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.
John Hutton, Par Excellence
This children’s bedroom in the late Designer John Hutton’s Paris apartment makes me want to have a temper tantrum. I want one, too!!!!!
Although the designer is gone, his company lives on. I just got word of Hutton’s new children’s furniture line, called Baby Bijou. As you have all seen my own children’s bedroom recently, we’re not quite at that level. So, since I need to watch my waistline anyway, I’ll go to sleep tonight with visions of these sugar plums dancing in my head:
I’ll also dream of Paris. Keep reading to see the rest of Hutton’s apartment.
Ooooh. La la!
Keeping it simple, Parisian-style:
With curtains on all the walls, it’s as if this entire bedroom were enclosed in a huge canopy bed.
If you want John Hutton to fill your own rooms, call the company at 1-888-HUTTONH. Collection Pierre Par John Hutton (where Baby Bijou comes from) is sold to the trade through David Sutherland Showrooms.
Kelley Proxmireâs Designs on Display in New York
Local designer Kelley Proxmire will enjoy some marquee company starting next week, as she is among the featured designers in New York’s Holiday House Show House, which will benefit the Greater New York City affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
“This project is close to my heart, since I lost my mother to breast cancer,” Proxmire says.
She joins New York design heavyweights Charlotte Moss, Eric Cohler, and James Rixner (among others) in the Upper East Side show house. Her contribution is a bedroom design that nods to her 30th wedding anniversary, which she celebrates this year. The typical gift for a 30th anniversary is pearl, touches of which she sprinkles throughout the room.
The pearl color punctuates the chocolate brown and melon with the cream silk draperies, Stark carpet, and antique secretary desk, nightstands and chandelier by Julia Gray.
The bed canopy and duvet by Clarence House set the tone for the darker color scheme, which is picked up with the faux-finished walls and the band of melon on the ceiling. An 18th-century oval sunburst mirror hangs over the bed – a look that has come to be one of Proxmire’s signatures.
Artist John Matthew Moore painted these watercolors over the sofa specifically for the space.
The lamps on the vanity table were made from antique wood and gesso architectural remnants, which contrast nicely against the sleek parson’s vanity table. Framed family photographs emphasize Proxmire’s personal touch.
Proxmire designed a similar-styled bedroom for the DC Design House this spring, which also features the dramatic bed draping and mirror. Trish Donnally wrote about that bedroom and the home’s other rooms in our summer issue.
Another draped bed and mirror appears on her Web site, so if you like this look, you definitely know who to call.
If you plan to be in New York this fall, visit Proxmire’s bedroom at the Holiday House, which is open Nov. 4 through Dec. 7, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays.