Happy Exclusive Plum Year!

I’m not the kind of person who follows trends. When it comes to fashion and music and home decorating, I march to the beat of my own drummer. But purple is one trend that I’m all over! Pantone recently announced that Radiant Orchid is their 2014 colour of the year. And soon after after, Sherwin Williams announced that its colour for 2014 is Exclusive Plum.

“This dusky, filtered violet is refined without being stuffy, elegant yet easy, and layered with romantic potential.”

Jackie Jordan, Sherwin-Williams director of color marketing.

It just so happened that I had been thinking of repainting the ocean-inspired gallery wall in our hallway purple. The perfect spot to try out Exclusive Plum! What was charcoal grey…

…is now pretty in purple :-)

Oh yeah, feelin’ the purple love! In fact, I was so in love with the colour, I needed more of it! But where… no way was I painting the whole hallway. I did that a few years ago and just about peed myself painting the front entry on wobbly scaffolding with only the chandelier to grab onto if I went down. Nope, not happening. Hmmmmm… there’s no reason why I couldn’t paint one end of the hallway purple…

And now all dramatic and sexy in Exclusive Plum :-)

I love how the purple works with the dark brown doors and the flooring and the colour at the other end of the hallway. And it’s totally satisfied my need to have more purple in my life :-)

What’s your colour of the year for 2014?

Sweet purple dreams ~ A guest bedroom makeover

We used to have a guest bedroom on the main floor and another one in the basement. Neither room was particularly functional – the furniture layout in the upstairs bedroom room was awkward. The only wall where the bed fit properly was the wall with the main door, so there was no proper focal point walking into the room. The basement bedroom was small, but the layout was pretty good and it was nicely decorated. But nobody ever wanted to sleep in it – maybe it was the unfinished ceiling looming above them while they were lying in bed ;-)

When we had the hardwood floors refinished a few years ago, we had to empty out all the rooms on the main floor. It was the perfect time to do some rearranging – so the office moved down to the basement and the guest bedroom moved up to the main floor.

This is the only picture I can find of the upstairs room before it was converted from an office into a bedroom:

Yes, that’s a wolf wallpaper border. Yes, I’m the one who put it up. Yes, I knew what I was doing! Hey, come on – it isn’t THAT bad!!! Is it?!?! OK, I guess it is :-)

I decided to start fresh with a new colour scheme when I found a couple of beaded purple cushions at HomeSense that I absolutely HAD to have. They inspired the colour scheme for the room.

Trying out different cushion and sham combos and a bed skirt – only the purple cushions and the comforter stayed.

I re-used all the furniture that was in the bedroom in the basement. It’s just cheapo stuff from Loblaws. But it looks good and doesn’t get much wear and tear, so it’s fine for a guest bedroom. I just changed the knobs from stainless steel to glass (from Lee Valley) to add some glam.

Hubby and I made the upholstered bed a few years ago.

We updated it for the new guest bedroom with leftover chocolate brown velvet from the headboard in the master bedroom. The fabric for the original headboard cost $4.00. The whole headboard cost about $80 to make. The base of the bed is an old platform from a waterbed – reduce,  reuse, recycle!

I finally decided on an ICI Dulux gray called Veil for the walls. It’s a nice light grey without any blue undertones – a hard gray to find!

Veil 00NN 53/000

I’d seen this wallpaper on the Graham & Brown web site and loved it. I ordered a sample, and it matched the colour of the purple cushions perfectly! The pattern is called Darcy and the colour is Amethyst.

Let’s just say that hanging the wallpaper was… an adventure ;-) Actually, it wasn’t too bad. I was the lucky one who rolled on the gooey wallpaper paste, hubby was the lucky one who stuck it to the wall :-) Sorry about the picture is fuzzy – the camera doesn’t seem to like all the circles.

We replaced the original brass & mirror sliding closet doors with these doors from Home Depot – a HUGE improvement!

The mirrored mirror is from HomeSense. I’d wanted one for the longest time, but didn’t have a place to put one. Till the redecorated guest bedroom! I bought the lamps about nine years ago, but never had a good place to put them – till now :-)

This chair was my grandma’s, and I really wanted to use it in the room. It’s the perfect size to fit into the corner, has nice lines, and gives guests a place to sit down or they can put their suitcase or clothes on it.

We removed the old fabric and replaced it with this shimmery charcoal fabric from C&M Textiles.

The new & improved chair with two little purple velvet cushions.

 
The base of the lamp on the night table echoes the circles on the wallpaper.

I love this chandelier – it’s a bit traditional and a bit contemporary.

And finally, some sparkly accessories to kick up the glam factor :-)

 

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend – especially big purple ones!! :-)

And the completed purple guest bedroom makeover.

What’s the most interesting item that you’ve used as inspiration for a room makeover?