Sometimes, you just need a refresh. If you have excellent quality furniture and you still love it, there’s no reason not to incorporate it into a new design.
That’s what we did in this master bedroom. We rearranged the bed, bedside tables, and three dressers, and we changed everything else: the carpeting, window treatments, bedding, lighting, artwork, and, of course, wall color ;)




The room gets so much glorious light, and the ivory walls and lovely floral fabric make everything feel cheerful and fresh.

The clients already owned the painting above but weren’t crazy about it. After we re-matted, re-framed, and re-positioned it, though, they love it! I think it looks terrific here — especially with this lamp.
Here’s a subtle but important change we made. There’s a tray ceiling in this room, and those can make walls feel a bit short. In the Before pictures, the walls are dark beige, and the crown moulding is painted the off-white trim color. With the Roman Shades mounted right at the line between the two colors, the walls are truncated even more.

This time, we painted the crown moulding the same color as the walls. This extends the wall color above the new drapes and makes the the ceiling feel higher.

So remember, Gentle Readers, a makeover doesn’t have to mean starting with a blank slate. (Your wheels are turning now, aren’t they?)
Annie Elliott | bossy color is a design firm based in Washington, DC. Annie’s design work has appeared in numerous local and national publications, most recently The Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, and The New York Times, .