What was your first style? There comes a point, at some age, when you develop a style and a desire to decorate your surroundings with certain designs in mind. Were you an adult, teenager or a child when you became motivated to decorate your surroundings? How has your style changed over time?
Growing up I shared a bedroom with one of my sisters. Our room had dark hot pink wall to wall carpet, three walls where light pink and white stripes the fourth wall had different shades of pink tulip wallpaper, our bedding was white and pink and we had a huge toy chest between our beds that my father built.
Yup that’s me sleeping, you can barely see the tulip wallpaper behind my head, the areas that are torn off where you can see a blue wallpaper below the tulips umm ya when I couldn’t fall asleep at night I used to pick at the wallpaper, how my mom didn’t want to kill me is beyond me LOL!
One day, when I was around 10 years old, my parents announced they were going to redo our room! My mom was a beige, tan and white kind of gal, even her clothes were mostly those colors, looking back I’m shocked our room had hot pink carpeting! When my parents asked my sister and I what we wanted for walls and carpet in our new room I remember we told them we wanted rainbow wallpaper (WHAT were we thinking?) must have been the same year we had rainbow winter vests! Yup we wanted rainbows and unicorns, red beanbag chairs and a blue carpet. There we were thinking this was the room we were going to get only to come home from school to see our room with dark brown wall to wall carpet, coffee color wallpaper with tiny white flowers, white bedding, a white plant stand between our beds and a very large brown entertainment center. BROWN? Where were the rainbows and unicorns? Ohh we weren’t happy! However, boy was my mom right! That decor stayed in the room until after I graduated high school. I can’t imagine living in a room with rainbows and unicorns as a teenager! My poor mom probably wanted to faint when she heard our design request! She was probably convinced we did not inherit her beige taste!
This thank you card via dazzle is identical to the theme my sister and I wanted.
When I was 19, I was so excited to finally have my own room. The night our older sister got married – my other sister (the one I shared the room with), slept in our older sisters bedroom. Before she even woke up the next day I already had her bed out in the trash and all her stuff in boxes in front of the bedroom door. I put my bed in the center of the room. No way was she coming back, I was finally roommate-less! I finally had the chance to decorate the way I wanted. I went with a vintage western theme, your options with brown carpeting were limited people! I had two antique “wanted” posters hanging up, I still have the posters but now they are stored away. Along with the posters I had a white water pitcher and bowl and the bedding was beige with tiny blue flowers.
Yes that would be myself, two of my sisters and one of my sisters friends in that “western” photo. This picture was on the wall in bedroom along with the two “wanted” posters. Unfortunately time has faded this photo so much you can barely see our faces 🙁
I kept this style for a few years but eventually I pulled the carpet up and took the wallpaper down, had the floors refinished, painted the walls white and bought new Laura Ashley – Sophia (Blue and White Toile) bedding. I hung white sheer curtains with eucalyptus sprays across the top of them. This was my “spring / summer” look. I just got rid of this comforter a month ago. The last few years I used it for a make shift bed for my dog when I had to wash his real bed cover.
Stock photo of the Laura Ashley bed set I had.
For the fall / winter I used an aged gold floral duvet with aged gold and maroon pillows with fringe. The windows had a gold/taupe color scarf for the colder months (psst I still use one of these window scarfs, it’s currently in my dining room!). I eventually installed a candlelabra arch above my bed. This look I called Medieval Castle. I even got a fandangle knights helmet from Spiegel to go with the winter castle look! For both looks I used two plaster columns with a piece of glass across the top to give the look of a fireplace with a big floor vase, the summer look had a big blue vase with blue flowers with sunflowers and the winter look had darker color flowers and a darker smaller floor vase.
Here’s a look at the castle phase.
Sorry for the quality of the photos, this was way before digital LOL!
(I miss those built in drawers, wide moldings, tall ceilings and the Heart Pine floors!!)
The castle look wasn’t just in my bedroom it was a look I was crazy about. I even made my nephew a knights costume that year for Halloween (every year I used to hand sew a costume for him, someday I’ll post all the costumes I made him and all the costumes my mom made for us growing up). That floor candle stand was usually next to my bed in my bedroom. This photo was taken in my sisters bedroom, don’t you just love the flowers on the sheers lol! Using pipes from the hardware store for things they weren’t meant to be isn’t anything new for me I was doing it back then, see the silver arm protectors on my nephews arms? 🙂 That would be duct pipes!
I lived with those two looks until I moved and bought my first house! In that new house the bedroom had green walls and the bedding I used was red and cream striped bed-skirt and a cream and red/pink floral quilt from pottery barn. No idea why the quilt was turned down (that red stripe was the reverse side of the quilt and I never kept it w/the reverse side showing how the heck I ended up with this photo is beyond me!) That look lasted for the two years I owned that house, this photo was in 2005. Haha nice crooked lamp (the shade was made with matching fabric to the bed-skirt)!
The next style I had rocking the bedroom was this, I’m not sure what you would even call this except embarrassing? Ok I still like the needlepoint pillows but the rest? (This photos is of the bedroom in the house I have now)
Those roman shades – yikes! That look lasted about a year, I ditched the look in 07.
Next I decided I wanted a vintage 50’s look. Haha that style didn’t even make it two months!
The reason I couldn’t live with this was because the bedspread drove me nuts at night, I like to be able to put my feet out of the covers and this bedspread made it impossible to do that, so with increasing frustration every night, that look was going, going, GONE! And come on do you know how long it took me to iron that bed spread? Like I was going to be constantly ironing that every time I washed it! I borrowed my neighbors ironing board since I didn’t have one which reminds me I still have her ironing board, she doesn’t like ironing either! 🙂 The fact that I don’t own an ironing board should tell you how much I dislike ironing lol! The drapes were nice but I love a lot of light even the slightest amount of light being blocked from the windows irks me so since these drapes were lined, I sold them along w/the bedding and went back to just sheers on the windows (at the same time I also sold the drapes I had purchased the month prior for the living room for the same reason they blocked light).
Now that I was without bedding I needed a new plan, I was done w/the frilly look I wanted something with more clean lines so in came this look.
I still use the white quilt and black bed-skirt. This set was my summer set. Below is what I used for the spring.
Same pillows (two are turned around so the back is showing) same throw blanket at the end of the bed, just the quilt and shams changed to a silvery blue.
For the fall/winter I used the same white quilt from the summer look but used red accessories instead of blue. Back to the French Country look except this time with red! I do still love French Country be it blue and white or red and white!
I may use this red french country look again who knows! The last year I haven’t changed the bedding and curtains out for the seasons like I always did, for a while now I’ve just been keeping the room like this.
Totally lazy and didn’t even make the bed! 🙂 Just keeping it real!
I swear I’m the last person in North American who still has a tube tv, two actually the one in my living room is just as old. Neither of which you can hook a dvd player up, yup they are that old! By the way if you know what style my bedroom is currently decorated drop me a line and let me know I’d love to know what it is LOL!
I have plans for the bedroom! Plans I’m excited to get started on! Thinking Apartment in Paris!
So my style went from rainbows and unicorns to vintage western, to french country blue and white toile to medieval castle, to pottery barn, to grandma’s, to 50’s, to cleaner lines, back to french country this time in red, to whatever you call what I have going on now!
How has your style changed over the years? What styles did you have that you look back on now and say what was I thinking?
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