My Last Chance To Use A Long-Time Favorite
Yesterday, I met with the person who is (hopefully) going to take up all of the damaged flooring and subfloor in our current home gym and replace the subfloor, as well as remove the rest of the walls around the original closet area. I’ll be installing and finishing the hardwood flooring myself, and then I want to be ready to get the rest of the room finished without any delay so that we can move in and get settled as soon as possible. I just want out of our current bedroom so badly, and I’m ready to get into our permanent bedroom.
So with that goal in mind, I’ve been trying to get all of my plans in place for our “new” bedroom so that I won’t have to be wrestling with decisions once the floor is finished. Right now, the room looks like this…
I painstakingly painted all of those stripes on those walls using 15 different paint colors. It wasn’t an easy project at all, and I love how they turned out…for a home gym. But there’s no way I want those walls to stay like that when this room becomes our bedroom.
So I’ve been on the lookout for ideas, and I’ve been thinking about how I want this room to look and feel when it’s finished. Here’s what I know for sure.
The floor…
The floor in here will match the rest of the house. I won’t be doing another painted floor in the new bedroom. So it will be this same red oak hardwood flooring, stained the exact same color, carried through the new bedroom.
The windows…
Another thing I know for sure is that I’m keeping the window shades and curtains. While I generally prefer lined draperies, I love these curtains too much to get rid of them. These are the ones I got (affiliate link), and they’re great quality. I think they’ll work perfectly for what I envision.
But I won’t be keeping the black curtain rods. I’ll either paint these gold, or I’ll swap these out for the kind i used in my studio, which is by far my favorite curtain rod I’ve bought to date. This is the one I have in my studio, with these curtain rings, and while it says it’s not adjustable, I did cut mine down to the exact size I needed using my miter saw.
The ceiling fan..
And the ceiling fan will stay. As much as I’d love to have a pretty bedroom with a gorgeous light in the middle of the room, this is Texas. There’s no way I could sleep without a ceiling fan.
The bed…
I’ll also be making a new headboard, and maybe even an entire upholstered bed. I love the headboard we have now…
But we’ve had that headboard for about ten years now. It was one of the first projects I did for our house after we moved in, and I’m ready for something fresh and new.
I thought about using the striped velvet that I originally ordered as a sample for my studio desk chair. In fact, I did a mock up of that a few weeks back. Here’s what that looked like…
I almost ordered enough to upholster a bed the other day, but I didn’t go through with it. I think I prefer the bed being a solid color, and the stripe being used as an accent. So I’ll order enough for a couple of large Euro shams or something like that.
The walls…
But the main question is what to do with the walls, because as I’ve already said, those striped walls have to go. I’ve looked at so many different options and pictures for inspiration, and I keep coming back to one thing — grasscloth. I feel like I’ve come full circle. My love for grasscloth started about 15 years ago. In fact, I used grasscloth in our bedroom in the condo. Teal, white, grasscloth, woven window shades. Some things never get old or outdated in my mind. This was back in 2010.
Unfortunately, I never got to finish the bedroom. We decided to sell, and I removed the grasscloth and totally changed the room.
And then in this house, I used grasscloth as an accent on the entryway wall.
When that got ruined and I had to take it down, I used what I had left on the drawers of the console table that I built for the entryway.
There have been many other times I’ve considered grasscloth for various rooms and projects, and yet, today I find myself in a grassclothless home. So I’m thinking that now might be a good time to rectify that oversight. I can envision a dark-ish teal grasscloth, white wainscoting, white gauzy curtains (affiliate link), rustic walnut woven shades (affiliate link), a beautiful upholstered headboard (or whole uphostered bed) in a still-to-be-determined color and fabric, and some accent pillows in the striped velvet.
This may be my last chance to use grasscloth. I’ve loved it for 15 years now, and it always lands at the top of my list (at least in my top 10, if not my top 5) of favorite items when it comes to decorating. It would be a shame to finish every room in this house and not end up with grasscloth somewhere. So I’m thinking this bedroom — our long-term bedroom that we’ll probably be in for the rest of our time in this house — is the perfect place for it. And I feel like it’s either now or never.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Nice plan!
Oh! grasscloth! I like this idea for your bedroom! My mom put grass cloth in a finished basement in the house I grew up in and it was great on those walls. Solid-ish color but with some awesome texture. Hers was a tan-beigey color but I think the teal-blue color would suit this room perfectly. Go for it!
I love that striped headboard. It makes a statement.
I am going to cry when those wall stripes leave. Really love the fun of them. All that said, it sounds like you have a good plan and as you say, how good it will be to have your real bedroom. All in good time.
Regards to Matt and the fur folks. I am sure that Cooper is doing his inspection tours every day.
I hope you have already ordered it, if not order it now! the color of the grass cloth will help determine all the other colors you will use. It will be great to see this room be what you need and enjoy.
Your photos that include the four legged inspectors are the absolute best! Grasscloth is a great plan – I love it too. I used navy blue, similar to the color scheme of your guest bedroom (my favorite rooms in your house!) Can’t wait to see this project unfold.
Cheers!
What happened to the grasscloth in your entryway? I can’t see the instagram post.
(Grasscloth for your bedroom is a great idea by the way!)
I spilled paint on it (with the help of Cooper).
Ohhhh, I can see how that would have been ruined beyond fixing! Hopefully it will be safer from accidents in your bedroom!
Woven blinds and grasscloth are both in my top 5 decorating elements, too! I’m not sure, but I think this room is at the front of the house? So for privacy’s sake will you line your current woven blinds or will you buy new ones with a liner?
I’m planning on keeping the unlined ones for now. I’ll do a test to be sure they’re not totally see-through, but I think they’re pretty private. And we never turn the bedroom light on in the evening anyway, so I think it’ll be fine.
Check out ‘Fandeliers’! They are chandeliers designed with fans! Some are really chandy-style!
The grass cloth seems like a cozy look for a bedroom. I think upholstered headboards or the whole bed frame is nice too. That is what I am planning too for our new downsized house. I was going to make it ourselves, and I do see plans for it as well online. Then I saw the upholstered beds with drawers under them…I want to keep my linens in them, especially in my guest room. Not sure if we can make that, or just buy and possibly recover in my choice of fabric. I guess too much to think about for me right now. We have the whole house to figure out yet. Spent some time at the County Building Dept. today. GREAT people there…you need to go to yours…they are wonderful in person…I hope you find that too. Good luck on all your projects and plans.
I have always felt that the bedroom is our sanctuary at the end of the day. Spare no expense! Make it your and Matt’s sanctuary! You both deserve this. Every little luxury! Make it your little slice of heaven!
Sheila F.
I love the gorgeous stripes but totally understand why you’d prefer to change them when the room transforms into your bedroom. (Any chance you might bring them back in any other room?) I remember loving the grasscloth in your entryway, and that sounds like such a lovely way to reimagine this space. I look forward to following along as you work your magic in this space yet again!
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a place where I could put stripes. I can’t put them in the future closet/exercise area. Matt wants me to keep the hand-drawn flowers in there.
Awww, so these will survive? That’s great!
Hi Kristi,
I’ve been following you since the time in the condo and I’m always excited and impressed to read your blogs. I was wondering what software you use to layout your floorplans. I recently bought my own home and was going to build a sunroom in the back along with a porch, but I want to map it out first before talking to a remodeler.
I used this online program. I used the seven-day free trial: https://www.smartdraw.com/floor-plan/floor-plan-designer.htm
What ruined the grasscloth you had?
I spilled paint on it. I seem to remember having some help from a very excitable pup.
Once the house is finished, what will you be doing next?
I don’t think it’ll ever be finished. 🙂 I still have a whole one-acre lot that I want to landscape! But even if, by some miracle, I do finish it, I have thousands of ideas of projects I want to do and share. There’s a reason I’ll have a nice studio and a nice workshop. 🙂 I have so many ideas that I’ll never get through all of them.
Hi Kristi! Regarding your ceiling fan dilemma…have you seen the light fixtures with retractable ceiling fan blades? We have one that looks just like a crystal chandelier when the fan is off (we don’t even see the blades because they’re folded in). When we turn it on, the clear acrylic blades unfold and it moves air around the room just as well as any regular ceiling fan. I saw this one on Amazon and immediately thought of you!
https://www.amazon.com/FIDGRA-Ceiling-Retractable-Chandelier-Function/dp/B0C5MHW263/ref=sr_1_15?crid=28WVWVS6ZXCH2&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KtvbBG-qVvzg8qdO4942QE179OzoBGTCGWM8kUztDrGD7XMRULOF8-NjzZhcWgse77uRDO8ssk6KQj6g1JLZONqiuIV2O5d9A8PLmp5Kvrw5FZ9evUGuHmaYiEB067BQ4pvQlFqavpfjB1JGLi8IjYCmco1J4CPZ3op43Jwuuene8qlbXJj3LnpWWlNkwCm9qKUbKuCBW6fcuU7XxrCgmoiY2wMeh_jdBsPIncRc8fz8vFiDnp_8u9LfNFYofoDEdfNGbCLsqkms-zj1J7RD9-81XD_TJwEPIi-bBTagQSE.mPPxff7rhsNhG4DHabW2pa_V06LaE8V4FdBS7-smDRs&dib_tag=se&keywords=chandelier+ceiling+fan&qid=1723261603&sprefix=chandelier+ceiling+fan%2Caps%2C413&sr=8-15
I knew those existed, but I’ve never taken the time to look at them. That’s a great idea!
That is super cool! And beautiful!
I cannot sleep without a ceiling fan either! I have a beautiful light fixture in my bedroom and a white wall mount fan (so it blends into the wall as much as possible) which is operable with the remote or the light switch. It’s pretty powerful and will blow me out of the bed if it’s on high! Best of both worlds!
I stay away from fabrics because I have asthma, so I don’t know if it’s possible; but if it is, use the grasscloth for the bed. You get your stripes AND a single colour, and you get your walls free to do something spectacular, like your existing wall that is AMAZING, or one of those lovely wallpapers you fawn over (I do that too! lol)