Kristen Loves Design

We visited Atlanta for the first time for a wedding a little while ago, and the hotel was so stylish I thought you’d want to see some pictures! Normally I would write about one of our Adventures under the Adventures category, but I’m not going to be writing about the rest of the trip – just the design of the hotel. Overall we did have an amazing time though and ate at several nice restaurants, enjoyed the wedding, and the cherry-on-top, visited the home of Coca-Cola!

Did I mention that my Carl always picks the best hotels?! I’m sure I have, and this time was certainly no different! We stayed at the Indigo Hotel Atlanta Midtown and really enjoyed it.

The design of the hotel was centered on a music theme (it’s not apparent why, although it is across from the famous Fox Theatre) and was consistent everywhere, which really made staying at the hotel seem more like staying at hip and modern guest house.

Our room had an amazing and bright-colored wall mural. This is the first time I’ve seen a full-wall mural in person (as opposed to on a design television show) and I have to say, I thought it really made the room. You would think it would be too busy, too bright, or just too (in a fairly small room), but it was exactly right. Of course the other saturated colors and the tan and white helped to make the room feel cohesive. I’m not 100% sold on the cottage style of the headboard and the side tables though. I would have used something either a little more modern or maybe furniture with a more industrial feel. What do you think? Besides the wall mural, I thought the floor was amazing! Sure it was laminate wood flooring, but when was the last time you were in a hotel that didn’t have a (somewhat dubious) rug?! Yeah, me either. I loved those floors! What a great idea (and I imagine a lot easier to keep clean than rug), besides the fact that by adding a “wood” floor, the room really felt again like a guest house and less like a hotel.

Of course once we came home I did plenty of hotel research (I always like to see what other people say about a place we just stayed) and there were complaints galore about the size of the bathroom. I thought it was unbelievably chic and it reminded me very much of a hotel I stayed at in Paris (actually I think it was bigger), but yes, it was very small compared to “typical” American-sized bathrooms. It’s the first bathroom I have ever seen (again, other than on a show) that had a vertical pane of glass (you can see it on the very far right) to protect the toilet from the shower, and the shower curtain, ceiling-mounted, was meant to be pulled all the way across. It provided a nice, functional visual trick and certainly made the bathroom look larger than it was. There was no mirror-sharing room to be had, but there was an entire dressing table with a mirror and outlets right outside the bathroom door.

Oh yes, the lounge area. So beautiful (especially at night, those glass chandeliers are actually an art exhibit – they are made out of recycled glass bottles). They have a kitchen and the food we saw come out (we had just eaten at another restaurant) looked amazing. I will say we had two of the most expensive Irish coffees I think we’ve ever ordered, but let’s just say they were worth it given the huge mugs and the proportion of Irish whiskey to coffee (hint, we weren’t sure there was any coffee!) so we were very pleased. The couches were unbelievably comfortable and I loved the wallpaper, which on further inspection the following morning, wasn’t wallpaper at all. The walls were actually painted with black chalkboard paint and everything was hand-drawn with chalk markers. Such an original idea!

So, what’s your favorite part of the hotel? I have to say the colors. Interestingly, I would never have used these colors to decorate, but in this scenario they totally work. It goes to show you that sometimes the best design is something you would never choose and sometimes you need to step outside of your comfort zone and see what happens!

I’ve been reading Apartment Therapy almost since Maxwell started writing in 2003. I know there are people who love his site and read it every day, and people who read it here and there (like yours truly). He was one of the first design blogs I read that eventually changed to content written by many people about many topics. I’m not a big fan of that (there are so many contributors, not a small team like Grace from Design*Sponge has, so it’s hard to keep track of who is writing what and I find the constantly-changing writing tone disconcerting). I’m also not a big fan of how snarky the comments are on some posts either. But I supposed that’s some of the blog’s charm too, and it is certainly just as popular as it always was!

In any case, I’ve never entered a design contest before, but when I saw that they were holding a contest (on behalf of a bed company) called My Bedroom Retreat, I thought it was a good opportunity because I had been meaning to take pictures of our house for a House Tour page on this here blog and also it would give me a good opportunity to showcase one of the rooms in our house that is actually “done” – and I’m actually quite proud of it! I should mention however that this room has been finished since about 2008, I had almost no money to use in the design, and I’m quite unhappy with the type of paint we used (Benjamin Moore Natura, that had just been released, and we only discovered the paint store mixed it incorrectly, which explains a lot). In any case, I still love the room and I think it’s only natural to design the main bedroom in your house last, because it’s always easy just to close the door when there is company! I was determined to not let that happen, which is why it was one of the first rooms we worked on after buying the house in 2005.

Below is what I submitted (we were allowed 5 pictures and we had to answer the questions that are shown in bold):

What do you love about your bedroom?
We call it our New York State of Mind bedroom. We couldn’t believe that a Benjamin Moore paint was actually named after one of our favorite songs, and more importantly, after where we are both from (and sleeplessly plotting our return someday). We weren’t looking for such a saturated color, but once we saw the name, we took that as a sign from the universe! I love how our bedroom feels very “us” with a combination of design books (I’m the creator of Kristen Loves Design) and horror/writing reference books (my husband just published his first novel, Mad About Undead You). Everything about our cozy bedroom says “love” (to us) and feels like a sanctuary away from the world with a fireplace on one wall (it’s a heater!) and a television on the other (when teenagers are occupying our media room). We often joke that all we need is a small refrigerator and a coffee maker (like a hotel) and we might never come out. (As long as our two cats, Pixie and Dixie, are already in the room with us!)

What are your tips for creating a beautiful, healthy and organized bedroom?
First, decide how you want the room to feel. Light and airy? Dark and cozy? Smaller? Larger? Second, decide what you might need in the room. A ceiling fan for airflow? Bright reading lights? A sitting area? Storage? Once we decided that we wanted a cozy place we could retreat to, we decided the fireplace and television were a necessity, along with a dresser that had a ton of storage. I wanted the room to feel relaxing too, like a hotel, and not cluttered with papers and books and all of our other creative whatnot. I also wanted to be able to store linens and extra blankets at the foot of the bed, along with some family memories that are in decorative boxes here and there.

In modern homes, bedrooms have become more than just a place to sleep; they can be a retreat, a home office, a library, a relaxation zone. What are some ways you make the most of your bedroom?
We retreat from the world and usually end up in some combination of the following: 1 person/cat on bed writing/reading, 1 person/cat on chair writing/reading, 2 people/2 cats on bed writing/reading, 1 person running out to the kitchen to prepare snacks/tea/coffee while other person writes/reads with cats, and so on and so forth. When I say sleeplessly plotting our return to New York someday, I really mean it! While of course we sleep in our bedroom, we spend almost as much time working on and talking about our dreams. (Note that neither cat actually participates in said writing or reading activities – but they sure do sleep a lot while other people are working!)

Overall, the experience of getting the room set up was interesting and certainly an education in and of itself! I’ll write another post soon with the details of what to do and what not to do when you’re taking pictures of a room to showcase certain angles. All in all, I’m glad I actually followed through and submitted our bedroom – it was kind of fun!

For those of you wondering, my entry did not get chosen for the contest, and unfortunately was not given any feedback as to why.

Of course by now you know I love IKEA. I’ve only mentioned this amazing brand about 1,000 times already!

What I love about them though, specifically, is their innovation. Sure, I love to walk around the closest location (about 45 minutes away) as often as I can to dream. And I find just walking around there with a big coffee in-hand particularly inspiring and calming at the same time. But there is something about the organization, the cohesiveness, the creativity of the design that just really makes me feel at home. I could honestly spend all day there (and have), starting with a free coffee (one of the perks of being a IKEA Family member), a cheap-but-good breakfast, followed later by a meatball lunch (I find the kid’s portions are more reasonable), and then of course further followed by more coffee and almond cake. IKEA, more than any other interior store I’ve ever been to, seems to have this magical quality that makes me feel as if I could live this simple well-designed European life. And if my Carl and I have anything to do with it, we will.

So I spent a morning there recently when my Carl had some meetings in Cincinnati (a little further down the road) and I thought I would share with you some of the design inspirations I took away with me to implement sometime (and somewhere) in the future.

I love how classic and clean this room is. Sure I doubt we all actually live such color-coordinated lives, but I love the use of the darker gray-brown color contrasting with the white. It provides a strong contrast, but not too strong like how it would be if black or a brighter color was used. The bed has 2 full-sized drawers on each side for storage and the closets are deep and extend over most of the wall. The room feels surprisingly spacious, even though though the room is full of furniture, including a bench and a side chair! I think the paint treatment is quite unique (the darker color was more than a third of the wall), creating a cozy but still-airy feel. And of course I love the white floors -  I alternate between coveting white floors everywhere or well-worn natural wood instead. Someday!

The next room is a little more masculine than I usually prefer (and the color palette to me, while cohesive, looks about as interesting as watching paint dry), but I love the traditional feel mixed with the industrial lights and the almost country-style closet and dresser. Of course this bedroom is either meant to be in a house where the bedroom functions as a master bedroom suite or this is actually a studio apartment and the kitchen/bathroom would be on the other side of the room. Either way, I love that the couch faces the bed (perfect for late-night conversations), along with the rocking chair and the side table (add the couch throw pillows), and you actually have a room that can seat quite a few people quite comfortably. The ladders behind the bed might be one of the most creative uses I have seen for textile storage, and it also creates a pretty interesting headboard!

This next picture isn’t of a room per se, but a concept. I’m not a fan of really big televisions. Well to clarify, sure I enjoy watching some of my favorite shows on them (almost nothing is better than Game of Thrones and Mad Men on a huge screen), but considering the amount of time the television is actually off in our house, I want it to look like part of my house design the rest of time. I’m not sure how I feel about all this white (although I think it would look pretty amazing in a room with unique and colorful wallpaper), but I adore the concept. The television fades into the background, and just looks like part of the design of the wall unit itself. Add in some good styling and you could really create an showcase of interesting design, even if your television is wall-mounted and practically big enough to be seen from space!

One last design inspiration for the day was the way this map was hung on the wall. First, it reminded me how easy it is to create cheap “art” for the walls. Of course this map is printed on canvas and wrapped on a frame, but you could easily recreate it with any old map you might have around the house (with creases and all, it adds character), pulled and stapled around a simple wood frame from a craft store. There’s no excuse for empty walls! I also particularly liked the way the map was framed on the wall with paint. You can’t get any simpler than that. I don’t particularly like the red and the tan combination, but imagine if the wall was dark blue and you painted a wide, white border. Or even a black border on a lighter colored wall. The creative possibilities are cheap, easy, and endless!

So, what kind of design inspiration have you come across these days? Have you seen a display in a store and thought – I’m going to do that (someday)?