Tour The House — The Master Bedroom (My Other Favorite Room)

Welcome to Builder Beige! We're glad to see you again.

I sure wish I had this room painted. At least I know what color I want to paint it...a really nice light blue.

Guess what else. Standard light fixtures reign here, too. I think I've picked what I want here though, which is better than most other rooms.

What do you think?

Maybe I should show you the room first before I ask you that. I'll start at the door and do something of a panorama.

That's the bathroom door you see over there.

I was standing over in the corner by the glass-door bookshelf when I took this picture of the dresser. The bedroom door where I started is just to the left of the dresser.

The little black round tables I knew I wanted all along instead of the standard nightstands. I got these at Target, and that's where I got the lamps and shades, too.

So for some details now. The cross-stitch on the chest of drawers is the first one I ever attempted on linen. It's counted cross-stitch and from a kit. I altered it slightly because I didn't put a square border around it that was on the original pattern. I don't use a hoop when I cross-stitch on Aida or evenweave cloth; I just hold it in my hands. I purchased a special lap stand when I did this piece to hold the linen taut. I've used it several times since then and love it for uneven weaves.

We just hung the pictures over our bed two nights ago. I'm not totally convinced they are the best thing for over the bed, but I'm okay with them for now. My main concern is if they are big enough. Of course I don't have any window treatments up, so that would change the whole look. I might get some large black grosgrain ribbon, hot glue it to the back of the frames and pretend that they are each hanging from a knob on the wall. That will give them a little more presence. These pictures are all historic buildings from Colonial Williamsburg.

When we went for our first big Ikea trip in November, the one where we pulled the trailer, we found that glass-front bookcase on clearance. We weren't specifically looking for one, but at our house we can always use bookcases, and I'll just tell you right now that all of them are pretty much full, so it was a good call.

When we got it, we weren't totally sure where it was going. We thought it might go in our room right where it ended up, but we also thought it might be going right outside our room in what's called the second floor loft. We tried it in our room first and loved it there, so it stayed.

When we decided to buy the bookcase, even though we weren't sure where it was going, I knew that some of my very favorite books were going to be the ones that took up permanent residence inside. The whole thing doesn't photograph as pretty as it really is in person.

Leather-bound Lamplighter books.

Vintage Nancy Drew.

Also by Carolyn Keene, vintage Dana Girls.

When Monica visited in December and we spent our fun-filled day at Ikea, one of my goals was to find something for our TV to sit on in our bedroom. At the time it was sitting on the corner of our dresser, but it really didn't look good. It also needed to be on something taller since our furniture is rather large. There was a matching piece to the clearance bookcase that fit the bill perfectly, and now it is nestled in the corner. You'll have to go back and look at the picture at the top though.

The other thing I had been looking for for months was a duvet cover. I have never had such trouble finding something that seemed so simple, but then when you have in your mind exactly what you want it is always harder to find it.

All I wanted was a simple white cotton duvet cover. It needed to be in a higher thread count so it would be soft, not sateen and shiny, not the kind with tone-on-tone stripes, and no block pattern in another color around it. I also wanted it to have a slightly 'messy' look, kind of comfortable-ish and not all fixed and fussy. Finally I found one at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and not only did I find white, I found a khaki and very light blue on sale...in my size, king! I've had the white on my bed until about a week ago when I changed from my 4-weight duvet to my 2-weight duvet and decided to go with the light blue. I think I'll do khaki in the fall. Or when I get bored.

My queen-sized pillows still look a little scrawny though. I might have to get some bigger ones...a little at a time.

This is the only bedroom furniture we've had since we've been married other than our original bedroom set. That last box I unpacked had some pictures of our first apartment and our bedroom furniture, so I scanned them so you could see.

We didn't even have this footboard for the last two or three moves since the movers broke the side pieces. We had been using a metal bed frame and attaching it to the headboard, and the last move we had to use bungee cords to help hold it on. We're talking a lot of moves after 23 years of marriage.

We sold the dresser and chest of drawers at our yard sale before we left Virginia. The nightstand we hadn't had for several moves either because we didn't have room for it.

The one thing I said I refused to do when we finally had room was to not put things under our beds anymore. Sometimes it's the little things I am so thankful for.

So, what do you think about the light choice for the ceiling?