It is finally done!!! Well I have one more thing to do but everything else is done. About a month ago I found a duvet cover at Pottery Barn that I decided I had to have. You can read about that here. The dominos started to fall and so much had to change by just buying one simple thing.

When I brought the duvet cover home, I was immediately in love and knew it was a keeper. But I had to really scrounge and think about what I had that could support this new look. I loved my old bedroom with the black and white quilt and black and white dishes above the bed. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old look, in fact at some point it will be back. Paint was selected to work well with the black and white plates, and they did beautifully. The paint is Spun Silver from Benjamin Moore. The paint color on the walls created a very calm but cool atmosphere. Generally speaking I tend to go with warmer colors. I am not a cold girl!

There was no way I was going to repaint this room. It was just painted 2 years ago, so the challenge and big question was could I make this paint color work with the much warmer duvet cover. I brought in the supporting players. My sister’s sampler, the Doulton Gipsies plates the sailing water colors that were in the living room and analyzed. The visual tension created between the grey walls and the warm bedding is kind of pleasing to me.

The next challenge was finding more plates to finish out the wall arrangement over the bed. This is one of my smaller collections and they have pretty much always played a supporting roll, as apposed to being the key player. Once I got what I had on the wall I realized I was going to need at least one more plate and some different shapes. Time for eBay!

My search yielded two small square plates but of course they were in England. Then I found the sandwich tray from a the Hospice House Thrift Shop in London. Well this was a store after my own heart. The actual square plates and tray were relatively inexpensive at 24.00 for the two squares, and the same for the tray. The over seas shipping killed me. I also managed to get my hands on a 10 1/4″ plate to round out the area above the bed. Using the velcro strips I was able to get them all hung correctly using many Poppy Words!!!

Knowing I wanted to get some pink into the room, I ordered some linen from The Fabric Store. I love their linen and it is now my go to when I need linen. The linen came and I set up my embroidery machine to embroider a design. Well after 6 hours this was a massive fail. Too many colors, the wrong pattern. Just didn’t work. So I started again. This time with a simple monogram. Honestly I never thought in a million years I would be so pretentious as to have a monogram pillow on my bed!!! I made a slip for a lumbar pillow that I already had. With frayed ruffled sides I just love the simplicity and glam this pillow brings to the bed. I had to instruct the husband how to put it on the floor at night so it wouldn’t wrinkle the ruffle. It’s like a pet! It has its own special place to rest.

The next thing that was driving me nuts was the sheets. I can’t tell you how much time I spent looking for sheets. Honestly I didn’t need new sheets, but I like my sheets to work with my bedding and the sheets for the black and white quilt were just not cutting it.

I ended up with linen sheets from Hearth and Hand at Target. The sour cream color was perfect but they were just sheets! Time to teach myself a new skill. With embroidery machine out, I practiced in line embroidery, and created a “tape” to sew onto the sheets. Now I know this is crazy because who does this kind of thing. The husband says “It’s so Pretty”. When he says this to me I know he’s really rolling his eyes and thinking “Why”. We won’t even talk about the hours it takes to do this. Ok let’s! About 8 hours total to do the flat sheet and the pair of cases. But oh, it’s so pretty!!! Ever wonder why embroidered sheets are sooo expensive?

Now I will say the verdict is still out on these sheets. I am picky. My cotton Hearth and Hand sheets are very soft. Of course they’ve been washed a million times. Because these are linen/cotton blend they are scratchy but, I have only pre-washed them once. I know these sheets will need several washings before they soften up. I will let you know.

So that’s what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. Which way do you like the room better? Team Black and White, or Team Pink! Let me know in comments.

Time to set the Easter table.

Shelley