After a Makeover, This Bedroom Feels Like a Dreamy Blue “Sanctuary”
A color-drenched paint effect (aka painting the walls, trim, and ceiling all the same color) is not always possible for a renter if there are lease stipulations about painting the ceiling, but Rosaline Elbay got pretty close in her Boerum Hill apartment’s bedroom.
“If this weren’t a rental I probably would have color drenched completely, but I settled with just drenching the closet doors,” Rosaline says. Paint is what makes her bedroom, once a blank white box, feel more personal.
The renter doubled down on blue.
Rosaline painted the bedroom walls Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue, which she says gives the room a “cozy and ancient” feel. “When I first painted it in Inchyra Blue, I think I was afraid of allowing the rest of the elements, like the drapes … to be dark,” she says. “ I was fighting it with linen curtains and lighter colours and it never felt quite right.”
Now, she has dark blue curtains, a blue tapestry, and as she mentioned, she also painted the closet doors — plus the radiator — blue. “I did have a couple of friends who worried about my bedroom becoming too dark, but since I did it, my girlfriends who’ve come for sleepovers have loved it,” Rosaline says.
There are smaller painted details, too.
Rosaline says she especially likes the way the blue looks with the stars she painted on the thrifted frame above the bed and the stripes on the tables. “I think it’s really pulled all the existing elements together,” she says.
The striped nightstands are painted with the same blue hue as the walls, as is the picture frame, and the latter is an especially good idea for a renter going after a color-drenched look.
The bedroom is a lesson in designing with your gut.
As for the furniture, it’s a lot of heirloom pieces. “A lot of the pieces in there are unique heirlooms from Siwa, [Egypt] that were gifted or made for me and my family, so the theme came together very organically,” Rosaline says. The pendant light is from Etsy, and the bedding is from 21Tara.
The biggest design lesson she learned in decorating her bedroom was “to embrace what a space is becoming, or how bold my instincts can be, instead of shying away.” Now, her bedroom “feels like being ensconced on a lake in a little Siwan sanctuary.”
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