Changing It Up

Over the next 6 months or so G and I really want to switch up our bedroom style.  Before it was light and airy, very hotel like.  And while we like the hotel-ish look we want to move into more of a darker, relaxing space feel.  So the light and airy bedroom items will be moved into a guest bedroom (which we're excited to have one for friends and family who visit!) and we will be stepping it up.  

The best part of the the new house?  The entire 3rd floor is our suite!!!  You walk up the stairs into a hardwood area where there will be a sitting area and the desk, although I am still figuring out how to work it.  Here is the area outside our bedroom....it's quite a bit bigger than it looks in pics, especially by the bathroom.  This pic was taken from right at the stairs.

I'm hoping to find something like this for the sitting area:

I love this chair!  Something about this type of line on upholstered furniture makes me happy.  Two of these and a little table would make the perfect sitting area.


We also have our own bathroom with a shower (no bathtub, but there is a whirpool one on the second level, easy to walk down to when I want to relax).  Right outside our bedroom is the closet where the washer and dryer will go, so I don't have any excuse not to do the laundry!


As for our bedroom, we are taking it dark, at least that is the plan for now.  We will be saving up for nice pieces of furniture, but also thrifting and finding creative ways to get the look we want.  Our bedroom is not huge, but it does have high ceilings, so we think we can get away with painting it navy blue.  These are the inspiration for it (I apologize, but these have been saved for awhile and I don't remember where from!):

I have a thing for pink peonies, so I love how they pop against the dark blue!  I have an old antique hand painted plate from my Grandmama's home that I am wanting to hang on the wall.  The roses are this color of pink and a bit darker.

We sat down tonight and wrote out what we are wanting our bedroom to be.  The dark walls makes it a little serious, even a little masculine.  We want a canopy bed, but nothing too ornate.  Something simple, like the farmhouse bed from Pottery Barn:

But to that we're adding glamourous touches, a little bit of femininity.  Perhaps a couple benches like this one from Ballard Designs at the end of the bed?

We really like these white lamps (the table ones) from zGallerie.  They're quite a bit larger than you would think which will work nicely with the height of the bed, and I personally love the shape.  I think because it's round, it helps contrast with the dark structured lines of the bed.

Our bedroom has a ceiling fan in it with controls on the light switch (it's too high up for us to reach it without a ladder).  The room has recessed lights, but the fan also has separate lights on the top and bottom that you can choose to have one or both on, and each light has a dimmer.  It's nice mood lighting I must say.  So technically we don't need the table lamps, but they will come in handy for reading in bed.  But we also want some romantic touches, so we are going to put white pillar candles in the room as well.  We're wanting a retreat, so the little touches are what will make it.  

So far I haven't found what I am wanting with night stands, but I will keep looking!  If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

But on the night stands we want a clock on one with some books, and a silver picture frame on the other with some of the white candles.  We're planning on going with a silver clock for the look.  Our iPod dock with the alarm will be somewhere else where we can hear it, but isn't a focal point in the room.  

We like this one from Target.  It's got a good weight to it, a nice older style, and for right at $20, the price is most definitely right.

For a picture of the two of us we are thinking of a silver frame.  Something simple, classic, like this one from Reed and Barton:

I really love hepplewhite dressers, and would love one like this (from Eddie Ross):

With a large mirror on top to reflect light around the room.  We really like this one from Pier One:

On top of a dresser like this I would like this mirrored tray from Target:

You cannot find it online anymore, but we've been able to hunt it down in stores.  It's got a lot of heft to it, and for the most part is well made (a few had clearly been picked up, handled and then sat down not so gently as their sides were looser than others).  

We have a couple of fun vintage glasses from my grandmama's home with frosted dots on them that we plan to use for water.  Those and bottles of water will be going on the tray.  One bottle of sparkling (either perrier or pellegrino) and one cleaned old bottle of the sparkling that will be filled with fresh water daily.  This will be a nice touch since otherwise we would be trekking down to the kitchen whenever we wanted a drink at night, and quite frankly, I don't think that would be too fun (especially after setting alarms at night with motion detectors!).

We have a nice large window that lets in plenty of light that we want to put up curtains for.  ( I love the fact that we have a tree outside our window!  It's not close enough to cause problems, just close enough to be pretty!)

I am thinking some nice grey silk curtains like these from Restoration Hardware:

Somehow I think they will really pop against the dark blue!  And with silver curtain rods and white silk organza underneath, I am hoping it will really allow light in, but still keep it from being too bright when we want to relax.

For now the floors are a berber carpet.  Nice, but not what we are wanting in the long run.  I need to remember to ask the renovators what wood they used in the house, and where to get it, so that hopefully we will eventually be able to put hardwoods into at least our bedroom.  

So....what do you think?  Any suggestions?  Leave me comments, links, and be sure to check back soon for what I plan to do to the rest of our suite!