I'm a very proud babe right now, patting myself on the back (pat, pat. Good job, Jan!) Well, the plastic anchors aren't in. I tried to hammer one in and it was like - forget it, lady! So I did. The screw-hooks are holding (for now) and if push comes to shove I can always glue the suckers in - or take the entire thing down.
It's rather overwhelming in my smallish (11.5 x 14) bedroom, but what the hell. It's my fantasy. That's what I get for re-reading "The Paris Apartment."
I'm posting some of my "black and white bedroom" inspiration photos. This one is from Martha Stewart's website. She painted the lamp and it's actually brown! Score one for my new brown lamp from Penney's. It's on an "ebonized" table that "perfectly matches the ebonized finish on the bed." And she's probably got about a thousand bucks worth of bedding on the bed. My entire bedroom isn't worth that much. Love the hardwood floor, notice the contrasting trim color to the white walls.
My canopy is all wrinkled, too. According to the directions (which actually were translated into some decent English, despite being made in China), after hanging for a day or so the wrinkles should "fall out." Now I don't believe that for a second. I may have to dig out my steamer, hook it up to a really long extension cord, and go up and down that jiggly step ladder of mine again steaming the worst of the wrinkles out of the net canopy. Or wait until summer when I can open up the windows full and the good old Wisconsin humidity will zap those wrinkles for sure!
Another inspiration photo. Some of the elements in this room appeal to me, but some of it is just a little too over the top for moi. The chandelier, for instance. Beautiful! Tempting, too. When I'm looking at all the decorating blogs, I see lots of chandeliers of all different sizes going into master bedrooms. Especially down south, for some reason. Antebellum hang-over? I do not like knife-pleated pillows. Nor black walls. I do like the non-matchy lamps and side tables. And this bedroom actually has window coverings! How can anyone "do" a bedroom and not put shades or blinds and curtains on the damn windows, I ask you? Are they exhibitionists??? One other thing this room has going for it - symmetry. The bed is nicely centered on the window, which makes a great back-drop, and it is flanked by two tables with two lamps. Looks like that flashy chandelier is centered in the room, and even though I don't like the knife-pleated pillows, there are two of them on the bed, in black to contrast against that crisp white bedding.
Right now the curtains I intend to swap out in the bedroom are in the dryer, I'm trying to de-wrinkle them. Not working very well on the semi-sheers, though. The lace under-curtains came out beautifully but I'll have to put up the ironing board and dig out my steam iron to do the semi-sheers. Okay - just took out the last batch of curtains from the dryer and yes, I will definitely have to hire them. The lace undercurtains are Shari lace that I bought from Penney's catalog YEARS ago - and I do mean that - 21 years ago, when this house was built. They hung in my bedroom for years underneath pink and grey printed curtains I sewed out of sheets. Amazingly, Penney's still sells the same Shari lace curtains!
In this inspiration photo, I like the funky shaped black lamp and the dark wood side table. I love love love the panelled-out wall and the pattern of the bed spread. More knife-pleated pillows, sigh. Who has time when making a bed in the morning to punch all those pillows back into shape and put in the knife pleats? And no headboard. I have always wondered -- do people who don't have headboards screw their beds to the wall? Otherwise how would you keep it from pushing away from the wall when you lean back and get comfy sitting up in bed to read or work on your laptop? I like the crispness of the contrast between the white wall, black picture frame, and white mat.
I also bought my semi-sheer floor-length curtains from Penney's -- forget what they're called but they have a sort of slubbed texture and are also still being sold 21 years later.
I also inspected my smaller cache of prints and pictures stashed in the "den" closet. The larger stash is in the guest room closet and I don't go in that closet much because it's a danger to life and limb. I am not impressed with some of my ancient and not-so-ancient cheap frames. I feel a spray paint attack coming on! Just have to get to some place that actually sells the stuff. Wisconsin banned the sale of spray paint to minors, which means that anyone can go into Lowe's and buy it, but Walgreens no longer carries it. So what the hell good does that do? There is still grafiti all over the city! Black frames? I could try the hammered bronze paint I bought to refinish the kitchen cabinet pulls. I'm sure the pulls aren't going to use up that whole big can of spray paint!
I love the use of the red and pink that just pops right out of the photo in this inspiration room. Again, a cozy chair and symmetry is in abundance: matched lamps, not sure if the medium toned wood bedside tables are identical but there is one on either side of the bed, along with those lovely Etruscan style benches at the foot of the bed. The white bedding is punctuated nicely by those black and white pair of pillows - and no knife pleats anywhere in evidence! I don't like the busy carpet. I like how the artwork is arranged on the wall behind the bed. It pulls the eye upward and balances the impact of the curvy red headboard. And what a gorgeous focal point it is! It looks so soft and cushy. Actually, the entire bed looks soft and cushy, I want to jump on to it right now! Ooooooh, that red bedskirt. Hmmmm....
Yet more symmetry at work in this room. Wish I had a large enough room to add a bench (or something like those Etruscan style footstools in the photo above) at the foot of my bed. I love this bed! Some time before I croak, I would like to buy an inexpensive metal version of this bed. I did price metal beds like this a few weeks ago, when the idea first took hold that I needed to finish off my bedroom after it was painted out more than two years ago. But I'm a waste not, want not kind of gal. I don't mind spending money if it's on something I need, but I have a perfectly good bed with headboard upstairs that isn't anywhere close to falling apart and I just cannot justify the expense of replacing it. Plus, it was really inexpensive to buy that hang-from-the-ceiling-mosquito-net canopy I successful put up today, and while it does not give me exactly the same look as a draped four-poster (metal or wood), it does give me something of the feel of a four-poster.
I have seen sunbursts like the one hanging above this bed that clever designing and decorating women have put together for their own homes, mostly using Dollar Store materials and left-overs from their favorite thrift shops. I sniffed some similar designs out online -- but all made in China and not by happy stay-at-home-moms. Since I'm not particularly crafty, I may "buy the look" some day. We'll see. Right now, with my bed situated as it is, I'd have to suspend a sunburst mirror from the ceiling behind my headboard! I don't think so - no more trips up and down my rickety ladder wielding a hammer above my head! By the way, I bonked myself pretty darn good when I was taking the ladder down. I forgot I left the hammer sitting up on the top and it fell on my head when I started folding the ladder up. OUCH!
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