What's A Good Night's Sleep Worth?

Or how about 10 years of good night's sleep? I rarely came across posts on mattress in blogosphere. It's understandably so because in the decor world, mattress is relatively invisible compared to the lush bedsheets and pretty headboards in a bedroom. 

I recently went through a series of mattress shenanigans. It all began with our super comfy 12-year old mattress in our master bedroom starting to sag. Years ago we had the wits about picking a top-of-the-line model, and we had loved it ever since. Unfortunately in mattress world, manufacturers retire models faster than a chameleon changes colour. As you would expect, 12 years later our beloved mattress model was long gone. Here are a few things I learnt from my recent mattress buying experience:

• We are among those who claim they would prefer a "firm" mattress, while in reality it's the "support" that we are after. We just didn't know what we wanted. Two years ago we purchased a firmer eurotop mattress for one of our guest bedrooms. In my mind, firmness equals support which means less chance of sagging. We slept on the said mattress for a few nights and we both woke up miserable. Though supporting the pressure points throughout the body, the firmer mattress failed to hug our body contour and hence caused us shoulder pains. 
• A soft mattress can provide a lot of support. I want to feel weightless when I am in bed, so a good-quality eurotop or pillowtop would be my choice. 
• I am not a memory foam person, so I opted for a pocket coil type. The higher the pocket coil count, the more support you will get. 
• Temperature regulation: I love a cool and breathable mattress, so this was one of my selection criteria. 

After trying out many different options, we went with the Canadian made Kingsdown Duet Ireland, a 16-inch thick eurotop mattress with 2350 pocket coil - one of the highest counts in the marketplace today. Kingsdown is well known for its Palais Royale model which was unfortunately discontinued due to its price tag. The Duet Ireland is undoubtedly an investment piece, but it's well worth the splurge. When looking for a mattress replacement, you just need to ask yourself how much you are willing to pay for 10 years worth of restful sleeps. It's a no-brainer. Mattress is definitely not something you would want to thrift on. 

Spring Refresh - Part Deux

As mentioned in the Part I post of my spring decor refresh, I ordered a pair of these gorgeous black and cream silk velour pillows from CC Deux Vie for my master bedroom. This Spring I crave colour and style juxtaposition, so the outcome is a mix and match of my latest obsessions. 

I created two versions: black/cream pillows with pumpkin Hermes Avalon blanket. 

Or with black Hermes blanket. Which one wins your vote? 

Again, black?

Or pumpkin?

A spring refresh isn't complete without some much needed work outside of the house. This is the before with our old bronze wall lanterns above our new garage doors. 

This is the after with a larger pair of carriage style lanterns in black - they pair so much better with the black wrought iron hardware below. In case you are wondering, the new wall lights are from Lowes. I looked at many different options, and this one is my style/value choice. 

We have two gorgeous Limelight Hydrangea shrubs in our backyard. Hydrangea is known to be floppy-droopy due to its giant and heavy flowers. It's recommended to always plant edging shrubs like boxwood to support them. But of course I didn't know that, so I have to stake them. 

I call this my poor man's Hydrangea stake. I got the idea from here. We will see if it's strong enough to support the Hydrangeas when they all come out. 

Stripe Drapes

We have a spare bedroom on our second floor which we are yet to decorate. Hubs is using it as his home office for the time being when he is not in between airports. It's the first room we see when we get to the second floor, so I've had this itch to turn it into something more eye-pleasing.

I spotted this white and grey wide stripe linen fabric from Fabricland during a clearance sale and I took all the remaining stock. The deal was too good to pass, and I knew I could make good use of it.

And I was right! A few months later after a few hours of measuring and sewing, Mom effortlessly turned the fabric into these dreamy draperies/curtains I've always wanted. Fully-lined linen draperies like these easily go for hundreds of dollars -- I love a beautiful score like this!

This is a more close-up look of the horizontal wide stripe curtains. They are so versatile that they will work nicely with a home office, or another guest bedroom, or maybe even a nursery down the road.

Do you love the wide stripe curtains as much as I do? What's your typical decor jumping off point? I am gradually drawing the conclusion that mine is the fabric.

Bedroom Art

The DIY abstract art didn't work out for the master bedroom's giant wall. I came across these abstract minimalist ink drawings at Home Sense as I was cutting through the store to get to Banana Republic (btw, BR is having a store-wide 30% sale). They are very Henri Matisse-styled, and I love the simple yet flowing lines.

Abstract minimalist ink drawings in stretched canvas over champagne floater frames

AM Dolce Vita Master Bedroom 03182012

I am pretty happy the new additions continue and complement the bedroom's overall clean and simple look. How do you like it? Have you scored anything interesting for your home lately?

DIY Abstract Art

My first attempt at picking up oil painting again was two months ago when I painted a mini impressionist. I've also since been inspired by many abstract paintings in pastel color tone, and tantalized to try one for myself.

So here it is, one of my very few abstract paintings, titled "Rain". I've never actually spent much time studying or learning abstract, and the painting shows. I bought a floater-canvas combo set from DeSerres, and painted the frame in gold leaf.

I took the pictures at night so flash makes it blurry. Colors are also a bit off from the painting itself. I will take some more closeup pictures this weekend during the day just so you can see all the stroke details.

I left it in the master bedroom for the time being to add some colors to an empty wall. Do you like it? Does it belong in a bedroom?  

Bed and Bath

The furnishing and decorating our newly-finished basement is nowhere near complete. But for now I will share some pictures of the WIP bathroom and bedroom.

First up is the additional guest bedroom we added in the basement. We retired our old bed down there, and replaced with an upholstered one (more to come on the bed soon). The Imperial Trellis-alike bedding set was a score from a local HomeSense.

Remember the massive 4-door closet I bragged about before? Well here it is. I might be able to fit my entire wardrobe in there!

Now comes the exciting part -- a new bathroom we also added in our basement. I realized how difficult it was to photograph an almost-all-white bathroom with a lot of reflective surfaces.

Things took an interesting turn one day after I ordered the Hutton vanity from Restoration Hardware. I found a wannabe from a local bath store for almost 50% less. It was only natural for a deal-hunter like me to cancel the RS order and picked up the cheaper one instead. I still prefer RS' design, but quality wise they are almost identical.

Things I splurged on are:

• Floor tiles and accent: Bianco Carrara;
• Marble vanity countertop;
• Frameless floor-to-ceiling glass panels and door for the shower stall;
• Labour to give the bathroom a more custom look.

Things I thrifted on are:

• Vanity: well it's still not cheap;
• Bathroom hardware: they are from Rona.

So that's the skinny about our new bedroom and bathroom in the basement. More pictures and updates to come soon.

Master Bedroom

...is so far the most neglected room, design wise of course, in our house. I took a short break from our basement project and started to put together elements contributing to my dream master bedroom.

The first up is drapery. I ordered 12 yards of this ever-popular (and darn expensive) Windsor Smith Pelagos fabric in Mist from the States.

Overwhelmed by the excitement when it arrived, I started to cut them into panels at 108" in length each. It's not until I got to the last piece before I realized that oops, I only had about 80" left for the last panel, and that's not going to work. I phoned the fabric store and after one week of back-and-forth phone calls, they finally admitted it's their oversight and that they would ship out another 3 yards as long as I covered the shipping. If I thought that was a struggle I needed to think again -- it was only the beginning of a bigger nuisance. 

The fabric was shipped by a courier with the company sounding like "OOPS". The courier somehow misplaced the correct invoice so when they showed up at my doorstep they wanted almost $100 in broker & duty before they would release the package. It was supposed to be FREE and there shouldn't be any duty or broker fee involved since I paid for the shipping in full. I had to reject the package, and of course it was sent back to their depot for re-rate. One month later, yes folks, ONE FRIGGING MONTH later I finally received my last 3-yard of fabric! This courier company appears to be such a big well greased machine yet it couldn't handle any non-standard hiccup like this efficiently.

Anyhow, back to the positive thoughts. The drapes have been made and I will share some pictures later. As usual, I can't design a room without a mood board, so here you have it, my master bedroom design plan. 

Source (clockwise):

• Maria Theresa Crystal Chandelier - new purchase;
• Barcelona dressing table and bench - new purchase;
• Antique scroll mirror and bow-front dresser - own;
• Custom made upholstered bed - new purchase (existing bed is going to the basement bedroom);
• Elite Custom Furniture bedside tables - own;
• Crate & Barrel Vaughan chairs - own;
• Trellis rug - own;
• Bench custom upholstered in Bowlin Driftwood fabric - own;
• Windsor Smith Pelagos drapery in mist - new purchase;
• Paint: Valspar Polar Star.

I will post some Before & After pictures when I am done. Hope y'all have a great weekend.


Valbonne Bedroom Chair

At age 24 when I bought my first condo I stuffed it with contemporary and modern furniture. Though I had always been into decorating under my Mom's influence, chairs with boxy and clean outlines and dining table with tempered glass top were all that I liked. The next six years was a big blur as so many life-changing events happened such as finishing my MBA, getting married (while doing my part-time MBA and working full-time), changing career, moving twice, and paying off mortgage, etc. I rarely thought of moving furniture around or re-painting any walls at home during those years. And then when the dreadful and big "30" hit, I all of sudden realized "hey, it's time to live!". That's when we bought this new house from a builder, and that's when I realized it's now the French Provincial + Hollywood Elegant style that catches my eyes. This is what I'd like to call an "evolution" of my style preference, though Anthony would argue that I just "changed my mind (again)".

In early to mid twenties I would pay over $2,000 for a Le Corbusier style dining table just because it looked so darn good in the showroom. Right now I wouldn't commit to any furniture without surfing on the web for a few days and visiting a handful of favorite stores to compare prices. I am a proud deal hunter and there's nothing to be ashamed of. Take this Valbonne Chair for example, I paid $20 for the frame, sanded and painted it with a fresh coat of "antique white", and then had it re-upholstered for $95. The fabric originally came in red polka dots with fuchsia hot pink background. Not to make the chair look more juvenile than it already is, I used the flipped side of the fabric in solid fuchsia color. The fabric only cost me $3! So in total, a highly customized chair in my favorite color cost me $118...not bad for my first fixer-upper, eh? I haven't figured out where it will go in the house yet, but hey, it will be there when I finally get to it. :-)

Valbonne Chair in Fuchsia Fabric