The Joy of Separate Bedrooms

Luxury houses over the years have added a whole lotta bells and whistles to entice buyers to choose a home.

They've added his and her's walk in closets.

Double vanity sinks.

Whirl pool bath tubs.

A room large enough for a king size bed and sitting area.

BUT

as the baby boomers have aged, once again we are creating our own little demographic needs.

We be a big group of buyers!!!!!

We be "young" agers!!!!!

annnddd.......WE ALL SNORE.

(And if you think you don't, that's because you have a spouse that falls into a deep sleep and stays that way for the whole night.)

(Or one that's afraid of you, so he or she doesn't want to mention it.........)

(Or you really don't and can feel all superior over the rest of us.)

('Cuz I knows that I does!!!!!!!!!!!) 

Soooooooooo.......

a new category of luxury has sprouted out of the needs of the super lucky.

In olden times......

 the wealthy classes had separate bedrooms for married couples.

I think this was because lots of folks married for reasons other than intimacy.

 I mean, you had to have your heir and a spare,

but after that you could retreat to your own room to be left the hell alone from this guy with whom your parents needed a union that would strengthen the southern border of your families holdings.

(FYI, the southern border of my holdings is the edge of my terrace, but then, there's less to weed!!!!!)

ANYWAY...

I've written before about the wonder of separate bedrooms as we age.

Sooooooo.....

Back to decorating.

Connie and Chris's new home has a master suite.

There is a master bedroom which I have been showing you for the past couple of months because I don't post my blog as often as I used to.

Then I showed Connie's bathroom.

WELL!!!!!

This all falls within the walls of the master suite.

It has a Master bedroom, 

back to back bathrooms 

(I know, I know, how many of you are jealous out there over the idea of not sharing a bathroom with your nearest and dearest?????)

And it has a "study".

Now, I am sure that some of the folks that have lived in this house have used this room as a study.

but really?????

This set up is just screaming for his and her's bedrooms.

Since the whole suite is off a hall WITH A DOOR that  separates it from the rest of the house, it really is it's own little world,

 allowing time together and then the luxury of uninterrupted sleep.

Even the Wall Street Journal has had an article on this in their Mansion section.

Sooooooo

In Connie and Chris's new home that's what they have.

We were able to use most of Chris's furniture from their beach side home.

Remember this room?

It was his old bedroom.

In the new house there was an existing lovely green rug that I needed to work into the design.

Unfortunately those great lamps and the bedding had to go, as they worked against the new scheme.

So we pulled off the orange paisley spread and shams, and started with the feel of the rug.

There was a big blank wall by Chris's bed.

Well.....

you know what I do with a big blank wall?????

I cover it!!!!!

Connie had found this wonderful framed map of Ireland.

The colors and masculine feel of it was perfect for Chis's room.

Just because she doesn't sleep there, doesn't mean she doesn't spend a lot of time there, so she wanted it to look good for when she's in the room

she still wanted it to be a handsome space for the man she loves.

She thought it would be too big.

I told her "you always think things will be too big"

Soooooo,

I ignored her and we got it and it wasn't too big!!!!!

It's a map of Ireland.

Chris's background is Italian.

Connie's background is Irish.

We told Chris that this way he could think of her when he looks at the map!!!!!

(We just hadn't been able to find a map of Italy, but don't tell him that.....)

We fond perfect lamps at Pottery Barn that matched the color of the rug, they have a somewhat rustic feel which goes along with the world traveler vibe that I wanted in this space.

The lamps were on display on a very high shelf in the store.

They had none on the showroom floor.

So we first ordered a pair of the larger ones.

well.......

Too big!!!

So then we ordered the smaller pair, I was starting to feel like Goldilocks.......

The smaller ones were just perfect and we were able to use the lamp shades from Chris's old bedside lamps.

We found bedding that worked with the cream color of the draperies.

We wanted to keep everything simple and creamy and peaceful.

As you can see in the picture above, we also added simple white linen draperies with a tailored pleated valance.

The window had a weird wood cornice,

 so I had the board covered by Velcroing the valance to the board.

We were able to use Chris's chair and chest and mirror from his old bedroom which made him very happy,.

Below is a shot of the wall with the map after we added the simple draperies.

What a difference fabric makes to the coziness of a room.

Chris and Connie are avid travelers and have picked up many meaningful mementos in their wanderings. 

This is an autographed hand print of Nelson Mandela's hand!!!!

I had it re-matted to work better with the map.

It had a black mat that was too harsh in the room, so I added an aged colored mat over it, leaving just a line of the  old mat to outline the hand.

It's just all the little details that add up to create a cohesive look.

Look at what hanging something on the wall and adding draperies can do to making a room cozy and inviting.

So,

that's all I got for today, Kampers.....

on that note,

Latah, Gatah