Boy, did I need that. Three days out of town, with our little nuclear family and dear friends, doing pretty much nothing. It was perfect.
Even more perfect was this: the tremendous calm I felt upon walking into a house that had been repainted, modestly renovated, and stripped of extraneous art and tchochkes.
It felt peaceful.
You’ve seen the St. Michaels kitchen…again, it was a pretty straightforward job, but what a difference.
Then I went to the girls’ bedroom. The teeny tiny one my husband used to sleep in as a child. The one with ancient grimy carpeting with no padding underneath. The one with a wall of bookshelves that had been built around a file cabinet. And with a closet door smack dab in the middle of a wall, rendering that wall pretty much useless, even if you were to take down the shelving.
Here it is now.
That navy blue bed is actually the 2 boxsprings of the twin beds with a futon mattress thrown on it. A kid slept on it fine this weekend – and I bet the right adult could, also.
Bunk bed and rug: Ikea.
Tiny desk and chair: my mother’s when she was a girl.
Carpeting: indoor/outdoor from the local Lowe’s, less than $1/sf.
Roller shades: Blinds.com.
Lamp: the St. Michaels community center (12 bucks).
Not bad.
Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She has been quoted in publications from The Washington Post to Real Simple and is considered an expert on color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.