Welcome to all who are visiting the Living Lives of Loveliness Fair today! Elegant Simplicity in the bedroom(s) is our focus this time around. Unfortunately for too many of us the bedroom is one of the most neglected spaces in the home. Few people outside the family have reason to venture into them and it is easy to put off ‘dealing’ with the bedroom while we attend to more public spaces.
Still, time and again we are reminded that this room, above others, deserves more thought and attention. For those of us who are married it can serve as a retreat from the outer world. For some of us, this is the room where we birth our babies. For many more of us, it is the place those babies are fed and cuddled and cozied. Regardless of marital or parental status however, the bedroom can be a special place away from the noise and demands life places upon us. Everyone needs a place of their own to rest and renew. Those goals are to be kept in mind when working on this space. I wouldn’t venture to make sweeping statements about HOW to do this. So much depends upon what each person considers soothing. For one it may be comfortable clutter – loads of pillows, knick knacks which bring fond memories, family heirlooms. For others a sense of peace is better induced by open spaces and clean lines. To each his own! The fair entries run the gamut. Take a look:
Leonie lives in Australia where she has raised her seven sons with relaxed sensibility. Since they are an unschooling family she sees each room as an educational space. For more rooms see here and here. This one and this one show school storage in the bedrooms.
Cheryl and her husband recently built a beautiful new home. She ponders if this room will receive more ‘decorating’ or if in fact it is perfect as it is – as I tend to think it is!
KC’s bedroom is currently in borrowed space. They are waiting and praying for her husband who is currently deployed. She reminds us that “home” and “retreat” can mean many things. What is most important is that your space is nurturing to those it houses.
Elizabeth’s bedroom is awaiting its newest occupant – baby number 8. She shares how nighttime parenting has influenced her bedroom design. Like so many of us, she learned the four-times-a-night shuffle – the dance you do while trying to nurse a baby who sleeps in another room – before settling upon this arrangement.
Dawn will tell you her master bedroom is neither the most simple nor elegant room in her home. If so, I can only imagine how simply elegant the rest of the rooms are. This is quite lovely. She includes some compelling quotes about the wisdom of addressing the needs of this area of the home.
Cay relates the surest measure of true elegance in a bedroom – “the assurance that one can escape into it, lie down, and feel completely at peace.” There is a goal worth shooting for! Here you can see the space leading to her room.
CC has abandoned futile attempts to create canned beauty and found her own definition based on her family’s values. I had to laugh at the silk flowers since I too kill the real thing! Hey, they don’t call this ‘simple’ for nothin’ folks!
Sarah showcases both her room and her children’s. She explains how the items in her room have helped her through difficult times and their presence there is a reminder of that heavenly aid.
Donna Marie discusses children’s rooms, how their family furnished them and how she keeps on top of the closets. It is wonderful to hear other people articulate their systems and decision making!
Lisa remembers her own childhood and what her parents’ room meant to her. She writes about what her own master bedroom has means to her family and how that factors in to what that room contains.
That brings us to the ranch. We have been guilty of neglecting the bedroom over the years. Prior to this home, the bedroom was often the holding area for whatever didn’t fit anyplace else. It was a challenge just to get the public rooms in order before the next move and we rarely got as far as the master bedroom. In this house we have made considerable headway, mainly due to our room’s exceptional size. This was a blessing to us since we usually keep our babies close by for the first year and a half until they are ready to bunk with a big sister or brother. We now actually have space for both babies – Brendan and the new baby due in Dec. A good thing, since B shows no signs of moving on just yet!
My favorite things about this room are the double French doors, the big windows, and the ceiling. The ceiling is pine and vaulted and makes the room a serious retreat spot for us.
This doorway leads to the master bath. Another novelty for us. We had grown accustomed to bathrooms where you could practically touch all four walls at once. Of course HAVING such a bathroom and actually using it are two different things. I can count on one hand the 
number of times we have used the deep tub. : / Sounds really good at the moment….
Another bedroom we are pleased with is the little boys’ room. It was the first home which we could actually paint. And paint we did! The walls are denim blue and the furniture is barn red. The furniture and accessories are all found items. The beds originally belonged to my mother and her sister growing up. The dresser was a garage sale find. The paint unified these separate pieces. The curtains were once in a living room of ours. In this room we tied them back with rope and topped them with bandana fabric in true cowboy fashion. Outside the window is the barnyard with a view of real ponies. It doesn’t get much better than that when you are six <g>.
Doesn’t that just sound idyllic? At least until I admit that I could not find the pics on cd in time to post them here. Guess that makes me miss the deadline to my own fair lol! My Gram had a saying for girls like me – "She will be late to her own funeral". Ah well. You would think I could just take more pics wouldn’t you? But alas, my little cowboys were playing in said room and somehow pulled the ‘simply elegant’ curtains down accidentally. These are rooms that are lived in and ultimately the people who live in them are more important than the ‘stuff’ that lives there. They will go back up as soon as life slows to a dull enough roar and I promise to upload then!
For grins I thought I would throw in some related article links:
bedroom decor ideas
bedroom cleaning
Go clean your room
organizing kids’ rooms
bedroom basics 101
Mrs Catherine on decluttering and keeping up a master bedroom
ditto for kids rooms
and more decor
In closing here are some words from Homeliving Helper, a source for all manner of good things, about homes prior to the 1960’s:
“There was really no such thing as "decorating" as we know it today, with styles or colors matching. A hand braided rug was placed in the middle of the living room floor. Paintings on the wall were usually bought from a friend who painted, or painted yourself. Often, people would take pictures out of magazines and frame them for a wall hanging. Black and white family photographs were especially treasured. A picture of grandparents would be displayed on the mantel.
Bedrooms were places that were also kept in order. We each had a bed, some blankets, and maybe a little dresser. We took time to fold our clothes and put them back neatly in the drawers. (You can imagine the astonishment of that generation of parents, when the modern bedroom came into their view–with stacks of clothes in a corner, and loud rock music blaring from huge speakers.)
We knew the purpose of the dwelling place. It was not somewhere to flop around in and create a mess and disrespect. It was something to be proud of. Our parents told us that if we respected the house and the home, we could expect to spend many happy hours there.”
I hope we remember that memories are made not from decorating magazines, much fun as they can be, but from the things that happen in these spaces and how we feel about being in them. Thanks for joining us!
Starry Sky Journal 