Several factors have made me particularly interested in re-doing rooms in our house recently. Let's go through them backwards:
- Just got married. Just got a bunch of really nice stuff from Crate and Barrel and Macy's for wedding gifts. Also got quite a few gift cards to IKEA, West Elm, Crate and Barrel, etc. that we are SO excited to use. Hopefully this weekend.
- Just got married. Equals, haven't had any spare time to spend on the house since we moved in in February. There are half-painted walls in three rooms. It's bad. Now, I am thrilled to have spare time on my hands! Weekends, anyone?! I haven't had a partially free weekend since like May!
- Just got married. Feeling an obligation to be more grown-up somehow, and live in less of a college student-ey or high school girl-ey place. Not that our home is either of those, but it could use some growing up, I think. We don't have a whole lot of quality stuff since I love to use thrifted pieces, and that's great, but I'm ready to mix in the nicer stuff.
- Just got married. Have more time to stare at Pinterest. Aaaaaaahhhhh... inspiration.
This weekend we're hoping to spend some of our gift cards from the wedding, and maybe at least prioritize house projects. On the front of my mind is painting the bedroom. Yes, I
just painted our bedroom. In this house. But I don't like it. I want to paint it a pale grey, and still need to design the rest of it. Here are some inspirations...
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| Alicia Parsons |
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| Domino |
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| Design*Sponge |
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| House 36 |
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| Modern Jane |
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| Nuevo Estilo |
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| Material Girls LA |
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| West Elm |
I love looking through my old design inspiration files. It's like reading a magazine full only of pictures I like!
Although I'm still having a design crisis for the bedroom. I'm having a hard time balancing between modern, funky, and classic lines. I want to blend them all, with the pale grey walls and some bright colors and neutrals, but am having a hard time picturing it all when I don't necessarily have all the pieces yet. Any thoughts or ideas on starting nearly from scratch with just a wall color in mind?
I wish you could search
Pinterest for "grey walled bedrooms" and find all of them, even if they're not titled as such!
Are you familiar with Devine Color paint? I also live in Portland, and I swear by the stuff. My bedroom walls are a pale greyish color,but since I used Devine Color, they change color depending on the light. Sometimes the walls look greenish, sometimes blueish, sometimes lavendarish, etc. They're always grey, but the undertone changes. From what I understand, the paint line was developed specifically for the Pacific Northwest, and uses a grey base instead of the usual white. As a result, it plays off of our (sometimes gloomy) light. You can buy 8"x11" pages of sprayed-on paint colors, or little sample packets to paint a good-sized test area on your wall, which is good with paint that randomly (magically?) changes color.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I mention this is not because I have any interest in the paint company--which I do not but kinda wish I did-- but because I use the various undertones as inspiration for the decor. As a result, the bedding, artwork, etc. in my bedroom are all based on the walls, but nothing is too matchy-matchy. Everything is based on a neutral, stone-ish pallette, except for pops of a kind of burnt orange color here and there to add interest. It's really quite peaceful and cozy feeling, as a bedroom should be. And it really helps pull everything together in a more "grownup" way.
Btw, I totally know what you mean about the more grownup, less collegey home thing. A couple months ago I went through the house and got rid of a bunch of furniture I deemed "too immature." I don't recommend doing this until you have the replacements picked out. Otherwise you might end up using a stool as a bedside table for longer than you'd care to admit (cough cough).
Ooo...I love all of these! Especially the monogrammed pillows against the upholstered headboard, and the curtains around the bed. I can't wait until after our wedding so I can really start decorating! I've lived in a lot of apartments where I couldn't paint walls, but was always dying to decorate. I went through a long stage of loving high-contrast with pops of color and usually got my inspiration from a single poster or picture. My advice for "starting from scratch" would be to find a piece of artwork you like (music poster, modern art, nature photograph, painting, etc), and to start pulling colors from the art and collecting them on paint chips (keep them on a keychain or in your wallet so you can take them everywhere!). Use those to help pick out accessories, curtains, and everything else. The last two photos are good examples of this method since the pictures hanging on the wall seem to match the overall room so well. Good luck! Can't wait to see what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteMy thought would be to find the paint color that you really love and carry that paint chip with you to buy some fabric element. I guess you could use something else, but I'm a fabric person. So, take it with you to buy the fabric for your curtains or for a duvet or accent pillows. Once you have a piece of fabric with a few more colors, bringing together the rest of the room will flow more naturally.
ReplyDeleteWe just painted our bedroom pale grey and it was difficult! I don't know if you'll have this problem, but we tried so many different colors that were all supposed to be grey but ended up blue, purple, etc when painted on our walls. What I ended up doing was taking the colors we had already bought and mixing them myself with some acrylic paints I had until I got the perfect neutral color. Then I got it paint matched with an accent base instead of the light base-- it matched the color better. I love it now but it was a pain! Anyway, I love your inspiration pics and your wedding photos look amazing! I'm jealous that you made your dress- it's beautiful. Good luck redecorating!
ReplyDeleteI just painted our bedroom a light gray, surprising my fiance who was out of the country last week. I used Valspar's Voyage, it's kind of on the blue side of gray but it matches our new comforter perfectly. Blogged about it yesterday if you want to see the finished product! I got our comforter at Target, we had picked it out for our registry but I really wanted to do a bedroom makeover before our wedding next June!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ideas!! I'm so excited.
ReplyDelete@Elisa, your room sounds beautiful... I have heard of Devine paint, pretty cool that it's designed for the Northwest!
@Kelsey, wow, that sounds like a lot of hard work! Glad it worked out. Hope we get a good basic grey to start with!
Lots of you have pale grey bedrooms! Glad I'm not alone! I love seeing pics so leave me links if you have them!