Saturday, January 14, 2012

Bedroom Makeover Ideas


Thanks to Camille, I was able to round up a few more inspiration photos for my bedroom makeover.   

I do love this headboard.   And aren't the flags are cool?


This room is a little too rustic
but I do love a nice graphic quilt or blanket on a bed.




Another nice masculine bedroom.  I love a headboard that has a fun shape.

Like this...


...antique headboard I saw at an online auction.

Aren't the turnings and headboard shapes wonderful?




Do you remember Furlow Gatewood's bedroom from Veranda?  I love the warm gray walls with white trim and brown wood pieces.  I think this gray-brown-cream color palette is my favorite color palette.

Did you notice the floors are painted white?  Love them!


It's a little too fancy for my house and my taste but I love this room.



I love a nice iron bed too.



Here's another favorite room, again with white or ivory painted floors.

Swap out the wall color for a gray and it's a more
casual version of the Furlow Gatewood room.



Every time I redo a room and think about painting the walls, my mind goes back to the walls of John Derian's house in Provincetown.  These look like old horsehair plaster that were perhaps painted white one time and then had layers and layers of wallpaper over them for year


This is another one of my favorite images where the crusty plaster walls are left exposed.

I wonder if there's anyway I could recreate this look by applying wet brown paper of some kind that stains the surface of the wall.



Or maybe some kind of paint technique that looks like raw plaster.

Maybe applying paint with a trowel?




Or maybe dark walls with lots of graphic black and white artwork to break it up.

Too many ideas; too few rooms. 

46 comments:

  1. ....and too little time.

    My lament.

    Love all your insp pics Mr. Steve...I just bought myself a swiss army blanket...maybe you would like one too?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have dreamed of that distressed plaster look, and have concluded you can do it, but it takes thirty years.
    I would love to be wrong!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love these photos and the headboard up for auction(!!!!!) and the old wall ideas. Are you set on white floors? I like the dark floors in these photos as well...Hmmmm. The black walls in that picture are fabulous, but I don't know if I could live with it.???
    Must be my lucky day to be one of your first comments, usually I'm in the 60s :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great inspiration here. Love that last image. I love a plaster wall too. I keep thinking of that colorful wall in The King's Speech. Layers of wallpaper/plaster peeling off, it was so effective. It's just so hard to make it look believable and not too contrived. Love that striped blanket, just the right amount of pattern in the room.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These images are gorgeous! I especially love the space with the white painted floor, wowwie-zowwie! I love some glam in my life every now and then! Thanks for the great inspiration!

    abodelove.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the all of your inspirational photos. No matter what you do I'm going to love it. I always do!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the photos. Come and visit if you want to see old crumbly plaster. We(Stephen)added crack fill stuff to replicate the look on some new walls we put in.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well dahhling based on all the inspirational "clippings" your room simply can not turn out anything else but FAB! Good luck on your new project.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I agree - too many options, too few rooms. I have several different styles I love and always struggle with identity in the rooms I do have, besides all the dreams I have for the rooms I don't have. Every day I want something different for my guest room - iron bed, upholstered simple bed, upholstered elegant tufted bed, brown wood classic bed, french cane bed. I have serious decor schizophrenia. I guess it is all about finding that one inspiring jumping off piece - the bed frame.

    I love that Furlow Gatewood house - it was right up my alley and seemed to combine so many of my design moods all in one - grey, classic, Neoclassical, elegant, antique, historical. The only thing missing was rustic!

    Good luck deciding - you will whip up something gorgeous. I will admit, I like the flag element...don't you have that old US flag you bought - maybe framed?

    xo T.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love that first image from Dan Marty too, Steve. He's got impeccable taste. Have you done any searching through Tommy Smythe's rooms? Canadian House and Home has a whole online photothread of his house redo. Check him out - your style reminds me a lot of him.
    xo,
    A

    ReplyDelete
  11. I also really like grey walls and have used it in a couple of bedrooms with white and in our small study with pink in the bookshelf recess. The good thing about grey is that you can highlight with so many other colours and transform the feel of the room without redoing the walls - which must be good!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Those richly textured plaster walls are appealing, aren't they? I once removed wallpaper from a room and found the walls underneath to have a marvelous texture from the layers of paste, and a tiny segment of the old wallpaper, which was a pattern with a car motif from the 1940s, showing above one window. There were also names scribbled in a child's hand on the wall, presumably done before covering them up with paper. I left it all uncovered and unpainted. It was my home office/studio, and had clearly been a child's bedroom at one time. My husband always wanted to paint it, but I really liked the walls just as they were.

    ReplyDelete
  13. LOvely pics for inspiration! I did the dark walls a few years back and actually loved it....it really works if you add in a good dose of neutrals.

    ReplyDelete
  14. My own rule of thumb for bedroom colors is to imagine my choice of the moment up on the wall on a day when I'm sick in bed, at home. Would the color be soothing when I'm at my absolute worst?

    ReplyDelete
  15. If I could choose anyone else to do my house, it would, without a doubt, be Furlow Gatewood!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Being a NYer ( however transplanted I may be here in BFE OR), black is always smart and always in style.

    What about a charcoal black-like the darkest of grays-with a white or goldenrod painted floor...or one with stripes/stencils of both colors!

    Hmmm...I may have to use this color combo in the next house :)

    Add an antique rug, a modern quilt and a few accessories and voila-a masculine, cool room.

    Whatever you do, take lots of photos!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Mark,
    Very sage advice.

    Susan,
    There's a Benjamin Moore color called Temptation that I'm going to try on a friends bathroom. I think it would pair well with an ochre floor.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Every room in my house I have plastered myself. The living room and kitchen I did with a plaster brush and the bedrooms and bathroom with a trowel. I did it because the walls were old and had many imperfects.
    I wish I had smooth flawless walls.
    But if you feel like you HAVE to have them...it's easy. (sort of)
    I love the black walls/ white floors idea...and to add to the mix, there was a cool masculine bedroom in Country Living a while back (October maybe?) black/grey/red with a dog on the bed. :) of course.

    ReplyDelete
  19. me again. no it was the
    NOVEMBER issue.
    the kansas-colonial-renovation one.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I'm ga ga over the flags. The best photo! Distressed plaster walls seem right for a vacation cottage, but every day? all year? dunno. I wonder what JD's NY walls look like?

    ReplyDelete
  21. i like the 3rd photo for your room. it's clean, classic and masculine. perfecto for the urban man.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The pic with the white and ivory and the painted floors is my very favorite. It might be the paint color that I am drawn too though. I am partial to those linens though. Swooney.

    ReplyDelete
  23. They are all so fabulous, I dont have a clear favorite. I'd spend a day sick in bed in any of them and feel better for it!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Steve,

    Promise me that in picture 2 they are sconces and not jackalope heads! Some lovely ideas here. Can't wait to see what you decide.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Lots of beautiful images. What style I may have has been directed by things I've inherited. fortunately I love them since I'm too cheap (or is it just lazy?) to abandon them and have to decide among the "too many ideas".

    But there is no way I could have all those pointy antlers or horns hanging over my bed. They are wonderfully graphic but I wouldn't be able to sleep worry about them falling down and impaling my head. Maybe for a guest room if you don't want folks so stay long!

    ReplyDelete
  26. I agree about those antlers over the bed. Couldn't they go somewhere else?

    ReplyDelete
  27. What about something inspired by John Saladino? Maybe a thin coating of new plaster with a wash of diluted coffee while still wet? Or a diluted instant coffee wash after the original plaster walls are exposed (assuming the plaster could be in its raw state)? Whatever way you choose a little labor will be involved to get that atmospheric effect you're looking for. Best- M.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The black and white stripes are really great!

    xo kelley

    ReplyDelete
  29. Steve, a great round-up! I am also a big fan of gray (any gray really), white/cream and brown together. But I call that brown Cognac! Sounds so good old classic.

    Happy rest of the weekend.

    ox, Mon

    P.S Look at you for getting advertisers up in a heartbeat! Not surprised!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I am on visual overload! These all are wonderful. And, I thank you for our bedroom needs a lift and I am taking inspiration from your planning.
    Linda with a tired bedroom in VA

    ReplyDelete
  31. **** LOVELY~~~~ so wonderfully calming and sensual because of their lack of pretense!!! KUDOS!!!

    Many thanks!

    Linda in AZ *
    bellesmom1234@comcast.net

    ReplyDelete
  32. I love all the old plaster walls. The images are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I love that room with the striped blanket and antlers. That last image is pretty stunning too -- the photography is gorgeous. I look forward to seeing what it is you decide to do and love that you are going super masculine.

    Of all of the masculine bedrooms I've seen, Tommy Smythe's takes the cake. You know, in my opinion, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Never enough time...I love all of the interesting beds and headboards Steve. The room with that wonderful chest and the art above....ahhhh!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

    ReplyDelete
  35. Dear Steve, I absolutely love your ideas for your walls. So I though I would share with you my thoughts on the subject. I recently repainted my bedroom walls a warm gray. But because I hate flat paint, I have developed a technique where I lay down a flat foundation colour (I have a professional painter do that) and then I cover it with a wash of a similar hue, either lighter or darker, with a big brush. the walls look like stucco, or whitewash paint. My living room is done in the same technique. I applied the spackel with a trowel and did not sand it down, and then I had a professional painter paint two coats of Sherwin Williams Linen Cloth, and then I did one last coat by hand with Sherwin williams Origami White. because I wanted a very subtle effect you can't see very well in the pictures, but you can try to gauge the effect in my facebook account here http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=118203738190196&set=a.118201954857041.19652.100000017107109&type=3&theater
    I dont know if you have facebook, maybe you can invite me to be your friend: Isabel Flecha de Lima.
    Anyway, what if you take down your wallpaper, do you think it might look like John Derian's house? I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Steve: You are so right...too few rooms! However you decorate, it will be stunning. (I have to say that I loved your comment on Joan's blog; I laughed out loud!) Cindy

    ReplyDelete
  37. LOVE that headboard (the online auction one), as well as all of your inspirational photos. Whatever you decide to do I know if will be stunning. It always is at your house.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I love Furlow Gatewood's bedroom. The gray is the perfect shade...gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Hello Steve

    I love your selection of rooms. All are tranquil and pleasing to the eye.
    I love painted floors and had then in my old farmhouse. I never tired of them. I like your choice of colour, gray is pleasing to the eye.

    Looking forward to seeing what you choose.

    Helen xx

    ReplyDelete
  40. I love John Darien's house in P-town. His is what I recall the style being there when I was little - casual, weatherbeaten, but a little class. Certainly not how Provincetown is styled today, but if you go into some of the old-timer's homes, it's alive and well.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Hi Steve,
    I love that bittersweet wreath over the bed. I miss bittersweet - used to buy it every year at the Common Ground Fair in Maine. Love it.
    xoTrina

    ReplyDelete
  42. Love the painted floors, the dark walls, the weathered plaster, and -- always -- John Derian's aesthetic.

    If you're looking for a *new* (old) bed, try Leonard's in Seekonk, MA. You can pick from century+ old posts, and then have a customized head/footboard made in any size. We bought one about 15 yrs. ago and still love it.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Miranda,
    Thank you for mentioning that. It sounds perfect! I'll look them up.
    Steve

    ReplyDelete
  44. aren't you full of surprises. a lot of beautiful white rooms and then really dark walls to close the post. It reminded me of black swan :)

    ReplyDelete