SANITY FAIR: Natural Makeover

Thursday

Natural Makeover

Imagine, if you will, this design challenge: a bed and bath with pink wall-to-wall carpeting (official color: Alabama Clay), mat white walls and trim, and a blue and white stripe bedspread... . Who would DO such a thing? Me, actually. Age 6. File this mentally in the "do not do's" section of your brain, which should now include a tab forbidding 6-year olds to make their own design decisions.

Here's the Alabama Clay carpet. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Nooooo!

So, anyway, here's my design penance. Turn this shrine to shabby into a nice guest bedroom for my parents. In keeping with the rest of the house, it needs to be modern with a rustic edge.

First things first, THE FLOOR. The floor must go. Far, far away. The room is small, but flooded with light (windows run the entire length of the room), and it can handle a dark floor, as long as the rest of the decor is clean. I've picked out Virginia Mill Works hand scraped birch flooring. The uneven surface catches light, and the birch grain on some boards resembles tiger's eye.

The walls are going to go very forest natural, picking up on the shades of the woods outside. Walls in Boston Fern (Behr).

Since it's a guest room, the bed is going to take central stage. The frame is a brass four-poster with a great deal of character, and it dominates the room. The frame stays (for now), anchoring the space. Bedspread will likely be a rich cream, and these pillows will bring nature inside without adding heft to the bed (Fern Pillows, Pottery Barn).

To pick up some of the creams from the bed, some objects de decor from West Elm for the bath.

Side tables for the bed are family antiques (tall, dark glaze with spindle legs). To balance their slender shapes, these lamps, also from Pottery Barn, perhaps half-filled with brown and gray river stones from the nearby creek.