They say to start with a hook, right? What’s a cuter hook than puppy dogs and little boys?

Actually, this is an “after” pic of the master bedroom at the mid-century ranch. As you’ll see later, I stenciled the wall between the bedroom and the en suite with a French poem that Debra found somewhere. You can see a bit of it behind and above to left of the world’s cutest grandbaby.

Here is what we started with: Not bad bones – great wood floors and enough space. The off-center window was kind of weird but we could work with it.  In this view, the bath is to the left.

The above view is standing in the bathroom door. The open french door to the right leads to a sun room attached to the bedroom, shown below:

So. Even though I kind of get a kick out of demo, none was necessary here. Mostly a matter of paint and furnishings.

In the sun room, we decided to stay with white tones on the walls so as to maximize the light and reduce interference with true colors – important when applying makeup, so I’m told. Here is the first incarnation, as it existed during most of the construction in the rest of the house:Yes, paper shades. While not attractive, they do the job and are cheap enough that you don’t mind tossing them into the recycle bin when the permanent solution arrives.

Here is a shot of the room as finished:

These windows look out onto the pool and the greenery of the back yard. On the other side of the room, opposite the makeup table, we put an ecru “fainting couch,” which made for a nice spot for morning tea and meditation.

The color we chose for the bedroom walls was richer than a white but had the calming effect we were looking for – Benjamin Moore Moon Shadow. If you follow that link it will give you a better idea of the value than the pic below, which serves more to illustrate the problem with painting the swatch directly on the wall – the underlying paint screws with the value, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

What you don’t get from either the link or the pic is the fact that every time Debra sees the name of the paint, she starts singing the Cat Stevens song an added benefit, for sure. Here is an interim shot, during the process of deciding on paint, window treatments, and furniture:And here is how it turned out, looking from the bath toward the hall:

Another view complete with stenciling on the wall leading to the en suite bath:

In the next – short – post, I’ll show you what we did with the bath. Debra found a couple of mirrors that ratcheted up the funk but I think it worked quite well. Hope you agree.