A Peek Inside the Design Process of My Teal Bedroom

A few weeks ago, my bedroom was revealed on Lonny for a tone-on-tone room feature and today, I wanted to share some before and afters, along with a my favorite sources for the room. So let's walk through the space and the transformation process in a bit more detail!

BEFORE 

This isn't exactly what things looked like before, since these pictures were taken two year ago, but close enough. The room certainly wasn't as clean — it had become quite the untouched room that I rarely went into during the day. I had moved the bed to the right wall and sold the mirrored side tables. The vintage dresser as well as an antique vanity were in the space, and the wall color and sconces were still hanging on. But oh what a change everything underwent!

AFTER

THE PROCESS

First things first in the makeover was to paint the walls! I had newly acquired the Beluga Duvet Cover from Flaneur and loved the green undertones the dark dark grey/almost black had. I also had an amazing print, "Pool Illumination" by LA-based photographer Georgia Tankard, from Minted that was almost sinister and unexpected, and I knew I wanted to use it in the bedroom for those exact reasons. Inspired by these two pieces, I decided to go in the direction of a green color palette. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with a lighter color like this hue, hailed from so many Danish inspiration rooms:

or something dark and jewel-toned, like this inspiration color that spoke more to my love for moody and glamorous rooms:

So I leaned on my friend and interior designer Michelle Kelstrom to help me decide. It's always nice to have a friend that you can bounce ideas off of, and it's even nice when they have a killer design sense! We decided that both directions could work, really, but when we put a few samples on the wall (that were straight from the tones in the art piece), we decided the dark, jewel-tone teal made the art pop more. So we went with Dark Teal by Benjamin Moore. It had a rich blue undertone that I loved. And truly, once the samples were on the wall, my love for dark rooms was confirmed.

In a small space with dark walls, things can get feel crammed fast. So while I loved (and still do love) my old tufted bed, I knew I wanted a less bulky look — something more masculine and modern, and definitely no headboard. I put the bed in storage and opted for just a black frame from Ikea. The inspiration art piece from Minted was to act as a headboard.

To fill wall space, I had my heart set on something dramatic — maybe a cluster of pendants, or one killer light/installation that would help fill in the lack of headboard space. I then thought of my friend and designer Windy Chien in San Francisco who does both. I fell in love with her work after using it in a couple of past projects. Her light and rope designs are art installations in themselves, so I decided I must have the a black rope Helix Pendant Light. There were 3 options for placement.

The first was what I originally had in mind — to do something that draped over the art.

The second was to do something that still took up wall space (as well as the adjacent wall space), yet was a bit more of a traditional bedside light placement.

The third look was funkier and a bit rock and roll over my antique vanity.

We decided Option 2 was the best for the room! Since I had a lot of pillows, we didn't want things to start looking too crazy. Some of my favorite pillows? The velvet pillows from Room & Board, the only floral print I've ever had to have from Designer's Guild via Burke Decor and an insanely gorgeous sage green, antique French linen pillow with a brass zipper from Elsie Green.

As for bedside tables, I knew I wanted them to be mismatched and just so happened to have this old never-finished Campaign side table in the garage. I found it for $10 at Salvation Army and have always wanted to give it a makeover! I decided to finally give it a face lift using the lightest paint sample from the walls, Behr's Chelsea Garden.

The bedroom really isn't that large of a space, so on the other side, I used a stool as a bedside table and worked with the foundation ledge to display art et objet. Other than the bed and the two side tables, the only other piece I kept in the room was my antique vanity. I shared my love for antique lion heads with my friend Michelle and she sourced gorgeous brass pulls on Etsy that I AM OBSESSED with them. I moved my vintage dresser out of the room and into the closet (closet reveal coming soon!) and the sconces found a new home in the living room. Admittedly, since these "after" pictures were taken, I have already restyled the bedside tables!! I'm a stylist — I can't help myself.

Speaking of antiques and found objects, this month I'll be sharing some of my favorite scores and sources for antiques (one of them being my very favorite in the East Bay!) as well as some styling tricks on how to incorporate them into your space. Stay tuned!

SOURCES

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Dark Teal
Bed Frame: Ikea
Duvet Cover: Flaneur, in Beluga (Flaneur is offering 20% off with code: biancaxflaneur)
Art Over Bed: Minted, "Pool Illumination" by Georgia Tankard
Floral Pillow: Designer's Guild via Burke Decor
Olive Velvet Pillow: Room & Board
Sage Green Linen Euro Pillow: Elsie Green
Bright Green Lumbar Pillow: Bought in Copenhagen
Teal Throw: West Elm
Helix Rope Light: Windy Chien
Campaign Side Table: Salvation Army in Behr Chelsea Garden
Antique French Demijohn: Elsie Green
Bedside Stool: Unknown
Brass Lamp: Lambert et Fils
Vanity: Antique
All Other Decor: Vintage/Found


Images 1-2 by Kim Lucian for Apartment Therapy
Inspiration image 1 from Sara Danielsson + styling Pella Hedeby 
Inspiration image 2 from The Descendants
All final room images by Suzanna Scott for Lonny