the marion house book

This weekend the bedroom project swung into high gear. There’s nothing like committing to something and following through even when that voice inside your head keeps telling you your crazy!

My goal was to buy the paint, order the curtains, design the new headboard and actually start painting. I got all accomplished but the latter.

Of course, the hardest thing was choosing the paint colour. After much deliberation, I chose the Benjamin Moore shade, Pashmina from my initial selection of four. However, I wondered if I could do “better”. I admit it, I’m a sucker for those endless colour decks with the billions and billions of choices.

This is where I ended up. Honestly, the differences between these shades is so minute that I started eliminating paint colours based solely on their name. I decided that Tapestry Beige and Hazy Skies were monikers I couldn’t live with. The Farrow and Ball was ruled out based on its higher price tag which left me with three. In the car, on the way to the paint store I settled on Natural Cream, however once I was inside I had changed my mind to Edgecomb Gray and then in a final moment of indecision I decided on Baby Fawn. I hope I made the right choice! (In this photo, it’s looking a little pink but I hope that’s just the fact that it is in the shade).

The ordering of the curtains went much easier. I settled on a lightweight, natural colored linen with a nine inch hem to give it a more custom look.

My final task was deciding upon a design for the reclaimed wood headboard. I had sketched out a few ideas earlier in the week but had come to no real decisions. Then on Friday night, as I curled into bed with the latest catalogue from Anthropologie (embarrassing to admit I know…but it was Friday night and Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom was just too heavy to pick up) I saw it – the design for our headboard.

Can you imagine something this with a bed in front of it? I think it is going to work. Obviously, I will have to make a few modifications (I’ll probably eliminate the gap in the middle, for one) but I love the idea of having a deep shelf above the bed to put lights and books on. I’m also going to design the bed as two separate pieces (headboard and bed frame) so that if we ever want to use the headboard as a credenza or sideboard we can. A friend of mine, put me in touch with a local furniture maker who is going to make this for me out of reclaimed Ontario barn boards.

So this is where we are at…

It always get uglier before it gets prettier. If anybody would like to purchase a pale yellow, Ikea four poster bed frame contact me here. I’ll see what we can do.

Finally, I just wanted to start this week by saying that I’ve been the lucky recipient of two unexpected deliveries lately. The first came from Abbey over at Aesthetic Outburst. When she read my post about Julianne Moore’s brownstone she asked if I had a copy of  Ingrid Abramovitch’s book, Restoring a House in the City. When she found out I didn’t, she promptly put one in the mail for me. Then last night, a dear friend popped over unexpectedly with a copy of the latest issue of Anthology Magazine for me. She said when she saw it she thought of me and knew I would appreciate a copy.

These sweet gestures have really touched me and got me thinking how doing one small, unexpected thing for someone else (even someone you don’t really know!) can really brighten their day. So my goal this week is to pass that kindness along and extend a little unexpected happiness into some other people’s lives.