I am on a decision-making kick. I think with my creative headspace being freed up from most of the river house being done, I’ve had more time and desire to dig in again on the farm (more to come on the river house, obviously, but the renovation is done and decorating is so much easier). A few spaces in the house have low-key bugged me – they just didn’t feel finished but they also weren’t a mental priority. So here are a few of them and what I’m thinking…
The Laundry Closet
She’s boring and doesn’t need a lot but could use storage and either paint or wallpaper. This is on the second-floor landing and it’s where we do the bulk of the laundry (adjacent to the kid’s rooms). I realize that as a design blogger, I have a very basic-looking washer/dryer but I don’t care. Listen, I’m a little fearful of front-loading washers because they are harder to keep mold out, I’m also fearful of smart appliances because it seems like more can go wrong. So I asked my sister (who used to work at an appliance repair shop for years) which washer/dryer never needs repair (and still has big capacity) and she said without hesitation “Get the Speed Queen and only the Speed Queen”. A plumber who had to be repeatedly been called to service our front-loading washer/dryer in LA also told me the same thing. So yeah, these aren’t beautiful but we are very happy with our Speed Queens (and y’all stop it with the smart appliances and just make really, really simple and basic hardworking and long-lasting appliances again that do their actual job really well, please?).
For this project, we are going to attempt to use Spoonflower’s pre-pasted wallpaper which is supposed to be easier to install than peel-and-stick or unpasted (traditional). So I ordered a ton of samples that felt fun, and yet appropriate in a laundry closet. You might not be able to notice that there is a very subtle ticking stripe wallpaper on the landing walls (up the stairway, too) so this needed to contrast well with it.
I wanted something more fun this time – NOT subtle because this is a laundry closet and a place to do something more interesting (I was inspired by my own art barn, TBH so ready to take some risks again). Spoonflower has a ton of amazing florals but I wanted one that felt more Scandinavian than William Morris (…just for this house, I love William Morris and just used one in another project I’m excited to show you). Also, the color needed to work well with our vintage doors that lean periwinkle. I have a lot of blue in the house so I want to stay within my curated palette and also it needs to look good with the adjacent bathroom (right to the left) that will also have wallpapers (yes, that’s three wallpapers right next to each other).
1. Wonderful World of Scandi Blooms Mid-Century | 2. Chiara Rustic Green | 3. Scandinavian Flowers | 4. Pale Pink Sage and Blue on White Emma Stripe | 5. Americana Floral Stripe Blue Green | 6. Americana Floral Stripe Green | 7. Olive Green on Cream Emma Stripe | 8. Mughal Flowers Cornflower Blue | 9. Portsmouth Blue Stripe | 10. Fancy That Wispy Wildflowers Mint
For this, there is a clear winner. I loved it most when I pulled it out of the packet, then when we hung them all up Gretch had the same #1 pick. Reveal coming early January:)
Kids Bath – FINALLY
It’s ALWAYS bugged me that the creamy white tile just goes into creamy white trim, then drywall. But I was out of design steam for a while so we revealed the room as-is. The last year (no joke) I’ve had these samples up there and I finally made the decision a couple of weeks ago. Now staring at these I’m wondering if I chose the right one!!!! I love them all so much.
Left: Ruskin (Green) | Middle: Folklore Tree (Blue) | Right: Folklore Tree (Sage)
When you look at this photo, the blue one in the middle pops the most, but that is because it works so well with the curtains and the painting (and my shirt). But I actually went with the one of the right (Folklore Tree it’s called, both by Graham and Brown) that has blue undertones in the “trees” but leans more overall green. I also liked the negative space of the creamy white in between the trees and thought it would keep it from being too dark and heavy, which I was worried would just feel sandwiched with the darker tile floor. We are NOT doing the ceiling so I’m likely going to need to add some trim, i.e. crown molding. I felt so 100% about this choice (playful for a kids’ bath, but still Scandi and the organic pattern works really well with the tile, etc). I still think it’s the right choice (and it’s arrived so we aren’t going back) but staring at these here I’m jealous of the blue…
Primary Bath Toilet Room
Left: Coppice (Blue) | Right: Coppice (Sage)
I knew years ago that this tiny water closet would eventually get a wallpaper, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it because the endless house projects felt chaotic (and I just loved the quiet negative space in some of the rooms). But these walls always wanted something “fun”. I’ve loved this pattern forever and felt like it was time to just do it. TBH, I love the blue trees and leaves better than the green, but I was worried that with the blue tile on the floor (and the blue bedroom nearby) that this would feel like just too much. The trees outside all of the pretty windows in the bathroom are part of the color palette of the house and so my hope/thinking is that the green is overall the better choice to offset all the blue.
Our Tiny Hallway Before The Bedroom
1. Verte Dew | 2. Fig | 3. English Garden Blush | 4. Borastapeter Ester Grey | 5. Waldemar Blue | 6. Shirt Stripe White | 7. Waldemar Green | 8. Peonia Forest | 9. Verte Mink | 10. Verte Fennel | 11. Sorry, can’t find the link!
This has been kicked down the road for a couple of years now – mostly because in certain lights (daylight with a lot of sun) the blue paint in the bedroom is too intense for me so I want to repaint (which I quote a quote for and it was $6k so I gave up). Eventually, I want to repaint a softer color in here, paint the ceiling back white, and customize a patterned bed (this bed was designed for the guest room, not this room). So with all those design decisions up in the air (and not really a priority), I want to continue to wait on this little space.
Excited to get these done! xx
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
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