Giving a room soul
Thank you thank you and thank you for all your lovely responses to possible classes in NY I will let you know as soon as a project I am working on gets officially confirmed and then we can sort out dates. So the builders leave today yay - the dust and general mess around the place has been unreal and putting those big old heavy boards dragged up from the River Stour I recently brought on a wall sent them over the edge. It didn't help when I mentioned that maybe instead of having them horizontally across the wall we could try vertically? It took them 8 hours to cut down and nail up and on that comment they immediately walked out, so guessing that's a no then. Oh well!
Down to business so today I thought we would discuss bedrooms. Sorry guys as its my latest project I am obsessed and believe it or not I have never had a cool bedroom. Itâs always been the most neglected room in the house, criminal I know. Somewhere I crash at the end of the day and zoom out of first thing in the morning. Never wanted to lie in bed and read a novel or the weekend papers or drink coffee as itâs always felt a neglected room until now. Providing of course I like my newly clad wall which strangely isn't making me want to dance for joy right now can't figure out why, possibly its the contrast between newly plastered light walls and dark wood - don't know, not sure. What I am sure of though is that I will be flung off the roof if I don't make it work!
So adding the personal touch to a room and giving it soul is not easy in 3 weeks, particularly as I have nothing bar a bed to go in it. Lets start with the most important thing paint colour. Nothing is more transformative than a lick of paint in some tantalising hue it transforms a room immediately. They trick unless you have fabulous dark walnut type floorboards is to paint everything out (dark obviously) and I mean everything in the same hue. Itâs called working the single colour look and by that I mean ceilings, walls, windows, doors, floors the whole shebang. Next up lighting - one huge mistake I think people make is to put way to many spots/recessed lights in a ceiling so it looks like something a plane could land on. I've just taken all mine out of the bedroom and have none in my studio or living rooms. These rooms don't need that flat kind of light they need atmosphere, so a layered lighting plan is the best option -Â a supersized chandelier maybe, table lamps of varying sizes some task light for bedside reading - couple of poodles in my case on ostriches in alcoves and I'm done. Next we need oodles of pattern and texture - texture is easy throws, cushions, rugs, pattern not quite so easy since I am the fussiest creature on earth and don't like that many patterns. Then we need art (I've got nothing for this room) and will possibly start tearing out cool images from books and mags and plonking in fancy frames. Only problem left is where to find it all - apart from my store of course which I am raiding big time, the hunt is on!
I'm not sure whose room this is below but I love the dark hue in the hallway outside its making me think rather than brown in my bedroom I should go inky black - decisions decisions!