A Paris bedroom

When we bought our town home almost 2 years ago, we decided that we would decorate our rooms in themes of different cities.  We looooove to travel, so we thought it would be a cute way to fill our house with items that are meaningful to us because of that love.  Plus, it's SO fun to shop for stuff, so many of my fave home stores (HomeGoods, TJMaxx, Ross, Marshalls, even Target) sell "country" themed items. 

Our bedroom is themed around Paris.  I have been twice, Dave has never gone but wants to so badly because I talk about it alllll the time.  We are actually planning a trip to go this summer, hopefully!  I can't think about it, it gets me way too excited.  So anyways, we bought a normal bedroom set from Gardiners when we bought our home.  It's all the same, kinda matchy, but really nice furniture.  My aunt & uncle got us a very nice bedding set for our wedding, and I bought black out type brown curtains to match, since Dave has to sleep during the day.  I had some artwork from Paris, and my old apartment, and things I swiped from my mom that I put up on the walls, and I added some Eiffel Tower type accents to the room.

It's still not right.  As I am learning about design, I want my room to look Parisian.  Not because it has Paris stuff IN it, but that it has that Paris feel to it.  I used Pinterest and my memories and thoughts of Paris to help me get ideas to vamp up this room. 

First I had to think of a color palette.  Our walls are already painted this beautiful green called Fresh Guacamole, its soft and lovely and a nice Paris green.  I have cream and brown accents in here now, in the  curtains and the bedding, but that needs to change.  It's way too earthy for Paris!  I am planning on adding purple as my main accent color, with white as well.  Plus the dark brown accent of the furniture.  I have an idea book that I have dedicated to home decor, I write down projects and ideas in here - it helps me narrow down what I want, because it changes constantly!

That's the book!  Here are my color inspirations...

I wanted to change the artwork above the bed.  The art I had up there was a means to an end, I didn't have anything and mom gave me these four little hand painted Paris pics, so I threw them up there right after we were married to have something on the wall.

I didn't really like the black frames with the dark brown furniture, but the pics are very sweet.  Way too small for that wall though.  I thought about it for a few weeks I figured out I wanted a French looking picture, but not a pic of Paris or anything, and I wanted it to have purple in it.  I envisioned something with flowers...a cool French pic with flowers.  At Target tonight I wandered to their small art section and found the perfect piece!!

It's perfect.  It's French, its vintagey (its a word! lol) and it's bigger scale for this big wall.  It has a touch of green like the walls, and purple and creamy white accents, with a muted black color in it that looks like our furniture.  It's the "one"!!!!

Next I need to update our bedding, I want a beautiful, sort of frilly, white fluffy set.  With vintage white and green and purple like pillows.  I want to update my black out brown curtains with something else.  Maybe white.  Maybe lilacy white.  I still have to think about that.  I want to also possibly add white netting around our bed.  I have no idea how to do that yet, I don't want that mosquito net thing, I want it to be more like a canopy.  Romantic.  I want to take off the mirror that came with our bedroom set and find a more Parisian one, one with character.  I also want to switch out my night stand with a stack of old suitcases.  It's easier to show you my inspiration from Pinterest!  To see the whole board, click here :







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I love Parisian and vintage accents...







and I love this Paris wallpaper!  I have this tiny built in book shelf on the wall opposite our bed, I and think maybe I'd do something like this on the back wall of that inset shelf?  How sweet would that be??



We have this ugly light and fan that I'd love to replace with a romantic chandelier.  I would have to convince Dave to let me nix the fan altogether then...I don't know if we want that?




Those are my ideas.  I get all excited about a room and go crazy thinking about it, and dreaming it up.  I am so happy that I found that picture at Target tonight.  I love dreaming and all, but I like actually DOING things to spruce up the room too!

More updates to come as I add more and change more!!