A tour of our bedroom

My husband and I love to redecorate. It used to take a move to inspire us, but since we've been in the same apartment for 13 years (with a year off subletting it while we lived in the Netherlands), we've managed to redecorate it in at least three different styles ranging from Minimalism to Danish Moderne/Japanese to whatever it is we have now. This last incarnation though is proving to be so eclectic that while we started the process almost four years ago, we're still not finished, which is nice in a way, because it means that we won't get bored with it too soon. The livingroom is the closest to being "done" and with some recent changes in the bedroom, we're almost finished with it too.

I've always liked green in a bedroom -- other little girls wanted pink canopy beds, but I wanted a green velvet counterpane. There's something so fresh and restful about the color. We had a similar green jacquard comforter before, but it had suffered at the claws of one of our cats, so I was very happy when I found the set above at, of all places, Ross. It came with three pretty throw pillows, but with the vintage ones I already had on the bed, my husband rebelled against the extras and leaves the pillow placement to me after he makes the bed. Above the bed are sconces we found on eBay with half shades from a little shop in North Beach. Between them is a 19th C. Symbolist print that was a minor splurge from a downtown gallery. Hanging from the picture molding is what I call our "upside-down headboard" -- a green painted castiron scrollwork piece.

Next to the bed is a recent major splurge, a 19th C. Aubusson painting. I believe that it was Trish who featured this lovely painting on her wonderful blog, Trovais, and I instantly fell in love with it. Even though I have my degree in textile art and had studied Aubusson tapestries, I had never thought about what happened to the old cartoons. Amazingly, I was the only bidder -- perhaps because of the split in the middle, which was an easy fix with some archival tape -- and have it hung like a tapestry from the picture molding.

Up until a few weeks ago, there was a small Japanese cabinet where this chest of drawers is now. While the cabinet was pretty, it wasn't practical. After searching Craigslist for weeks for a chest that would fit -- it couldn't be more than 15" deep -- we just stumbled upon this one at one of our favorite thrift stores. It had matching wooden pulls, but I decided to change them for some green milk glass ones I found on eBay to match the theme of the room. The runner is from a set of antique embroidered ecclesiastical table covers that includes a small square table cover and a large altar cloth.

On the wall is part of our collection of vintage photos of children. Originally, we were just collecting children in white clothing, but that expanded to children in costumes and then just pictures of children that we liked. There's even a photo of my father when he was six up there. My "Fleafinds" dress from last week fits right in on the door.

The boys are part of my other hobby, ball-jointed dolls, and I made their outfits. I think that I inherited a box collecting gene from my mother, but that half of them are filled with dried rose petals and buds that I've saved from bouquets is purely my own insanity. Yes, that's R. and me on our wedding day in front of the bed & breakfast in Penzance where we stayed before and after the wedding.

This lingerie chest was the perfect solution for storage in a small corner. I'd been searching for a bench for under the window for some time and one day, R. came up from the basement with this one that he'd had stored down there all along. I just had to take off the old brown vinyl seat cover and replace it with this vintage striped fabric. R. built soundproof shutters for the window years ago, because we live on a very noisy street and they also work well for keeping out the glare for photos.

The tableau on top of the lingerie chest. I've had the little Deco lady since I was a child. The portrait above is reverse painted on glass -- I love her enigmatic gaze.

The rest of my doll collection lives in and on this china cabinet with clothes storage for us below. I got the gorgeous French lace coverlet at an estate sale, but rather than put it on the bed where our cats would destroy it, I used it as a drape to break up the space a bit.

On thing that hasn't changed in the many incarnations of our apartment is the dark blue ceiling with glow in the dark stars that we did soon after we moved in. It reminds us of sleeping outdoors in the country. My mother found this chandelier with porcelain flowers for us and I love the contrast between it and the ceiling. The little man is from a set of puppets that we have scattered around the house.

Thanks so much for joining me on a tour of our bedroom and now I think that it's time for bed.

'nite,

Kelly