The Master Bedroom: Paint, Curtains, and Shades, Oh My!

Remember when I had all those paint samples on the walls in my bedroom? I was looking so hard for a blue-but-not-really-blue paint and was constantly coming up short. I thought I was going to go with Van Alen Green by Benjamin Moore, but long story short, the winning color in the end was Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams.

Before Rainwashed

After Rainwashed

If you're interested, this is the long story long: (skip if you'd like)
I thought I had settled on Benjamin Moore's Van Alen Green. So I bought a gallon of paint and got to work. The only problem with that was, once it was all over a huge wall, I hated it. It was like mint sherbet ice cream threw up all over my wall. It was just way too green for me. I know, I'm seriously picky about my paint colors.

Then I had the ingenious idea of mixing my own paint. I liked the Van Alen Green, but it just needed a little blue. And the blues I had samples of just need a little green to work. I took my small sample of Rainwashed that I already had from my patchwork quilting fiasco, and mixed it with the Van Alen. Wally! It worked, I loved it.

But I needed more Rainwashed to have enough paint for the entire room, so I went back to Home Depot and got a gallon of that (all these paints were matched to Behr). When I came home with a full gallon I realized that this was not the same paint color as my small sample! The person who mixed the small sample must have mixed it wrong, because the larger gallon didn't have nearly same blue-gray color as the full gallon. I tested the real Rainwashed on the walls, liked it, and went with it. (Yes, now I have a gallon of Van Alen Green that I have no idea what to do with. I'm sure I'll use it for something eventually. Maybe. Or I'll donate it to Habitat for Humanity.)





I like Rainwashed because it looks greener during the day when there's a lot of light, and bluer at night when we're going to bed. I understand why so many people end up using it: it's a great versatile color that really does change with the light. It's beautiful. And that's coming from a self-proclaimed blue wall hater, so you know it's true.

I also upgraded the curtain hardware over the windows to Ikea's KVARTAL system. I had some gift cards so I decided to splurge and get these for fun. Instead of your standard curtain rod, these are tracks that the curtains slide on. I like them for a few reasons:

(1) Before, I could never quite get the curtains closed in the middle so light wouldn't show through. The center bracket holding up the rod kept the curtains from completely closing, creating a little gap in the middle (and inevitably that gap would shine light directly in my eye!). That doesn't happen with these.

(2) The curtains go all the way to the very top of the ceiling. With the correct hooks the curtains will actually cover up the track and go to the very top of the ceiling (I don't have them in here, I need to make another Ikea trip to buy them, poor me...). Having the curtains up so high makes the room feel ginormously tall.

(3) With the triple track, I can hang my curtains and my sheers (and maybe a blackout curtain later on too) really easily. I know sheers aren't exactly contemporary or "current", but I love them.

I hung Ikea's VILMIE LINJE curtains

While I was in a window dressing mood, I got these bamboo blinds from Home Depot.



They feel a little "island" to me, but I think the natural wood really warms up the space. They're super easy to hang. The blinds I bought are 6 feet long and I hung them by myself (T was pretty happy he didn't have to help with this project).

The big thing that I'm still missing that's keeping me from completely this space? Nightstands!

Right now the headboard isn't mounted on the wall, and that's because I don't have nightstands. Things may move left or right a bit depending on their size, and I'm not about to re-mount the headboard if I don't have to. Once I find a pair of nightstands that work, I'll be able to mount the headboard to the wall and put up bedside lights (which are already bought and ready to go).

The problem is that I need nightstands that are high (like 22+ inches) and narrow (about 12 - 14ish inches). That's turning out to be a lot harder than I anticipated. Until then, the alarm clock remains on the floor.

Other things left to do:

(1) Switch out the slipcover on the chair. It's not going to stay part gray/part white permanently. I think the dark charcoal is the way to go, I just need to get the cover on there.

(2) Organize the shelves over the chair. They're a mess right now. I need to spiffy up the books a bit (see that collection of trashy books at the top? Those could be less obvious), put pictures in those frames and get them hung.

(3) Do something in that corner above the small dresser. I don't want to start cluttering up the bedroom and putting stuff on every inch of the walls, but it's looking empty over there. Any ideas what I should do here? I'm having a huge brainfreeze with this area.




(4) This is more a "wish" list thing I guess, but I'd really like to get an ottoman or footstool for that chair too. That would make hanging out and reading in that chair a lot more comfortable.

Until those things happen though, I'm feeling really good about the progress. I'm pretty happy with my decision to switch things up mid-stream too. I was nervous I would hate the changed changes, but I'm glad I did.

Being wishy-washy "flexible" has it's perks sometimes ;)

p.s. I'll be sharing my progress at some great parties. Make sure you check them out in my sidebar.