What Ana Does

It was time to paint our bedroom. The flat gray was just too dull and the hue didn't work with our furniture. It's like matching grey pants with brown shoes -- fashion faux pas.  And, sure, I considered replacing all our furniture, it's a decade old and showing a little wear and tear. But quickly realized that it's just cheaper to paint out the gray. Though, I'm committed to switching out our upholstered headboard later this year.  Not to mention, there is a few places where we patched up the wall that needed to be painted over, and we don't have this gray paint from the former owners.  So, I went through all my color chips. Decided on blue. Picked a hue and ... no surprise ... it's about the same as the front room and the back hallway. Clearly, I have a favorite. Here's a few swatches I went through to decide on the blue. Some where too dark, too purple or too much gray in them.  I decided to leave the bottom part white, though I did look at a bunch of ...

Yes, there certainly was a lot of UP AND DOWN on the ladder to get this angled ceiling in the master bedroom painted, but it didn't take too long (a few interesting podcasts) and I'm very happy with the results. Much happier than the willow color I had picked out before. The transition into the ceiling is a little cleaner and airier. And it picked up the cream color of the curtains, but different enough than the white trim. Here's another Before pictures of that curly willow color. You can s ee more master bedroom BEFOREs and a full run-down of this minor project here . PS. The new color is "Pearly Cotton" from Magnolia Home. It's also worth noting that the whole idea of this Master Bedroom "touch up" was to calm the whole room down, and make it more tranquil. I pulled down art and family pictures to let that awesome blue wall just breath a little. The TV wall used to be jammed with three pieces of dark-wood furniture. It was a lot...

I'm not saying the willow color on the walls of my master bedroom was a mistake, it just didn't go the way I thought I would. So this week, I'm fixing it. Let's rewind. In 2015, we had professional painters come and paint the two-story walls from awful beige to "polar bear" (by Behr) white ( see that post )! While here, I got a quote for the master bedroom and a year later they came back to change the original dirty, mint green to blue. Here's the post and a very dark picture of the walls . Yup, I love painting walls but I was working a lot and the room is huge, so I didn't think I could get it done in a weekend. I hired it out. Go me! The walls in the master have an angled part , so I used this dark beige-y brown color called "curly willow" to match with the duvet cover and wheat-color headboard. But when I saw it, I knew I went the wrong direction. So, for the past three years, I've been looking at it and kinda liking it. But ...

Here we go ... Day 1 focused on the vanities and the trim. The demo continued for a week, as Mick (our contractor) pulled out all the builder-grade junk and rebuilt the plumbing and added space for the shower.    Look at That NEW Tub! Our future shower ...  The week went quickly and with lots of I'm still shopping ... tile, some missing faucets, and wall color.

In the bedroom assignments for our Paris apartment, we got a small room with one window, but the largest closet. And it's nearest the full bathroom. It was the obvious choice. It's quiet and cozy and has a great view of the Eiffel Tower, especially at night. Other than the birds chirping that can sometimes wake me from a deep sleep, it's a great bedroom. I cleaned it up for a few pictures last month (before the trees got their leaves) while the sun was shining bright. It could use more art on the wall and maybe another small piece of furniture for books and picture frames, but it's pretty much all we need. And yes, our clothes actually do fit in that closet and bureau. Considering the walk-in closet we came from, that was a pretty big accomplishment. Related posts: More Paris Apartment pictures

Here's the After picture of our master bedroom now that the walls are a dark and moody blue. Maybe the best part is I was at work while the painters were here, so I walked in and found -- as if by magic -- the room no longer minty green but a bold blue. That's pretty awesome. They also painted the trim an eye-popping white, which I just love against this blue. And the angle is a dark beige-y, tan color that I hope goes with the headboard. I spent the evening cleaning and re-hanging the drapes, and moving the furniture back into position. It will be a while before I dare hang anything in here. I'm too in love with the walls to put too many holes in them right now. So, just in case I'm looking for this information later: The walls are "Everard Blue" by Benjamin Moore . And the tray is "Curly Willow" by Behr . Now, does that furniture look too dark against the walls or is it just me? And wouldn't a lighter wood or white look fabulous agains...

... and I'm not doing it. I really really really was going to paint my master bedroom. I picked out the colors and started moving things out of the room. But, ugh, it's a BIG room and that tray part of the ceiling is high. So the question became, how much do I have to pay to NOT paint this room? What's my time and muscle aches really worth? So the answer was a lot more then I expected but they could come this week, so I took the bid. It's the same team that painted our family room and foyer and they were awesome. No worries about mistakes or blots on the ceiling that were a certainty if I painted. The team usually painted houses in the summer, so they saved my room for a rainy day. Master Bedroom - Shady, BEFORE Picture After picture coming soon! Related links: More Master Bedroom posts 

The time has come. My master bedrooms has been neglected since we moved in four years ago and the time has come to pump up the style. As usual, we'll start with the walls -- the mint green has to go. While I'll admit the color isn't horrible, there are scuffs and chips all over the 10-year-old (maybe older) paint job. I started this month by haunting the hardware stores in the area, gathering attractive paint chips, and putting samples up on the wall. Here's the current color choices with my favorite-ever duvet that will inspire the whole decorating effort. Paint Choices That dark blue option is called " Everard" from Benjamin Moore. Finding it made the Ace Hardware paint guy a little nuts because I discovered it on  this (lovely) blog  but apparently it is no longer an available chip. But they finally found it and the sample looks pretty close to the blue in the duvet. I think a nice dark blue will give the room a warm, relaxed feeling perfect f...

Decorating the master bedroom is not my priority. But I had a problem. When we bought our lovely bedroom furniture five-ish years ago -- one of the biggest furniture investments at that time -- we skipped the bed-side tables. Oh man, was that a mistake! Ever since, we've been using random bits of furniture that don't match and are usually too small or just not functional. And it's a perpetual thorn in my side. Recently, given the amount of reading or laptop-typing I do in bed, I decided getting a wee writing desk with some drawers might be the right piece of furniture for the bed side. It could function as a little get-away writing spot. And the drawers would be great to hide away all the bed-side clutter. Plus, and this is my thinking a lot lately, it's a piece that can function in other rooms -- even the kid's room, if we needed it to relocate. The New Writing Desk So, I waited and watched writing desks scroll through my One Kings Lane shops until...