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this puppy took a wee bit more finagling. i wanted these rooms to feel true to their 1940’s origins... elegant, smoky & sexy. rick wanted the bedroom & bathroom to be masculine, which i reframed into “handsome”. we walled off doors, turned the closet into a powder room, & created a new, softly arched hallway. gilbert, a true framing genius, led the crew that fleshed out our plans & built our arches.
our architect, therese, came up with the great idea for laying out the closet & bathroom - putting double pocket doors between them. the doors are usually open, of course, so both rooms are spacious & full of light. bravo, therese
i was looking for luscious bathroom surfaces at fractured earth, when i saw my marble. it was love at first sight (sigh), for the tastiest, charred chocolate/olive/mushroom stone i’ve ever met. i knew that rich marble needed to roll along the floor & ease up the walls of the shower, blanketing it. framing the masculine tile with a pretty arched wall (wrapped in #06 cashmere sweater), married the best of both of us. i’m nutty about the creamy, handmade tiles & the smidge of mother-of-pearl iridescence. using antique lights & classic plumbing fixtures imbued the room with history 7 character. (the first tub was so poorly enameled that our supplier was nice enough to exchange it for this more modern beauty.) rick came up with the outside-the-box idea of not having the shower in a glass box (no glass doors or partitions). i added a heater & hung vintage linen jacquard drapes, so the room stays toasty & there’s no glass to keep clean. it also saved us a fortune in thick glass. thanks, honey.
i designed the cabinets to be beautiful & practical, too (my drawer-front hides an already-plugged-in hair dryer). the pharmacy cabinet design was borrowed from my dad’s beautiful 1920 tudor home, but my favorite piece is the girl/girl cabinet, stacked with lots of skinny drawers for make-up & jewelry & travel stuff. i almost had to go to fisticuffs to get what i wanted from my very male cabinet builders. hello, they don’t use mascara, so they just didn’t get it.
[paint colors: #98 cool sheets, #95 inca dove, c j’s cabinet color, #07 jan’s rose,]
i wanted our bedroom smoldering & magical. paint colors seemed like a good place to start & dang if the walls didn’t know exactly what they wanted to be...#96 tarnished silver & #95 inca dove. all the other design elements practically jumped in my arms: natural & flinty linens, softened pink velvets & trim, antique walnut, gilded forged iron, & mother of pearl. my favorite bed wanted in on the action, so did the gold-leafed buffet that used to be in my dining room. i gathered french pebbled pots to hold orchids, threw my favorite persian rugs on the floor, & set a favorite old walnut table, a cheap flea market find, next to the bed.
the night i presented rick with my bedroom proposal & idea boards, his good friend was over & listened while i wove my design story. i’ll always be grateful to you, peter, for your enthusiasm & kind words. (at one point, he turned to rick & said, “i don’t think i deserve to sleep in a bedroom that beautiful”.)
can i tell you how this space brings out feelings of gratitude & happy contentment? my walls are smoking, the salvaged chestnut floors are chalky & all the greys & worn-out rose colors tickle me pink. i love this room!!! it’s everything i’d dreamed it would be. i’ve started a new sunday tradition: sitting in my yummy bed, possibly in my jammies, reading the whole new york times & maybe watching an old film (“to sir, with love” last week with miz gillian). heaven!
[paint colors: #90 khakis, #95 inca dove, #98 cool sheets, #96 tarnished silver, #15 blankie]
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