As a young woman, the glamorously feminine bedrooms of Old Hollywood movies always held a special allure for me — Think Grace Kelly’s iconic bedroom in High Society, for instance. After I was married and was to share a bedroom with my husband, however, decorating decisions became a bit more complicated — Did the bedroom need to please both him and I? With no opinions on design, how was I even to know what would please him? These sorts of questions, along with the modern thinking of our era which DOES suggest going into a sort of “neutral design mode” (Oh, horror!!!) once married weighed heavily until I came across the great Mario Buatta’s opinion on the matter, “If you are a woman and you want a pink bedroom, then you should have a pink bedroom, because the man in your life is only going to notice you anyway,” he said. Being in COMPLETE agreement that, of course, I WAS to be the most important thing in the bedroom, the rest is history, and I went with Farrow & Ball’s iconic (and very English) Ground Pink.
Shop the Room
Gallery Wall
Two lovely, pink-velvet matted prints which belonged to my grandmother became the centerpiece of a most beloved gallery wall and are among the treasures I hold most dear, while the vintage (and very fine) silhouettes which accompany were thrifted at a local Washington D.C. estate sale.
Pictured: The “thinking” and first stage of gallery walls here at Tallwood — laid out on the floor; here, atop a vintage thrifted Aubusson rug.
Antiques And Vintage Finds
Most of the rest of the Master Bedroom here at Tallwood is either antique or vintage thrifted. An antique oil painting, after Jean Honorè Fragonard’s famous The Pursuit, was a birthday gift from my husband and hangs above a lovely vintage hand-painted table sourced via our local Craiglist. Lamp is a French antique; hat with vintage ribbon is available via Sarah Bray Bermuda; and monogrammed ginger jars are available via June St. George.
The above images are from a shoot for Victoria Magazine, in which I had the delightful opportunity to work with one of Bunny Mellon’s esteemed former gardeners, Desiree Lee, now of Hunt Country Gardeners here in Virginia. She shared that Mrs. Mellon kept Jelly Jars on hand, so that, as larger arrangements were made, the “leftover” or broken flowers could be saved instead of wasted and used in smaller arrangements for the bedrooms at Oak Spring. We have since followed suit!
The In-Between
I would be remiss in signing off without mentioning that I consider our Master Bedroom (and the adjoining Master Bath) to be far from finished — I dream of many things, not the least of which is an additional painted floor à la Lee Radziwill to replace the tired (though very fine) carpet, a canopy bed, etc…. Having said that, we are in no hurry, as I have learned that there is much joy in the journey and, as the saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait.”
Get the look
