Guest Post: Rebekah's Yellow + Gray Master

Another room redo from Rebekah of Wild Ink Press? Yes, please and thank you! She has done such an amazing job transforming her home from boring to impressive in a practial way. And she put yellow accents in her bedroom. Hello? Heart that. Rebekah, lets hear how and what you did it.



Howdy folks! So, so happy to be sharing our little master bedroom "before and after" with you. I was actually privileged to show our master bathroom remodel in May here on Brooklyn Limestone, and Stefanie was kind enough to have me back again to reveal the rest of the en suite makeover. If you remember from that post, we love our home, it's location, the letterpress studio in the back, and our awesome town of Chico, California. But the home, while having great bones, suffered from 90's builder grade. As in, everything beige and blah. The good news? With a little elbow grease, this is a curable condition. I'm happy to say that our home is recovering nicely after being given love, attention, and some demo.

Here's how it looked before:



A taupey room, beige carpet, white hollow core mc-cheapy doors, short baseboard, blank walls. I think any of you who have walked into any tract home have seen this before. But our home is not a tract home, and we want to prove it, inside and out! A few more "before" gems...

What do we see? Ceiling fan light fixture - check. Ceiling fans are bad enough, although a necessary evil, but an added light kit... ugh. Large alcove to hold a TV armoire - check. Oops, we don't have a TV. Stained cream carpet - check. We have a two-year old, and a cat, and light, non-patterned carpet is a friend to neither.

Okay, enough icky. Here is the "after":


Doesn't even look like the same room, right? We painted the walls a medium-toned grey (Benjamin Moore Coventry Gray), ripped out the carpet and installed a hardwood chevron floor (my favorite). It's quarter-sawn oak, stained rich walnut. The rest of our house has hand-scraped walnut floors, but actual walnut chevron wood was just a bit too dear of a price. We added some tall baseboard to match the peaked ceiling, and removed the infernal light kit from the fan. I swear, that's probably the littlest thing that made the biggest difference!!

We painted the hollow core doors a rich black and changed the hardware to weighty crystal knobs. And the bathroom archway we eliminated in favor of double french doors, my husband's brilliant idea (he said I had to give him props, so here they are!). The mirrors are cheap convex mirrors (I love a good bull's eye!) that I spray painted yellow lacquer. The print we picked up at a Paris flea market.

Here are a few bits and detail shots...

Sadly, this list is going to look something like a Pottery Barn catalog (not intentional, it just drifted that way with years of accumulation). The headboard is their York model. Love it, didn't love the price, but finally decided I had no time to DIY so I caved and bought it. Lamps are Pottery Barn milk glass, not available anymore. These babies used to be in our living room but our two-year-old needs less glass in his life, so they moved in here. The raw linen duvet and shams are from Rough Linen - love, love, love them and spent all of my birthday money to bring 'em home. Tricia sews them by hand and was fabulous to work with. The yellow pick stitch quilt is Pottery Barn. I've been going through a "yellow phase" (read: obsession) that does not appear to have an end in sight, but with the Master bedroom I tried to lay a neutral foundation and then add the yellow in accents that could easily be removed (like in winter you won't need a light-weight quilt).

That washed out frame in the corner is a wonderful light blue letterpress print by Studio on Fire. Doesn't show in pictures, though.



We charge our electronics and sort our sundries with a Bedford station (bought on clearance). Any ideas on what I should write on the drawer label? It's been blank for three years - I just haven't had the heart to write "junk" or "stuff" on the tag, which is what would be accurate.

The vintage fashion illustrations (from Etsy) are a placeholder until we can find/afford a cool painting for this wall, maybe on our next trip. Matt's voting for something big and masculine, like a hunting scene. :)

If I had one regret with this room, it's a lack of pattern (one or two bold prints in the right places would set it off well, I think). But I LOVE the amount of texture in the space - from the smooth chevron floor to the chunky wool/jute rug, plus rough linen, burlap, and woven baskets. Happy sigh.

Thanks so much for letting me share our master bedroom redo! Now, since I have such a great audience, I can't resist asking for advice on a few finishing touches.

1) Windows. We have white wood blinds up right now (came with the house) and I was thinking of adding curtains to soften the line. Maybe linen or thick canvas or gauzy mosquito netting? I'd love a nice striped pattern, but it will have to be neutral because my yellow obsession might change and curtains are big bucks.

2) The bench cushion at the foot of the bed. It's currently a placeholder "no sew" (ironing tape) burlap cushion. Sadly, I can't sew. Not even close. I have a friend who can, though and if you have any great ideas for a cushion/cover, she might be able to pull it off. Maybe using a bold pattern here?

3) Should I put anything next to the large leaner mirror? In the photos, you see two vases of sunflowers (farmer's market, only $3 for all of them!!) but that's not a permanent solution. I feel maybe something that's a larger object, tall and graceful? I'm not that good at keeping plants alive, but maybe some greenery? I'm also not sure a chair or anything too big would fit there. Ideas would be great.

I think that's it! Thank you so much for having me, Stefanie, and everybody, keep decorating, DIYing and keep inspired!