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Making Our Bedroom More Magical, Less Frat House

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If this were an episode of Cribs, I’d be all, “This is where the magic happens!” And then you’d be like, “How exactly did you get pregnant again?”

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Ahhh… our beautiful master bedroom. Be sure, I cleaned this up for the pictures, folks. Like, really cleaned it good, and got all the dirty socks off the floor and everything. You’re welcome.

So, you can probably understand why when I got an opportunity to do a couple sponsored posts for Sherwin-Williams that focused around re-doing a room of our house based on their cool paint selection tools, I BEGGED AND PLEADED FOR THEM TO PLEASE PICK ME.

I mean, yeah…

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And, they did choose me! REJOICE! It’s a classic problem, I think. We put all our effort into beautifying the spaces of our home that others see, or the spaces our kids live in while neglecting our own bedroom. My kids’ rooms look like something out of a magazine (not to toot my own horn, but we put TONS of time and effort into decorating their spaces).

Our room? Looks like something out of a frat house… the part in the basement where they make the freshman sleep. Nothing matches. Not a single piece of purposefully bought furniture in there, except for the glorious king size bed, which we finally broke down and bought last year after one too many trips to the chiropractor, and one too many kid’s foot in my face.

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So we’re going big with this re-do. This isn’t just about the paint colors. BUT, that’s exactly where we started. Sherwin-Williams has this cool color selection tool that lets you upload a picture and turn it into a color palette. It’s called Chip It!™ and it’s addicting.

I knew I wanted this space to be something unique to Scott and me, while still keeping with the colors in the rest of the house. We have A LOT of gray going on. I joke that when we list our house for sale someday, we can title it the 50 Shades Of Gray House. Scott thinks that will send people the wrong message. Pfft.

So, I uploaded this beautiful picture that Lyndsay from Life In Motion Photography (Austin, TX) took of us last year during a Love Light session. I love the colors, I love the emotion. I love that it feels more like a piece of art than just a photograph. I want to incorporate it into the room, along with a few others she took.

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 We decided to go with Gray Shingle for the walls, and Indigo Batik for an accent wall behind our bed… which Scott is building from leftover pieces of hardwood flooring and staining, we think, a light cherry.

We hope to add lots of white to the room with bedding and other furniture pieces to keep the room from feeling too dark. I’m also toying with bringing a bit of these fabrics in:

Crazy Love Priscilla Orange - Discount Designer Fabric - Fabric.com

 

Riley Blake Chevron Small Orange

 

I’m anxious to get this renovation completed this week! I can’t wait to finally have a room that feels put together, pretty, and, like, I’d be okay leaving our bedroom door open when we have guests over.
Stay tuned for part 2- the reveal!
How do you find color inspiration for your home projects? Tell us in the comments below, and you just might win a $100 Sherwin-Williams gift card from BlogHer!
No duplicate comments.You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
  1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
  2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
  3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

 This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

 This sweepstakes runs from 5/1/2013-5/19/2013.

Be sure to visit the Sherwin-Williams brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win! 

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132 Comments

  1. Crys Wiltshire on

    Love the colours you picked. I remember when you shared that photo of you and your hubby a while back. It’s such a beautiful photo to incorporate into the space you share together. Can’t wait to see the after pictures!

    Reply
  2. Dorothy on

    I LOVE that first fabric.

    When we moved, I got some of our color inspiration from Pinterest (our youngest daughter’s room and our son’s room) and some from the a favorite curtain (our twins’ room).

    Reply
  3. Brett on

    I can’t wait to see the reveal. If it’s anything like K and LL’s rooms it’s going to be gorgeous.

    I find color inspiration from how I want to feel in the room. For our master bedroom, we wanted it to be a serene retreat so we went with a soft blue-green-grey. For our sunroom I wanted it crisp and fresh and to set off the windows that line two of the walls so we went with a olivey-brown that showed off the crisp white trim and clean-lined accessories in the space. We wanted warm and inviting in our family room with the fireplace and it was open to the sunroom so we took a color one shade lighter off the chip and went with darker woods and warmer accents. And for our little girl’s nursery, I wanted fun and feminine and modern but not “girly”. Dark violet seemed appropriate and it creates fun contrast with the two-tone furniture and little pops of white and bright complementary color throughout.

    Reply
  4. Jess Cadena on

    We’re motivated to get rid of our endless white walls in our new home! I would LOVE to win this! I find my inspiration through little pieces of special finds. I have things I’ve acquired from my grandmother’s home after she passed that I intend to incorporate through the house. My kids sentimental items in their rooms. It makes it just a little more special than a “pretty room” for me.

    Reply
  5. Jodie on

    I love your color choices, beautiful!! I can’t wait to see the final reveal!! I got inspiration from the old TLC decorating shows. Those shows are no longer on (I think?) we don’t get cable anymore. I now dislike the color on my living room wall we have had up for nearly 7 years (RED!) Luckily I chose a more neutral tan/gray color for the kitchen that I do like.

    Reply
  6. Lisa K on

    I scour the internet, and … take notes from other people’s houses of things I’ve liked and don’t like. My husband loves to use neutral colors so it really limits my inspiration. However, I did base my son’s room around blue and brown drapes I found and then ended up not using the drapes – still love the look of the room! My daughter’s room was done based off of a wall paper border that I found I liked.

    Reply
  7. Julie on

    Love the colour pallet! I think I will try this out for our master bedroom. We also suffer from frat house syndrome. It makes me happy to know we aren’t alone. I’ve got one better though, no bed frame at all, just a matress and box spring on the floor. 🙁

    Reply
  11. Samantha G on

    How did we pick our colors, what a good question. Well, first, our hallway (and the HUGE room connected to it) are already painted teal, so I needed colors that wouldn’t clash with that (and I was not repainting that giant space). Our guest room has giant framed maps (with pins where we’ve been) hanging in it, so we went from there and did a pale blue. Our bedroom is pretty neutral, a really light creamy yellowish color. And the office is lime green since that’s where I planned to spend a lot of time painting, and that color goes with all my paintings!

    I love that you used that picture for inspiration, and was way ahead of you when you said you hoped to incorporate it into the room somehow. Have you seen those websites where they print a photo onto a throw blanket? You should totally!!!!
    …Just kidding. 🙂

    Reply
  12. kim ivy on

    Wow! those are some sexy color choices!! LOVE it!
    I would love for our bedroom to be a sanctuary where we could come to end the day.

    Reply
  13. Jen on

    I’m actually not sure how I’ll be inspired to pick colors for the house we’ll be moving into in a few weeks’ time. I’m currently looking!! For our current place, the bedroom color was inspired by the fact that the previous owners had painted it (all walls AND ceiling) a hideous extra-bright pinky orange color and even after two coats of primer, only sage green would cut the pink undertones. Turns out I love it. Good thing!

    Reply
  14. Ashley on

    I love the colors you decided to use in your room. I generally find inspiration for my colors either in a piece of artwork or within nature and try to match it. Currently I am looking to redo our master as the previous owners really liked mustard yellow.. 🙁 I have a few prints from Charleston that I LOVE and have been inspired by them.

    Reply
  15. Kelly D on

    I find color inspiration from nature. I like green and almond colors so I usually go for these types of shades.

    Reply
  17. Zandria on

    I’ve never had to find color inspiration in past home projects because I’ve always lived in apartments! And I’ve never painted a wall in my life! But my fiance and I are in the process of buying a home so that will change soon. I’m sure I’ll need some color on the walls. 🙂

    Reply
  19. sheri on

    I can’t wait to have the chance to redo our master bedroom too! I get color inspiration from blogs, pinterest, and magazines.

    Reply
  20. Jill on

    for our kids rooms we got color inspiration from bright/light toys and activities that are child like, with a bit of whimsy thrown in. For us, it’s more a matter of ‘what we already have’ and building around it since we’re established. We’re in desperate need of painting our whole downstairs (3 years since we built the place, still not painted!)

    Reply
  21. Stephanie C. on

    Honestly, I love wall colors to my husband. He has a much better eye for whats going to look good on the walls long term, then I run with it for accessories, bedding, or whatever else.

    Reply
  24. Jimmy on

    I go to the store and check out the paint cards. I take the colors I like home to decide on a final color

    Reply
  25. Mickie Geri Farris on

    I repainted my kitchen last year (with Sherwin Williams!) and chose Parakeet for the accent wall under the cupboards and the inside of the door frame. It’s happy, and bright – and echoes the vibrant greens outside our Seattle house!

    Reply
  26. Kim on

    I get color inspiration from fabrics.. pillows for the couch or bedding, because it kind of ties everything in, you know? It’s easier to work from square one that way. 🙂

    Reply
  30. Michelle McCampo on

    We have 3 different shades of gray throughout our house too because I love the idea of neutral colors but I’m not really into browns or whites. The gray looks good with all our black furniture. The original inspiration for my 4 year old’s big girl room was a boho, Moroccan, Indian pallette, but my husband thought it was too dark so we just lightened the colors a bit to a light blue accent wall with light and dark pink main walls. The nursery was zen and nature inspired with two tone dark brown and light green walls. I totally messed up the kitchen and painted it neon yellow–it was supposed to be a bit softer.

    Reply
  32. Starr on

    I look through catalogs and magazines that I adore. I also spend a lot of time at my SW store choosing paint chips. I love decorating! 🙂

    Reply
  34. Melissa Ives on

    I get inspiration from a combination of watching HGTV, magazines and Pinterest. I currently want to paint all the trim and cabinets of my 2,400 sq ft, two story colonial white. My husband thinks I’m nuts. Winning this may convince him I’m right.

    Reply
  35. facebook_molly.lappegaard on

    I just used SW’s Dill to paint my living room last week! I had never used their paint before and now I don’t know if I would use anything else – love it!

    Reply
  36. Jill on

    No color in any of our rooms. We built a house in 2011 and all of the walls are brown. My husband jokes my favorite color is neutral. We have a 1 and 3 year with no colors in their rooms. I need some color in our house. Badly.

    Reply
  37. Lisa Long on

    Our rooms are yellow and green. I would love my little girls to have something more girly. My girls inspire me, we have different picture frames all over the place most with the girls in it 🙂

    Reply
  42. Jenn on

    Most of the time my color inspiration comes from a photo, or a pillow, or a picture that we really like. I’m kind of not afraid of color! We’ve been renting out our house while overseas and when our tenants are out next month we have to paint every. room. in. the. house.
    Lordy, do I need inspiration!!!

    Reply
  43. Tamar on

    My friend is an interior decorator so I have asked her in the past, but it usually is my opinion+Pinterest+friends that helps the most.

    Reply
  44. Jennifer Lyden on

    My color inspiration usually comes from something I want to include in the room: art, fabric, etc.

    Reply
  45. Sarah The Crazy on

    The inspiration for the paint color in our master bedroom came from my toe nail polish. My hubby agreed as long as I didn’t insist on re-painting each time I got a pedicure.

    Reply
  46. Barbara on

    Definitely find all my inspiration for colors and decorating my home on pinterest! Its the best place to find any kind of inspiration I think lol! We love the color Cool Platinum from Sherwin-Williams. Its a nice beige color and with a nice white trim it looks really classy!

    Reply
  48. Jen Wendell on

    I love the idea of using a favorite picture for the color inspiration for a room! I usually find a piece of fabric or linens that I love and use the colors in that to tie a room together, but I’m going to have to try the picture idea… thanks!

    Reply
  51. Avery Zollinger Benitez on

    We are getting ready to repaint our kitchen, living room, and dining room. I seriously bought a shirt at the store last week, not because I loved the top, but because I really liked the color for the walls in the kitchen.

    Reply
  53. Heather Koester on

    I always seem to start with fabric. We just completely redid our sons room and soon to be here daughters room. Our room is last on the list. We just got all new carpet so I’m excited to have it started and finish it!

    Reply
  55. Johanna on

    I always start with how I want the room to feel. We did a bright color for the den because it was smaller than our first home’s living area and our furniture is dark. Now it’s warm and inviting. Our daughter’s room is a color called pool. That’s as far as I’ve gotten since we just moved in December. I think gray must be the universal shade for relaxation because that’s the color we plan to use for our master as well.

    Reply
  56. Elizabeth Keller on

    I think your old room looks great! I love the blue and tan. I hope my master can look that good one day.

    Reply
  57. Cortnie on

    I usually start with a piece…..bedding, pillow, accent piece… And go from there. Or it comes from seeing it somewhere else (HGTV or a friends house etc).

    Reply
  58. Jenna Williamson on

    Normally I try to use an inspiration fabric, but recently we bought a new house and every room needed to be painted. So I used Pinterest and blogs for inspiration and, after picking the foyer/hallway color that would run through most of the house, I looked for complimentary colors and bought A LOT of samples to test on the walls.

    Reply
  59. Tammy on

    I get color inspiration for rooms in my home based on how I want the room to “feel”, I like my kitchen warm and my bathrooms cool. lol.

    Reply
  60. Stephanie Larison on

    I like anything that is bright and brings life into a room. I like the country-home feel to the colors as well. Blue’s and white’s are used a lot.

    Reply
  64. Jessie on

    I use a combination of how I want the room to feel/what the room will be used for and then select my colors on the principals of color therapy rules. Love it. We’re newly married and just started renovating the first room in our new house so this topic of picking colors is perfect timing!

    Reply
  65. Gracielle Sandiego Tamanio on

    We bought a new home in August and I had a clean slate with white walls in every room…I got inspiration from Sherwin Williams Livable Luxe palette for all the rooms on the first floor. The colors all flow together, and it’s very grown-up colors yet comfy and casual. Would love to win a $100 gift card to get a jump start on the 2nd floor rooms 🙂 Thank you!

    Reply
  75. Emily Patterson on

    I usually find a unique fabric I want to use in the room and go from there to find a color that will look great with the fabric-it’s all about the prints and pops of color so that’s where I start.

    Reply
  79. Kerry on

    I usually find my inspiration from a piece of artwork that I want to hang in the room. Or if it’s my bedroom I find my inspiration in a comforter I love. And then I match the paint to that.

    Reply
  80. Wild Orchid on

    I find inspiration in my favorite decor accessories.

    Thanks for the chance to win!
    wildorchid985 at gmail dot com

    Reply
  84. Lorena Keech on

    When I go through magazines, I pull out pages that have colors, fabrics I like. Then I go to that file when I need ideas.

    Reply
  85. ky2here on

    We have an Eastlake Victorian so it’s easy to find color inspiration from other Victorian homes. Thanks for offering this.

    ky2here at msn dot com

    Reply
  88. Margot C on

    I was once really into clipping things from magazines (you know, paper magazines, remember those!) – now I bookmark blogs and paintings and all sorts of stuff then bring my phone to the store and compare the pictures with the chips.

    Reply
  91. Jennifer on

    I look for timeless colors that flow well with the rest of the home… but with a great color pop for fun!

    Reply
  104. angie lilly on

    Nature. 100%. I am a HUGE nature lover and not only write about it in poetry but photograph it for my zazzle shop and just because I love it. My house is all colored out in natural hues.

    Reply
  107. Betty C on

    My favorite inspiration was wallpaper that was in a friend’s rental house. I couldn’t find the same paper but a few years later I found something very similar. I couldn’t find the right room for it so I moved it with me for quite a long time. I finally found the right room and used the wonderful yellow as the inspiration for my kitchen walls.

    Reply
  109. Kendra Cleaver on

    I find inspiration from what is already around me. I’m not good at visualizing something. I have to see it.

    Reply
  111. Rachael on

    I get a lot of ideas from home show (like on HDTV). I wish they still played trading spaces, i used to love it!

    Reply
  114. cassandra on

    I sometimes find color inspiration by going to talk to in-store specialists and asking their opinions on what may look good on walls of a specific room.

    Reply
  116. heather c on

    Fabric stores have some of the coolest inspirations for decorating. Just like you posted, fab materials contain fab color schemes!

    Reply
  122. Betty on

    My personal inspiration is pretty limited. Magazines help to focus me on possibilities. My daughter is one who can find a color in a print fabric and just know that it is what she wants.

    Reply

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  126. Irene Hopper on

    I love to go stand in front of the paint chips, and then go from there. Sometimes I will start with a fabric, but most of our rooms were based on just picking the chip cards that caught my eye.

    Reply
  127. Lisa on

    I just pick colors I like. Our last condo had two shades of teal on different accent walls/pillars. The splashes of color made the place so much happier. We also had a chalkboard wall where we’d write inspirational quotes. Loved it.

    Reply
  128. Jennifer McQuiston Fening on

    Beautiful room Jill! We started planning for our nursery (Baby #1) last week. Color inspiration came from an Etsy art piece with the lyrics from “You Are My Sunshine.” I’m working on a yellow and grey color scheme and have already picked the SW paint (Olympus White)- fingers crossed that the sweepstakes will help us along!

    Reply

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