A New Hue in the Bedroom

Ocean Air-Benjamin Moore-Dwellers without Decorators

EH and I finally got around to painting our bedroom this past weekend! Yayyy! We've only been living here for over a year so I'm glad we finally got on that! I wanted a calm blue bedroom color that seemed beach like. Our bathroom is a color called barely beige (Benjamin Moore) that looks like beach sand and we, meaning I, wanted the two spaces to be cohesive. You already know that our apartment is severely light challenged. In fact the only part of our place that gets good south facing, bright light is the bedroom. Too bad we only spend time in there when we're sleeping!

I knew that if we had to tape off and paint on the same day it would elicit crazy grumbling from EH so I taped off the trim the night before. It's generally easier to get EH to do things around the house if I do some of the leg work ahead of time.

Yes, there is a huge elliptical machine in our bedroom. No, neither of us use it regularly. I really want to sell it and use the money to make a lump sum payment on one of our debts but EH is against it. He keeps saying, "I'm gonna use it!" I use it once every few months when I don't want to go out for a run or when it's cold outside. It hasn't been used by him in about a year so.....

We put on some great inspirational music--the Frank Sinatra Station on Pandora--and got to work. After the second coat I went around the room touching up the areas where the paint and the molding didn't quite meet. I was actually on my tippy toes on the ladder for his shot because I am THAT short. I would show you some pics of EH doing the grunt work but he insisted on painting with his shirt off and I wanted to keep this post G-rated and nobody really wants to see EH's beer belly...right!??

As soon as the paint dried I ripped off the painters tape and put everything back in place so I could get a better idea of the color. We started and finished painting in bright sun and the color looked like a very soft powdery blue with a bit of aqua. A web site described it as the color of the sky on a sunny day at the beach and that comes pretty close. It was pretty gorgeous and very calming. I could smell the salt in the air.

Here's another view of a corner of the room. You can see the blue color a little more clearly next to the trim.

Here's a shot of the room in early evening sun. Later on, the color looked more like a deep aqua, which I didn't expect and am still getting used to. This is definitely a color swatch you want to put up on the wall in all types of light, and actually look at it, before committing. I'll need to warm it up with some gold or cream accessories. I think I'll eventually put a reading chair in one of the corners so that I can curl up there with my kindle or my journal from time to time. EH likes to do his schoolwork in the bedroom as well so it'll come in handy for him to have a chair in there.

I removed the art that was hanging over the bed. I relocated it to the bathroom because it seemed to fit in better there. The base color of the art is the same color as the wall in there so it blends right in.

You'll also notice that I'm using one of those plastic storage containers for my clothes until we purchase a new dresser for the both of us to share. That container holds all of my everyday clothes...shirts, stretchy pants, running clothes, underthings, EVERYTHING! This was a great illustration for me on being OK with living with less.

I use a chair as an end table on both sides of the bed. They belong to our dining room set so when we have company we just bring them out to join their friends. My side has a small lamp ($20 at Target last year), my thermometer for TTC and my cell phone/alarm. I keep my work out clothes hanging on the side of the chair so I have no excuse not to run in the morning. EH's side just has whatever clothes he's taken off that day. Keeping it simple doesn't give us a chance to create clutter.

So, on the bedroom to do list:

1. Paint bedroom a calm, happy blue
2. Purchase a comfy chair for the corner to make a reading nook/schoolwork area
3. Make DIY art for over the bed...something in blue, gold and cream undertones to warm up the room
4. Purchase good quality, real wood, dresser with mirror or get two mirrors at the thrift store to hang over dresser
5. Get real, linen-colored, proper length curtains and hang them at the right height!
6. Maybe some new, inexpensive, rugs for the sides of the bed that match
7. Purchase a basic polyester fill comforter, that can be covered with duvet covers, and donate old comforter

Wow, that is quite a list...didn't know I had all that on the brain but I'll keep you posted on the progress!