Before and After with Nancy West
Interior Designer Nancy West sent in pictures of this charming bedroom she redecorated for a recent college graduate living with her parents in Middleburg, VA. Not only is the space adorable, but it’s incredibly sentimental: She incorporated furnishings and fabrics from the young woman’s mother and grandmother into the design.
But let’s start at the beginning. Here’s the “before” picture.
Clearly, West needed a lot of imagination to go from “before” to “after.” Let’s see how she did it.
The “before” picture doesn’t show that the ceiling was already painted like a blue sky with clouds. Nancy let the ceiling, along with the glorious views out the window, direct where she would go next.
Kravet’s Dotted Swiss in White, #704-1, pairs with Fabricut’s Alvarez01
She fashioned a “cloud-like bower” above the bed, to make it look like it fell from the sky. The canopy and drapery fabric on the wall are dotted sheers by Kravet. The pale blue directly behind the bed is a silk plaid by Fabricut. Those same fabrics were used for the window treatments.
The bed and desk chair were in the client’s mother’s room as a girl. The yellow side chair was her grandmother’s, where her grandmother used to do her sewing. West re-upholstered the headboard and side chair in a happy yellow fabric (Pasture Green, #83806-430) from Brunschwig & Fils. West also found a bedspread by the Martha Stewart collection at Macy’s, which she had tailored to fit the bed’s unusual thee-quarter-size, extra-long dimensions.
If you look back to the top picture, notice that West used two existing wood file cabinets as a base for a new desk. Amazing what a simple glass top can do for your décor.
This is so “Sound of Music” – West used the curtains that used to hang in the mother’s girlhood bedroom and had them made into a skirt for the dressing table, as well as dust ruffles and throw pillows for the bed. The gorgeous vanity mirror, by the way, came from the Baileywyck Shoppes in Middleburg.
West found a great bookcase from Ballard Designs that picks up on the room’s style. Capping it all off, a vibrant rug by Stark.
I love how West blended new items with pieces that go back two generations for this room. It reminds me of an upholstered rocking chair that my mother originally bought for her dorm room at Smith College, which I had in my bedroom as a girl, and which I reupholstered for my first apartment – after I, too, graduated from Smith. It then became the inspiration piece for the baby nursery where I rocked my two sons, and it now lives in our master bedroom.
Does anyone else have sentimental furniture stories?
And designers, if you have any other great “before and after” projects to share for the blog, please let me know at jsergent@washingtonspaces.com.
Love the draping detail behind the bed.