Thinking about the mood I wanted to evoke in my bedroom, I decided to carry through a more relaxed iteration of the feeling in my entire apartment: creative, vivid, organic-inflected geometry inspired by the Wiener Werkstatte and art deco. Really, what I was looking for was a place as suited to strange and wonderful dreams as to a good night’s sleep. And this is what I came up with, thus far:
I decided that I wanted to evoke a mood of whimsy and lightness around the bed, playing with color contrast, texture and sheen. The experimentation began with the bed itself. It's a California King I modified to fit a queen size mattress by inserting the planks of lumber you see around the perimeter. Painted a beachy shade of green, they can be changed out and repainted or restained any time. The steel sculpture at the foot of the bed is actually going to be attached to the center of the frame to play up the modernity of the stainless steel bed frame.
The persimmon orange color brought in by the Semikolon boxes was really key here. It's such a rich color and so unexpected--and when I'm tired of it, it won't be difficult to replace. I love how it plays against the black walnut color of the nightstands and again, the sense of ordered geometry is really pleasurable.
I am an unabashed Dwell Studio enthusiast. The saffron color of the bedding was both inspiring and challenging--it's a lot of yellow to work with. For balance, I use a violet-grey fitted sheet that peaks out and two deeply textured throw pillows. I also like the way the wall mural's blue-grey tone subdues the mustard tones that come out in the bedding.
Because the bed is so low, I really wanted to bring interest to the floor level. The throw rugs on either side side of the bed have a deep, soft pebble texture and the ceramic pebbles at the foot of the bed are tongue-in-cheek nod to that. There's also a hunk of agate so I like to think of the space as 'a walk amongst stones.'
Conversely, because of the lowness of the furnishings, I wanted something to draw the eye up the wall as well. I settled on a simple mural that is a little deco, a little Mondrian and yet organic and imperfect. I wanted something that was a remnant found in a 20's home, not something crisp. After considering a bunch of different paint colors, I decided to go with this cool blue-grey to reflect the rug color and add a soothing touch to the space.
Impressions? Questions? Please let me know in the comments.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
That is AWESOME!
Love the wall mural. Love the whole look – totally unique and suave.
Thanks so much. That means a lot coming from someone who is beautifully creative.
The blue-grey on the wall is the perfect compement to the yellow on the bed. I love it!
I get a warm and fuzzy feeling looking at the pictures. Your bedroom is beautiful. Keep up the good work!
OKay, fur realz. WHen did you spiff up your blog? It looks soooooooo good. I love the layout, your right column categories and the new banner. And I’m finally getting your photographs in my GoogleReader. YES! Oh oh… the post, well…
I think this is so freakin’ awesome. Girl, you’ve got talent. Like real talent. Your bedroom is totally awesome, fresh and chic and humble and real all together. I love the Semikolon boxes in the nightstands, you’re bedding is gorgeous and impeccable, the mural is totally kick-ass, and I am drooling over the floor sculptures. Who ever thought to put small sculptures in a place like that? Well, obviously you did, but man… I’m totally floored right now. Sorry for the gushing applause.
I love the way you’ve paired the colors, textures and shapes.
The grey blue wall color is great….what paint color is it?
Jesse Lu,
I am all ablush. I really thank you for your lovely words and praise. It’s honestly a relief to know that people besides my Stockholm Syndrome-addled hubby see what I was trying to accomplish in this space. I’ve worked terribly hard to balance all of the elements and though I don’t mind failure, a little success feels good.
And thank you for the compliments on the blog–I updated everything in July painfully slowly (the logo was created by hand in Microsoft Paint) and I am looking at how to expand the functionality and ease of use. So glad you like the new look!
Wanda,
Thanks so much. The grey color is high gloss Space Dust from Behr’s Disney Colors collection. To add some more dimensionality to the color (which can definitely look flat) I added highlights with Eeyore’s Rain Cloud, a pale coordinating color, also from Behr Disney Colors.
Sorry but this is a disappointment. Not the design but the ‘affordability.’ Dwell is expensive and you’ve got a $300 duvet, designer lamps, a custom bed and the SemiKolon stuff is like $40/box. It could be under a grand but doesn’t seem affordable.
Babaganoush,
I have to apologize for not responding sooner but thanks for the comment. I appreciate your skepticism and so I am going to source / price everything in the room. The Dwell duvet is regularly $300 but I scored it at Bluefly for about $65. The Semikolon boxes were likewise onsale at Horchow / Neiman Marcus for about $9 / box, though you are usually correct that they are expensive. My custom bed is a stainless steel West Elm bed that I adapted. I actually chose the California King size because it was only $225 when I purchased it. The area rugs are actually bath rugs that I bought for $9 a piece. Each of the Ikea Kulla lamps was $50 (ouch) but the Ikea nightstands were each only $15 plus the cost of stain. In total, I think the remaining accessories were about $60. The paint for the wall mural was left over from an earlier project.
{ 2 trackbacks }