Design Happens

On Monday, we asked our Facebook fans to vote on your favorite room from one of our top designers, Erinn Valencich. The votes have been tallied and, as promised, Erinn’s giving you the 411 on how she designed this gorgeous green bedroom.

Erinn says: This bedroom was designed for a fireball-of-a-woman, a beautiful attorney who happens to be a good friend. She had just purchased her first home in the Hollywood Hills and wanted my help creating  a very chic, grown up, boudoir.

I wanted to create a modern bedroom, but with an elegant glamor. Since her home was in the Hollywood Hills, it seemed only fitting to bring in a signature Old Hollywood element—black-and-white. The centerpiece of the room is the bed, and I find that’s always a great piece to start with in a bedroom. I designed this modern four-poster bed to be very lean. The room isn’t that large, so I didn’t want a heavy-looking bed. Having a custom piece of furniture made can be an important element in getting the right look. In many cases you can have something custom-made for less than you would pay in a designer showroom. You can also find a lot of great ready-made modern pieces at places like Room & Board, West Elm and CB2. Choosing one of your larger pieces to be modern— and therefore less expensive than a very ornate bed—is a great way to save. You can bring in antique pieces like mirrors, tapestries, a small dressing table or an ornate side chair and create the same end result.

For the citrus accent wall, I mixed about three shades of Dunn-Edwards paint on location and tested it until I got the desired color. I only painted it on two walls to be the the main focal wall behind the bed of course (as accent colors should always go behind the bed) and the wall with the windows on it. When it comes to working a bold accent color into the room, you need only a few pieces to make it really work. I placed 2 green silk pillows on the bed in the same shade and one green vase on the dressing table. The bedding was kept crisp in black and white.

To bring in the black-and-white theme onto the windows, I bought $8/yard silk and had the curtains sewn with a black border. Any good seamstress can make custom drapery; there are often many workrooms in your city that can do the same for a very reasonable cost. Custom doesn’t have to be expensive! You can also take ready-made white silk or cotton panels and add the black band to them. I chose silk to give the room some added glitz and glamour.

Every bedroom needs a chair or a bench. This wing-back chair was a $60 find at Good Will! They often have great old chairs such as this sitting around. Of course I had to have it re-upholstered, but the frame is what you’re looking for here. Look past the finish and you’ll often be surprised as the beauty in a piece of furniture. I splurged on a great vintage black fabric with white striping, thus giving the effect of a menswear suiting to this piece of furniture. The overall style of the room needed a tailored, modern elegance, so this fabric was just the right contrast for the curvy, womanly lines on the chair. Juxtaposition is always a great design tool!