Before and After: An Oddly Shaped Bedroom’s “After” Is Awe-Inspiring
Designer Michelle Gage has an amazing ability to design homes, which was on full display in her and her husband’s first home that they renovated themselves. After transforming every single room in the 2000-square-foot Philadelphia home, the couple sold that house last November and moved into what they consider to be their forever home. “We fixed up everything we possibly could, while not pricing ourselves out of the neighborhood we were in. The changes we made were worth it for us to enjoy while we were still living there, but also made for a sound investment when it came time to sell,” wrote Michelle on her website.
Their second home is a huge 4500-square-foot Victorian that needs a lot of work. And for this year’s One Room Challenge, Michelle took on the monumental task of redoing their giant master bedroom. “It’s our first true master bedroom—sitting room, walk in closet, attached bathroom. We’ve never had so much space to ourselves,” she wrote.
Michelle explained that the previous owners had removed a wall that separated two bedrooms, turning this area into one big master bedroom. There was still a bit of wall kept for structural support, so Michelle and her husband decided they would use it to create a separate bed area and a sitting area. They also turned a previous hallway into a walk-in closet.
When it came to the decoration of the space, Michelle wrote that she “stepp[ed] a bit outside of my box on this one. The space is going to be slightly more bohemian than any I’ve done before. I plan to use shibori prints and sisal textures—a mixture that I’ve done for clients but never in my own home.”
The wallpaper on the accent wall is navy shibori style from Milton + King, and it’s the item that the entire room’s decor is designed around. “I get asked all the time about what kicks off a room’s design. I am a big believer that any item can be the design’s starting point. In this case, my starting piece was the wallpaper. I knew that I wanted to wallpaper the wall behind my bed and knew that it HAD.TO.BE perfect. I looked at A TON of styles, before ultimately landing on this one from Milton + King.”
The rest of the room is painted in a light blue to complement the wallpaper. “I knew matching the wall to the deep indigo tone would’ve been WAY too dark. I want the space to be punchy and uplifting, which is where Blue Ground came into play.”
Though with this larger home they’ve hired some professionals to help with some of the wallpapering and painting, they’ve still done a lot of the work themselves. Like in the dreamy closet, where her husband Alex installed cork floor himself. “Alex has been DYING to get cork flooring somewhere in the house. The closet was the perfect place to give it a go. Why? Well, remember, he swore off tile so that wasn’t an option. I don’t like carpet. The hardwood floors would’ve been impossible to match. Also, I wanted COLOR.”
“Globus Cork has a range of colors and patterns to choose from. We chose the sage green, nugget cork in pattern #8. We’re pretty pleased with how it turned out. The color works with the birch wood drawers and soft grey walls very well.”