Historic Bedroom Makeover: Inspiration, Perspiration, Desperation – ORC Week Two

I am still painting my little heart out in our main bedroom, and it’s coming right along. In a twist that will surprise no one, I started painting the walls one color, and then I changed my mind. Now, when I say color, take that with a grain of salt. The truth is that I was painting the walls white, and now they are beige. Hold on! Don’t leave! I know how boring that sounds. So, it’s up to me to tell you a riveting tale about the happily ever after of going from white walls to such an out-of-the-box choice like beige.

Inspiration

First, let’s go back to the moodboard. Note: It’s possible that I misspelled moodboard when it should have been mood board. Since it’s not easy to fix on the photo below, henceforth, mood boards are moodboards. For everyone who has called me Type-A, consider that satiric misspelling as evidence to the contrary.

Where was I? My primary inspiration for our bedroom is the GP Shafer Architect photo on the moodboard. It’s traditional without being over-the-top stuffy. While I do enjoy a few antique pieces in each room, I am not into period decor or decorating that leans too far that way.

For months, I showed Andy inspiration photos, and he was a firm meh…on all. It’s worth noting that when I show him a photo, all he can see is what is in the photo. They do not serve as inspiration for him; they serve as an exact blueprint. So, if I show him a beautiful room that also happens to have a chair in the corner covered in faux Holstein cowhide, he’ll say something like, “What’s up with that chair? We aren’t ranchers in Montana.” Likewise, he’ll gravitate to a room because it has an interesting ceiling fan or what appears to be total black-out curtains.

After showing him photo after photo and trying to get him to understand how a room feels vs. the exact items in it, he looked at the GP Shafer image and said, “Ooooh! That’s nice. I like the blue and the mirror over the fireplace but do we really have to get a wicker bed and wait, we’re doing wallpaper again?” Deep sigh… What I took from that conversation is that he likes blue, and I like it pretty well too. And that’s how the moodboard started. Everything else is a mix of form, function, and feeling.

Perspiration

While it is easy to poke fun at how Andy makes design decisions, I bring my own set of problems to the mix. I make decisions based on what I think are inferences, but they are really just assumptions. It goes a little something like this:

Andy: “I like the blue, and wait, we’re doing wallpaper again?”

My internal dialogue: Andy likes blue, and he does not like pink. We definitely are not doing wallpaper again, but I like the pink. Well, even though Andy likes blue, we are definitely not doing blue walls, and since he hates pink, that’s off-limits too. There are no other shades of anything that we can agree on, so I guess we’re stuck with white walls. I’ll bring in a ton of color with art and textiles, inspired by Brian Patrick Flynn’s entry. Yes! That’s exactly what I’ll do.

Then suddenly, there are almost no similarities between my original inspo photo and what is happening in the room. As if returning to my body after being in a fugue state, I see that I’ve painted two walls, and I hate it.

In this specific case, I created a big white box. Overall, the room was fine, but it was going nowhere. The curtains and the bedding I chose were both white. We don’t own a lot of cool art. Without that, I couldn’t pull off the sophisticated, quirky, artsy vibe that Brian Patrick Flynn does so well.

Our big white box was going to stay a big white box.

Desperation

During the Fall 2020 One Room Challenge, I reached peak desperation, and I lost my mind painting and repainting parts of the room repeatedly because I just couldn’t get my stuff together. I am still not quite sure what happened, but like most confusing behaviors, I blame the pandemic.

Eat a pan full of cookies? Pandemic

Adopt three cats? Pandemic

Paint the living room yellow? Definitely the pandemic

Fortunately, I learned my lesson, and I had the crazy train let me off at the next stop rather than two states over. I went back to the moodboard, and reminded myself of why I created it in the first place. Every color I liked and needed was right there in front of me. That’s why we make moodboards and plans.

And now, the room is Accessible Beige by Sherwin-Williams.

The end.

Ok, there’s more to it than that, but I went through all of it in my Instagram stories and saved it in the highlights too. I will continue to give the day-by-day there and recap here every Thursday.

A million thanks to the One Room Challenge for the ongoing opportunity to work on self-awareness. I joke, but stagnation is death, and it is a good thing to keep learning and growing.

The featured designers posted their week two updates yesterday, and the other guest participants like me will be linking up their week two posts today.

So far, I am having a lot of fun this round. Thank you for putting up with me! I would love to hear from you, so please leave me a comment below.