A Little French Inspiration from Maison Decor

For quite a while now I have been thoroughly addicted to Amy Chalmers blog Maison Decor. Amy is a local Boston designer who had not too long ago opened a shop in Malden MA. I had been trying to get over to this shop for months but it’s been a busy summer and tough to squeeze in a visit even though it’s almost just in my backyard.

Finally several weeks ago, after months of perusing her blog admiring all of the fantastic French inspired furnishings in her shop I took a few moments of my vacation, coerced my one of my best pals who is from Atlanta and happened to be in town for a visit to head to Malden to check it out.

Me & my pal on our visit to Maison Decor included a really fun chat with
the incomparable Betsy Speert
Photo borrowed from Maison Decor

Ok, let me just start with the shop is quite a bit smaller than it appears on Amy’s blog but it is filled with such goodness you don’t even notice it’s really quite a small space. Really such lovely things!

Such a beautiful space at
50 Summer Street
Malden MA
Photo borrowed from Maison Decor

Amy is (self-professed) obsessed with Annie Sloan chalk paint and after reading & hearing a ton about this unique finish I have been super curious. And with my recently re-done bedroom (see here for my “if at 1st you don’t succeed” bedroom) having neutral walls I've been very conscious of my need to pull pops of color into the room.

So when I kept seeing the Annie Sloan chalk paint my wheels started churning on how I could use it on some little fun something. And then, I happened to see this piece in a lovely little home decor store in Lancaster PA while I was on vacation this summer:

Beautiful inspiration piece from Bed & Bath Affair
in Lancaster PA. If you are ever in Lancaster
this shop is pure loveliness!

And I loved loved loved the color. It was just what I was looking to bring that “pop of color” into by master bedroom. But, the cabinet was a bit beyond my budget. Hmmm….

Then I considered my current bedside table that I had purchased along with 2 other matching pieces at Goodwill in Atlanta probably 15 years ago for way cheap. I thought it was kind of cool and liked the lines of it. I’ve enjoy edit for all of these years since but it now has definitely reached the “seen better days” category.

Good storage, right size, just a sad finish kept
this piece from being perfect.

So….. great inspiration piece +my desire to try the chalk paint + a very tired bedside cabinet = a new project I just had to work on!

Now that I had a plan I was so excited to get started.

My dining room seemed just as good a place as any to lay
out my Dollar Store plastic tablecloth (ie drop cloth) and
go to work

Amy told me that basically no prep was needed just a clean dry surface and brush the chalk paint on it. Guess what, she was so RIGHT! The paint went right on.

One coat down.....

Two coats later I was rubbing on the wax to seal the paint and give it that nice finished look.

Waxing on...

Then just reattaching the original hardware; I contemplated replacing the hardware but I was operating on a "see as you go" policy…why spend the $ until you are sure what you have on hand isn’t going to work. And guess what, I actually like what I had.

Finished product...just pending my decision on whether
or not to add the white edge accent

The only question now is do I add some white edge highlighting to the doors & top? It sure would make the blue pop buuuuttt it kind of looks nice as is with the lines of the piece speaking for themselves. What do you think…to detail or not to detail, that is the question…

The If At 1st You Don't Succeed Bedroom

It’s been 4 years since I signed my life away and tied my financial future to Bank of America for the next 30 years (well not BAC exactly but you know how it goes with banks and the buying and selling of mortgages).  My appointment with the lawyers was mid-day so that left me hours after signing to hang out at my new house and start the process of moving out of 1972.  So I immediately headed over and the very first project I took on was the master bedroom.  There were 2 major problems that needed fixing before I could spend one night in my new house and the master bedroom was one of them (the bathroom was the other). 

The master had some old very dingy wallpaper that had violets all over it on the walls and purple (lilac) ruffley curtains on the windows as well as a bluish/greenish/dirtish wall to wall carpet on the floor.

 

Mrs Johnson's Master Bedroom - she slept in this room
for over 60 years...I'm thinking she liked purple

I was told that there were hardwoods under that carpet so you know what the destiny of that carpet was…but first I wanted to take care of the walls & ceiling – no sense in pulling the carpet up until I had all of my painting done.

So, with all kinds of horror stories of removing wallpaper from my fellow home projecters fresh in my mind, every tool I could find at Lowes in my hands and with great trepidation I started on removing the paper. To my surprise it came right down – no tools, no wallpaper remover chemicals, no cursing…peeled right off the wall in strips.  Lucky or what?

This is my master the day I signed on that fateful
dotted line...It's hard to see the violets in this photo
so yo will just have to trust me...they are there and not
very appealing (to me).

Now, if you haven’t already figured out from my One Room Down post I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to paint color. But I also was very limited on time to assess, analyze, contemplate, etc. I had exactly 3 weeks before I had to be out of my apartment and into this house and had to not only finish this bedroom but also a total bathroom redo.

So with no time I selected a pinkish/peachish color paint, put it on the walls and hoped for the best.  It was a California Paint color called Peach Breeze so it wasn’t too pink…definitely had peach undertones but when I got it all finished I definitely had a pink room.  Not exactly what I was going for but it was pretty and I’d make it work with brown curtains & bed accessories to try to make it a little less “Barbie lives here”.

The Barbie version of my master bedroom...a perfectly lovely color
but really not for me.

So, 3+ years later and with a long list of house projects done (so I feel I can justify redoing a perfectly good room) I am so done with the pink…time to repaint! This time I went far more neutral with a Benjamin Moore color…Butterfly Kisses….don’t you just love that name for a bedroom color? I didn't want boring beige but did want neutral – I think this color is perfect and it really has a great read on the walls.

Finished Bedroom..light, airy, neutral but definitely not
boring beige

With this paint color the brown curtains & bed accessories now were a bit too neutral so off I went in search of some color. I was going to try my hand at making drapes but when I figured out it was going to cost me $600+ in materials alone and since I am really not a seamstress I decided that really wasn’t a great plan.

One of the guys who works for me in my corporate life mentioned that Pier One had some great options at really great prices. He was right and I found just the perfect drapes…not exactly what I had in mind when I first went looking but I absolutely love these (and they are lined)!

My Master now...hopefully I will sleep many more nights
here...maybe not 60+ years though. 

I now almost wish I hadn’t waited 3+ years for the redo but definitely love the finished product now.