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I would never presume to call myself any kind of interior designer, but I do pride myself on having good taste. I certainly have better taste than some of those home shows on HGTV. Anyway, I was in middle school when I started to take an interest in making a room, and indeed a whole house, work. My aunt bought me some new sheets, bath mats, and towels. Regrettably, there was a lot of pink, lace, and floral accents in everything she gave me, which somewhat canceled out the pleasantness of the gift. Still, I noted that everything she gave me matched without being dull. Years later, when my dad and I moved to Austin and everything my aunt had given me had worn out, we purchased new sheets and towels. Thoroughly bored with pink and floral decor, I selected plain ivory sheets and towels and a brown wicker basket to use as a wastebasket in the bathroom. I felt that my new stuff was more in tune with the greens and browns of the furniture in the rest of the house anyway. Of course, my ivory towels wore out eventually, and I brought some blue ones back from my grandfather's house after moving out of his place and back in with my dad. Moving back in with my dad triggered a desire to make the most of my space. My grandfather's house was a disaster area, always filthy, with old and mismatched furniture. Back at my dad's, I naturally wanted to be as far removed from my previous circumstances as possible, and I made a point of keeping my bedroom and bathroom tidy at all times. I made sure my towels were folded in the linen closet or hung on the towel rack, and I made a habit of always making my bed. My old bedspread started to wear thin around this time, and I decided it was time to replace it when I met a new guy. I didn't want him seeing my rapidly-wearing-out bedspread, so I bought a down comforter and duvet cover. I had a black duvet cover at first (it made sense at the time since I had a black cat who slept on the bed with me). A few years later, I was once again inspired to update my bedroom by meeting a guy. I found my black duvet cover too morbid, so I replaced it with a sage green one, and I didn't stop at just the duvet cover. I decided to do something with my computer room as well, and I purchased some stacking wire baskets with which to organize my yarn stash. I hung a length of rope along the wall and tied my skeleton key collection to it on one end, one key every couple of inches. On the opposite end, in the blank space behind the door, I hung a decorative fishnet. Finally, I hung my small clock in the shape of a ship's wheel about three feet off the floor since that's where my eye falls when I'm sitting at my desk. Some months later, the blue towels I'd taken from my grandfather's were getting a bit ratty, and it bothered me that the four or five towels were all different; I would have preferred them to be all the same so they'd be easy to match to hand towels and wash cloths. I therefore searched for and finally bought some dark green towels. I bought dark green bath mats to complement them, and I replaced the hideous heart-and-flower shower curtain my dad had moved into my bathroom with an ivory sateen one, held in place with S-shaped bronze hooks. Finally, I attached two bronze shelves (built as one piece) to the wall with a double towel rack on the bottom. I put my own towel on one towel rack and left the other empty for guest towels, which are two of the nicer sets of old blue towels; they're easy to tell apart from the green ones. On the bottom shelf, I placed a few decorative seashells and a glass jar full of cotton balls; on the top shelf, I placed my perfume bottles, a glass jar full of Epsom salts, and a glass cruet full of bubble bath. My efforts at redecorating didn't end there. I wanted to make my bedroom feel a bit less basic, which is something of a challenge in a room with little room for anything besides the bed in it. Therefore, I decided to make the most of the bed itself. I already had ivory sheets with a sage green duvet cover and two sage green shams, but I wanted a few more pillows, partly for decorative purposes, but mainly because I sometimes read in bed, and I wanted the extra pillows to lean against. I recalled the popularity of Euro pillows from when I worked at Linens ' N Things, and I bought two Euro pillows and got ivory shams for them. Then I bought two neckrolls and ivory shams for them. Finally, I purchased two sheepskin rugs. I'm opposed to animal skins really, but they were simply too fluffy to resist. If I had room in my bedroom, I would put one rug on each side of the bed; as it is, I put one rug on my side of the bed and the other in my computer room. Overall, I'm quite happy with my updated rooms. With careful bargain hunting and creativity, or even a little reorganization and cleaning, it's easy to redo a room without breaking the bank. Just keeping it tidy makes a world of difference; you only have to look at before and after photos of messy rooms to see that. |