YOU ASKED MY OPINION IV - janice's master bedroom

This is the fourth installment of *YOU ASKED MY OPINION*

Janice has asked for some direction with her master bedroom.

Janice doesn't have a digital camera so ....

I've had to interpret her descriptions with on line pics and ideas.

I hope you all enjoy and especially you Janice.

She has described her room as having a king sized bed on one side of the room

and 2 tall windows on either side of a large credenza style dresser on the opposite wall.

How about the thought of reversing the room by moving the bed between the windows

I'm quite partial to floor to ceiling pleated drapes, all 3 of these first photos have great window treatments.

Janice wants to introduce a blue or turquoise into the room.

 

Love the soft turquoise on the walls.

She has a metal scroll work headboard that needs painting too.

Using a feature wall behind the iron headboard will help it stand out.

This is a great example of white on white, it does offer texture without standing out. 

Janice asked for a grown up bedroom so *NO* to this room

Antiquing the iron headboard would offer a very shabby chic country feel

But Janice loves everything french - french country?

The metal headboard needs to be primed and painted with metal spray paint,

I like the look of this, very french and very grown up.

White walls and turquoise frame sounds exciting but has a beachy feel.

I still like the feel of this room.

Janice also has a pair of Italian feeling cherub lamps she wants to use in the room.

Both Janice and I love the feel of this space.

The combination of golds, creams, and turquoise is perfectly soothing for a bedroom

Janice knows she is drawn to all white fluffy bedding.

Okay I think I threw in the *fluffy* part.

She has 3 botanics currently over her bed hanging symmetrically

with blue/green paisley mats.

Depending on their size just 2 could be used above the side tables.

Or all three moved over 1 side table and displayed like the above example,

with something of equal weight over the other side.

The real trick will be to incorporate her single raspberry velvet upholstered french chair but I think

it can be done if the raspberry is used as an extra accent color in small doses around the room.

The room has oak parquet thru out so a plush soft rug would be warming to the feet

or a bit more of a whimsical feel could be managed with a round colored one.

You could always do a traditional or classic rug.

I wanted to talk about Janice's dresser but as she is very eager to start this week and I want to get

this posted sooner then later. She already has the credenza style dresser painted in white

with a tall center mirror so it's just a matter of placement and styling.

YOU ASKED MY OPINION I can be found here

  

YOU ASKED MY OPINION II can be found here

YOU ASKED MY OPINION III can be found here

*** Interested in finding sources for the photos used in this post,

right click the photo and in google image search use the file name listed under properties to search each pic.

YOU ASKED MY OPINION III - kristy's questions answered

Personally I'd love to see this look
but I've been told I can't always get my way.

This is the 3rd installment of

*YOU ASKED MY OPINION*

My response to a reader requesting my opinion

on their furniture and/or space.

 Hi Kristy - I'm Kristy too!

I love your website and all your stuff - so envious of your skills! It's all totally my style! I have an older dresser
and matching side table in my bedroom that is just old, 80's wood finish. It has some interesting shape to it and nice
hanging (but brass) handles. I would love to refinish these to be black or black/brown to suit our bedroom decor.

I think they could look great painted either black or dark brown and with different knobs at the top, but paint

 the handles that are near the bottom of the dresser - I love the shape of them, just not the brass colour.

 

Kristy's maple dresser can be seen here on the right and a nice

 example of something similar on the left in brown

I think the night stand needs legs as well.

Great Bun feet can be found at Windsor Plywood.

Do you think darker pieces look better distressed or just solid colour?

Distressed furniture looks old with history.

Solid colored furniture appears new and modern.
 What is the overall feel you want in your room?

 I love the shabby look, but maybe that's better with something white

and white won't look as good against our beige walls.

I firmly believe every piece of furniture has the ability to be

 spectacular on it's own, that it doesn't need things around it to look

 good or match a set or even worry about beige walls. The only trick

 is figuring out the right look for each individual piece.

Do you think a dark chocolate brown could still provide that classy look like the white and black?

When done right Dark Chocolate can definetly provide a classy

 look, however brown paint is tricky to get right, so usually it would

 be stained in a dark walnut rather then painted.

Also - where do you get your awesome, antique-like handles and knobs?

  

 I find my hardware everywhere, from fleamarkets to yardsales,

 antique stores, and hardware store, but mostly I find them on old

pieces of furniture. All the above pictured handles are repurposed

 from found furniture.

Lee Valley in Coquitlam is a great source for reproductions.

What do you use to paint them?

EXCEL Spray Paint 10 min dry available at Co-op in Langley

and Rustoleum Painter's Touch available at Rona

Since I'm totally new at this stuff, can you provide details like which paint products and such are good to use?

I get most of my latex paint and primer from Cloverdale paint.
I use preformance select paint brushes from Home Depot.
I use minwax paste finish wax, and varathane's diamond clearcoat and gel stains.

I painted a dresser once before and it didn't work well. Two years later it still is sticky
on the top and dents and scratches whenever I leave anything on it.

I'm going to suggest it wasn't prepped or primed first. Latex paint does take

28 days to cure and the darker the color the more time is needed.

Although I'm sure 2 yrs would be more then enough.

 Thinking I should redo it completely and paint it white and do that one with a more distressed look since it's

 has more boring shaped to it. I also think I should change the knobs to be more fancy looking. 

Distressing does add shape to a less then curvatious piece. In the

 photo of Kristy's dresser here on the left you can barely see the

 outline of the drawers and can only see the curve on the bottom
 due to the lighter carpet. Distressing the edges would highlight all
 the lines it does have.

My bedroom walls are a neutral beige colour and my curtains are chocolate brown and
our recently created (still need to add tufted buttons) headboard is light grey-blue. 

I am hoping to change my bed sheets and such to a more chocolate brown or light blue as well.

I also love the damask pattern

 

Please let me know what your advice is.

I really appreciate your input - I love your stuff!!!

Regards, Kristy

Did I mention I really like this look 

With a couple of these

And for a beginner, distressing is fun, easy, and not so fussy to achieve.

*** Interested in finding sources for the inspiration photos used in this post,

right click the photo and in google image search use the file name listed under properties to search each pic.