Shabby Chic Bedroom

I have been working with a delightful client in my neighborhood and we delivered the final items for her colorful shabby chic bedroom this week.

She has wonderful collections of vintage embroidery and other items throughout her home and it is a wonderful place!  For years I have admired the outside of her home with the picket fence and stone walkway, wonderful shutters and paint colors...so I was very excited when she called me and gave me her address.  I knew immediately which home was hers and I was looking forward to seeing the inside of her home, which did not disappoint!

She had a great bed that she wanted a new matelasse duvet for, as well as a gathered silk dust ruffle and matching king shams, along with a large striped bolster and a scaldino for the foot of the bed.

She provided her own fabrics and I went to work fabricating everything.

The below photo shows the bedding.  I love the scaldino at the foot of the bed with the textured raspberry center fabric.  The side sections are vintage barkcloth.  I added a pleated raspberry ruffle on the ends.

Don't you love the vintage sign above the bed?  And if you look carefully, you will see the cute green interior shutters on the windows, featuring a crescent moon accent.

The neckroll is 40" long - whew!  We used her wide awning striped fabric in green and cream and added a bias flat welt on the ends.

You can't really see the plaid shams at the back of the bed, but they match the dust ruffle fabric.

When I delivered the bedding, she asked if I could slipcover a rocker.  I do offer slipcover services, but generally only for "hard" chairs such as dining room or kitchen or vanity chairs. However, this client was great to work with and I loved the fabrics we were mixing and I knew it would look great in the room.  We used the remaining vintage barkcloth from pinch pleated draperies, which were carefully taken apart and used to their maximum advantage so that we could match patterns on the scaldino and also the slipcover.

It is a fully upholstered chair that rocks gently.  The chair was already slipcovered, so I used the original slipcover for a pattern and made a few modifications.  The upholstery underneath was in perfect shape, so that was not an issue.

We added a small pleated ruffle around the front side of the seat back as well as around the entire bottom hem.  The slipcover is attached to the front arms and the entire underside of the chair with Velcro.

You can see that the seat top (and bottom) matches the seat back pattern repeat, and I railroaded (turned sideways) the leaf pattern on the boxing area of the seat.

Below shows most of the room, showcasing the bed and rocker.

All projects are good projects!  But this was a cheerful, inviting room with great personality. My client also shared with me that her mother rocker her (my client) in the chair when she was a baby, and now she rocks her grandchildren in the same chair...continuing the family bond of love!  That story was bittersweet, since my client's mother passed away just a few weeks ago.  But her rocking chair legacy lives on in the room and with the grandchildren who are rocked in the same chair.  So sweet!

Hope to see you soon!

Susan

Bedding and Window Treatment Project

Yesterday we installed a large window treatment project for a long-time client.  Here is the evolution of the project:

My client called saying that she was ready to update her master bedroom's bedding and add window treatments.  You can see from the photo below that the window area is a large expanse which included a 13 foot long main wall and about 4 feet on each side wall.  The right side wall includes a functioning door which would need to remain in use.

 At the time of our original appointment, the walls were a light peach tone.  After all of the fabrics and trims were selected, my client had some remodeling work done and also had the bedroom freshly painted in a neutral taupe tone.

Because the door needed to remain functional, we elected to use the Operable Door Valance system, which I have featured in this blog previously.  We installed the bedding last month and did a "dry fit" of the ODV to make sure the dimensions worked well since we would be adding many linear feet of connecting valances and the measurements and sizing needed to work perfectly.

The photo below shows the bedding, which was planned to coordinate with the existing oriental rug in the room.  We choose rich inky blue matelasse for the coverlet, featuring a self cord and scallopped hem.  Tone on tone Euro pillows add height at the back of the bed and rectangular pillows in an embroidered fabric with contrast twist cord are placed at the front. 

 The foot of the bed features a scaldino, which is a long rectangular fabric piece, filled with layers of heavy interlining for weight and softness, and backed in the same fabric.  The scaldino is trimmed in gold silk cording and features a beautiful Robert Allen red and gold silk tassel trim on the ends, which overhang the sides of the bed and end above the edge of the coverlet so that the trim shows nicely on the ink blue fabric.

The scaldino is made using a gorgeous Schumacher fabric.  This fabric was very expensive but worked perfectly in the project and served to "marry" all of the fabrics together.  We very carefully planned how we would use the fabric, in which direction and which motifs would be centered.  This allowed us to use the same fabric and motif on the back, and you can see the matching patterns on the edge of the scaldino.  We had just enough fabric left over to use a remnant for the centerpiece of a feature pillow which you will see below.

The gathered silk bedskirt is a red Kravet fabric with gold embroidered accent details and is lined and interlined for fullness and softness.

This above photo also shows the ends of the scaldino and the tassel trim accents.  This photo also shows the addition of a gorgeous neckroll pillow that we added at yesterday's installation.  We utilized the medallion motif from the scaldino fabric for the neckroll's centerpiece, added blue silk cording on the centerpiece's sides and rouched gold silk fabric on each end.  Blue silk cording was added on the ends, and self lined gathered gold silk forms the end pieces which are tied with gold and navy tassel ties. 

Doesn't this one pillow add so much to the bed?  It is a wonderful unifier and adds softness and more detail to the project.  I love this pillow!



 Above you can see a closeup of the pillows on the bed - a lovely combination!

For the window treatments, we wanted to break up the long linear wall to provide some movement and shape, so we lifted the center swagged sections.  Here is a rendering of the proposed project, which is shown to scale and in the fabrics and colors chosen for the room:

And here is the completed project:

Backdrop cornices in a solid dark blue fabric add contrast and interest to the overlay valances.  The valances are self lined in the gold silk fabric and interlined for weight and softness.  The gold silk can be seen in the cuffs, inside of the horns and on the cascades on the ends of the treatment.  The main fabric is the embroidered gold/dark red fabric.  We used the solid blue fabric for microcording at the edge of the cuffs and above the tassel trim. 

Many times the tassel trim has a pretty edge on the top and is applied on top of the fabric.  In this case, we felt using that method would add too much gold to the treatment, so I applied the blue microcording to the top of the tassel trim's top edge, thereby covering some of the gold and showing only the fan shape of the edge and the tassels.  The trim was inserted into the seam...and it looks beautiful!  I love the weight that tassel trim adds to the hem of treatments like this.

The photo below shows a perspective of the room with the window treatments and the bedding.  We will be adding a decorative fabric throw and some pillows to the chaise lounge in the next couple of weeks.  As you might notice the chaise and plant are out of place in this photo; there were painters and other contractors at the home yesterday while we were working, so those items had been moved to accomodate their projects.

Hope you enjoy this finished project as much as I did!

Susan