Our Master Bedroom--Our Masterpiece

You've been very patient:

Ta-dah! What you're seeing is our freshly painted master bedroom. The walls are Sherwin Williams Duration satin-finish (as usual) in Willow Tree. Taking a suggestion from a magazine, we opted to tint the ceiling pale gray, to create a less glaring bright-white effect. It is done in Duration, matte-finish Fleur de Sel, the gray tone that SW recommended as a pair with Willow Tree. The trim is out-of-the-can white. Even though we know that doors are supposed to be satin or semi-gloss, we painted them in the matte Fleur de Sel too. Can you see the difference between the closet doors and the trim? Supposedly, Duration paints are washable whatever the finish...

Here is a picture of our spectacular bed. It definitely feels like one of Ikea's sturdier pieces, in solid birch.

In the end we decided to go with lighter woods to continue the idea we have of using lots of images and materials that look or feel sort of like being in a tranquil forest or a meadow or something like that (ugh, that makes us sound like such hippies!).

It was great timing because the bed that we bought a few months ago, also a Mandal, was honey pine with black drawers but before we built it (and while it was still within our 90-day return window), they replaced it with this birch and white version we liked so much better. The headboard is from the Brimnes line but is so new that it is not even on the website. Unlike the solid birch bed, it is made of particle board and cheap white plastic, but it matched the white of the drawers and was a perfect solution to our problem of finding something that could be flush to the wall and to the bed and not interfere with the baseboards. The cats like it too, because they can cross behind the bed in a perfect cat-sized tunnel. The shelf on top of the headboard is perfect for some reading lamps, too. I still want to put up a little hanging nightstand, so the tissues and clock can be within reach, but this is a great solution for everything else.

The next big issue to tackle is the mattress. We love our current one, which is a Simmons Beautyrest, but we are keeping it downstairs in the guest room. We could try to buy another one just like it, though even then there are about a dozen of varying firmness, so I'm not sure we could get an identical mattress (I can't find any useful details on the label). We've also heard good things about latex mattresses, and Ikea makes one for about $900, which isn't bad. If you've ever had an experience with one of them, please leave us a comment.

Our crowning glory is our Hunter ceiling fan. We got really lucky when we took down the old light fixture to find an electrical box that claimed to be rated to hold fans. The installation took a couple of hours but was a lot easier than either of us expected:

The next steps are to slowly acquire the rest of the furniture we need to complete the room. I am planning to buy a big comfy chair and pretty floor lamp to create a little sitting area across from the bed. We also need dressers in either white or light wood (birch, maple, bleached oak all seem to be useful keywords). Dressers are surprisingly expensive, so we are relying on Craigslist. None of the current Ikea models appeal to us, though one from the 1990s (called the Kurs) would be a perfect fit. We almost managed to snag one used but I guess another buyer got to it first. Don't you think it would have made a perfect match?

Sometimes I feel like this blog is turning into a giant Ikea ad....