Toile Bedroom

I've been busy working out in the garden this summer. We bought a house to retire to in 5 years (oh yea, we're already retired.  I keep forgetting--we seem to work like dogs all the time.) It is near our parents, both who are in their 80's and need some additional help. We plan on building a casita here for my parents, and my husband's parents are 12 miles away.  Having lived in the same house for 25 years, I have to figure out how to make this house feel like "home".

One problem is that there are 46 windows in the house, that's alot of windows! I want window covering for privacy when we are away, because I want to be able to keep the windows open when we are there. The summer sun in really hot, and I need to keep the windows closed from about 11 to 3 during the day when the sun hits these windows. The bedroom has a curved wall, I am looking for suggestions on what to do with this. What you are seeing in the windows are vinyl mini blinds from Lowes that I purchased to get something up quickly. Isn't it amazing that they had the size in stock.

The patio door has a nice Pierre Deux fabric, Quatre Saisons. They had this colorway on sale for $15/yard, regularly $80. I was planning on a traditional blue toile, but decided for budget reasons to go with this color. I have not regretted the decision. Finding the transferware below that looks lovely with the fabric only made me feel better about it! It's an interesting color, in the lighting throughout the day it can look from a plum color to brown.
The photo above shows how the transferware, circa 1835, goes with the toile fabric. I had to collect a whole new color of transferware for this room, it looks great together, and is another reason why I love antiques. Click on the photo to view a large photo--you can really appreciate the wonderful soft color of this "eggplant" fabric with the mulberry transferware.

I can't really put a "wall" of drapes on the 5 windows because I don't have enough space for stackback. I've thought about doing 5 individual balloon or roman shades in the Quatre fabric. I've also thought about venetian blinds. I prefer them over shutters, I can raise them for a nice unobstructed view, where opening shutters isn't the same. Bunny Williams (another designer I admire) always uses traditional blinds for light control, they really work so well.

Here is a photo of the view--you can see why I like keeping the windows open all of the time.
We really love the view, but I don't always love waking up with the sun. Mostly on days when I've been handmaking drapes til 2 AM, and I want to sleep in...

Anyway, here's a few more photo's of the room. I'd like to trade beds with the other house, I have a 4 poster that I can make a matching canopy.

The little hall chair has a squirrel on the back--isn't it cute! I found it at Hillsborough, a day after it opened. I ran the drapes up to the ceiling, because I've read all these blogs that say "make them as tall as you can". One of these days we'll be putting beams in the room, I don't know that I'll do crown moulding with the beams, but it will require lowering the drapes at that time. It sort of feels like we crammed it up at the ceiling, I'm thinking the next room I'll drop it about 4-6" ?  What do you think?

I struggled a bit with the drapery length. I've never "puddled" drapes, and was a bit worried about having a "puddle" in a doorway. My 83 year old dad, unsteady on his feet, would probably trip on puddled drapes. I have an extra 12 inches in the hem, I can change it. What do you think? Also, at times I like to make the drapes "extra wide" on a wall, but in this case, I didn't want to make it so wide, as I only had 6" between the door and the window to the left.

The 3 piece french chaise is really fun. We tend to use it more if it is set up as above. Below looks great, but we tend to sit in it arranged above rather than below.

I plan on recovering it, but will worry about that much later. The carpet in the room is what I would call gross shag. However, this is a new house, and I have no plans to dump money into new flooring until we move here full time. I think it photographs worse than it actually looks....

A room Charlotte Moss did is my inspiration for this room. It will take me a while, but I love this room!

The toile I have is busier than the fabric on the canopy, but evokes the same feeling to me. I would like to use similar colors in the room. I have the french chairs to recover. The pink, grey-plum, and the color of the wallpaper all are things I'd like to incorporate.

I loved the colors in this bold fabric, but the fabric is too bold for me. If it were a tiny flower like the canopy fabric in the inspiration room, I'd use it. It just gave me food for thought about colors. I liked the grey background. I did buy a green and purple plaid, thinking I'd use that inside the canopy, but once I took it to the other house, it looked terrible. The plaid reminded me of the 80's Waverly decorating, and it just didn't look good. A mistake. It's times like these when I realize a decorator (designer) could SAVE you costly mistakes.

 

Here's my question, I need to deal with those 5 windows. What would you do? I'm open to any suggestions!! Do I try to find a wallpaper similar to the inspiration room? I have enough fabric to do a canopy. (Thanks to Nancy at Pierre Deux in Dallas!) Or do I paint?. I've never found a decorator that has my taste, that I can afford. I appreciate comments!!

I am very busy outside gardening, but stay tuned for more updates. I will post as this room evolves.

Coming soon: I make my own drapes ALWAYS! I plan on posting my "how to", it's a great way to save money. After all, wouldn't you rather spend the money on a great antique! I line and interline the drapes, it's not that difficult.

Please leave me a post on your comments for the room!

PS.  I stopped by a furniture store and saw this Hendredon sofa with the softest color that reminded me of the Charlotte Moss room.  It used to be that I purchased Baker & Henredon because it was tough finding 8 way hand tied springs with down cushions.  Now you can get that at Pottery Barn or WS home.  Why do I want to spend $4700 on a Henredon sofa?  I just don't see what you are getting for the premium these days.