DESIGN AT HOME DESIGN&LIVING
O U R
R E T R E A T
When it comes to home design, there is nothing more personal than a master suite. With this in mind, we set out to create a bedroom and bathroom that properly reflected the adults in our home. The goal: a sophisticated, restrained and zen retreat. To all of our family and friends who are scratching their heads, please keep in mind the goal was based more on “aspirational” ideals of ourselves, rather than “realistic.” 126
DESIGN & LIVING | F E B R U A R Y 2 017
It all started with the color. My husband, Daren, found a bedroom he liked on HGTV.com that featured brown paint and colorful accents. I’m more of a dark and moody, or cool-toned whites kind of gal, so brown was on the very bottom of my options list. While helpful and definitely opinionated, Daren is rarely over-themoon about an idea, so I decided to give it a go and considered it a design challenge. Who says I’m not flexible?
The truth is, he promised me he would personally repaint if I didn’t like it. Plus, I got final say on the color and picked an earthy, cool-toned brown by Sherwin Williams called “Backdrop.” A few weeks after the paint was on the wall, I still wasn’t convinced. As you can see in the before pictures, the paint color and our mix-and-match furniture was not creating a relaxing, zen-like experience. I knew a little, or a lot of styling, was needed if we were going to make it work. We started with the furniture.