Turning a bedroom into a love nest

[Luv2PleasureF]

Um, babe, you found the box, but what about the flowers petals?

LMAO!!
Oh baby, I wasn't talking about that box... and I swear, if there was a most beautiful kitty pageant, I just know you'd win in a runaway! Talk about beautiful petals!!

But I was talking about a box of satin rose petals... LOL

 

[pplwatching]

Okay, so I called my sister and we hald a long talk. I learned that I do not have a paint color something like a picture on such-and-such a web page. I have exactly Behr Mystic Green RAH-57, and that if I were to base my room on the little thumbnail splotch of paint on the can and a picture from a web page that I could expect the worst (paraphrasing, of course). She also politely explained that I was limiting myself by picking bedding to match a paint that we had already picked out. "Bedding and paint have a huge impact on the room. If you find bedding that you like, you have so much more freedom in paint choices than the other way around. You can really draw the colors out of the bedding." were her words. I explained that my wife had already picked this wall color. She said "well, lets work with that then" with patience, courtesy, and professionalism. But I know my sister, and I'm sure between the lines was "She'd pick a different color if she found some bedding that she really liked". She's probaby right.

The Behr web site lets you match any color up with all sorts of trims and paint a virtual room with it. My guess is that all paint mfg's have something similar. You can swap trim colors in and out in a second and get a really good feel for what looks nice together. We have chosen Creme Angels trim, but she thinks I should save the semi-gloss for one wall of the bathroom and go with eggshell for the bedroom. Gloss draws attention to the walls and, while it's durable, I don't want the focus to be on the walls. I want the eye to be drawn to the bed (I love my sister) and the wall hangings / accent peices. "Gloss is for places that get cleaned a lot, like the kid's rooms". She also told me that if I were to paint over the existing stained baseboards and door trim that a) every little ding and nick was going to show and b) that masking and pulling back the carpet to paint the boards was a bitch (my words). Her exact words were, "Are you going to have enough time to do all that? These little projects turn into big projects pretty quickly". All said with sisterly love, and she didn't even flinch that my goal was to make romance with my wife. Thanks for the poke and prod.

We then took a virtual walk through several web pages from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. This stuff gets expensive fast, and given that this is a surprise she suggested I not go overboard. "Finding the perfect peices to go together takes time, and you don't have a lot of time to shop around" were her words. She suggested Bed In a Bag as a good "beginner" way to get an inexpensive quality look, had me use the 'zoom in' feature on some items, and then put them over and around the virtual room that I had painted. She kind of likes http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=104924&RN=31 as a quick starting point that I should keep in mind as I shop. It draws on the creme from the fan and trim, while having an elegant look with subtle greens. I pointed out the thread count, and she pointed out that the sheets could always be put on a guest bed and that I don't have a lot of time to shop between tiling, painting, and looking for wall hangings. Practical woman.

She then offered to have custom drape panels made at her cost and drop shipped to me. Her parting words of advice were to never trust a picture. Computer monitors are not true to the color and pictures are made to put the best possible light on the product. "Sometimes you just say eeewe, that's not the way it looked in the picture". She strongly suggested that I take time to go look in person to make sure it's really what I think it is. So I am going to get paint swatches from the store tomorrow and take them to hold up to the bedding.

She was very helpful, and if I'd made her sound snippy then I apologize to her. She was very sweet and professional. I'm supposed to call her when I think that I've found something.

Thanks again

 

[pplwatching]

I like http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=104920&RN=27 but I'm not sure about the flowers ... they seem to clash between the dark green of the duvet and the lighter green of the wall.

I see what she means about paint and bedding. Would I be chickening out if I took my wife out to dinner, got down on one knee, and gave her a hand-engraved invitation to join me in shopping for a romantic bedroom? I promise that I'll clean up all of the receipts and laundry before she gets home.

Okay everyone, get on the Behr web site, paint a 'room' Mystic Green with Creme Angels trim" and go find bedding tips for me

 

[dollface007]

I can attest to the fact that matching colors online is not a good idea. I bought some drapes online that i thought were dark blue, but turned out to be a dusty blue. They don't look bad, it's just that they wouldn't have been my first choice.

I don't think there is anything wrong with taking your wife to the store to have her pick out the bedding set that she wants as long as you have everything else settled before she gets home. I'm glad you called you sis!!

 

[I'm Wild Cherry]

I like this

I just saw your post this evening. I think that you are doing this for your wife is terrific! If you haven't purchased the bedding yet, you might click on the link to zgallerie. They have several different textiles in the store that make me ooh and aahh each time I visit.

 

[pplwatching]

Update

Thanks for the pointer!

I havent gotten the bedding yet. I'm not sure how that silvery color will work with the green and the creme. It might go, but it's hard to tell from my computer monitor.

So the update, for anyone who remotely cares, is that the tile has turned into a time sync. I wound up a box of tile short. If you go by pure square footage then we had enough, but the area doesn't match the tile dimensions very well and the best way to get a good professional job was to cut tiles on all sides, which made us need at least one more box, probably two. The receptionist at the tile store said that they didn't have any more, so I spent a day driving around town to find something that would match with no luck. I spent a night with a paper and pencil trying to make it work with what we had, moving dimensions around, trying to optimize cuts. It was obvious that we needed more tile (I hadn't actually installed any at that point) because one broken tile would leave me short no matter what I did. I bumped into the owner as I was about to order more, and he said "I have some!" He was right, he had 8 more boxes in a corner because it's not enough for a full job and hadn't been put out on clearance yet. Lucky me. Boring, I know, but since I have no wife to crawl into bed with tonight you all get treated to a play-by-play. Lucky you.

I got about 1/2 of my cuts made tonight. Not glamorous or romantic, but neither is coming home to a concrete floor. Hopefully I'll get the tile finished tomorrow, and even then I still need to grout and install the transitions It's looking good tho!

I have been working on cleaning up the bedroom, so at least that will be done for her. I have also been working on a design for an engraved card promising a made-to-order romantic bedroom, so I'll take the ideas that I've gotten and show her after she's had a chance to settle back in.

'Nite.

 

[Cathleen]

When is your wife due home? I hope you share her reactions -

It is great what you're doing. I've gone the green and cream route for my makeover too. I THINK, (not sure yet), I will add bright splashes of colors. I have a few photos that might work well. One is almost a hot pink floral (kind of a soft hot pink if that makes sense). And I have a few small pillows that can do the job too.

I admire your enthusiasm so much.

 

[spapoop]

Hrm ...

 

[pplwatching]

My wife came home on Monday night. My daughter and I met her at the airport with a dozen roses. As expected she was wiped out after 30 hours of travel, but she also managed to pick up a chest cold on the trip :-( She wasn't feeling well and slept for most of the day yesterday and last night.

This morning she got up early, took a shower, and then came back to bed all warm, soft, and nice smelling. She gently woke me up and made love to me while the morning sun slowly lit our bedroom She must have noticed that while she was away I had installed the new shower fixture that she wanted

While I was cleaning our bedoom I found a package of about a dozen or so 8" prints of various artwork. They were buried under a bunch of stuff, so I don't know how long they've been there or what they were even for. They're not very big, but they're nice. At first I thought that they were post cards, but they are just prints on card stock. I've bound two of them together with a hole punch and some red yarn. At lunch I'll go get some nice paper from a craft store and write the invitation.

She did ask why there was a new ceiling fan box in the corner, to which I would only answer "I'll tell you later." She's working today, hopefully she'll be up to going out to dinner tonight where I will give her a hand printed card promising her a romantic bedroom makeover. It would be nice to make love at sunrise and again at sunset, but I doubt that the kids will cooperate and the sun still sets pretty early.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[pplwatching]

When is your wife due home? I hope you share her reactions

It's been a busy week, but here's how the redecorating proposal went. My wife had something of a relapse with her chest cold, so she went to bed early a couple nights. While she was convalescing I went to the crafts store but the 'card' project grew a bit. I got cream colored parchment paper, 'easy' caligraphy pens, and a sheet of translucent paper with flowers printed on it. After a night of practice on scrap paper I took the parchment paper and cut it in half. On one half I traced a heart with roses and then 'drew' it with a burgandy medium caligraphy pen. I took a gold pen and 'painted' the petals and leaves of the flower gold. With a black narrow caligraphy pen I wrote all of my key words around the heart. On the other half I wrote how I felt about her and how much I wanted our bedroom to be a special place for the two of us. I folded the translucent paper in half, put the two half sheets of paper inside of it, punched holes and tied it together with decorative red yarn.

Last night I gave it to my wife and watched her face as she read it. These 'easy' pens are not as simple to use as the display says, so I had to read a couple of barely legible words for her, but she smiled the whole time and then gave me a very warm hug and a passionate kiss. Then she said, "does this mean I can spend as much as I want?" I should say that my wife handles all of the money around the house and knows what we can afford. She was eager to get on the computer with me and 'go shopping'. She is a natural born bargain hunter and checked out the QVC clearance web site right away, but we didn't find anything that really struck our fancy. Today we have a lunch date to go shopping for bedding, after which we'll work on artwork. Our headbord is a hand-me-down that doesn't match the dresser I got back in my bachelor days, so I think it will be next on the list.

So now it's a project for both of us! Thanks again for all of the input.

 

[SueJ]

She is one lucky gal. 'Hope you have fun, and we want pics of the redecorating when it's all done!