Making a House a Home :: Master Bedroom - Decorate

Let's face it.  When we moved into our home, it was UGLY!  The master bedroom was no different.  The walls, trim and baseboards were this awful dirty dusty pink with navy floral border.  Half of the border was ripped down... or maybe I ripped it down I hated it so much, I can't remember.  But we moved in circa 1990's and back in the '80's when the original homeowner decorated, that was the style... I guess. Not mine that's for sure.  There were no curtains and if there were I ripped them down and threw them out - they were full of dust and stunk like smoke and again ugly.  

Photo by SilverLining Designs (prior to digital)

Sorry for the bad picture.  Digital cameras were not discovered back then.  As you can sorta see we didn't have a lot of furniture back then and what we did have was a mix and match of hand me downs and stuff we brought into the marriage.  This room lacked style completely.

Photo by SilverLining Designs (prior to digital)

Shortly thereafter, we transformed the room by painting the walls an antique white.  To this day, I love this colour and never get tired of it.  The windows face west so in the afternoon it is very bright in this room and you hardly see the colour making it very soft.  In the evening and early morning it deepens and is quite beautiful.  Sometimes I find myself just looking around the room to see how the light catches the walls.  We also splurged and bought the bedroom furniture I have always wanted... a four poster bed.  I was surprised because it is little more ornate than what my tastes are usually, but there was something romantic about the detail and hardware. We put some pictures on the walls, purchased new bedding and put a new to us big comfy chair in the corner of the room, which was my aunts and has since now passed, so it is special because now whenever I look at it or sit in it, I think of her.  Again not my style in fabric, but it was in excellent condition and it worked and it is super comfy so I left it as is.  One day I will recover it.  The lamps were hand me downs which I did a little DIY.  They were originally peach ceramic.  Back then and still now I am so over peach.  It use to be my favourite... everything was peach.  I spray painted them gold.  The drapery, way back then, was given to me also.  I loved the fabric but the length was way too short. I needed something to cover the windows, so I threw them up on the windows until I was ready to have something made. 


So that, at the time was a room decorated.  I was able to walk in the room and be in the room and enjoy it to some extent.  There was still more things to be done, but for now it was livable.

Making a house a home

When we first moved into our home approximately 14 years ago, everybody wondered and voiced their concerns as to what I was thinking and that "boy do you ever have vision".  The reason they said that was because the house we bought was totally neglected when it came to the upkeep and a complete decorating disaster.  Imagine muddy dark pink walls, navy blue floral borders throughout the whole house including doors. Mismatched casings.  Light blue family room with a dog border through the middle of the wall. Little houses on a border in the kitchen.  Oh, I could go on with the decorating horror stories.  I don't think the owner ever cleaned.  There were cob webs on the walls as old as the house.  Food spilled in the kitchen cupboards.  I think you are getting the picture. They basically lived in the house. Period.

So why do you ask did I want this house?  It had good bones, the layout was what I wanted and the other thing that was a must, which the Mister insisted on, was that the property had to be bigger than a postage stamp.  So after two years of searching we finally found it.  Something had to give right? I was up for the challenge and anything we bought we knew we would rip apart and make it our own.The ideas were already swirling in my head.

Since I was 5 months pregnant at the time we took over the house, I was very lucky to have a team of people helping us move, clean and settle us in.  I would have never been able to do it without them.

The first thing I wanted to do was settle in Big Sister.  I wanted her to adjust well and feel like it was her home and space, so the first thing I did was paint and purchase bedroom furniture.  Since the previous owners were smokers I wanted to paint the whole house to get rid of the smoke smell, so we quickly painted ceilings and walls.  Since a baby was on its way, I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the master bedroom  feeding, sleeping, changing, etc. so that was the next room to paint.

Fast forward 14 years and we have accomplished a lot of renovations in our home from new hardwood floors that we sanded and stained ourselves to new kitchens and bathrooms.

After we finished a complete kitchen reno about 8 years ago we were burned out and everything came to a halt.  We gave ourselves a break and only just a few years ago have started up again and have been working on the landscaping in the backyard, installing new windows.... and began to slowly redecorate and repaint some rooms.

I'll be back soon.  Hope you'll follow along on my re-decorating journey. 

Colour of the Year 2012

Benjamin Moore announced their "Colour of the Year".  Can you guess what they chose?

Option 1: 

Walls: Wythe Blue (HC-143), ceiling: Battenberg (AF-70), trim: Storm Cloud Gray (2140-40)
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"Much more versatile than you may think, blue is truly a classic colour. It has universal appeal, never goes out of style, and is overwhelmingly chosen as a colour favourite across North America. It evokes the sea and sky, physically calms us, and symbolizes trust and commitment.

Because of the influence that blue has in our world today, we have chosen wythe blue (HC-143) as Benjamin Moore's 2012 Colour of the Year. It's a beautiful, calming hue that has an element of heritage and offers grounding rootedness, providing comfort and stability."




Option 2: Same colours different approach.  Which do you prefer?

Walls: Sharkskin (2139-30), ceiling: Wythe Blue (HC-143), trim: Battenberg (AF-70), stencil: Fresh Olive (2149-30)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wythe Blue is a green-blue hue that is a calming cool colour that would look wonderful in any room of your home.  Take a look at some other rooms using Wythe Blue...

 



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Look at the versatility of this colour.  It can be used in the dining room, living room, furniture, a porch and the exterior of your home.

So, what do you think?  Would you decorate using this colour?

For the silverlining to your design dilemma, contact me.

Certified: True Colour Expert!!

I had the chance in the beginning of June to register and earn my True Colour Expert certification through internationally acclaimed colourist and designer Maria Killam.

It was information overload jam packed into three days. Not only did I enhance and further my knowledge about colour and the importance of designing with it correctly, I also mixed paints, talked undertones, became even more familiar with the Benjamin Moore fan decks, critiqued real life interiors and exteriors, put our knowledge to work on carpet, tile, stone and wood samples and if that wasn't enough to get our minds spinning, were given homework at the end of each day.

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It was also wonderful to be in a room full of other talented decorators and designers that shared the same love of everything in the interior design field.

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By the end of the three days I was no longer just looking at rooms, objects, buildings and exteriors.  I was seeing all the colours that were being used and not just the colours but the undertones of those colours and how they worked and didn't work together.  In fact, I was watching a movie on the evening of the last day of the course and could. not. for. the. life. of. me. concentrate on the movie because I was so involved at looking at the colours and undertones used in the movie.  It was like someone put me in front of a kaleidescope and all I could see was colour.  It was awesome!

So, what does this mean to you?  I am more than qualified to not only help you select colours, but to create a look, feel and a flow for your home which transitions from room to room.

If you want this feel and flow to your home, visit the website SilverLining Designs, and send me an email here

How Things Work

When you have the range of selection that I do in my products I find it hard to work on one thing for too long because I am always trying to keep things in inventory and also, if I was to have to make say only, blankets and the same purse everyday, I would get bored very quickly. So when I finalize a design, I try and make as many as I can and then move on to the next. In this case, that only really relates to my baby blankets, tagit blankits, lavender drawer liners, etc., where they are a constant staple in my products, so I always want to make sure I have them in inventory.

This is also part of the reason why I only sometimes offer, or have on hand, 1 or 2 of a certain style of bag because I am constantly moving onto the next and the other reason is I want to see which bag seems to be the most popular and some just end up being work in progress, where the bag ends up being a great bag, but not what I had invisioned so only 1 is only ever made. Don't get me wrong, though. If someone sees a bag I have already made and sold I will gladly reproduce it. It might not be the same fabric or beaded handles because I only get limited quantities of some fabrics or types of beads for handles, but the style of the bag will be the same. However, I have been rethinking this lately and have been trying to find designs that I really like and want to provide as a collection. I have already started this with a few of them, i.e. the Sydney Handbag Collection, Patchwork Patti, and Initial It.

Lately, I haven't had much time to work on any new purse designs. Which is frustrating because A) there is so much creativity, I think, with designing a bag and I love that and B) I have been getting a lot of feedback from customers and clients as to what they like and what they would like to see me make so I have gotten a lot of ideas swimming around in my head because of that. This one here is my latest. Not exactly how I wanted it to turn out, but still beautiful and functional. It is all part of the design process - having something in your head and then trying to get it out of your mind and into fabric. Doesn't always relate the same, so I end up having bags, like I said before that are one of a kind because they are the ones that just happened because they were not the vision I had seen.

Having said all that, this bag will probably be a One of a Kind because it was part of the process of trying to get a certain design. If owning an original bag that no one else has is something you love.... scoot on over to Etsy because you will find it over there waiting for you!