Just when you’ve cracked the code, they change the code.
That was our conclusion when our twin daughters were babies. The moment you think you’ve nailed down a sleep schedule, food preferences, and personalities, they change. Willfully.
Bossy color has news for you, Gentle Readers. The code-changing continues!
We really did crack the code on our daughters’ shared north-facing bedroom. When we first moved in, we painted it a cheery, sunny yellow. We added a light blue stripe, because the ceilings were high and everything else was low.
(Pardon the mess; servants’ day off.) [More…]
Then our children went into girlie mode and wanted a pink bedroom. Fine.
But recently, the moment we’d been dreading arrived. Having reached the advanced, pre-tween age of 6, the girls changed the code again: they asked for their own rooms.
The EXCELLENT news is that for some reason, Ruthie decided she’d rather take over the tiny guest room than bossy color’s world headquarters. Here’s the guest room pre-Ruthification:
(The reason there is no artwork over the beds, by the way, is that that wall is impervious to nails. We bent a dozen before giving up. Before we could investigate alternatives – sticky, velcro-y devices – we became distracted by another project.)
Ruthie wanted a change. Her favorite color happens to be yellow. (Hm. Wonder where she gets that.)
Yellow would have been perfect to warm up and brighten this north-facing room. But in the interest of environmental responsibility – and budget – we happened to have some of Benjamin Moore’s 2052-70 Ice Blue left over from when we painted bossy color’s office. (We just couldn’t believe a single gallon would paint the entire room. But it did. Aura paint is truly remarkable.)
Promising to paint the ceiling orange for warmth and fun, we managed to convince Ruthie that an Ice Blue room would be darling.
We believe it is.
The Cubitec shelving is from the pink room…
…Robert Abbey orange gourd lamp is from bossy color’s office (oh, the sacrifices we make for our little moppets), and the quilts are from The Company Store, which we lovelovelove.
The wall hanging over the beds is from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival a million years ago, when I worked at that venerable Institution.
The little yellow lamp on the dresser is from our favorite junk – rather, antique – shop ($12!), and the dresser itself belonged to my mother-in-law when she was a girl. It’s the perfect size.
The client is delighted.
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 The Seattle Times and is considered an expert on color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.