primary [master] bedroom: inspiration
I never quite got our bedroom right in the last house. There are a number of reasons why, but let me just say I am really excited to have a bedroom that I enjoy very, very soon. Why “primary bedroom”? Or even “main bedroom”? If you’re curious, head over to this piece by Bobby Berk on making design terms more inclusive and the history of calling the main bedroom the “master”.
I finally made some progress in here because I picked a paint color!! It used to be…beige? Taupe? Very neutral and on the warm side with some purple tones and really did not go with our furnishings at all. I tried countless samples: 3-4 different whites (SW Pure White, White Flour, Alabaster, Greek Villa), blues (Farrow and Ball Hague Blue, Inchyra Blue), even some green (SW Sea Salt) that I almost chose on an impulse. The oldest paint samples have been up on our wall for over a year, as if some day I would wake up and fall in love with one of them. White was very blah; our room wasn’t getting much light and it just looked depressing and unfinished rather than clean and crisp. The green was inoffensive, but didn’t go with anything else we owned. The blues were used in the dining room, but were going to be a bit too moody and dark for a bedroom this large. I also knew from our last bedroom that I didn’t want light blue again. It never felt intentional.
Fast forward some months, and I was really having trouble pulling the room together. I couldn’t make any decisions without knowing the wall color, and probably shouldn’t have been making too many decisions without a firm color palette. (If you are having trouble with a room and don’t know where to start, start with colors.)
Duvet cover (photo archived from West Elm)
I decided that for now, a few things were definitely staying: our gray upholstered bed and the half-moon duvet cover in a dusty blue. I took a sham to Sherwin Williams, who as fate would have it was sold out of sample-size cans (I did not know that could happen). Scr*w it, we said, and picked a medium-blue called Smoky Azurite. Relative to furniture, paint is cheap, especially when you are doing it yourself.
Well, I LOVE IT. We used Sherwin William’s Emerald line just like we have in the rest of the house, and we chose a flat finish, which is the “flattest” of them all (less reflective than matte). The blue picks up really beautifully off the duvet cover, and because it’s a color that I have always liked, I know it will be in my color palette even if I some day decide to change the bedding around. (In fact, I went down this rabbit hole because I was about to splurge on a stone blue linen duvet cover when I decided that the duvet cover really wasn’t the problem.)
That leaves us with a bedroom that is…getting there!
The vision
Totally in love with this color!! photo
I basically designed this bedroom “backwards” - I sort of leapt in before I looked. Whoops. The duvet cover that it’s all based on was purchased maybe 5 years ago before I had any concept of what I wanted, just because I loved it so much. From here, I honed in on how I want the room to feel and my color palette: smoky blue, gray, cream, black, white oak and terra cotta red accents. The primary feeling that I want to evoke is relaxing. My other key words are calm/tranquil, inviting, and luxurious. This combination steered me more or less in the direction I wanted, which is to say not “blue Coastal bedroom” or “GrandMillenial chic”, but more “Scandi meets stone blue”.
I definitely like simple furnishings and clean lines, but I still want it to feel layered, textured, rich, dare I say luxurious?? Things like well-crafted pieces, quality linens, rich colors, buttery textures, and solid wood.
Most of the bedrooms I pinned were rather pulled-back and a blend of Zen, Boho, Scandinavian, even “Japandi” (Japanese - Scandinavian…it’s a thing!!). I want our room to feel clean, upscale, curated, but with a bit more color and movement to it than all-neutral. There will definitely be personal photos, artwork, and some quirky things.
You can see in that selection above that nothing looks too fussy or formal. There are touches of Asian influence: a rice paper pendant, a room divider, wooden slat headboard. Greenery features in several of the photos and brings great height in the corners. I also love the natural materials in the light fixtures and flooring. Meanwhile, the room below leans much more traditional with its patterned chair and vintage dresser. There’s a vintage-looking rug and artwork above the fireplace. The room has so much character. It feels like it was built over time and updated here and there to keep it recent.
Brockley Family home by Imperfect Interiors. Rumpled linen, solid wood, and a rich wall color.
INSPIRATION BOARD
Let’s walk through this inspiration board! First, the color balance: muted blue walls, art, and a duvet cover are balanced out by warm flooring (not seen) and natural wood in the floor mirror and nightstands…even in the bed legs, too. There are creamy whites in the linen pendant light, the shades, the faux fur, that cozy boucle accent chair, and the rug. The gray of the upholstered bed gets carried over to the linen blackout curtains. Red tones are the accent color and only need to be scattered in sparingly: a chunky rust-colored throw blanket, dried florals, and handmade pottery.
You’ll notice that there is no dresser. We each have a walk-in closet that has been 80% outfitted with Elfa storage. Amazingly, that means that we have room to spare and all our clothes are stored directly in our closets. If I had to choose, I’d have echoed the natural wood in the dresser and been OVERJOYED to have a horizontal surface to style. I’m still considering whether a small little console table or vanity is needed in here for that purpose.
I do like those simple oak nightstands. One drawer is sufficient to hide clutter, and the open shelf on the bottom can be styled out with some books. The piece is wide enough to have the proper scale (about 21-22” feels right in here; 18” is what we have currently and they look slightly too small). The grounded design keeps the nightstand/bed combo from feeling too “leggy”. They look simple, but I looked at A LOT of nightstands in the last two years and trust, these are right at my intersection of design and functionality.
In choosing the lighting, I knew we could probably give up our ceiling fan since we’ve been here more than a year and have rarely turned it on. This Orikata Saucer by Room and Board is stunning - I can’t wait to see it in person. It is origami-inspired and sculptural, but quiet. It felt more Japandi than the classic Nelson saucer bubble pendant, yet still feels inspired by rice paper lanterns. That floor lamp by Rejuvenation is one that I have been eyeing for the better part of three years. It has a beautiful oak base and is so understated and slim profile that it could go in any room. I love that the rounded base connects with our other globe-style lights and round bulbs throughout the house. I want that floor lamp so I can keep it forever and ever and move it around to every room in the house.
For the bedside, I have an obsession with table lamps and there are so many good ones out there and they don’t require any installation….but I loooove the way sconces look flanking a bed AND it frees up real estate on the nightstand. (I considered hanging two small pendants above the nightstands as well.) The shade is a bit mid-century, and the double articulation gives us the ability to aim the light in case we are reading. I think it will also avoid the effect of “sitting right next to a bare lightbulb”. A glass or linen shade is appealing for a bedside sconce to diffuse the light, but everything else was shaded and I was wary of overdoing that. These will also be long enough to extend to the right amount, since the bed is sleigh-shaped and has a protruding edge. Something more flush against the wall may not provide quite enough light for bedtime reading.
I really wasn’t feeling the old large-scale artwork in the room - the colors weren’t right - and then I spotted this affordable piece from Target to hang over the bed. But it’s the Gray Malin print from his Dream series that is honestly one of my FAVORITE parts of the whole room. Sheep!! Dyed various colors!! With balloons! And the colors are muted enough (rather than some of his more saturated, vivid images) to actually go up on the wall and not clash with everything. I’ve hung it where I can see it from bed and it just makes me so happy.
Lastly, I created a little vignette with an accent chair (Target’s boucle chair is SO GOOD and absolutely competes with the best of them at a third of the price) even though we do have a large sitting area as well. The furniture there isn’t on this mood board because I haven’t decided what to do with that space long-term. It was our TV area for a long time because we didn’t have anywhere else we could put it, but now that my husband re-did our built-ins (another story!) we can watch TV in the living room again like normal people.
I’m pretty excited to have this bedroom slowly coming together as we space out our lighting purchases and style it out. It’s truly feeling like a sanctuary in there! Maybe I’ll be welcoming home a little bonsai tree this winter. :)
I can’t wait to share shots of the actual space as it gets styled out!
