Painted blue

Mural | Chandelier | Desk | Chair | Fringe Stool | Vase | Peonies | Table Lamp | Credenza (similar) | Mirror | Buffet Lamps | Floor Lamp | Planter | Faux Tree

We went with Benjamin Moore Boothbay Gray. I held up a paint deck to the mural and focused on the light bluish gray that I originally wanted to color match to. Then I found a swatch that was a little more gray because I knew once it was on the wall, the saturation of it will look more colorful on the walls.

While we were at High Point, I got this one of a kind, vintage rug from Loloi you see in the photo above. Truthfully, I secretly want to move it to the dining room. The logical side of me is worried it’s going to get stuff dropped on it. Because it will. But it’s also a perfect pattern to hide that. I’ve been feeling like I want to add some color and pattern to the dining room, but wallpaper wasn’t sitting right… right now. So a rug makes a lot more sense! You know when you have that one really great piece that will work anywhere so you want to try it everywhere. I think it is this rug. And I think the dining room would be a really great spot for it.

As for a rug for the study–now that I’ve gone through my inventory–I do think this room would benefit from a light, neutral, solid color, textured pattern rug. You know the kind where the pattern is in the texture. Subtle. Classy. 

As for everything else, it’s still not clicking for me, and I’m not forcing it because the function is there. And I think I know a few key issues. 1. There isn’t anything modern to balance out the super traditional. 2. Everything is kind of the same height as the chair rail–minus the mirror, which is why the mirror is there.

Desk | Chair | Rug | Fringe Stool | Chandelier | Lamp | Basket

Function wise, we know this is a great landing spot for an office because we use it daily. Like we can’t imagine not having it. But we desperately need more storage, like filing cabinets and bookcases for the stacks of books and papers that are always in here if this is going to be the permanent study. This would also help with adding more height to the space. I’ve thought about doing built-in bookcases and even identified a spot where we wouldn’t be covering any people in the mural–but I haven’t moved forward with it yet because I think I’m scared. And then it dawned on me that I’ve been treating this mural as art in my head, and I need to treat it more like wallpaper. It’s a printed wallpaper. It wouldn’t be a big deal to cover some of it with bookcases–It would help!  (I’m convincing myself, here)

I definitely do want to do sconces on the walls and also window treatments will help. Will this particular desk stay or go? No one knows. Will we add french doors? That would be nice! In my lull of creativity, I’m trying not to make any huge decisions and instead be patient with myself. The room is being used. I’m in the next phase of “this feels better to me.”

Recently, I came across an image of a beautiful room, engulfed in a mural, much like this room–but it was a formal dining room. It appealed to me so much. It was beautiful. And I thought THIS COULD BE A FORMAL DINING ROOM. But, then I came back down to reality and the truth of the matter is–in a pinch, this could ABSOLUTELY be a formal dining room. For one special night, sure. Let’s move the furniture and go all out. But day to day, I really love our spaces to be spaces that function for the way that we live and the study as a study is a space we use every day while a formal dining room—it would be so rare. It would be a showroom. And I don’t want to live in a showroom.

Some spaces are before and afters easily, and some spaces continue to evolve and evolve and evolve and I think this will likely be one of those spaces. I’m not looking for advice. I’m just sharing the design process and some rooms come together easily some start with a have to have (the mural), and continue to evolve. Both are just fine.