Finally many of the painful parts of our year-long home renovation are coming to an end and the fun parts – decorating the interiors are happening! I love an eclectic style with a mix of antique, flea market, and modern interiors in my home and I think I’ve pulled it off with this Primary (Master) bedroom design.
Mood Boards
I started with some mood boards. I downloaded images from Pinterest and Google searches and I used the Layout App from Instagram to place them all on the same collage so I could see how it all tied together.
I started knowing that I would hang these paintings by Joan Blackmore Thistle, a Newfoundland artist I love. These paintings hung in my parents house and when my mom died and we had to downsize my dad to a condo, I shipped them to California. I love how this series of three depicts traditional women’s labour in Newfoundland. My mum was from Newfoundland and my ancestry on that island goes back at least 5 generations.
I buried my mum’s ashes in Newfoundland, so a piece of my heart will always be there, despite living on the opposite side of the continent. My mum worked hard her whole life in unseen labour to care for our family and these paintings are of women working together to do the things that keep a home running.
These paintings remind me of my roots, and also remind me that what I do to keep our home running has value.
From these paintings I pulled out a general colour palette of greens, oranges, pinks, and grey.
And then I pulled that palette together in another mood board.
Wallpaper
I joke that I didn’t choose this wallpaper, it chose me. But seriously, it’s true. I scrolled through pages and pages of wallpaper options on Spoonflower.com and Home Depot.com. I knew I wanted something in the colour palette of the paintings and then suddenly, I saw it, on Home Depot’s website. It was love at first sight! A gorgeous green wallpaper with copper-coloured California poppies. The perfect paper to make a visual statement, and also to remind me that while my roots may be in Newfoundland, I’ve chosen to live in California and I’ve set myself the intention to bloom where I’m planted. The poppies feel doubly significant as the flower that ties these two worlds together because they are a wildflower here that pops up in my yard every season and because it is the pet name I had for my Newfoundland grandpa – I called him Poppy.
If you’re in the SF Bay Area, looking for an amazing Wallpaper Installer, we had an excellent experience working with Young Lee.
Wall Paint
To coordinate with the wallpaper in a light, warm, soothing green – I chose Benjamin Moore “Tree Moss” in an eggshell finish. All trim throughout my house is Benjamin Moore “Swiss Coffee” in a semi-gloss finish.
Kevin Bariteau’s crew did a fantastic job with painting and I have no hesitation in recommending them.
Ceiling
Some architectural details do not come easy. To build the roofline and tie this roof to the rest of roof on the house, I think the framers had to redo it 3 times. They put the roof up, they took the roof down, they put the roof up, they took the roof down…It was a whole thing. But it was worth it. The cathedral ceiling bring such an inspirational loftiness to the space. I love the planking and centre beam we settled upon, with design help from our architect, Ron Heikes.
Eclectic Design Style
An eclectic style, I find, reveals itself over time as you fill your space with things you love. Items don’t necessarily match but they still have a flow to them and work together in harmony. They might not be from the same era or design style, but somehow they come together.
We were so fortunate to be given our two nightstands from our neighbor Kathy, who was moving out of the state. They are similar, but different, and I love them.
Our bed we bought new from an Amish furniture maker. We bought it at Hoot Judkins, an Amish furniture dealer in Redwood City. It is pricey to buy quality furniture made of real wood but oh man, what a difference it makes. It warms up the space in a way I can’t even properly describe. I feel more grounded when I’m using a solid piece of furniture? It feels warmer to the touch than cheap particle board. Anyways, this was a splurge and is the first bed we’ve owned in our lives that isn’t Ikea or bare bed rails. Actually, I think it might be the first real wood bed I’ve ever slept in.
I love antiques. This lingerie tower was my grandmother’s.
And this table – which I did have at my front entryway but I’ve moved into my bedroom now to keep it a bit safer from the kids and the dogs running around – is about 241 years old. Yes, you read that right.
It has been passed down in my family mother-daughter for 8 generations.
Daniel and Sally Knowles acquired it (bought? gifted?) after their wedding in 1784. They lived in Vermont. This branch of my family were British loyalists and after American independence they moved north to Canada and settled in southern Quebec (just across the border from Vermont).
The table was then passed down to their son (Levi), then his daughter (Emily), then to her daughter Estelle (my great-great-grandmother). Estelle had two daughters – my great-grandmother (Bernice) and Hazel. My great-grandmother had tuberculosis and died at only 28 years old when my grandma (Margaret) was 2 years old. My grandma also had TB and lived in the Freeport Sanatorium (where her father also died when she was 6) as an orphan until she was 9. After she was cured of TB, she lived with her mother’s sister Hazel. Hazel had one son, and raised my grandmother as her own daughter. So she bequeathed the table to my grandmother. My grandmother didn’t have any sons but I was the first born grand-daughter, so I was given the table, and someday I will give it to my daughter. I wonder what Daniel and Sally Knowles, who left America after independence from Britain would think about this table (and their great-great-great-great-great grand-daughter) being back in the United States.
Here is a picture of my great-grandmother, Bernice.
Eclectic Knickknacks
In an eclectic home, knicknacks evolve with the space over time as the perfect things find a perfect spot. I do want to keep my bedroom as peaceful as possible, though. So, for now – my only decorative knicknack in this room is my ceramic cat statue that my grandma painted. It used to sit in her front-entryway by the telephone. As a little girl I told my grandma that when she died I wanted that cat; I made her write my name on the bottom of it. I still love this cat.
Often when I go to the antique shops, so many things just look like a wall of overwhelm – but if I pull them off the shelves and look at them separated from everything else – I can actually find some really cool, unique pieces. There is also a fine line between clutter, and artfully placed trinkets. They need to provide a focal point to a space, or be part of a balanced collection that are along a theme or colorscheme, I think – to look “right”. Not just a sneeze of objects.
I’m obsessed with this lamp from Anthropologie – it was something I saw right at the beginning of planning this bedroom design and I included it in my earliest mood boards.
Soft Furnishings
For our bedding, I got a soft duvet cover in a terracotta burnt orange colour from Quince (one of the few sellers of Cal-King sized linens) as well as sheet sets in a light pink and a light grey.
I also chose a faux fur long lumbar pillow for our bed as a way to compromise with my husband to have minimal throw pillows – but also to add some different soft texture to the space. I got this one at At Home, which is sadly going out of business.
And surprise surprise, I shopped my own house and found that this snail pillow that I bought probably ten years ago from Society6, and it fits the mood perfectly!
For window coverings, I needed some floor length curtains to go over the french doors and sidelight windows. I love the soft earthy look of linen curtains and I ordered some from Amazon.com.
They were too thin and see-through for bedroom privacy. But my husband is a genius and suggested we just interweave two curtains together on the rod back to back to get two layers of curtains. So that’s what we did, which made putting curtains up here quite affordable.
For blinds elsewhere in the bedroom, we went with cellular shades from Selectblinds.com. We have them everywhere else in the house and they’ve served us well for the last five years and counting, especially for the price point. I don’t love the little handle to raise the blinds up and down, preferring the look of the ones I bought 5 years ago – but those ones have stuck on occasion, so this is a better design.
Tidy House Disclaimer
I’ll be writing more about my eclectic home design style as I can. I love writing about home decor, but to be honest the limiting factor in writing these posts is having the spaces tidy enough with homeschool, kids, and a dog to take photos that look even slightly appealing and not just appalling. Our home is lived in and pretty much never looks like the photos.
Warmly,
-Heather
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