When my dear friend, Catherine, came to me and asked me to help her with her master bedroom, I immediately said yes. Catherine’s home is absolutely lovely, but like most of us, she’d put off decorating her master bedroom in favor of taking care of other areas of the house. We worked together remotely for a couple months and I installed the final design just a few weeks ago. Here’s a before shot for reference.
Let’s take a minute to talk about the before picture. Catherine had already chosen some great pieces on her own. I love her bedside lamps and the super fun acrylic ceiling fan (because hello, this is Arkansas people, we gotta have ceiling fans). We’d picked the rug together but I didn’t see it in the room till the day of the install. This is a really great example of a rug being too small and not quite the right color for the room. Mixing warm beige carpet and a cool grey rug just did not work in this space. It made the room look cluttered and unfinished. Catherine had already decided she didn’t love the rug, so I took it out, with the help of my trusty assistant, my dear, sweet Nana. While we’re talking about rugs, it’s worth noting that placing a rug on top of existing carpet is not always an easy fix. Catherine plans to eventually replace the carpet in this room with hardwood flooring. The existing carpet, on it’s own, was a better fit for the room than trying to make a rug work. This is a great example of the less is more approach. Choosing to remove the rug actually made the room look more put together and feel more peaceful.
Once the rug was out of the way, I added in some art that the Thorpe’s bought while traveling that I’d had framed at Hobby Lobby. I replaced their duvet cover with a simple white cotton duvet and replaced the Euro sham covers as well, both from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Catherine and I found the throw and the pink lumbar pillows, both from Homegoods, and the patterned lumbar pillows, from Hobby Lobby, on shopping trips together.
The Anthropologie drapes are one of my favorite finishes in the room and one of the first purchases we made during this project. The drapes set the tone for us as we chose the remaining finishes. Catherine chose the art between the windows on her own and it compliments the space well.
Opposite the bed is a fireplace and a cozy sitting area. Catherine had already done a great job choosing chairs and a coffee stand in the corner with it’s own Keurig, complete with all things morning coffee. Catherine and I found the pillows during a Homegoods trip. The Thorpes had several pieces of art that they’d purchased while traveling and I had most of it framed at Hobby Lobby with ready-made frames or with semi-custom frames during a big sale.
The Thorpes had recently had family pictures taken and I was able to frame several great pics of their crew. I used this frame from Target in several different sizes for a very custom look at a great price.
The dresser on the wall opposite the windows was a great place to style with more art from the Thorpe’s travels. Again, I used the Target frames linked above and I love the way they turned out.
While I was steaming the duvet and euro shams and doing all the things that come with sprucing up a bedroom, my Nana was carefully placing most of the pictures and pieces of artwork into frames. She helped me every step of the way and we had such a great time working together. When she was done helping with the pictures, I found her downstairs cleaning the Thorpe’s kitchen. This woman is gold and I hope to be more like her!
The most rewarding part of this project was seeing the joy on Catherine’s face when she saw the completed room. She was and is so thrilled with her master bedroom. Catherine is a business owner, her sweet husband is a doctor and they have three kiddos. To say that these two hard-working people need a peaceful retreat is an understatement. I’m so thankful that my dear friends let me play a small role in creating a soft place to land in their home. Look for a blog post soon about how we brought some life and order into the Thorpe’s master bathroom.
Holly Bertram Designs 