While summer style often means outdoor style, we highly recommend infusing your entire living space with a seasonal freshness. That’s why we were so excited to discover Dawn from Inspired Living‘s latest decorating project — a bedroom refresh that adds lightness and summer style to her home. We particularly loved her styling of her étagère. We caught up with Dawn to ask her a few questions about this lovely look
Do you always do a summer refresh for your bedroom?
“I like to change out accessories and bedding often and sometimes it coincides with the seasons, as it did here.”
We love how you used the candlesticks for your floral arrangements. Is this something you’ve done before? It looks great!
“Thanks! This is the first time I tried this and I like the way it turned out! I really wanted to use a plant or flowers of some sort on the étagère but everything else I put there was too heavy for the space. The candlesticks added height and presence to the blooms without taking up too much visual space.”
Tell us a little more about styling the étagère.
“It can be a challenge to style an étagère, or even bookshelves, because it often times borders on looking cluttered — at least for me anyway. To stop the space from feeling cluttered, I grouped like items together. I stuck to frames on the bottom shelf and books on the middle shelf. Also, while I have a lot of items on here, they mostly keep within the whites, creams, and golds I used in our bedroom, which unites the objects in this space.”
The vintage books are perfect here! What’s their history?
“I love these books! For some time, I’ve kept my eye out for older books that had time worn pages to them. This set has the perfect look and it happens to be very neutral. I found this entire 14 book set of “Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great”, circa 1928, gathering dust in a bin at Goodwill. The week before I saw these, I had just heard that often time estates give away old books not realizing the value. So, I did a quick Google search at the store, which helped me find an identical set that sold on EBAY for $125 and another listed on ebay for $225. At $8 for the entire set, I couldn’t get them into my cart fast enough!”
What Pottery Barn products did you use here? Why did you choose them?
“The candlesticks and votives are Pottery Barn. I move the candlesticks around the house often; they are really versatile. The vintage looking clock is Pottery Barn’s Charleston Clock. I chose this because I really wanted an old looking clock but I needed it to work, too. I’m not always patient enough to look for the perfect vintage item and Pottery Barn always comes in handy here!”
How long did this bedroom refresh take? Would you recommend it to other readers?
“This refresh didn’t take long at all as I have a very neutral room to begin with. I can tell I’m getting bored with my rooms when I start flagging almost every page in the Pottery Barn catalogue for styling ideas! Once I come up with a direction for the refresh, it’s just a matter of changing out a few key items, such as the bedding and tabletop accessories. So yes, I would recommend this to other readers!”
Read more about Dawn’s styling and decorating adventures on her blog, Inspired Living!
Beautiful!
My first visit to your PBS blog! I am RE-styling my small office / guest room and your blog ideas are coordinating with my style. I am a vintage designer and I am loving the industrial shelving. I am considering the Clarissa flush mount crystal light and have chosen Dovetail Grey by Sherwin Williams for the wall color!