Wednesday: Bedroom Makeover- how to

This room was easy because it's always easy to design when you have a great client but especially when there are great bones to the room. The ceilings were high, it had good moldings and trim, a beautiful window seat just begging for a cushion. It also had great storage space.

This is how we started:
I interviewed the daughter and mother together. I had Annie (the daughter) flip through magazines before the appointment and clip out pictures that she loved. She only had a couple of catalogs like pottery barn and west elm but the over all feeling was lots of blue-greens and natural woods finishes and blown glass.

Here is where I made one of my first mistakes on the project. I know Annie really well. Apparently I thought I knew her better than she knew herself! My initial reaction to her clippings was that they were more "Wisteria" and feminine and french and I thought she was more punk, Restoration Hardware, London. I mean, she listens to Jimi Hendrix, Deaf Leopard, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones. She had the most awesome short, red, punk haircut, wears converse shoes and old rock band tees. I thought for sure I was right. But I wasn't and I pushed this style on her because "it is my job as a designer to show her all the things she might like if you knew all the stores and styles that I did". However, I presented with this idea, she went with it, but it eventually it just morphed into all her original clippings. She wanted a calm, peaceful room to be in after a long day of craziness at high school. Lesson learned.

The room specifications:
1. Bed: Restoration Hardware on sale, king for $1000 with shipping and tax.
2. Sheets: Home Goods Calvin Klein. Really soft. $70
3. Blue-green coverlet: Pottery Barn, $200
4. Linen Pillow Shams in Euro size: Pottery Barn, $100 each, 3
5. Desk and Chair: World Market, $400 for both
6. Lamp and shade: Ikea $60
7. Plants: Ikea, $10 each, 5
8. Glass jars: Anthropologie, $4, 3
9. Rug: Carpet Remnant, $500 for a 9 x 12
10. Blown glass hanging from the ceiling: she made at a glass blowing factory in Switzerland over the summer. Cool.
11. Pleated duvet: Ikea, $130
12. Mattresses: old ones from another room in the house
13. Bath towels: Target
14. Orchid: Restoration Hardware $65
15. Keep Calm print: found on the internet, $30
16. Mirror over bed: Home Goods, $99
17. Window seat cushion: custom made by Losa Upholstery, $650

We still need to fix the cords behind the desk, hang Anthropologie lanterns over the window seat, get a frame for the poster, decoupage the lamp shade with dictionary pages, and put up her vintage key collection on either sides of the mirror over her bed.