My Big Fat Bedroom Makeover



Holy shit, you guys: I actually made over my bedroom instead of just blogging about it and then failing miserably to realize my ambitions! This is mostly due to the fact that this was a work project—one in a series of "editor makeovers." Mine went up on Lonny.com last week, and I 'grammed and 'fbooked about it then, but this is your chance to get all the juicy behind the scenes details—of which there are none. But let's pretend, shall we?

First things first: the bedroom "before." One wall was the most tragic shade of pink, there were no window treatments, the bed was a foul beast...it just wasn't pretty. I had the big dream to go really bold with color since my last bedroom was a white box. White worked there because I got such great light, but this space, despite having two windows, is a lot darker. The decorating M.O. had to be tweaked.

For awhile I'd been toying with the idea of a red bedroom, thinking specifically of designer Nick Olsen's old apartment, but the shade was uniformly dismissed by my colleagues. I was also really tempted to go gray after seeing the interior of Gris, an antiques shop in Hudson, NY, painted Benjamin Moore's Kendall Charcoal. Tempted...but not convinced. I ended up springing for Stiffkey Blue, a dark blue from Farrow & Ball with gray-green undertones. I think. From certain angles. Whatever, I like it. See for yourself, below.


You can read all of the nitty gritty over on Lonny, but the long and the short of it is: blue! Everywhere! And bedding and rug and art, oh my! The space ended up being a lot more worldly than my last room, and a good bit less "Brooklyn-y"—more in line with the inspirations I shared. I was able to work in a lot of my antiques and stuff I've picked up while traveling to create a few moments, not to mention lots of tiny plants in tiny ceramic dishes.

I worked with In Bed to dress my low-profile West Elm bed. The headboard is a piece of plywood upholstered in a vintage fabric and the indigo quilt is from Coming Soon; the throw pillows I bought at Hammer And Spear in LA. The whole package has a distinctly zen vibe, and I think I read somewhere that low furniture is more inviting than really tall furniture? All I know is that the height of everything is dictated by how wonky the walls are—none of them are flat and straight. Both of the walls in the photo above are angled in (note the dormer windows) so I can't easily hang art on them or, you know, anything else. In a perfect world I might have a tall floor lamp in that far corner, but in the meantime I put my tulip table there, covered in African mudcloth to blend in a little better with the bedding.


I bought new art for the lefthand side table to really define that area beneath the window. It's a Saul Lishinsky sketch I got at (say it with me now) the Brooklyn Flea, from dealer Brian Cousins, one half of the duo behind Hollander & Lexer. Cousins has the most incredible stall at the Flea, with a ton more sketches by Lishinsky and a drool-inducing assortment of curios and objets. In addition to the art I bought vintage boro fabric and an antique Indian tikka box. The staggered Chinese stools are antiques from Home Stories, a totally gorgeous shop in Brooklyn Heights.

For the window treatments I went really trad, opting for Rose Tarlow's Tatton Stripe in Paper Bag for a pair of roman shades. The light fixture is Tom Dixon, the flowers were done by Saffron and the art in the far corner is a portrait of Christ by self-taught Colombian painter Guillermo Vega, who'll get a dedicated post later this week.

I would show the desk area, but I feel like it's not really done yet. It's pretty much the same as it looks here. Speaking of which, that chair is going to be ready in a week or two and I'll have a post about that, which is kind of amazing. The other half of the room, where I dream of putting my mid-century console, is basically not done at all. In theory, it will look something like this:
But...we'll see. I have no more monies and, at the end of the day, am not sure how much more work I feel like putting into a rented room, especially when I've already made so many major changes to the space. In my last room, though I just installed drapery, it felt like the whole year flew by and I was taking stuff down right after it'd been put up. Le sigh.

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I've been doing a lot of decor shopping online lately, natch, and I feel like there are a few details I've left out here...products I really like, etc., but I've rounded up some recent finds that I think are worth checking out, and there's always more where that came from on Pinterest.
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