My oldest daughter’s bedroom (a work in process)

My oldest daughter’s bedroom is a comfortable and inviting space (and so much nicer than my room as a teenager!), but there are still a few items that need to be selected.  In general, I have taken a low key approach to my kids rooms. They are slowly coming together over time, with input from each child based on their likes and their personalities.   I thought I would work through my remaining thoughts on this room (perhaps to spur me into action)….so this post does not contain any ‘after’ photos! Hopefully that will come soon.

My oldest daughter has spartan taste and is pretty low key about décor. Her main request was to have blue walls – so we selected Farrow & Ball borrowed light, which is a truly beautiful shade of blue.  Her room is north facing and gets very soft natural light.  F&B borrowed light looks wonderful in the day and night (at night, the gray undertones come out) and is neither too babyish nor too sophisticated.

 

We have purchased very few new items for this room. The chair and a half came from our old family room. The furniture on the wall (only the edge can be seen in this photo) is Ethan Allen circa 1980s – it was in my sister-in-law’s room as a teenager. My daughter is very attached to it and displays all of her music awards and camp memorabilia in it, as well as a collection of snow globes.  The bedside tables were in the master bedroom in our old house, and the iron lamps were from a sample sale at the Mart (I liked the lampshades, which are made of antique music sheets). The watercolor was the very first painting I ever purchased – I love it as much as I did when I first saw it. 

My architect designed the built in corner desk for the room. The room is a somewhat unusual shape, as it is fit into both the roofline and a juncture of the house. The built in desk is my daughter’s favorite feature of the room; she a sophomore in high school, so she spends much of her time studying at that desk!  The desk chair is from IKEA. Keith Arnold designed the roman shades, which are white linen with a tape trim by Samuel & Sons. 

The most significant purchase for this room was the area rug, which we bought right away as the room has hardwood floors, and quite a bit of floor space; a rug was needed to warm things up. Many of my area rugs (as well as my stair runners) were ordered from John Horton at Underfoot Design.  His showroom is located just outside interstate 285 in Atlanta (John can brings samples and selections to your home or business in the greater Metro Atlanta area), and his prices are excellent. He has a large selection of in stock items, can source just about any line imaginable, and has the best installers in town.  John also specializes in hardwood floor selection and installation.

I picked out this geometric pattern by Stanton, as it has the color my daughter wanted (light blue) and she really liked the pattern. Although it is hard to see in this picture, there is a small amount of a flax color accenting the center of the squares/diamonds in the carpet threads.

So now on to the bed.  My daughter wants an upholstered head board, and given that the room has so much built in cabinetry, I think this will soften up the room and make it feel more finished (headboards always do that, don’t you think?).  I have been collecting images of headboards on Pinterest (see my headboard inspiration board here, my bedroom inspiration board here), and it has become clear that my daughter gravitates towards tufted headboards.

Here are some of the style candidates that we are considering:

I have seen quite a few headboard with this style – tall and tufted, with a distinct edge on the left and right. This is a king size, so the tall design works well.

I just saw this one on the House of Turquoise, design by Beach Glass Designs. Gray is very on trend for bedrooms and headboards now.  This is a similar style to the first picture.

A squared off headboard in a simpler style. I think the height of this headboard is just right. It appears to be a queen size.

This one caught my eye – tufted, but with a gentle camelback curve. The nail head trim is a great detail.

A bedroom by Phoebe Howard, the master of bedroom design. I love the feminine design of the headboard. It might be a bit fanciful for my daughter, but it certainly is beautiful. Note how the platform is also tufted.

A pretty design by Griffin Balsbaugh Interiors, via House of Turquoise.  This picture also caught my eye because it is a blue bedroom, with blue fabric on the headboard. The color scheme of this room looks similar to that of my daughter’s room (although the fact that the rug is off white creates a different balance of the whites and the blues).  Given that my daughter’s rug has so much blue, I have the feeling that the fabric on her headboard should either be the white of the roman shades, or pick up the flax accent in the rug.  The style of this headboard is great – the double nail head trim is a nice touch. The tailored bed skirt is similar to what we will be doing.

My daughter likes this style and shape of this headboard – clipped curved edges, tufted with a border. She is not wild about nail head trim, however. Also, this style might be a bit high for her, although the advantage of the height is that the tufting detail can clearly be seen.  This also appears to be a queen size bed, so is a good comparison for proportions. Via Pinterest, source unknown.

Overall, this is my favorite inspiration picture. I love the shape and style – it still has a defined border, but none of the nail heads that don’t appeal to my daughter. I might go somewhat in between the height of this one and the height of the picture before this.  Design by Collins Interiors.

My daughter initially wanted a blue headboard, but is now leaning towards the same white linen that is used in the roman shades. Another option is to pick up on the flax color that is an accent in the rug.  The white linen is being discontinued so we need to act fast if this is the direction we will take!  We will have a custom tailored  bed skirt made to match the headboard.

So, what do you think? What’s your favorite style headboard?  What color do you think that the headboard should be?  What height do you think?  Opinions are welcome!

Favorite design and architecture books of 2013: http://www.thingsthatinspire.net/2013/12/books-from-2013.html

2013 books on my Christmas list: http://www.thingsthatinspire.net/2013/11/books-for-my-christmas-list-2013.html

2012 books on my Christmas list: http://www.thingsthatinspire.net/2012/11/books-for-my-christmas-list.html    

2011 books on my Christmas list: http://www.thingsthatinspire.net/2011/12/my-book-list-christmas-2011.html

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Front doors

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I love the idea of a prominent front door, carefully considered as a key element of the design of a house.  One of my favorite architectural design books, A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, has some interesting notes on the front door or main entrance:

Place the main entrance of the building at a point where it can be seen immediately from the main avenues of approach and give it a bold, visible shape which stands out in front of the building.

I like giving a front door a bold, visible color.  Some of the most memorable doors to me are the ones where the homeowner has made a statement.  The perfect example – the door of Miles Redd, which is a custom color that took many color combinations to derive:

This door is so highly custom – it looks like the hardware was selected first, then the door was designed to frame the hardware.  Image source.

 

There is something so endearing about this image (Miles Redd’s door again) with the iconic front door seen in the context of the entire building. The door is placed to the side – characteristic of the brownstone style – with 8 windows and the door as the ninth opening, it’s interesting to note that the third floor windows are not quite as wide as the first and second floor windows, making the shutters a bit more narrow.  Also interesting to note how the shutters on different windows seem to have a latch that connects them.  Image source.

House Beautiful has a great feature on picking the right color for your front door, with thoughts and advice from a dozen designers.  House Beautiful deems changing the color of your front door “the easiest of makeovers” and encourages readers to go bold in order to make a great first impression. (Image above is folly green by Farrow & Ball, selected by Kathryn Ireland).

We have spent months testing out colors for our new front door; as soon as the front door went in back in March, we had samples up there (initially we had Farrow & Ball vert de terre and French gray as our two samples).  We all feel that green would be a great choice for the door, but green is a tricky shade.  An additional challenge is that the door gets no sun until mid afternoon, so it looks entirely different in the morning and the afternoon.  Most shades of green we have tested look good either in the morning or the afternoon, but not both.

The upper right is SW Privilege green, which is a great shade but looks very dark and dull unless it has light shining on it.  The upper part of the left is a Benjamin Moore color that I can’t recall, and the lower part of the upper section is Farrow & Ball Chappell green, a vibrant green-blue.  The middle of the left is Farrow & Ball blue gray, which actually translates as a green blue.  There are four F&B colors across the bottom – pigeon, lichen, blue gray, and vert de terre.

We are going to try a full coat of Chappell green, simply because we think that the door needs the deeper value of the upper right sample, but a color that will pop a bit.   Although we had previously rejected F&B vert de terre, now I am wondering whether it might be a shade to try if Chappell green ends up being too much. Vert de terre is more subtle.  As far as colors go, F&Bl blue gray is perhaps my favorite color, but it might be too soft and subdued in this application and look too similar to the trim.  My builder finds it amusing that out of all of the thousands of decisions that have gone into this house, it is the front door color that has stumped me – but the good news is that it is only paint, so we can try something and change it if the color doesn’t work.


While writing this post, I came across a wonderful blog post on ‘The Language of Doors, Part I’, by the blog Heirloom Philosophy.  The post is full of inspiring images and quotes on doors and their place in interior and exterior design . (Part II is a great read too, all about interior doors). 

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Vermicelli

Something that never fails to inspire me is the random pattern that Farrow & Ball calls 'Vermicelli'. It is based on an 18th century textile, and the name translates literally to 'little worm'. Here in Atlanta, we are fortunate that one of the Benjamin Moore dealers now carries Farrow & Ball's full line of paint and wallpapers. I have a few samples of F&B Vermicelli, but this week I was able to look at the entire wallpaper book and I was amazed at the number of colorways of this beautiful pattern - 61 in total. Here are a few of my favorites (seeing them framed up like this gives me an idea...a series of framed vermicelli samples would look great!).

A few weeks ago, I saw a pillow in a store with fabric that looked identical to F&B's vermicelli. Does anyone know who makes this? I would love a pillow or two in this fabric. I think the pattern is truly transitional - somewhere between contemporary and traditional.

This picture above caught my eye when I was cleaning out my files. The windows have a lovely Jim Thompson silk ("Escape") in a very vermicelli like pattern, and the artwork on the walls (from Ty Stokes Gallery) repeats the random pattern beautifully. The room is by Suzanne Kasler, in a lake house she designed. The house had a decidely retro feel to it.

Atlanta's Carolyn Carr also paints with the soft, chaotic lines that I gravitate to (above).

One of my all time favorites, Rana Rochat (above), also has those random curving shapes.


I discovered Elliott Puckette through the blog world (I actually posted one of her works on my blog, and a reader identified it), and her style has the graceful, sinous lines that I love.

Finally, although I have already discussed my love for Barbara Barry and her lovely calligraphy themed art in many a post, there is certainly a reason for my fascination with this style.