Suzani in the Bedroom

You might remember that I'm working on the master bedroom at CDLV right now, and it hasn't been the easiest room in the house to complete. First, the room is relatively large given the overall square footage of our house, and the age; but the windows are positioned awkwardly and placing furniture, art, and the rest of the necessities a bedroom requires has given me a headache.

I have, however, finalized my bedding choices with the help of my dear friend Deserae, who has a lovely blog you should definitely be reading: Peeking thru the Sunflowers. Deserae and I are both night owls, and spend hours sending inspiration pictures back and forth via email. A couple of weeks ago, I sent Deserae this photo, which I've shared on the blog a million times:

M. Elle Design

 

The bedroom is the beautiful master retreat of the designer Mary Lynn Turner's vacation home along the Big Wood River in Ketchum, Idaho. Yes, Idaho! You might remember this room as part of the feature spread in the Elle Décor cover story way back in December of 2010. I fell in love with this room when I saw it then, and I still love it now. Simple, elegant, sophisticated, and soothing - this bedroom is my idea of perfection. Emulating it for CDLV would be a challenge, however.

 

Thankfully, Deserae and I got a few of our good ideas together, and came up with a way to bring a little of this Idaho retreat to my little house in Western New York.

 

First, the walls stay their current Martha Stewart Living, Monks Cloth. A richly decadent gray/brown that is strikingly similar to the stained shiplap seen in the room above. Next, we infuse the room with cream linens, both at the window and above the bed in a tester canopy I had my slipcover maker create with this bedroom in mind:

 

  Shazalynn Cavin-Winfrey

 

HGTV has really slim pickings for its viewers who love interior design. Gone are the days of Candice Olson, Sarah Richardson, Design Star, Genevieve Gorder, and Vern Yip. Now, it's all real estate all the time. Shows like House Hunters International, Property Virgins, and Property Brothers are running the network. But once upon a time, they created a competition series called Showhouse Showdown. The premise: a new development with similar dwellings, two designers, a crazy budget, and a community vote for who did the best job. The second episode gave two DC designers a $75,000 budget (each) to create 5 rooms in brand new Virginia townhouses. Shazalynn Cavin-Winfrey, created this bedroom wrapped in Schumaker's Chenonceau wallpaper for the master retreat.

 

While I love this room, CDLV doesn't have the space for this set up, nor would Scott, heretoforward referred to as buzzkill, allow me to paper the walls. So, Deserae and I discussed the options and came up with the great idea of covering a window along the longest wall of our bedroom with a canopy like the one Shazalynn designed here. It allowed me to have the best furniture configuration, a much larger dresser for a nightstand, and the symmetry I was missing in order to create anything like either one of these inspiration spaces.

 

But the real reason all of the progress on the Master Suite at CDLV is on hold, is due to the extended shipping time on this guy:

 

 

 

I ordered this large Samarkand suzani, for the foot of the bed, a shameless copy of the design idea of Mary Lynn Turner and her Idaho bedroom. Though it's not as subdued in color as the one she probably paid thousands for, this $150 suzani is certain to do the trick at CDLV and not break the budget.

 

Because it's coming all the way from Uzbekistan, the shipping options are fixed, and I'll be waiting until August to see this fella. A wait I'm sure will be worth the time.