. Fortunately, this means I'll be working with some great basics that can act as the foundation for our new design.

Jane and P.W.'s existing bedroom furniture are from Pottery Barn's Valencia bedroom furniture line, whose classic yet clean lined pieces are stained a dark mahogany, as well as an existing white armchair and ottoman. These pieces are the perfect transitional building blocks and will add weight and balance to the lighter, more eclectic accessories and small furniture items that we'll be layering in to create depth, interest and personality.

Jane has her heart set on this soft modern Ikat print duvet set from DwellStudio. It's palette of grey-blue, greige and sand will be the jumping off point for the room. We'll pull out the cool grey-blue with the sheets a throw pillow for the white chair and the warmer greige for the walls, painting the room in Farrow & Ball's Elephant Breath, a color with interest and depth that goes way above simple beige.

The next layer will come in with accessories. The first task will be to swap out the simple oil-rubbed bronze knobs on the dresser and side tables with some gorgeous mercury glass knobs from Anthropologie. Yes, they're a splurge when buying in bulk, but they'll completely transform the pieces, bringing in the more ornate, traditional elements that Jane is so drawn to. 

Next, because this is a bedroom, I didn't want to get too crazy with color and pattern, opting instead to create interest by varying textures and materials. As the main furniture pieces are dark wood (as the floors will be), I wanted to create some balance with lighter accessories. A pair of alabaster table lamps bring in a classic material, while the modern silhouette echoes the simple lines of the furniture. A bone mirror over the long dresser will add interest and a feminine touch. A bone side table repeats the material over in the seating area, where we'll also add a leggy chair with a feminine print (in a not-so-feminine grey) to balance out the larger, skirted armchair. A small garden stool next to it will bring in a touch of metallic.

So here's the look all put together:--

Source list:

Elephant's Breath Paint (Farrow & Ball)

Valencia Sleigh Bed (Pottery Barn)

Emile Lamp (Crate & Barrel)

Mercury Glass Melon Knob (Anthropologie)

Valencia Side Table (Pottery Barn)

Round Bone Mirror (Wisteria)

Valencia Dresser (Pottery Barn)

Carly Chair (Crate & Barrel)

PB Basic Armchair (Pottery Barn)

Dotted Trellis Azure Pillow (DwellStudio)

Chinese Garden Stool (Wisteria)

Chenille Jute Basketweave Rug (Pottery Barn)

Pintuck Azure Sheets (DwellStudio)

Batavia Dove Duvet Set (DwellStudio)

Bone Side Table (West Elm)

Jane's House: The Study

Today we're kicking off the design of Jane's house with her study, which will be in a 12' x 11' bedroom on the second floor of their new home. The room itself is fairly standard, though there is a lovely large West-facing window that we'll be playing up with some wonderful draperies. As this room will be primarily Jane's, we decided to go for a slightly more feminine look and play up the traditional-meets-bohemian look that feels just a bit English: think prep meets paisley. It's warm and comfortable, but still a little bit dressed up. Jane also requested a warmer color palette, professing a love for golds, oranges and reds. Of course, P.W. has declared an affinity for blues and grays, meaning that (as is so often the case), the decorator must put on her mediator cap and find a way to make both parties happy.

So where to begin? Well, I always like to find a rug or a fabric that really ties a room together; something that combines all the colors of the room into one fantastic print. From there, you can simply pull out wall colors and accent colors with ease. While I found this rug actually midway through the design process, I immediately knew it was the perfect piece to pull what had been disparate pieces together into a coherent design. Aside from the great color palette of sage green, orange, red-orange and slate blue, the large-scale floral pattern with its slightly raised pile reminds me of crewel work, lending it the sort of traditional-meets-bohemian vibe that I was going for. What makes this even better: at $329 (less a 25% discount we scored thanks to Horchow's frequent sales) for a 5' x 8', the rug is a good buy.

Next up are the fabric selections. Since Jane is a fan of warmer, earthier tones, I decided to pull out the rich orange in the rug as the primary accent color, with warm shades of chocolate brown and sand to keep the room grounded. The Moroccan-style tile print of the draperies is open, airy and fairly neutral, but still interesting. We'll pick up on the more exotic prints with an ikat print in two colorways of coral and sand. The bolder coral will go on the desk chair, while both colors will be made into throw pillows for the daybed (the one existing piece that's going into the room). Finally, a simple sand and chocolate ticking stripe will add a masculine, geometric touch to the space as another print for the pillows. Besides, I'm of the opinion that a room is never truly finished without some sort of stripe.

To balance the warm tones of all the fabrics, I decided to pull out the slate blue in the rug for the wall color (Benjamin Moore's Santorini Blue). Not only does the contrast of cooler walls with warmer fabrics and furniture create a more interesting room, but it also serves another key purpose: it brings in P.W.'s beloved blue-gray, ensuring his tastes are reflected in the room as well. Now that we've selected the color palette and fabrics, it's time to pull everything together:

As I noted, the only existing furniture we're working with is the West Elm daybed. We'll keep with the chocolate brown finish for the other major furniture pieces as well, selecting clean, modern furniture with simple lines and smaller foot prints to suit the dimensions of the room. Jane originally was attracted to a sawhorse-style desk she saw in a Ballard Designs catalogue; however, P.W. requested a glass-top desk, so we found this one on sale at Pottery Barn for under $300 that combines the glass-top with the open, sawhorse-style that Jane was so attracted to in the other piece. I opted for a simple Parsons-style chair (with slightly flared front legs, which lends it a bit more grace and femininity) upholstered in a vivid orange ikat -- just as comfortable, and infinitely more attractive than an ugly office chair. 

To make up for the lack of storage, I selected a small filing cabinet from West Elm (that can also pull double duty as a side table) and some West Elm woven storage boxes in creams and slate blues add texture and are pretty enough to leave out. On the other side of the daybed, a vibrant orange table adds interest and color and breaks up all the dark brown furniture. A vintage-style task lamp from Pottery Barn adds a bit of antique flavor and interest.

Source List:

Firenze Embroidered Panel in Chocolate (Ballard Designs)
Malabar Fabric in Sand and Coral (Ballard Designs)
Ticking Stripe in Chocolate/Cream (Mod Green Pod)
Woven Storage Boxes (West Elm)

Modular File Cabinet (West Elm)

Upholstered Couture Chair in Malabar Coral (Ballard Designs)

Photographer's Task Table Lamp (Pottery Barn)

Ava Desk (Pottery Barn)

Martini Side Table in Persimmon (West Elm)

Vanessa Rug (Horchow)

Santorini Blue by Benjamin Moore

Of course, I'll post pictures once the room is finished (should be sometime in June), but in the meantime we'll continue to search for a few fun accessories and art to really make the space sing.

Jane's House

Jane's House (as of April 15, 2011)

I know it may feel like I have abandoned you, but I promise I have not. Indeed, I've been hard at work on a new project (and a series here on Odi et Amo) -- Jane's House! My sister and her husband P.W. are designing and building a new home in the greater Houston area (right near me, in fact!) and I'm both honored and excited that they've asked for my help in decorating a few of the rooms.

While the house is still under construction, we're already starting to plan how to decorate it -- after all, that's the fun part, right? Jane and P.W. are almost doubling the square footage of their last home, so they'll be needing quite a bit of new stuff to fill the house. So, while several rooms will remain largely empty for the time being, they'd still like a few rooms to be "done" enough to feel like home. And, of course, since this is reality, they're also on a budget.

The Floor Plan

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be laying out some ideas for my sister on a few key rooms: her study, the master bedroom, P.W.'s media room (i.e., his pride and joy) and the open concept living room/kitchen. Throughout this process, my goals remain three-fold: to keep my "clients" happy, to stay within their budget and to demonstrate that great design can indeed come at an affordable price and from accessible sources (i.e., everything will come from "big box" stores -- no trade-only here!).

Stay tuned for the first installment next week: Jane's study! In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!