Years ago, I was staying at the Hotel San Jose in Austin, TX, and I noticed they’d pinned poems to the walls above the light switches and it took my breath. Something about that touch made the room feel like home — like there was a live person behind the hotel, instead of a Designer.
This is a thing I notice now about peoples’ homes, whether I know more about who they are and want to be based on their space. I want all the small things my new bedroom to make me feel joy, so I’m paying particular attention to the details.
My question for you is, What do you have in your room that makes you smile every time you see it or use it?
Photo by Bruce Turner
Wow. That poem moved me…
I’m working on making our bedroom a more relaxing, less cluttered place to be. For now, I really love our new sheets and the new habit I’ve formed of making the bed, which has made a significant different in how I feel when I come home at the end of the day.
I have a lovely painting that my friend Robin Plemmons (http://gomighty.com/user/robinplemmons/) made for me, featuring the poem “The Yellow Bowl” (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20589). It calms me whenever I look at it. Everyone should have a Robin painting in their bedrooms.
I bought a chandelier in the Marrakesh market. Every time I look at it, I remember the trip to Morocco, the wonderful sights, the great people I met and what an adventure getting the chandelier home was. Makes me smile ever day!
I have an old vintage cross-stitch in a crappy gold frame that says “make today a good day.” It hangs right above my light switch and next to my bedroom door, so I see it every time I go in or out!
Not in the bedroom, but I recently painted “we can do hard things” on the wall right next to my front door. It’s a reminder to both myself and my son to challenge ourselves daily. It doesn’t hurt that I painted the letters in liquid gold leaf, so it’s shiny and beautiful and creates its own gradient effect depending on how the light hits it!
Wonderful soft, silky (but not silk) pure white sheets. Don’t even care if they are wrinkle proof or not. Splurging on wonderful sheets makes my bed my favorite place in the world. I would hold court there a la Marie Antoinette if i could. The only other thing I care about is lighting. Lots of sunlight during the day and soft wonderful lights at night, especially candles. I love my bedroom.
Oh I love the color of my bedroom…a warm spiced pumpkin color that can make decorating a challenge but is so delicious.
First, I painted my room orange. I read many years ago that orange is supposed to be good for people who don’t like winter. It makes me smile as soon as I get home and as soon as I wake up in the morning. Some other things are my favorite books, neatly stacked on my bedstand (next to a towering stack of library books).
I have a framed copy of this print on my wall: http://paigebradley.com/shop/index.html
If the image doesn’t transfer, it’s called “Home” and is a print of Paige Bradley’s incredible sculpture. I bought this for my Christmas present last year, my first Christmas in my own home. I am attempting to create space for what I want in my life and my home. This print and sculpture fill me with joy every time I look at it. Art should touch you and move you, and this piece does, every day.
I hand painted my curtains. In the morning the light shines through them in an unexpected way and I just love it. I smile at them involuntarily all the time.
I think the things that bring me the most joy in my room are the things that I put the most time and love into – the curtains I painted, the artwork I hand carried back from Italy, the duvet that I searched for months for. Someone once told me to only ever bring something into your house that you truly love, so far it is a practice that guides me well.
The artwork I did that a friend convinced me to frame and hang, even though at the time I thought it was the height of pretention to hang your own art work. Now I think I was an idiot for waiting so long. A few years ago I was going through my own room remodel and decided that I would only put things in there that I loved. I didn’t care if nothing matched, I didn’t look for color schemes or themes. I just wanted to love everything that I chose to surround me.
For ages (or about 7 years anyway), my room was so bare. Nothing on the walls, no photos on the dresser. Blah. Then I came across a little gem on etsy and my husband gave it to me for our anniversary. I lived in Paris 14 years ago and every time I see it… well, there’s only one word: delight.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/53004839/paris-wall-decal-map-in-words-texts?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=paris+wall+map+decal&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
I have a little glass terrarium that is supposed to be for plants, but I filled it with all the vintage necklaces and pins my grandma let me have. They don’t get dusty in there, i’m more likely to wear them when I can see them, they make their own kind of gorgeous sparkly flower garden, and every time I pass by it I think how lucky I am.
I have a wonderful Turkish rug purchased while we lived overseas.
I love the colors, I love how it feels when I walk on it & I love the depth it adds to the room. So. I would say: find a rug you can love! :)
Padded silk headboard. Done.
When my grandmother died I inherited a wing back chair that she had reupholstered in a hot pink silk. It is nothing that I would ever buy for myself, but it is special in its uniqueness… and its sentimental value. When I moved into my home, I planned my entire bedroom around it.
I actually just love the idea of a poem above a light switch. I thought about what poem I might pin up, and it inspired a new goal for my list: memorize 50 poems. Thanks, Maggie.
My bedroom is gorgeous. It’s huge, and has windows on three sides. It has a fireplace. It had a four-poster bed with a canopy. I love everything about it, even though we never finished painting it almost 10 years ago. Maybe 2013 will be the year we decide on a color!
We did paint the floor though–it’s 12-inch wide pine boards and they are deep, earthy purple. :)
When I moved out of the tiny apartment I shared with my ex, I let him keep most of the furniture. For seven years nothing in my space could be overtly girly–shortly after we started dating he got me to take down the pink mosquito netting canopy over my bed, and everything in my first apartment was to the gender neutral version of my taste mixed with the full version of his.
For my new room, I got the girliest bed I could find at Ikea, which I adore. My walls are covered in Art Nouveau style prints–both from the actual period and stylistically similar posters featuring some of my favorite nerdy characters. I’ve got a couple more improvements planned-replacing the light fixture and painting the walls jade green or deep teal are next on the list. After that I’m going to finish the quilt I’m making for the bed. But I am so glad that the first thing I did with my new space was make a bedroom that says it belonged to me. I’m not sure I’ll ever be willing to give it up.
There are the big things – painted it a pretty bluey purple (Lapis, according to Behr) with bright white trim, got fluffy white bedding, etc.
But it is the small things I love most – a elfa rack from the container store that I tacked to the wall to display my necklaces, the vintage carafe/cup combo called (this is the awesome part) a tumble-up that my best friend gave me. It has painted pictures of lingerie on it, and I keep it on my nightstand in case I get thirsty, or have an attack of the vapors. It makes me feel like a girl who deserves to be pampered, even by myself.