by Pam Firmin
pfirmin@sunherald.com
A lot more is changing in Coast bedrooms than the sheets on the beds. More and more homeowners who are rebuilding, redesigning and redecorating are taking
the opportunity to make changes and lifestyle statements with their new dwellings.
The biggest change in bedroom design, said Coast designer Herb Moore, is that people are using them as retreats.
“Those who can afford the space are doing sitting areas and places for chaises where they can can read or watch TV,” said Moore, who is an allied member of ASID and owner of Herb Moore Interiors in Ocean Springs.
Even bistro tables with a couple of chairs are going into bedrooms, said Jennifer Palmer, design consultant for Bassett Furniture Direct in Gulfport.
“People want to make a retreat,” she said, “like an escape to their bedroom.”
Factor in the prevalence of large closets with built-in storage and both Moore and Palmer say the whole configuration of bedroom furnishings is changing.
“It’s more open and spacious,” Palmer said. “They don’t need storage space for clothes as much as for a TV and entertainment purposes. In the past, people usually would have gotten a dresser, mirror, night stand, chest of drawers and a bed. Now, people have built-ins in their closet so they are going more toward something that would house a TV, like a television armoire with two night stands and a piece of upholstery.”
“People do not buy suites of furniture anymore,” Moore said, “and many don’t even have dressers and chests in the master suite. People want mixture, not matches.
“Lots of times, they use skirted tables on one side of the bed and a night stand or chest on the other,” he said, “so the room won’t have such a balanced look.”
And if they do buy a dresser, they don’t usually buy the mirror that goes with it.
“We do a free-hanging mirror,” Palmer said. “The mirror is a big deal in a bedroom, but more just for looks and not as much for dressing because usually people have the larger bathroom.”
Furniture colors
Furniture colors in vogue range from painted finishes all the way to black, Moore said, which includes all the natural colors. It depends on the style of furniture, from contemporary to very traditional – and none dominates.
With Tuscany decor, for example, Moore said, “I’d use painted furniture with the rubbed finish so it doesn’t look new. It’s usually either in blacks or whites and the paint is rubbed off while it’s still wet so you get an undercoating, or a wood tone, that kind of bleeds through.”
Forget everything you ever knew about the color of wood if you’re among remodelers who haven’t shopped for furniture in many years.
“We’re not saying ‘pecan’ or ‘oak’ anymore,” Palmer noted, “because people associate the color of pecan with a fruit wood color. We have names for it, like Java.” That’s a dark espresso-type finish.
“Pecan would be what we call an autumn finish,” she said.
Colors
“Since the storm,” Moore said, “people seem to be simplifying their lives. They are using light and brighter colors. We’re seeing a lot of soft teal, soft turquoise, pale yellows, apricot, peach – tropical colors.”
Wall colors are often soft gray-greens, said Moore, who likes to stick in a spot of red when feasible.
Palmer cites cool colors in greens or blues for walls and the same cool greens and blues mixed with chocolate for bedding.
Bedding
Which comes first, the comforter set or the wall color?
“The comforter comes first,” Palmer answered, “because there are a million different shades of paint and if we find a comforter set that we like, we can pull color from that.”
In the “Hotel Look,” which is a popular bedding trend right now, she said, each element is a different color, always a solid, and usually with plain white sheets. It’s layers of solids on solids, like an ice blue comforter or duvet with highly contrasting colors in throw pillows, maybe a plain chocolate and a plain white.
“People like to feel like they’re on vacation, even if they’re too busy to actually take a vacation.”
Get ready to take off
The first step in planning a bedroom redesign is to sketch out the room to scale. Use common graph paper available at Wal-Mart. Most is on a quarter-inch scale, where a 4-inch square equals one foot.
Draw the room’s dimensions on the graph paper.
Map everything already there: wall fixtures, cable outlet, plug outlets, windows, doorways, closet doors, even how much space each door is going to take up when it swings into the room, in order to avoid placing furniture in the way of the swinging door.
Be aware of the position of the TV armoire in correlation to the bed because people want to be able to lay in bed and watch movies.
Mistake!
Biggest mistake
most people make:
It is failing to scale furnishings to the size of the room. Scale is really, really important, and it is so easy to buy a king size bed with four big posters that fills up the entire room.
How to avoid it:
Either hire a designer or make sure you have the room’s dimensions with you. The sales person on floor who is paying attention will advise you if something is too large. If they don’t, ask their opinion.
– HERB MOORE, OWNER OF HERB MOORE INTERIORS
Five rug looks
Certain styles of accent rugs coordinate well with certain styles of furnishings. Here are five suggestions:
Traditional design – Use a handmade oriental rug.
Contemporary design – Use a sculptured rug.
Tuscany design – Use a rug in bright colors, like yellows, turquoise or cobalt blue.
Country French design – Use a flat-woven, no-pile rug.
Oriental design, which has a sleek, almost contemporary feel to it plus carvings or inlays – Try a Chinese rug, which usually has a border with a simplified floral design, probably in just one or two corners.
– HERB MOORE, OWNER OF HERB MOORE INTERIORS
Best advice
I always think that people should interview the designers they are going to be working with and make sure their personalities jell and they’re on the same page.
– HERB MOORE, OWNER OF HERB MOORE INTERIORS
Paint colors
Trim is always white, but may have varying undertones to complement the wall paint. As an example, a trim color called Mayonnaise with a yellow undertone was used to complement a wall color called Dill Pickle.
Five popular colors for bedroom walls are:
Cooler shades of green, i.e., lime, sage, avocado; is a calming color that makes people feel at ease
Blues, also in cool shades and also a calming color
Gold, in camel colors, a neutral tone that can blend with almost any color
Khaki, another neutral that can blend well with many colors
Red, continues to be popular, is a passion color and viewed as romantic
Tip: All walls in a room are the same color, unless there are architectural details to highlight. If there is a tray ceiling, for example, a step process is done in the painting, using the full value of the paint on the walls, then half value of the color mixed with white inside the tray. The ceiling could be done in a quarter value of the color, but typically is a shade or variant of white.
– JENNIFER PALMER, BASSETT FURNITURE DESIGN CONSULTANT
Accessories
Common items people buy at the same time as their bedroom furniture, so as to create a coordinated package, are lamps, mirrors, floral arrangements, candlesticks, wall hangings and area rugs.
