I bought this bed from IKEA in 1998 when I left college; I have been toying with painting it another color but can't decide what shade. The dresser on the left is from Hood College - when they replaced their dorm furniture my husband's grandfather (who was a professor there) grabbed it; when my husband's parents divorced my father in law got this chest for his new home's bedroom. It was his bedside table for the almost 20 years he lived alone, when he passed away my husband took it for his nightstand. My nightstand was my husband's bureau from his childhood bedroom. Curtains are from Target - we had this room created and painted while I was on bedrest for pregnancy; I bought the curtains on clearance online hoping they would be a gray that would complement the wallcolor, I couldn't believe they were an exact match!
The cedar chest has been in my mom's family for a long time; it stores my husband's sweaters. The quilt is from Overstock. The two paintings on the wall are of my husband and his father, painted by his grandfather in the '80s.
My nightstand - I always have a bottle of water, a couple of journals to write my random thoughts, and a book (I have been trying to get through Eating Animals for what feels like a lifetime - I won't replace it from the nightstand until it is finished!). The picture in the silver frame is one of my favorites of me and my husband - we even used it as the photo on the water bottles we passed out at our wedding! Under it is a jewelry box that belonged to my husband's grandmother. The books next to it are old diaries of mine and Emerson's baby book - by keeping it near the bed I remember to fill it out every so often. The photo cube was a gift from an old coworker, the picture showing is of me and my dad at my high school graduation. My cousin made the stained glass pencil holder, and the teddy bear is "Tina," my teddy from childhood. The framed record? That's my dad and his first wife on the cover - his friend was the photographer and needed models... some props and a red filter later and two Jews from Brooklyn became gypsies!
My husband's nightstand - he's always in the middle of 50 different books. Right now he's obsessing over The Devil in the White City, which was recommended by a neighbor. The reading lamp belonged to his father. The lampshades are from the Liberty of London for Target collection - I bought them back when the whole room was in shades of blue and gray. I loved them so much I started decorating around them!
When we inherited many of the contents of my father in law's house, we got his record collection. Eight of these are ones from his collection that my husband remembers listening to (and loving) as a kid; the one in the lower left corner is Peter Frampton - my husband saw him in concert a couple years ago and was able to meet him and get his signature on the album.The duvet and shams are from Marimekko for Crate and Barrel, the print body pillows and red sheets are from Target, the paisley pillowcase is from Lands End - we have the whole set (back from the original color scheme of the bedroom).
My dressing table is the bureau mirror and the desk from my husband's childhood bedroom. The bench is from the Shabby Chic collection from Target, the lamp is also from Target (both must be at least a decade old).My dressing table is my little domain - my perfumes, my makeup (in the drawer organized in boxes), all my brushes in a coffee mug from my sorority days, pictures that mean a lot to me (framed picture of me and my sister as kids and me with my mom on our cruise to Bermuda in '98, and then a photo of my husband the summer before I met him - reminds me of when we were high school kids). I also have a vase full of perfume samples - when I was in high school we visited a family friend who had a fishbowl full of them in her hallway bath - I was inspired and have been casually collecting since. Not sure what to do with them yet, but figure when I have amassed quite the collection I will do something crafty and fabulous!
The top of my husband's dresser. The glass bottles and the leather box belonged to my dad, the box still contains some of my dad's cufflinks, tie tacks, and coins from trips to foreign countries. The lacquer box was a gift from a friend who was stationed overseas. The small Buddha statue I made in Sunday school back as a preteen - it has been through quite a lot, you can see it has had its head break off numerous times; I still find it to be good luck. Tucked in the mirror is my husband's really dreadful fake ID from high school - I found it while cleaning out his dad's house and it just cracks me up so much! The photos to the left are of my husband, and then me and my sister. The picture in the frame is from our friend's rehearsal dinner - we found out the next morning that we were pregnant. It's the last picture taken of us before we became a family and a great memory of an amazing time in our life.
This bookcase is the top of a hutch we inherited from my father in law - we have the bottom part in the living room as our entertainment center. I don't really like it in here, but am not sure where to put it elsewhere in the house. As you can see, this has really become a catchall of randomness - books too tall for the bookcases in the living room and office, photos yet to be placed in albums (which is pretty much the past three years), CDs that we never listen to but can't bear to get rid of, cigar boxes filled with odds and ends and change. The statue my husband got me as a gift when he was in St. Maarten, the cameras we inherited from my father in law who was a photographer.The frames behind everything on top of the bookcase used to hang in our old bedroom but they look weird in this larger space - the one behind the cameras are pictures of me and my husband in front of the Eiffel Tower in 1999, the one in the center has pictures of me with my mom and sister in Italy, the one on the far left are three pictures of my husband in front of Niagara Falls from our three trips there over the past two decades.
The chair... it is the BEST Freecycle score! It's the IKEA EKTORP chair and storage ottoman, we got it with shrinkwrap still on it, as well as two more slipcovers. When we went to pick up the chair, my husband commented on the woman's new composters sitting next to her garage - she said she was going to Freecycle them as well so we took them! I am forever in debt to the Freecycle Gods for these scores, and regularly give back to the Freecycle community.
A view from the back wall of the room to the entrance to the master bedroom. The door to the left is the master bathroom, the door to the right is our closet. You can see my jewelry armoire, above it is a shadow frame of our wedding invitation with flowers from the day - my best friend made it for us. The two framed images next to the door are sand art that my father in law got when he was on a trip to New Mexico - one was a gift for us, the other was his that we inherited.
The view from the main windows (we have two on the back wall and one to the right of the dressing table). If you sit in the chair you can see a view of beautiful treetops, from the bed you can see the sun rise through the trees. The stained glass I made back in college. The glass horse is one of two bookends from my husband's childhood home (there is one on each sill).
There is still much work to do on this room - we have a huge painting from my husband's grandfather that we need to pick up from his house - we plan to put it over the chair. We have many concert posters we want to frame and hang up as well. Slowly we are feathering our nest!
