Tag Archives: master bedroom

The Fabric of Our Lives

Err, well, of our someday-to-be bed quilt.

You guys know I’m not much of a sewer, but my mom is. Without her, my pillows, placemats, and owl stuffies would still just be a pin and a dream. She’s been quilting for years, and while I have wall-hangings, holiday pillow covers, and a throw made to look like a football field, I don’t yet have a queen-sized quilt for our bed. That changes now.

After much debate, I’ve decided on a pattern (see bottom right of photo), and I think I’ve selected all of the fabrics as well. Clearly, I have a thing for batiks. Gawd, I love batiks.

Oh, is there some purple in there? I hadn’t noticed that it seems to work its way into EVERYTHING in my house. Oops 🙂

And while there are hot pinky fuschia colors, I think I’ll talk them up as “merlot” and “sort of reddish-wine colors” so Tom doesn’t freak out. The man has already said he likes jewel tones, so I think I’m in the clear.

List-O-Mania

I don’t know about you, but I love making lists. In the Notes app on my iPhone. Especially when Tom & I are driving to work (we carpool; he drives), running errands, or in those moments when I can’t fall asleep because I have too many thoughts running through my head. During our 13 hour car ride back from Florida, I made a lot of lists. Tom gets carsick if he’s not driving, so he drove the ENTIRE 750 miles home. And I spent those miles reading the September issue of HGTV magazine, and coming up with countless ideas and projects for our house. The best way that I could think of to soothe my racing mind was to create room-by-room lists.

I am sharing these with you in an effort to help 1.) Turn some of these ideas into reality. Decorating is like dieting. If you tell people what your goals are, you’re more likely to follow through and stick to it. Right?? 2.) Have a back-up, just in case I lose my iPhone or accidentally hit delete!

Obviously, there are more rooms in our house than are listed here. But I’m starting with the ones that seem reasonable and realistic.

Family Room:

– Gallery wall above small bookshelf; maybe small wall of photos between TV and stairs (MUST make progress on this soon! I should probably give myself a deadline…)

– Add a basket/something to stash pillows and throws

– Buy a rug for the corner where the piano will go

– Have piano moved from my parent’s house

– Accent table needed between cream leather occasional chairs

– Paint! (this is on the books for early 2013!!)

– Crown molding

– Frame out windows or build cornice boxes

– Eventually… would love a pouf! And a new coffee table and end table

Kitchen:

– Add a tile backsplash

– Paint!! (also early 2013)

– Install under-cabinet lighting

– Crown molding

– Considering a fun, modern wall-paper on the wall underneath our island, that faces our family room

– Eventually… would love custom blown-glass pendant lights.

Master Bedroom:

– Dressing table and chair

– Armchair (and ottoman?)

– New bedding

– Art / photos for walls

– New lamps for our nightstands

– Crown molding?

– Custom closet system

Library/Office:

– Built-in shelving and window seat

– Window seat cushion and pillows

– Frame out window

– Crown molding

– New desk & desk chair

– Hang art

– Feature wall for quilts (my mom is a quilter; she’s made me some cute, sentimental and “inside joke” quilts over the years and I need a way to display them!)

Now, the fun part will be seeing how many of these we can actually accomplish! Is it silly to admit that I’m nervous?!!?

Weekly Wishlist: Blingy Bedroom

Given the recent fashion trend toward “flashy neutrals” (which I’m completely in love with, by the way), I figured why not apply this same attitude to home decor? I’ve been dreaming of a flashy neutral master bedroom makeover for a while. Metallics, especially in bedding collections, seem so chic and calming, and I can’t imagine anything more perfect than falling into a cool, crisp, shimmering bed after a long day at work.

We were roaming through Macy’s Home department over the weekend when I spotted this collection. I love these tone-on-tone interlocking rings:

And then I nearly made a scene over this shimmery white collection by Martha Stewart. The floral-y inspired print on the duvet is embroidered with a silvery metallic thread. I highly suggest clicking on the link so you can zoom in on this one. The pillow shams in the very back feature a delicate lacy-like detail that is absolutely beautiful. I think my dreams would truly be sweeter if I laid my head down on these pillows every night!!

We’re not really in the market for a whole new bedding collection, but maybe we could swing a metallic armchair like this one. (I’ve seen this pop up recently on Joss and Main!)

If all else fails, how about some new hardware for a dresser or nightstand?

Best Dresser-est

After my recent crafting adventure, I had the itch to do more plate- and bowl-painting. So I thought I’d paint up a few pieces to keep my perfumes organized.

I picked up a variety of white porcelain appetizer-sized plates and small dip bowls at Pier 1 (the bowls were $1-$2 each! can’t beat that!). I chose to use silver paint leftover from my last project.

Loving polka dots right now!

And the look of a gilded the edge on a small scalloped bowl…

Here are a few “glamour shots” of the finished products:

They add a nice touch of “bling” to my dresser. We’re kind of at an impasse about how to decorate our bedroom, so in the meantime, I’ll just accessorize with a few little things!

House Tour – Part 3

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Saturday. It’s very hot here in southwestern Ohio, so it seemed like a good day to stay inside and finish our home tour! We’ve covered the first floor, now it’s on to the second!

At the top of the stairs, we have a “bonus” room, or a game room, as it was called on the floorplan brochure. We have yet to play games in it, though. Right now, it’s largely empty, with the exception of an elliptical, some free weights, a balance ball, and a bookshelf. So I guess you could say it’s a workout room. We’re planning on moving all of our workout equipment to the basement eventually, but for now, it does a nice job of filling up one corner of this room!

Across from the bonus room is Tom’s office. I would bet that this room will never get decorated unless I decide it needs to be done, haha! Although, Tom did hang his diploma on the wall already!

Then we have two completely empty bedrooms. I didn’t bother taking pictures of those, since there’s nothing to see! There’s a hall bathroom for the bedrooms to share, and then our laundry room (yes! on the second floor! it’s amazing!)

And at the end of the hallway is the master bedroom.

We have a walk-in closet that I’m pretty sure we could fit a bed into if we needed to! There’s a lot that we could do with this space someday. Custom closet system, anyone?

We each have our own vanity in the bathroom. Initially, I thought it was strange that the soaking tub bisected the sink area. But now that we’re moved in, I really like this layout – we don’t clutter up each other’s space with hair, toothpaste, etc.

We also have a full basement. It looks like a typical basement right now, full of concrete, bad lighting, boxes and dead bugs. Maybe someday, in 10 years, we’ll finish it off!

Just to round it all out, or to give you a better sense of the layout, here’s a snapshot of our floorplan. It’s not 100% accurate – the game room dimensions are the same as the family room beneath it, but this should give you a sense of the flow of our home!

First Floor

Second Floor

And that does it for our Home Tour! We have so many cool ideas, we barely know where to start. I think I’m going to start a tradition of doing a virtual home tour every year to see how each room will change and evolve as we settle in and start a family – and as our decorating tastes change, too!