Mom’s Master Bedroom: Design Boards

I’m currently helping my mom redecorate the master bedroom in my parents’ house.  This is the first time I’m helping someone else, and not decorating for myself and it’s a very different experience (but a fun one too!). To help wrap our heads around her vision for the space, I created a few design boards to a get a sense of what she likes and what she doesn’t. For the boards below, I used Polyvore, which is  a really fun, and free, online design board maker. You can search a ton of different websites for various pieces. I used Polyvore for the first time with the One Room Challenge makeover and loved it.

For my mom, there are few parameters to work within. I know she likes green and blues. I know that the two green glass lamps, inherited from my grandma, need to stay. The two bedside tables are also antiques so we weren’t sure if we wanted to paint those.  A really big thing to keep in mind is that my parents’ room has no overhead lighting, and adding one isn’t an option. We know lots of lamps are required! And of course, we need to keep my dad in mind 😉 Otherwise, it’s fair game. Below are three concepts I pulled together and a few thoughts on each.

Traditional Master Bedroom

This one is most similar to what she currently has (blue walls and floral bedding). It brings in some different colors and has a very traditional feel. Her walls are currently blue, so while this is a fresher blue, it’s not too much of a change. The furniture is the same color as what’s in there now and this was an option if we decided not to paint the larger pieces. While she likes the direction this was headed, it feels too similar to what she already has and she’s ready for a change!

Light and Bright

Since there is no overhead lighting, and trees outside the two windows, the room can be really dark. This is an option to really brighten everything up and bring white into the room. The wall paint color becomes a light greige, and the furniture gets a coat of white paint. I can really see this working in a darker room, and I know she liked the colors in this design board. However, all the trim and doors in the room (there are 6 doors) are beige and we decided the white base and beige trim don’t really work. We briefly discussed painting the trim and doors, but that is a road we didn’t really want to go down since that means updating almost the entire house.

Bold and Beautiful

I love a bold print, so wanted to do something that really brought some pattern to the space. Based on the two above, my mom said she also wanted to see something with more green and less blue. She was also digging the brass accents in the two above so I added in some more gold. For this one, the furniture is a nice medium tone, which we both liked. Brighter than the dark wood it is now, but darker than a stark white. We also did a more neutral duvet color since the other prints are so bold. The wall color in this one is Hazy Skies from Benjamin Moore – it’s still a gray, but has a lot more yellow-green in it.

Flower Power

The green and gold was heading in the right direction, and just for fun, I swapped out the bedding and the fabric.  I wanted to see what it would look like with a bolder bedding, and more subdued curtains. And of course I couldn’t do a room without navy as dominant color!

So which one did she choose? Next week, I’ll share pics of the current space and the plan for updating the master bedroom!