apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I think the desk chair is very cool.

Center your dresser in the section of wall it's on, basically move it a few inches to the right so that the picture above it is centered over it. I like your bed. Tidy up the cables under your desk. An inexpensive but large rug over your carpet could work wonders.

I agree about lowering the pictures. I remember when we moved into our first house and my husband said something about hanging all the art "level with the top of the door frame." Huh? It must me a guy thing.

Also - consider a window treatment besides vinyl blinds. And I like the all-white bedding if you put a color on the walls.

I'm very impressed with the tidyness- you even put pillows on your bed! I like the white bed too..but the wall decor is too high. Unless you're tall and like to look at your art at the same level, move it down some. Maybe it's that it's too small to put so high? Try adding the smaller stuff around a larger focal piece and the height thing will fit in nicely. h suggested a rug- that'll really make your bed pop. Otherwise...it's a really nice place and as I said, I'm impressed- even your closet it neat!

I agree with mgr art work should be lowered. I always hang art at the level i will view it at, standing in the foyer and hall, seated in the living room, etc.A darker color in the bederoom will set the mood of the room, the white walls seem stark and bland.

i think you need to choose a color. there are a bunch of good ones ion your room - choose one and make it into an overall scheme. Your artwork is too high, as others have said, but other than that, it's a perfectly fine bedroom, just not unified yet. color will bring it all together. have fun!!

i do wonder why people so often hang art too high.

i like the look of the bed.

here are my ideas. . .
-it's hard to tell from the photos whether it's possible, but what about setting the bed on an angle or moving it to another wall so that you can see the door? (it's bad feng shui if you can't see the door from your bed) plus, it looks like it's too close to the desk -- oops, the desk is also bad feng shui because you shouldn't have your back to the door, okay, maybe i have to give up with the feng shui but do experiment with moving the furniture around
-put away the lotion bottle and the stuff on the lucite bedside table
-cover up the mirrored doors
-replace window coverings (ikea and pearl river have cheap bamboo and cloth blinds if you don't want curtains)
-put a lamp on the left side of the bed
-set the dresser on an angle

If there is a contest for Tidiest Closet, you have my vote. I am soooooooooo envious!

Oh yeah, definitely move the lotion bottle away from the nightstand. It creates a mental image that I don't think you want to convey.

I think you're off to a good start. I like the choice of desk chair. Have you considered painting the rest of the wooden furniture white? Is the blanket and chair upholstery grey like the carpet? If so, paint the walls a color you like. I've found that a nice wall color really ties together disparate elements. I see blue in your closet. Maybe a nice slate blue on the walls? I'd replace those miniblinds with white cotton roman blinds. And I'd keep the glass bedside table (nice counterpoint to the rest of the furnishings), but eliminate the clutter on it. Finally, you need ambient lighting, and lots of it. I'd love to see the finished room!

This is my favorite room of the ones that have been posted so far. I love the fact that nothing matches, yet manages to work pretty well, with a kind of random charm I find personified in my favorite people.

I think there's a design spectrum with "trying too hard" at one end and "clueless slob" at the other. This seems to fall nicely in the middle. It suggests a guy lives there who has his s. together enough to be able to find things and function in the room -- probably even enjoy the time he spends there -- but at the same time doesn't have anything to prove to anyone by having a superfabulously decorated/trendy place. This place has zero pretension, which in my book is even worse than its opposite, cluelessness. By not trying too hard it conveys a vibe of confidence about the person who lives there.

There is an organic kind of effortless style that results from picking up "junky" things you like as you go through life. After a few years go by, your place tells a story about who you are and where you've been.

He mentions that he wants to redo it soon, but I wonder if the "improved" version will be as nice as what he has now.

hey, MGR, i wish there was a way to vote now that we've seen what appears to be all of the bedrooms. i should have held off because, well, besides your bedroom, i liked the very first one best.

I am personally a fan of "oddly" placed artwork. If I had a Vermeer I would hand it over the mantle, but since I just have a motley collection of somewhat ok 19th century Prints, repros, my own paintings, I hang them excetionally casually, off-center, clustered in hallways...

I would lose the dresser in favor of under bed storage or bins in the closet. One less item in my small bedroom taking up space, cluttering the room. I hang most of my t-shirts/jeans on hangers, this way most of my clothes are hanging in the closet, its just so much easier to get dressed when all pants, shirts etc are hanging rather than just reserving the closet for dry-cleaning... (I keep my suits and out of season in the hall-closet)

The desk chair is really my favorite thing. Why not take that crisp grey and white palette and apply it to a few things in the rest of the bedroom? You could start by changing out the blanket for a grey one and getting grey pillowcases for your long pillows. [Keep the white squares.] If you like the white walls, just painting a grey accent wall behind the bed will make the white bed linens pop, and you can switch out the little paintings for the life drawings.

You can get away with having oddly hung paintings as long as you make it intentional and interesting. The long wall of my studio has things hung right at my eye height, like I spit out nails from a machine gun, and it's been annoying me lately. I don't like the glass table, since it looks kinda 80s and it doesn't hide any of your clutter, and everyone has clutter around their bed.

Maybe he's really tall? Y'know, "they"'re always telling us to hang our art at eye level....

Thank you all for comments, critiques and compliments. This is what makes a site like this so valuable (contributions) Some will be taken in consideration.

-Will use white flat paint on walls (which one would look nice in such a well lit room?)

-Will lower "art" since not tall (g/f grins and say "told you")

-Will install roman shades on windows (what should I add to block light a bit more?)

-Will keep lotion in bathroom where it belongs (elaborate on image it conveys - not getting it- wink-wink)

-Will reupholster chair (imitation one of the Louis) in white suede. Same as new headboard (see it at Bo Concept)

-Will experiment with different positionning of furniture. (Should I care about fen-sui? I'm not quite a believer)

-Considering painting bed and dresser white (Plenty of tips on how to paint melanine on AT)

I really liked Rob's comment. Quite accurate in his link between who I am and how my bedroom looks. AT should produce a piece on link between personality traits and bedroom decor.

Charles!

Nice room dude, where do you keep your music? I like the lotion bottle but you need a box of tissues near it to complete the effect. I see in that photo in the reflection of the close that the sheets aren't on...told ya you should keep the klenex close at hand.

Cool prints over the bed, dig em.

Not surprised at all both by the stylish wardrobe and the orderly closet.

I'm most impressed with your daringness to put yourself out there to random opinion. Kudos.

Cheers.

Tim,
My music is the living room. In addition the PC looking thing on the desk hold 2000 songs carefully chosen from Myriam MAKEBA to Bebo VALDES with YoYo Ma, Miles DAVIS & Bjork and score more in between.

As for the lotion, I use it because of my dry skin. You pervert.

And putting my pics in here is not so daring; nobody here (except you) knows me. And since I couldn't get a loan from you to pay either Gabbelini, Marino or Noriega-Ortiz to do my interior, I figured this was an excellent to get decor ideas on the cheap.

You should send some pics of The Bayou, you'd be surprised of the result.

charles,

sent you email directly after i got the one from you with your responses to everyone's comments, but it bounced back, darn spam filter. mostly wanted to say that the thing about feng shui is that it really all comes down to comfort. the cool thing is that whether or not you believe in its effects on your finances, love life, etc., when you move things around, if you pay attention, you can figure out when furniture is in the right place because you'll feel more comfortable when it is. most people aren't comfortable sitting with their back to the door because someone can walk up behind them when they don't realize it. same when your bed faces away from the door. originally, it meant that someone with nefarious intent could come in the door with their spears or daggers or whatever and get to you before you saw them. it's all common sense, really.

oh, and try a white that's not brilliant, primer-like white? and definitely try it in a small area so that you can see what it looks like during the day and night, before you do a large space. benjamin moore has these small, cheap sample pots of paint that might work.

by the way, this is shorter and not as coherent as my original email. oh well.

i appreciate you, and everyone else, posting pics of their bedrooms. it's been inspirational.

MGR -- can we see living rooms, and kitchens, and bathrooms, next?

Did I miss the part where someone told Charles that white on white everything is a good idea? I think white on white is really bad unless you have good modern furniture with baked on finishes. It just fades bad. Go to a ben moore dealer and get the CD, and also use samples. I think a french blue would be quite a statement, maybe only one wall, but I move away from the bright white paint. (I thought of doing french blue in my kitchen, which has gray speckled granite marble. The sampler changed my mind, and how. But I have a lot of wood in there too.)

Someone said move away from the gloss, I like the eggshell finish in rooms other than the bathroom or kitchen. Flat looks very chalky to me.

I think you should put at least some color into this place. Maybe a sandy colored benjamin moore? I can't tell what the carpet is, you said gray, but its looking different in the pix -- like a brown. Could go nicely or not. Also, I like the chair tones, I wouldn't reupholster it. The drawings over the bed -- what's going on there? Are they different sizes, are they of the g/f, are they supposed to inspire her? If they are nice sketches, don't hang them so strangely.

ABC has greek flokatis on sale. When they go dirt cheap at the outlet, check them out -- if you stitch them together you can make a lovely little carpet to cover the gray in front of the bed on the closet side that will give the g/fs feet a warm hello every morning. They are terrible to vacuum, however.

I agree that you need clutter reduction. Also move the desk from the end of the bed to a corner, it looks like a focal point. Is there a corner to the left of the desk that's available? Or is there an entry there.

I like the glass table, although it doesn't really match so close to the mirrored doors (which I actually like -- seems very pratical). You can buy tape at home depot or lowe's to change the metallic trim from brass to other finishes. It comes in a satin metal finish that improves everything. Its like contact paper for metal trim.

Keep that table surface clean and hide the clutter in the other nightstand. Throw out the books and mags from that nightstand that you aren't reading anyway and put all the bed-associated clutter into a basket in the lower opening of that nightstand. Dry skin is a terrible thing.

I think that big buddha looking thing hanging to the left of the bed is wierd, in colors and design and is totally incompatible with the other art stuff. It looks like it came from a flea market somewhere you visited. Maybe it would look better in some other room -- your kitchen, perhaps?

I think if you find some simple, soft abstract watercolors to hang framed in series, that might make a real improvement. Only the two indeterminable things near the dresser are framed, and I think you should lighten the frames on those. I for one like real art to be framed in natural tones. I just saw some watercolors framed in a floating effect, it looked like they were painted on linen. Maybe that could help your naked women sketches too. Right now, those look like hanging wall calendars with the month part cut off.

What are those abstract paintings that look like tic tac toe boards? (Watch it be some famous artist). I don't like them because while they do look organized, and your closet is also organized, they seem very bright for your color scheme. They would look better, of course, if everything else is white. But that would make your other pictures look bad.

Good luck. I wish my bedroom was this neat.

charles, after reading a's comment, i realized you should take a look at donald kaufman color 13 -- it's a great neutral and i think it would look fantastic in your room, even if on just one wall.

Great Start, the white Chair and white bedding really start the impact of the room, and the glass side table enhances a mood beginning. The walls, I would look at Benjamin Moore R9988, in a Pearl finish. Dark, rich and initimate will look great with the white, glass and mirror. Lower your pictures, (repeated comment). Roman blinds should be in a rich non patterned fabric, something with a sheen or even a light texture. Artwork could then be bold, abstract, put it together to make up a collage. Add some mood lighting. Good Luck

Warm it up! do not put white at all on the walls, shiny or not. It makes the energy bounce and usually clinics and hospitals are not that sexy! Even if you use cooler colors, you could do a light blue and a milk chocolate brown to warm it up. nobody ever said you should just use one color in your bedroom.

and stop placing all the furniture along the walls. Angle some of them, like the chest, to give a new proportion and get out of the shoe box!

add some real plants to give some life also...

Talking about Feng Shui, I am a Feng Shui consultant and home decorator so...

Good luck! Bonne chance !
Catherine