The beauty of being inspired again...

I always think of September as another fresh start. Where I grew up, we always started back to school after Labor Day, so I associate September with a sense of newness. January is the traditional fresh start, with a new year stretching out in front of us, but I think September offers a chance to get reinvigorated so we can finish up the year in a positive way. 

Whether it’s the arrival of September or the arrival of a new piece of art for my dining room (more on that in a coming post) that has reignited my decorating spark, I’m not sure. But whatever it is, I’m loving it. I have been inspired the last week or two to change a few things in various rooms, putting some of what I’ve learned in my interior decorating classes to good use. So far I have made changes to the bedroom, dining room, living room and porch.

Today I thought I would share the changes I made to the bedroom. This is the one room in the house that I have had the most trouble with, largely because I have to restrain my feminine sensibilities somewhat. If it was left up to me, the bedroom would be all feminine glamour. But, understandably so, that doesn’t work for my fiancé. Using different drapes and bedding, I have put together several different looks, all of which are pretty, but not quite right. I decided this past week I was going to get this room right so that when I walked by, it made me smile, not sigh.  

Since I liked the gray in the room, I thought white would be a nice complement. I have white bedding that we really like, but I never had just the right drapes to go with it. I decided to have another search and found some new drapes that I really like ~ they’re gray with a slight white pattern running through them. I changed all the bedding back to white and decided to go with gray accent pillows. I also had this beautiful blue flower pillow that I wanted to use ~ I thought it would be nice to pull in another color as an accent, and since the chair in the corner has this touch of blue in it, I went with that. 

My pretty bedside table got a white tablecloth and gray topper, which really helped to soften the room. I sent my fab glamour lamp to live with a friend temporarily because it simply didn’t work (no matter how much I didn’t want to admit it), and moved a couple of other lamps around, including sending one to the living room. The bedroom also needed art, so I framed some things using white frames I had in the attic. I still need a couple smaller items to group with those white frames, but I’m sure I’ll find something.

One of the things that has always bugged me about the bedroom is the rug. I have gone through several at the foot of the bed. I really like the current one, but something still felt off until I remembered a discussion in one of my decorating classes about placing rugs at angles and when it’s appropriate to do that. I changed the position of the rug and it made a huge difference to the room, inviting you to walk in. Before, it always felt like the rug was stuffed between the bed and dresser because all three are the same width. 

The other thing that always bugged me was Emily’s dog bed right in the doorway. There’s no moving it because she insists on laying there (and there’s really no other place for it), so I thought maybe I should get a prettier one. As luck would have it, I stumbled across a new dog bed for Emily and a luxurious throw for the end of the bed all in the shade of blue I wanted. (Thank you TJ Maxx.) They were the perfect finishing touches.

And while my photos really don’t do it justice (I find this room so hard to photograph), the room feels so much better. There are still a couple minor things to be done, but overall I am really happy with it. The room finally feels like it fits with the rest of the house. Best of all, other than a couple of new accent pieces and some new drapes, I used items I already owned to give it a fresh look.

And you know what? When I walked by the room yesterday and looked in, it made me smile automatically. Finally.

I am linking to:
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Blue Monday at Smiling Sally
The DIY’ers at Home Coming
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Homemaking at Hope in Every Season
Home at Rose Chintz Cottage
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Anything Blue Friday at The Dedicated House

Photos by The Art of Living Beautifully