Turning a Dream Into Reality
My ideal vacation is to stay at an all inclusive Caribbean resort with nothing on my agenda but eating, drinking, sleeping, using my eyes to assault naked brown chiseled masculine bodies, and spending quality time with my own thoughts. No chit chat, no laughter, no running, playing, partying or dancing. Just ME. I imagine sitting on the beach in 75-80 degree weather with a book and an iPod. I want to be consumed by the warm sun, cool breeze, white sand, blue water, and the sound of ocean waves. Something so simple and within reach, yet I’ve never done it before.
My dream is to redecorate my bedroom with the look and feel of my ideal vacation – sans the naked brown chiseled masculine bodies. Wait…scratch that…I’ll take one of them to go. LOL! I’m thinking chocolate furniture as the foundation, fluffy white down bedding, and accents with a soft blue, ivory, and tan. And maybe a teeny, tiny, subtle punch of orange for the sun.
Modern or contemporary is my style…I think. I like simple designs, less is more. Clean lines. Abstract images, no people, places, or things. Soft colors that make you feel relaxed. Feminine, yet with a masculine touch. No matchy matchy, but complementary. You get the idea.
I bought this wall art to draw inspiration and I’m going to design my bedroom around it.
My budget is $1,500 max.
Please describe YOUR bedroom for me.
How does it make you feel?
Where did you get inspiration for its design?
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I have no clue when it comes to decorating. I keep trying to get my aunt to come over and decorate my house for me. I’ve been in my house over three years and the paint on the walls is still the bland color the builder put throughout the house.
When you finish doing yours can you come do my house??
I have an eclectic style–I get things I love and then try to organize them so they don’t clash with each other. The bedroom gets the blue items and some of the green items. I have an abstract painting my sister made, a beautiful watercolor I bought and a big, silly poster. And behind the door I have things I still like from when I was a kid, like part of a greeting card I cut out and glued to a peanut butter jar lid.
I have wooden furniture and sheets in green and blue (plus one set that’s mostly yellow with a very silly raining cats-and-dogs print). I have blue curtain tops with white blinds. I have a string of white Christmas lights outlining the closet, which makes good mood lighting.
I also try to decorate with my actual stuff: I have a tie rack for necklaces and an incense holder to hold hair sticks. I have glass jars to hold spare buttons and safety pins. I do also have some old music boxes.
One feeling I’m going for is relaxing, both in the colors and in having everything be durable and not fussy. Another one is having silly things around that make me smile even though they are not guest-grade. I also have a bookcase headboard (okay, really I just stuck my bed in front of an actual bookcase) which makes the bed very inviting to read in. This tricks me into going to bed when I feel I haven’t had enough fun yet. Then once I’m lying down and dressed for bed, it’s much easier to just let myself drop off.
I can’t say I have any inspiration for the design of my bedroom other than ideas I’ve stolen from others (Christmas lights, visible jewelry, etc.) and dumb things I like and don’t want to part with.
I love stars on the wall…
ooh, i love chocolate brown with that light blue you are describing (pinks, oranges, and teals also go wonderfully with dark brown)…sounds heavenly, SM!
when i moved from Hawaii, i decorated my room in SoCal with a beach theme to remind me of my previous home–light greens, dark blues, and tans, with accents of red (like the hibiscus flower) for color . I blew up a photo i took of my fave beach (no people in it, just clear blue water, sand, green palm trees…), and hung it over my bed. my friend in Hawaii is an artist, and she drew me a picture of my favorite spot in the islands. I framed that for more inspiration–the colors were perfect, reds, blues, tans, greens…
furniture was a dark brown with clean, modern lines. everything except the bedding was thrift store or handmedowns, but it all worked and i loved it. for my balcony, i bought bamboo blinds and covered the inside railing with it, so you couldn’t see through the bars to the neighbors’ house. i bought comfy bright red patio chairs, tan rattan footrests/drink tables, hung white christmas lights, and bought a bird of paradise, ferns, and other tropical plants. from inside my room, all i could see was the blue sky, the palm tree that grew outside my apartment, and the greenery/bamboo that i had set up when i looked out of the sliding glass door. it was oh so lovely and i sighed a sigh of happiness and content every single time i came back from a work trip or hard day.
the saddest part of moving from SoCal to overseas was dismantling and selling off pieces of my room/bathroom/patio setup that I’d worked so hard to coordinate and create a peaceful environment with!
I have long decided that this is what I’d love to do when we get out of our one bedroom where neither my daughter or I have our own space. When I buy a home thats ours, our own rooms are going to be our sanctuaries and our space.
You really learn the value of your own space when you have to share your space with your preteen (almost 12) year old daughter.
Your room sounds like it will be so calm and relaxing, oh and your dream vacay… pretty similar to mine. Just me… some sand, maybe a cabana boy or two to eye, a good coupla books, refreshing breeze ahhhhhhhh sounds so blissful. I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to bring anyone with me (no kid, no friends, no man…) just me!!
You should try visiting ApartmentTherapy.com
They have a crazy amount of inspiration for bedroom styles and colours. I’m obsessed!
i painted my bedroom a light purple, a cool and calm color. i have this bed frame from ikea http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/22200_PE107067_S3.jpg and ikea malm style nightstands, dresser and bookcase http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QnjfbtfR5LU/SHggujAAUII/AAAAAAAABXY/za6zfKMs_KY/s400/malm.jpg.
the colors you mentioned for your bedroom sound like good colors, very complimentary with each other too. have fun with it!!
My bedroom will have warm colors. I’m choosing a light yellow for the walls, and accents will be in the sunset family. Warm colors make me feel safe and soulful.
My bedroom (and I think I put photos on the blog when it was finished), but it’s painted a gold color. The furniture is a dark brown almost black sleigh bed and side table and a tall bookshelf. The comforter and sheets are white. My lamp is a shimmery gold color and I have a matching vase on the bookshelf. There are a few candles and a few framed photos. Most of my everyday inspiration books (like the Bible) and journals. I love my bedroom! I still have white blinds up, but I would like to find some sheer white curtains. A lot of the accessories were purchased at Target. So check them out. Oh and I also have a wrought iron artsy thing on the wall over the bed that has candles in it and a couple of floating shelves on the opposite wall.
I’d go for gold over the orange. That, and the beach colours, were the way I decorated my bedroom for years. I’m just switching over completely now to purple walls (!) and modern light oak furniture with black and white bedding.
apartmenttherapy.com is cool, but for some quick inspiration, i love http://www.thisyounghouse.com There is likely a moodboard on that site that matches your style, they get alot of requests for beachy. AND they use lower end stores to complete the look.
JC Penney is no joke for nice home goods! Also, Home Goods lol. And Overstock. And there is a Crate and Barrel outlet store tucked away in Alexandria VA. Oops did I spill that?
I am massively fusty. Lots of heavy, dark, wood furniture. Turkish and persian rugs. Buttercream walls (well I am still in the process of painting, we shall see if i ever finish!!). Leather sofas and wingbacks. Bookshelves. Lots of books. Electronics all hidden in vintagge radio cabinets.
It either freaks people out (makes them feel they are in an old library) or they really dig it.
First of all, my favorite color is blue. Until I read this post, I didn’t really realize why I love my new bedroom colors. My bedroom set is mahogany. My walls are painted blue – I can’t remember the exact name of the color but it’s like the common color of a man’s work shirt (if that makes sense). I have a fluffy white bedding set (still in the box though) and my carpeting is the color of sand. My room is so peaceful to me and after reading your post I know why – I LOVE THE BEACH!!!
I’m still undecided if I’m going to paint my ceiling but the blue against the white molding ‘pops’ quite well.
Oh and for my past two birthdays I’ve gone to the beach (in Florida), by myself with a book and my ipod. I also have a dream of going to an all-inclusive resort – that’s going to happen real soon. But I probably won’t be by myself ;-)
I got my inspiration from Jamaica – sea green walls with white rimming for doors and windows, light colored vertical blinds with light pink, beige and sea green specks, tan colored furniture. My bedding is sea green, aqua, blue, light gold-depending on my mood when I change it every week. I have a view of the ocean from my building and when the sun hits my room I feel like I am indeed in the resort on the balcony. Never mind sirens of NY police, fire and ambulance-I block it all out and imagine myself somewhere warm and peacefull, beach full of tan chiseled and good looking men in barely there swimming shorts (think Daniel Graig in Casino Royale) who are rushing to fulfill my every desire – refill my drink, cut me up some fruit, put some more sunscreen on my back, massage my feet, etc, etc, etc…..
Let’s see. The furniture suite is mission-style in a medium brown tone with black knobs. Very straight-lined. I don’t like sitting on my bed, so there are three sitting places in the room: a wood and leather bench at the foot of the bed, a small loveseat from ikea (the spot for watching tv) and an eames-style lounger and ottoman, (where I like to read). The room is fairly large so the furniture is not crowded.
The colors in the room are medium brown, dark taupe, black and red. The red is on the floor in the rugs, which are orientals. The medium brown is in the main furniture and the color of the wood floors. The dark taupe fabric is on the loveseat and black leather is on the eames chair and on some of the artwork frames. There are also small touches of green in art pottery pieces on the dresser, in some of the art and in the wall color, which if Benjamin Moore Powell Buff, a very nice taupey green.
The room reads vaguely asian. I feel very calm and comfortable there because of the clean lines, the tone of the wood and the artwork. The artwork is small and intimate on purpose – you have to get close to it to really appreciate it-sitting or lying down -so it creates a sense of intimacy under the sloped walls of the room. In addition, all of the artwork in the room currently came back from travels, so there are memories associated with each piece.
It works for both my husband and I because it functions well – sofa for tv watching, etc. and light around the room in the form of lamps and is not frou-frou (not that there is anything wrong with that – it is just not us).
My inspiration was british colonial meets caribbean calm and modern clean lines. My family and my hubby are from the islands so aqua water is in my blood. I love the combinations of browns and aqua.
In my bedroom I’ve painted the walls a dark chocolate brown (that could be a sustitute for the naked brown chiseled body :)), added tall white crown moulding and baseboards, with mahogany sleigh bed furniture. My bedding is cream duvet cover with a fluffy down comforter inside and lots of cream pillows, I have an ornate silver mirror with large silver candleholders with cream candles on the dresser.
The bed is in the center of the room with a nighstand on each side a lamp on top and pictures on each side. I was nuts about everything being highly symmetrical and very balanced. The bed sits in front a double window, so I wanted to be able to block out light to sleep. We have cream / white large striped silk drapes (the drapes were an Ebay score – $50, they cost $200 retail) with blinds.
The nightstands have matching square pleated taupe colored lamps with clear glass & silver ball base. I have a white coral sculpture on my nightstand with mother of pearl shells and on my husbands he would only let me put a mirrored jewelry box on his along with his alarm clock. There are two pictures of tropical orchids on each wall in brown matting and silver frames. So my bedroom is just cream & brown, its so serene. My bedroom totalled $2100 with furniture ($1400) and bedding & decor ($700).
One caveat I had to had a television for the hubby, so we installed a flat panel LCD in the corner, so its not competing for attention in the room. How exciting for you, you’ll have to show us pictures!
You have excellent taste. I’ll second Fabulously Broke – Apartment Therapy is inspirational. My favorite design site.
I say go with a small sculpture of the brown chiseled man ;)
Singla Ma! You are describing my room. My wall color is the color of the ocean early in the morning. I have always loved blue as a youngest. My nightstands and dresser or cherry wood with silver accents. I wasn’t sure I would like the cherry wood, because I originally wanted honey oak furniture to remind me of the sand. But I love the cherry wood. Plus my carpet is the sand…I would have loved hardwood flooring, but it wasn’t in the budget. I have white wood blinds with white linen curtains. So when the winds blows through them it is so so peaceful. My bed is silver, lover it, with a light blue comforter set. I not the matchy type either. What really sets my room off is the silver two blades ceiling fan. It looks like a helicopter propeller. People I always comment on it, because it is so unique. I love my room. I just wish it was a little large. Yes, I do have a television in it. I love my TV! I almost forget I have vases in my room with white sand and seashells in them.
For those who have bedrooms similar to what I’ve described in this post, I’d LOVE to see a picture of it. Please email me!
Thanks to everyone for sharing their designs and thanks for the apartment therapy reference. I’ve been following that blog in my reader for a few months.