Did you know there are literally thousands and thousands of quilts and bedspreads and comforters out there? I didn’t. I thought when I got my bedroom painted and ready to decorate, I’d hop on Ebay, search for what I wanted and BAM… I’d order it and all would be well in my house… Uhhh… it didn’t quite happen that way…
My first problem was… I didn’t know WHAT I wanted… I didn’t know what color or what style… I just wanted something pretty, something lightweight and something I could use some pretty pillows with… Sounds easy, right? Well, not for me… the decorating challenged sister… so I probably made a few mistakes along the way…
Let’s start off with what I tried first… I saw this Laura Ashley quilt and fell in love with how it looked in the pictures…It looked like a pretty blue and I thought that might look wonderful in my room with my new Agreeable Gray walls… So I began searching for a great buy on one… I did find the exact one, with shams, only it was a King… but I knew it just had binding along the edges, so if it worked, I could shorten the sides a little bit to the exact length I wanted. I found a SUPER deal on a brand new King set and sent her a best offer and she accepted it…
When I arrived, I tried it on my bed and I “tried” to like it… it was lightweight like I wanted, it was new, it was very pretty, but it was pretty aqua colored… I think it was called Duck Egg blue… It was pretty “beachy” to me and I stewed about it for 4 or 5 days trying to see if I could live with it. There really wasn’t anything wrong with it and it is beautiful… it just wasn’t what I had in mind… I knew I was going to have to put something in Rebecca’s room when she left, so I decided not to send it back and start looking again.
None of my pictures turned out the color it REALLY is… It’s aqua!
I hated the idea of having to wait for another one in the mail and knew I had SURELY seen ALL there was to see online… (I’m sure I didn’t even scratch the surface of what’s out there!) so I decided to just keep looking at the local stores around here…so every few days’ I’d make the rounds… Ross’s, TJ Maxx, Kohl’s, and Home Goods. When Cindy and Deb came home for Rebecca’s wedding, Cindy stayed an extra day and helped me search for something… We found a grayish blue quilt in TJ Maxx and I decided to give it a try…
This is the best picture I have of it… I was trying to find something to use as a dust ruffle in this picture. It was wonderfully lightweight and any kind of pillows would go with it… and I lived with it for a few days… trying to like it too… but it was a queen and was a bit short on the sides. It definitely wouldn’t have covered up the dust ruffle area that usually starts at the box spring. My hubby thought it was pretty drab looking and surely there was something prettier.
So I was in a quandry again… What was my problem? Why was I so picky? My problem was still the same… I didn’t know what I wanted so I didn’t know it when I saw it…
Well, one day, I was in Kohl’s and was doing my weekly “search” and spotted this one I hadn’t seen before… It was a pretty blue and white floral and I looked at it for a few minutes trying to decide if it was what I wanted. I even texted Cindy… She said to give it a try and if I didn’t like it, it was easy to bring back…
So I did. I took it home and when I got it home, I spread it on my bed and it was longer on the sides than the gray one. I did like that and it seemed like it was pretty light weight… But I had to give it the “pillow test.” Did it go with this pillow top that Cindy had give me? I really loved that pillow…
My hubby really liked this one… he loves blue… so I decided to keep moving forward with this one… and see what happened.
I got that pillow made and it seemed to work to me…
I found a couple of Kathy Ireland Pillow Shams at the Goodwill in a pretty white textured fabric and bought them for $4.00.
Hey, this might work…
So tonight Cindy helped me long distance by texting me help on how to pull things together… My closet doors needed one more day to cure so they are going up tomorrow, but I can show you one half of my bedroom… :o)
A HUGE THANKS to my family and friends who gave me birthday money…otherwise this never would have happened…
The oval mirrors came from Bed Bath and Beyond… $9.99 each… regularly $37.50! Score!
The necklaces are mostly my mom’s… She loved a pretty necklace…
The bluebird was carved by a friend of my hubby’s who raised birds…
This picture was one Cindy had in her antique booth in PA and she brought it to me…
Cindy found this picture of the little red haired girl on the way here to the wedding… I love it!!!!!
It was too much to keep all my earrings on the wooden stand I have them on AND the necklaces on the chest, so I decided to put the whole earring display rack IN the drawer laying down… it works perfectly…keeping my earrings from getting tangled up and still easy to find… Another score and this one was FREE!
I don’t have matching lamps in the bedroom… the one on the left was one I just found at the thrift shop here in town…it’s hand crafted and very neat… the one of the right was one my mom had… This picture is just with the lamps on…
…and these two are with the ceiling light on and the lamps…
There is still plenty to do… I’d like to paint the nightstands a different color…they are too creamy/yellow to suit me… I’d like to find some kind of a rug, but not sure what kind to get, and then get some kind of new chair for in there…
Anyway, it’s a far cry from what it was… oh, did you forget… take a look back at where it was in a few different pictures…
This was the most recent picture I had taken of it… YAY… no more rosy color! (My hubby had picked that color… Brick Dust!) :o)
Rebecca and Karn are coming in Monday afternoon/evening… so it may be a day or two before I get any more pictures shown of the bedroom.
Thanks everyone,
Blessings, Jeanne
Your “new” bedroom is Beautiful!! That bedspread is perfect with the dust ruffle/bed skirt, and I love how there’s some really dark blue in the print, too, so that it picks up the color of that one pillow.
I do see what you mean about the nightstands being too “cream” colored now, though–it shows up more with having the white bed skirt and the white background on the bedspread, and the white pillow shams.
That Laura Ashley bedspread is lovely, too, though, so I’m glad you decided to keep it and use it in your new guest room. It’ll be perfect, and then you can match some of the accessories to the “duck egg blue” color!
Update: My swap items are now complete. I just have to get a treat for the “mom”, and then get things packaged up and mailed. Stay tuned!
I’m back! I was just too worn out to comment on anything, but I did see the blog everyday. Your room is turning out to be much more in tune to what bedrooms look like today! I also think the new bedspread is just the thing, with the darker blue showing contrast. Oh, I know how hard it is to pick out a bedspread! I bought and took home about 5 or 6 different ones before I found what I wanted, and those bedspreads come in huge packages that are almost impossible to get back in to take back to the store!
I love the closet doors in white too, what a difference that makes!
What a sweet little way to pay homage to your dear mother, in hanging some of her necklaces on the chest! Is the scarf something special that is on the chest of drawers? If so, then I would keep it, but otherwise I would do away with it.
After seeing the last few pictures, you do have a nice sized bedroom, and it is coming together beautifully!
Hope you knee is doing well. Was getting a little worried. 🙂
Jeanne,
The third time is a charm! I think your bedroom is perfect and it is always good when the husband likes it too. After all he sleeps there also. You have been so busy but it is great to just keep rolling and get the finish on a lot of projects.
We are in the very northern part of NH in our motorhome and the color is coming on. Fall is upon us! Have a great day!
Best, Sylvia
Pictures of the beautiful fall in New Hampshire please. I’m a Yankee born and bred and living in Texas I do miss my beautiful falls. But I can live vicariously through others who have the good fortune of still living in those places where the leaves turn beautiful colors and the air is crisp and cool.
I too would love to see pics of the fall colors. 🙂
Oh boy, my kind of post!! You will laugh, but we have a lot of similar decorative objects. 🙂 I’ll start with the bed coverlet. I love the first one as Laura Ashley is one of my favorites. But, the aqua wouldn’t have made the cut with your pillow. It is pretty though and the drape lovely. Hope you can use that when decorating Rebecca’s old room. The blue/gray one, I’ll agree with George, drab. So, the final Kohl’s choice works so well with the lovely redone bed skirt and the pillows. Oh, the pillows. We too used to have decorative pillows very similar to yours but Ralph Lauren design. They are piled up in a corner because, as we’ve gotten older, they have gone by the wayside. All we do now is pull up the RL bed spread also blue and white and we’re done. Getting lazy here. 🙂 I do like the special floral pillow and the sweet doggie too. Everything just blends so well. 🙂 On to the dresser. I have a display stand for necklaces too that I picked up at at probably a garage sale years ago. Mine displays a couple of my mother’s necklaces from the 60’s as well as lots of strung shells from Hawaii trips. 🙂 I guess I have kind of a bird theme going here too as I have my grandmother’s corner stand with her collected birds as well as some of mine. I love the sweet carved blue bird on the barbed wire stand. A fun piece. I think the scarf kind of ties everything together too. I’m not so sure about the repo cover print. I think I would like the little girl and the bird print there better. I have a similar lady print, from the 30’s in our kitchen. Maybe that would go with the aqua bed spread in Becca’s old room? Just a thought. Maybe the lady print on the other wall would work too. Just my take because everything looks so nice and that wonderful new floor ties everything together so well. Yay!
On to the formerly pink room. I know the color was brick, but today my monitor is showing it as pink!! Glad for the change. Although, I really like that little white round topped nightstand. Maybe if you still have it, it can go in Rebecca’s room. 🙂 Do you still have that mirrored dresser? Love it.
Really enjoyed seeing everything. Fun. Heading out this morning to see if the line is short for regular flu shots. First day for Kaiser. 🙂
love the new bedroom, especially that the lamps aren’t matching. They go together!
Looks like your bedroom decor problem is solved. One more thing off the to-do list. I really like your final solution. I wish I could have seen the true color of the first bedspread. It is very pretty and I hope it works In your new guest room, but I like your final choice for your room.
My problem when decorating my bedroom is I like too many things, but when I finally make a choice it’s definitely something I can live with for a long time. My mother was still alive when I redid my room last so that would have been somewhere before 2007, probably in 2005. I still like what we did which is good because getting things changed around here is much more difficult these days. Moving furniture around used to be so much easier than today. I’ve been wanting to paint the guest room for years. It’s still on the to-do list but I have hope for the future. I’m sure Sean would be glad to help, but my bathroom comes first. I got to see my vanity in person for the first time the other day. It’s amazing. Lots of drawers. It still needs a countertop and David knows what he wants. It’s just a matter of deciding who is going to do the work for us.
Speaking of hope for the future, I see we’re going to have a cool front for a few days. Nights in the 50s and low 60s and days below 90. The temps start going back up after Friday, but once we get one front through, others follow. We really didn’t have a horribly hot summer this year. Most days were in the mid 90s. Unfortunately it doesn’t cool down much at night and the days start out in the high 70s. Wouldn’t have been too bad if not for that horrible humidity.
Your new bedroom looks lovely, Jeanne, so fresh and bright. I’m glad you decided to keep the Laura Ashley one as well.
Your new pictures look lovely on the walls and I love the carved bluebird. He is so sweet.
Your bedroom is coming together nicely. I like the spread you chose best too. I do wonder if the two dark chests could be painted white at some point, but not the one with the mirror. That one would then stand out more like a featured piece. I’ll bet Cindy might like to help with that. There are so many ideas out there for refurbishing those dark pieces of furniture like you’ve done before.
I think maybe the space below the curtain rod is crying out for a special piece of salvaged wooden architectural detail. It’s hard to explain what I mean. Maybe I can find a picture of what I’m going on about, not filling the entire space, just a long narrow piece. Cindy might know what I’m having trouble explaining.
I love both of the pictures. Maybe based on their sizes, they could change places. The nightstands are such a good fit for the room. Soon you’ll be finished with this room and can have fun with Rebecca’s room. Wish I had another room to decorate!
You are similar to me Jeanne, I absolutely love Laura Ashley and always have since the 1980’s and before. I love that washed out Shabby Chic English Country look so much. I don’t have anything else on my bed but LA. I absolutely love that darling needlepoint pillow of your Schnauzer pup. I want one of a Westie head as well to look like my Lilly Pup on my bed too. How adorable it is. Does the pillow have two sides, one gold and one red? I love the way you finished off the royal blue needlepoint pillow as well. Very pretty. You’re bedroom has come a long way baby!!! What a fresh new outlook and way of doing your bedroom now. Very pretty. I also love the romantic crochet edging of the dust ruffle around the bottom of your bed. Thanks for sharing with us how you made it smaller. You are so generous with your talents with all of us, that is why we all love you so much and are so devoted to you everyday looking and reading your blogs.
I totally understand the bedspread issue. We did the bedroom over too and I wanted a soft grayish aqua. Tried several samples and the one I liked seemed too dark so went with one shade lighter…..wish I would have stayed with the darker one🥴 I must have spent close to a month on every website I could for bedspreads until I was so confused I had a headache. I do like the one we settled on…just need to finish the valences and a strip that lays across the bottom of the bed that is maybe 24” wide…I don’t know the proper term for it. Do any of you?😉
I really like the Laura Ashley one too which will solve the problem of a spread for that room☺️
Your total look is lovely!
I like your old rose bedroom, but the new one makes me see that changes can be good too. I like the new bedspread. Should the side tables be white to go with the bed skirt? Or a lighter shade of blue than the blue in the bedspread, or a slightly darker gray than the walls? everyone else. I like the mismatched lamps.
What about the chests of drawers — do they need to be lighter to go with your new look or do they work to accent everything else? It’s hard to know from the pictures because they never show the whole truth. I liked the green of the chair in the rose photo but now you need something lighter. Maybe there will be another place for it.
You are giving me some ideas for changes here, so keep us up in your decorating.
Saturday night I found water on my kitchen floor. Since you and George don’t live close, I had to find a plumber — a new adventure for me. At least the leak was a slow one and I caught it before any permanent damage was done.