(We'll answer any question, even if it's not to us. We get stuff for Candice all the time and can't figure out why.)
Dear Candice Olsen,
I really enjoy your show and am amazed at your creativity! I need your creative help in the bedroom with the furniture!!! I have been married for 34 years. We have had the same bedroom furniture for the 34 years. I need to change the furniture, not the husband! Do you have any suggestions of what can be done to the furniture to change the looks?
Thanks, Dee B.
Dear Dee,
While we don't know how far you want to go, the problem here is a predominance of the BEIGE BLAHS. You have no variety in your color palette and no good bright and dark colors to play off of one another. You want color and you want contrast.
The first thing we would do is have some fun by painting your furniture a real nice high gloss white, paint the walls a warm off-white color with either lavender, yellow or rose in it and get some eye popping pillows for the bed. The bedspread and the rugs would be the next to go as they are too muted.
Really, what you want to do is start your own style tray of ideas by looking at magazines and collecting pictures in one place. Once you have assembled a good sampling, we would look hard at the pics, choose your favoritie elements and start to reproduce them in your bedroom. And think MODERN as you do this. It's fun!
Anyone else??
LOL, that is too funny!
You forgot to tell her about the port lights.
This is hugely more entertaining than that Clark person.
Y'know, take that furniture, give it a good coat of paint, use some accent colors to pick out some of the details, change out the hardware to something more dramatic, and you could get a funky ethnic look that might (with simple, peasant-like linens) be fun in a "help, I survived Trading Spaces!" kind of way.
I'd start with kerosene and a match.
Actually, new hardware on drawers (after painting them as instructed above) would help, too.
Don't people who write to Candice usually want sweeping change to the near gut-reno level? And want someone else to do it?
I think AT should petition Candice to redo this. OR, the owners should let a Maxwell-led AT-team do this as a makeover.
ps--
Easy there, slash.
Although I myself just took the paint-crappy-furniture-white with my headboard - part of a frantic effort to get ready in time to be showcased in bedroom month btw! - I actually would take a different approach given the style of this furniture and how much of it there is. Instead, I would paint it dark brown or black, then use bold oranges and reds for a nod to an Asian theme. The wall-to-wall would have to go however. Another approach could be a neo-Gothic look: Grey walls, white trim, spooky old-fashioned portraits and matte black paint on the furniture.
I had similar thoughts: paint the furniture out white and replace the hardware. I think I would get rid of the mirror above the chest of drawers entirely. If they still want a mirror on that wall, I'd get one with a frame in a different finish, but really a series of framed prints or one big canvas would look good there.
Most bang for your buck? New bright non-print bedding, possibly a white duvet with a gray quilt at the foot of the bed. Paint the walls white or pale gray. Next in order--Lose the mirror and headboard. Paint the furniture charcoal gray. New hardware. If you must hang a mirror there, hang it on one side rather than centered. A round mirror might work or maybe just a Wallter Starburst wall application from FOLD Bedding, since the mirror really doesn't seem to be used. Place the religious objects together on a small mirrored tray, so they appear to be a collection. Perhaps, include a missal or rosary on the tray if the intent is devotional. Dump the lamp. Candles would be nice. They might stand on the tray along with the religious objects. Several pillar candles might be nice. New ART!! New lamps.
take a do-over.
Alternatively -- for a total el cheapo, low-effort effect -- leave the furniture alone, other than moving the mirror. Leave the carpet alone. But paint the walls dark brown, so that the furniture is knocked back to invisibility.
Replace the floral rug and floral linens with more tailored, geometric items in beige, ivory, dark brown, and a BRIGHT pink or a vivid purple. Go for the gusto on accent pillows: I want to see one shaped like a bright pink rose. Reupholster that chair in a solid color -- dark brown or the PINK. (Or bring in a new chair.)
Put up a new mirror with a metal frame, and use the same metal on the lamp bases. (I'm thinking brushed nickel, but I'm open-minded.) Do what ebrown said about corraling the collections.
It wouldn't make the cover of Dwell, but it'd look pretty chic for a weekend's work and a couple hundred bucks.
Here are my thoughts. I think it would be fun to use the Restoration Hardware catalog as an inspiration for color choices and accessorizing options. Their signature look seems to be a cleaner, more stylized and updated version of what you were probably going for when you first decorated the room way back when. That said, I'd keep the wood as-is and just replace the hardware with something cleaner and less-ornate. (But if you did decide to change the wood, I would think about staining it a darker color.) And switching out the mirror with a wall-mounted one should update the dresser nicely. I think you can easily recreat that RH look very easily without having to change out your bigger pieces of furniture. Regarding colors, I really like: a warm blue-grey for the walls; ivory for the trim; simple neutral beddings (Restoration Hardware's Italian Banded Sateen beddings would look great); re-upholster the chair in a cream upholstery or use a simple pleated slipcover with a tieback in a similar neutral color (and update it for $50 or so); take out all the florals with the exception of a modern floral needlepoint pillow for the chair (as a nod to the room's past design incarnation); switch out the floral rug with a simple, dark-colored one. For lamps, again look to RH for inspiration and shop around to for less-expensive options if RH is too expensive. Glass and/or silver base, white fabric shade, etc. The great thing is that a lot of these higher-end Restoration Hardware looks and design cues are readily available at stores like Mervyn's, Target, Sears and Kohl's.
Help with creativity in the bedroom? Are we sure she's just talking about the slippery floral bedspread?
I like ebrown's suggestion the best so far. Simple bedspread (all white is good start to contrast with cark furniture, for clean modern look. Get most luxurious set you can afford). Coat of bold-colored paint. Try some simple bold prints or other modern paintings to replace those over headboard.