The First Project at The Blog Cabin - The Bed

Yesterday, I announced a makeover project I have in the works, "The Blog Cabin". If you missed that post, please click here for the story.  Murphie and I headed up to the cabin a couple weeks ago and met my mom and sister for a weekend of cleaning and organizing. It was fun to see the space begin to take shape just by clearing it out. I spent a few days there dreaming up design ideas. The first items on my To-Do List include some labor intensive projects.  I realized that in order for me to balance this extra weekend work along with taking care of my family and running the design studio during the week, that I'll have to fit in some quality rest while I'm there.

Here is a picture of the main bedroom from the first night I spent at the cabin...

 I decided the very first night that I had to establish a restful, peaceful sleeping environment before I even thought about starting any of the bigger projects. In order for me to tackle these projects with my "A" game a good nights sleep is a must. The next morning, after my coffee, I got to work on the bedroom. 

I drove into town to visit the local hardware.  I found a warm, soothing white paint color to freshen up the walls and ceiling ("Wedding Cake" from Ace Hardware) and grabbed some painting supplies. I headed back to the cabin and got busy painting the entire bedroom.  

(Before) 

I asked my mom to whip up her recipe for homemade black chalk paint to give the existing vintage bed a new look. (Here is her recipe: Stir together 1-1/2 cup black latex semi gloss paint, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup Plaster of Paris mix). 

Once the paint was ready, I put my sister to work painting the bed. 

 (After)

 I headed home and began to put together a sumptuous bedding ensemble to create a bed geared for ultimate relaxation and rejuvenation. 

It started with these luxury bedding basics from Reverie...

The Luxe Performance Collection  sheet set is absolutely amazing. These sheets feel unlike any sheets I have ever felt before. They are incredibly soft and silky and have a feeling of coolness upon touch. If you're like me and love the feeling of cool sheets, these are for you. They are temperature regulating, cooling sheets that are breathable and moisture wicking. 

For pillows, I selected the Dual Slumber Pillow.  These pillows combine the gorgeous look of a high loft down pillow, with the feeling and comfort of a memory foam pillow! One side of the pillow is memory foam covered with cool to the touch fabric. The flip side is plush micro-fill that simulates down and feathers. 

Once an insanely comfortable base was established, I layered on the duvet and pillows. Instead of shopping for new, I pulled items from my stash of seasonal home decor. I went straight for red buffalo checks and stripes to create a fresh, crisp, cabin theme. Next to the new black finish on the headboard, it really depicts the simple, but striking "Contemporary Cabin" look I'm going for. 

 I found a small dresser in my mom's storage area and gave it a quick coat of the same paint I used on the walls. I placed it next to the bed to use as a nightstand. I styled it with a vignette of thrift store finds, an oversized clock from Homegoods and a small night light. 

Now that I have a warm, cozy, luxuriously comfortable place to rest, I can wake refreshed each day I'm at the cabin ready to work! Truth be told, I may actually sneak up there on occasion just to sleep in this bed ;). 

Click on the links below to read the entire The Blog Cabin Project Series:

Introducing The Blog Cabin Series

The First Project at The Blog Cabin-The Bed

The Blog Cabin Living Room Makeover

The Blog Cabin Dining Room

Installing New Laminate Floors at The Blog Cabin 

DIY Firepit In One Day For Less Than $100

Our First Campfire at The Blog Cabin 

For information on my affordable online design services, please click here. 

*Thank you to Reverie for kindly sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% honest & completely my own.

Recipe For The Perfect Teen Bed

Today I was asked by one of my favorite bedding companies, Crane and Canopy, to participate in their "Make Your Bed Series" by sharing my thoughts on how to make the perfect bed. This could not have come at a more perfect time as just last week I refreshed my daughters room with new bedding. Using her new bed as an example, I'd like to share my recipe for the perfect teen bed along with some secret tips and tricks I often use as a professional home stylist.  

The recipe for the perfect bed for a young lady calls for combining equal parts of 

 Comfort,  Function and Style.

Comfort

Like most teen girls, my daughter leads a very busy life with school, sports and social events. The most important thing about her bed is that it provides her with a comfortable, relaxing sleep environment. To achieve this, I started with the basics. A firm mattress topped with a premium mattress cover for added loft and a few good quality sleeping pillows. From there, I layered on the bedding. Due to our ever-changing Michigan climate, layering is key for comfort. The first layer I incorporated was a nice quality, cotton sheet set. Nothing provides that "cold-sheet feeling" better than clean cotton sheets.

For my second layer, I typically use a coverlet or quilt, but in this case I applied a trick that I sometimes use that was inspired by a stay in a top-notch hotel. Are you ready for this…it's an empty duvet cover. I laid an empty organic cotton duvet cover over the sheet set. It gives her the same cool comfort achieved by using multiple layers of cotton sheets as opposed to a heavy coverlet or quilt. 

The final layer of comfort was provided by a fluffy, down-filled duvet covered with a gorgeous, silky smooth, crisp, pearl white, pin tuck duvet cover (The Valencia by Crane and Canopy).  I went with a queen sized duvet and cover set even though her bed is only a twin. This is another trick I often employ to make the bed appear and feel more luxurious. This element gives the bed a dreamy, cloud-like quality that evokes sleep.

Function

It goes without saying that the most important function of any bed is that it provides a comfortable, restful nights sleep. But, in the case of a teenager who spends a lot of time in her room, the bed is the main source of seating and must serve many purposes. It's important that it can accommodate evening homework sessions, daily lounging and weekend sleepover guests.

Lots of pillows including a nice firm lumbar shaped pillow will giver her the back support needed to sit up in bed while lounging. A lamp added behind the headboard provides additional task lighting for studying. A stack of storage boxes next to the bed gives her a place to keep her supplies handy and also doubles as a night stand when a lucite tray is placed on top.

The trundle provides a perfect spot for overnight guests and tucks away neatly when not in use. Extra blankets and pillows can be stored right on the trundle mattress making sure it's ready for guests at any moment.

Style

The last element required for the perfect bed for today's teenage girl is style. The look I created in my daughters room has a young fresh vibe that was achieved with the use of contrasting colors, layering textures and mixing patterns. For example, the use of black and white accents provides eye-catching contrast and drama that appeals to most teens (Lol). Varying textures lend interest to the predominately white color scheme and keeps the white on white layers from looking flat. Some of the different textures applied were the delicate pin-tucks in the duvet, a hand-stitched rosette accent pillow and a faux fur rug.

The graphic chevron accent wall makes the bed the focal point of the space. The chevron pattern gives the room a ton of style and draws your eye straight to her sumptuous new bedding. Mixing this pattern with the striped pillow, diamond patterned sheet set, floral print blanket, and polka dot totes keeps the look young and modern.

Thanks, Crane and Canopy for asking me to participate in your Make Your Bed Series! Crane & Canopy was conceived to deliver high quality designer bedding and duvet covers at an innovative price point, starting at $99. They design original products, connect customers with premium factories, and strive to bring modern home decor to our customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional bedding retailers. 

*I received The Valencia Duvet Set from Crane and Canopy in order to facilitate this post. 

Recipe For The Perfect Bed~Warm Climate or Cooler Climate

You may remember I took a trip to Atlanta last summer to teach a design class at the Haven Conference.  One of the topics I covered was "The Recipe For The Perfect Bed". In addition to providing a few top secret tips I also covered some bedding topics I discussed in a blog post a few years ago.  Yesterday, I read that one of my fellow bloggers, Lindsay from Makely School For Girls attended the class, read my post and was inspired to make some adjustments to the recipe to adapt to her southern climate.  Lindsay wrote an article on the topic and shares a beautiful example of a colorful, comfortable, perfectly dressed bed in her warm climate (Texas) home.

Here is my original post...

While shopping with a special client, she fell in love with this gray and white bedding at a local boutique. There were two different sets.  One gray cotton/linen duvet set and a white cotton ruched coverlet set. When both bedding sets were combined with carefully chosen inserts this little piece of heaven came to Earth...

Here are the ingredients:

1.  100% Egyptian cotton sheets, 500 thread count.
 (The cool organic feel of these sheets is totally worth the investment. And the wrinkles).

2.  2 Base pillows for sleeping with firm feather-down blend inserts cased in the sheet set shams.  Feather-down blend inserts hold their karate chopped shape the best. They are also insanely comfortable.

3.  Three Large Euro shams filled with feather-down blend Euro pillow inserts.  Two in Gray (matching the duvet cover) and one in white with an adorable ruffled box edge.

4.  One white cotton ruched coverlet

5.  One gorgeous cotton/linen gray duvet cover.

6.  One king sized feather/down high loft maximum fill duvet insert.

7.  Two standard sized white ruched pillow shams with feather/down extra firm inserts and one gray decorative toss pillow.

8.  Two white decorative ruched toss pillows.

And there you have it...

The.

Perfect.

Bed.

For information on my affordable online design consultation service, please click here. 

® The Yellow Cape Cod 

Recipe For The Perfect Bed

A special client fell in love with this gray and white bedding at a local boutique. There were two different sets.  One gray cotton/linen duvet set and a white cotton ruched coverlet set. When both bedding sets were combined with carefully chosen inserts this little piece of heaven came to Earth...

Here are the ingredients:

1.  100% Egyptian cotton sheets, 500 thread count.
 (The cool organic feel of these sheets is totally worth the investment. And the wrinkles).

2.  2 Base pillows for sleeping with firm feather-down blend inserts cased in the sheet set shams.  Feather-down blend inserts hold their karate chopped shape the best. They are also insanely comfortable.

3.  Three Large Euro shams filled with feather-down blend Euro pillow inserts.  Two in Gray (matching the duvet cover) and one in white with an adorable ruffled box edge.

4.  One white cotton ruched coverlet

5.  One gorgeous cotton/linen gray duvet cover.

6.  One king sized feather/down high loft maximum fill duvet insert.

7.  Two standard sized white ruched pillow shams with feather/down extra firm inserts and one gray decorative toss pillow.

8.  Two white decorative ruched toss pillows.

And there you have it...

Heaven.

On.

Earth.

For information on my affordable online design services, please click here.