A Beautiful Place To Rest My Head

Question:  What's pink and white and dirty all over?

Answer:  Our bedroom!

I'll bet you thought I was telling a joke, didn't you?? Fortunately I'm much better at decorating than I am at joke telling. But believe me, our bedroom was a joke. A very dirty joke. Just not the kind of dirty joke you are thinking of. 

When we agreed to buy the apartment, the master bedroom had built-in cabinets over several walls. They were fine, sort of, but just not what I envisioned for our new upper east side home. So, I insisted that the seller tear them out before our closing. Much to my surprise, behind the built-ins, even behind the bed, were bright pink blocks of wall.  Apparently, the last time it was painted, not only did they paint around the built-in cabinet, but they also painted around the desk. And the bed? 

And did I mention the live wire that we found scotch taped to the wall??
 

As if that wasn't bad enough, once we removed the old radiator cover, we discovered that the radiator and the wall behind it were downright terrifying. I couldn't tell if they were peeling away, or growing new layers of... something... toxic mold maybe?? (Ok now I'm just being a tad dramatic. I think.)

And, let's not forget the custom floral blinds on each of the two windows. Although I'm sure they were lovely in their day, let's just say they are not quite my style.

These many fun surprises should have caused us to run screaming back to our midtown high rise, a world where landlords dealt with problems and we just wrote rent checks. But this, this problem was ours and ours alone. Needless to say, the day we signed the contracts was not exactly the fairytale homecoming that people dream of. Although most people would have begged their old landlord for their old apartment back, I decided that this was just a bigger and better challenge than I had expected. For those of you who know me, you know I live for a good challenge! I held onto my vision (and held my breath), and set out to make this room a beautiful and comfortable place for us to rest our heads at the end of our long and exhausting New York days.

Here are our new before and after pictures:

 Before...

After...

And a few more...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

There's even a cute little leather club chair in the corner under a lamp for reading. (Although if I'm being completely honest, I should probably admit that out of the thirty or more books I've read in the eight months we've been here, not a single one was read in this chair!)

As for the details:  The floors, once again, are Minwax Special Walnut stain (stained over our original 88-year-old oak floors) with a high gloss polyurethane. The paint again is Restoration Hardware, this time in "Cappuccino."  The furniture I already owned, with the exception of the second smaller dresser, which we added (since I now have to share my drawers!)  The set is also from Restoration Hardware, as are the three lamps. We definitely splurged the most on the accessories for this room. The bedding came from Bloomingdale's, and is Diane Von Furstenberg. The silk drapes came from Bed Bath and Beyond. We even got the world's most comfortable pillows from the W hotel, after falling in love with them the night we stayed there to sign our first New York City lease together more than two years ago. It's like sleeping on a cloud!!

I have to admit though, despite all the pricey things we bought for this room, my absolute favorite accessory is the simple two-sided Pottery Barn clock that sticks out from the wall right next to the door (Al calls it the "train station clock"). Wherever I am in the room, I can always see that I'm about to be late for work!

Life in Manhattan is crazy. If I'm not working or writing or reading or running or playing tennis or making my far too frequent trips to Bloomingdale's, I am out and about, enjoying every inch of this amazing city until I can't keep my eyes open another minute. Our days are long and there are never enough hours to do it all and still properly sleep. That is why it is so important to have that perfect place to collapse, face first, after each and every exhausting and amazing day in New York City!

Sweet dreams my decorating friends....