Master Bedroom Progress

Back in October the hubs and I began our Master Bedroom makeover.  This post shows some before and after photos from the weekend we painted the walls.

We made some progress over the weekend in this space, experimenting with pillows and lamps and decor. 

My favorite spot so far is definitely our "sitting spot for coffee."

My husband has longed for a "sitting spot" since our first 800sf house purchased in 1997.  13 years later his wish came true when we bought this house in 2010~ and we honestly never take it for granted.

I snagged the cherry blossoms from the sitting room to fill that corner and add a natural element.  The printed pillow on the chair is Pottery Barn's Jerri Bird collection, a beautiful tapestry of yellow, spa blue and taupe ~ which I discovered they no longer sell after having trouble with the matching duvet...but that's another story.

The pine armoire in the corner has quite a history in our family.  Bought unfinished for $50 at a garage sale for our 1997 house, it has bravely sported whitewash paint & fabric in the door panels (both pinstripe and red/gold floral), been re-painted in plain, undistressed ivory, and now is currently content in antiqued cream with French blue details.  (The hardware on this piece is from my childhood kitchen in Minnesota, so yeah, there's a lot of nostalgia here.)

Here's a picture of the armoire in our famous red/gold days, and a bonus shot of me in ponytails.  I don't really do ponytails anymore.....and probably shouldn't have back then :) 

This scrolled shelf has history, too.  While pregnant with my first son in 1999, my sisters and I met in Seattle for a shopping trip.  I was so overwhelmed with the tremendous selection of house goods, furniture, clothing (shopping in the "states" can almost push an Alaskan girl over the edge) but knew I could only take a few things back on the plane.  This shelf made the cut.

On it, I've displayed my collection of glass jars which hold elements from places we've travelled.  Crushed shelled sand from Cozumel, White Sands from New Mexico, crushed leaves from NYC's Central Park, and golden grains from Napili Bay, HI. (My sisters and I spent an afternoon over Christmas break a year ago fashioning starfish out of saltdough.  How cute is that?)

I hung a couple pictures on Mr. Mimsy's side of the bed.  These were taken when I was pregnant with my daughter over Christmas of 2004.  Our two boys are looking at and playing with my large tummy.

Mom was horrified when a variation of these poses made it on our Christmas card that year.

I found some fun Euro pillow cases which add great texture to the bed,

...but overall the whole bedding dilemma and wall space above the bed is still giving me fits.  I've learned it's extremely difficult to make a king size bed look pretty.  I love the cream comforter, we both adore the heft and texture of the heavy faux fur blanket my brother brought us back from Korea, and we recently bought wonderfully new, soft ivory sheets. 

But it's still not working for me, so I'll ponder it a bit longer. 

Although I love the mirror, it's too small for the space and does not have a good relationship with the plastic sconces on either side. 

Nor do I.

But I'm still trying to figure out what to do there.  And I'm on the lookout for some pretty sconce fixtures.  For cheap.

We started painting the adjoining bathroom last night and have already hung some things on the walls.  It looks so much better already.  Lately I've wondered if finishing some of these spaces will free me up to do other things in my life.  Although I've always loved the process of decorating, I'm feeling recently that it's time to be done with these rooms so I can not only enjoy the feeling when I walk into the prettier spaces, but I can shift my energies in more eternal directions. 

My husband, on the other hand, tells me ever so kindly that I'll never really be done. And yeah, maybe he has a point.

 But I can certainly be closer than I have been.

Jaimee