Updating the Bedroom - Antique Textile & New Quilt!

It's been a few weeks since I've last posted.  Most of the decorations are put away, and I'm thinking about other things.  When you grow roses, there are several hundred that have my name on them...calling to  be pruned back.  The weather in the NW is not cooperating, so I've turned my attention indoors.

So I'm continuing to work on updating the Washington house.   The paint redo last month in the kitchen is growing on me a bit, but I'd still like it a darker color to complement the counters.   The office is almost done, but this weekend I did a quick fix in our bedroom with new bedding.  I got to thinking-- I purchased the bedding for an apt. in Philly in 2004!  How time flies. I think it's time to splurge for something new.

 I hunted around for old photos of our bedroom, pre "moving all the clutter out", and found this:

Excuse the sloppy made bed--must be the lousy maid service...
the towel on the bed is for  our cat who liked to sleep on towels.

We moved the highboy out of the room as it "takes up valuable visual space" (per stager, house is for sale).   Post-stager, the room looked like this:

How did I miss the messed up dust ruffle?   

We kept all the seafoam bedding.   The bedding is lumpy because of those down comforters--it really looks too sloppy.

Added a new white quilt.   I'm liking the fresh look, and introduction of a neutral.  There was too much  color before--the walls, dust ruffle, drapes....Should I replace the dust ruffle with a neutral check? Hmm.

I also removed the lumpy comforter.  I remember Bunny Williams wrote about using something that is heavy enough to make a nice smooth bed.   She's definitely right on that one.   I like to use antique matelasse or  trapunto coverlets, but king sizes are hard to come by, so this one works.  I really wanted to make this room seem more spa-like, and not scare anyone who is looking at the house.    It looks inviting to me!

(So what to do with the pile of "dead" lumpy down comforters in the attic?   I wash old down pillows in my washing machine & dryer, and then cut them to size for comfy throw pillows for the sofa. )

I have 3 rows of pillow, plus a lovely aubusson "snake" pillow.

The "snake" pillow.

The aubusson pillow is a reproduction.   Antique textiles are wonderful, but they are expensive and fragile.  Using a reproduction is perfect for my needs.   The antique here is the framed embroidery fragment over the bed. I swapped it out for the oil painting that was more of the same color as the walls.   This fragment has the perfect antique patina the room needed.

French metallic embroidery fragment

This is one of my favorite pieces of embroidery.  I framed it in a period frame, mounted on silk.   I suspect this was on the back of a chair at one point.  As with all silk, it is fragile and has splits in it.   It is really tough to use for pillows given the fragile condition.

You can tell I'm nuts about antique textiles.  I have two over the nightstands that have to go now.  Maybe I'll move the bigger one on the right to be over the bed.  I'll share the closeup of that one soon.  I should move those now that the room has been "emptied".  There's always tomorrow.