One of the reasons I love travel so much is that I feel most inspired when I am in a new place.   I am at my most observant upon arrival, taking in what I want to photograph, what I find the most special about the environment, what feels fresh and what I can create there.    After a long summer away, I took in our home with similar fresh eyes and excitement but also with a newfound appreciation for how important it is to feel rooted at this stage in our lives.

Perhaps some of that fresh excitement was also due to our new bed which arrived just before we left for most of the summer.  We were so grateful to have an opportunity to design it with The New Traditionalists in New York (made in Connecticut) this past winter, and were thrilled to see it come to life.   Some of you caught a peek in this post here which explained more about our design process/experience but we just showed a snippet of the bed in that post.   This was because we still have things we’d like to do to our bedroom and were only home for a flash and a flurry but, I wanted to show you a bit more of it in context now that we have started nesting again.    [one_half padding=”0 8px 0 2px”] [/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 8px 0 0px”] [/one_half_last]

While our bedroom still has some aesthetic changes I would like to make (swapping out bedside tables, adding some lighting, etc.),  we are over the moon with the bed and so taking the rest at a leisurely pace; truly we have more than enough already and feel the ingredients for a serene bedroom are all here: cozy fabrics, candles, textures, gentle colors…

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The bed is obviously the central feature of the room.   I absolutely adore the Schumacher headboard, and have always loved four posters (I grew up sleeping in a much narrower one).    One thing that I loved about working with The New Traditionalists is that you can select any paint color for your piece.   I went with a very clean white which felt appropriate for our sun-drenched city.  I have always loved the peaceful combination of white and blue, and the headboard lends a less obvious french blue shade.  Also, we are also both sleeping very well so high off the ground…

We aren’t the only ones who are thrilled with how it is all coming together…

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A few other touches I always try to add to make our room feel more complete, no matter what “stage” it is in are: layers of soft textures for coziness, photographs of family to bring joy and happy memories, peaceful art (in this case, I have Japanese mirrors and English plates, both from my grandmother), and good coffee table books which I often look through in the morning to maximize time off my phone….

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My new favorite shoes!  More on those shortly…xx