A Pioneer Woman Pick My Presto

Hey there- and welcome to another installment of Pick My Presto!

This week, I thought I’d play around with a photo of the Drummond family’s “Long Room”.

A couple weeks back Mrs. Drummond, a.k.a Ree, posted some pics of the room on her blog, and talked about their plans to turn it into a room for their daughters.

She and the girls have decided they’re going to do all the makeover work themselves, and I’m so excited for them to be able to collaborate on this special project together!

The (just for fun) drawings I put together for them feature some of the ideas Ree blogged about (hopefully it will help her to sort of see them in the space), and some of her readers ideas (good call on the fun layout, Lauren!), and of course you’ll see a few of my own ideas thrown in there too. (Have I mentioned how much I love goin’ wild with Photoshop?)

Before I got started, I wanted to see little bit about the rest of that lovely home on the range, so I took a gander at some photos of some of the other rooms in their house and guest house…

They all say “contemporary rustic with a traditional twist” to me. Tradustorary? Rustempoditional? Hmmm…how ’bout we just call it Warm and Woodsy with a side of Ranch!

Next, I pulled together some pics of some elements that Ree said she loved in a recent blog post. Dark-stained, cubby-style wood shelving units; a pecan-stained, turned-leg coffee table;  and a clean-lined, charcoal gray sofa.

She also said she liked the fabric on the top of this bench, and this wood chandelier…

She listed “mauve, khaki, taupe, pale pink and barley” as some of her favorite hues, and said she’s thinking about using Flor carpet tiles on the floor on top of a wood laminate floor in the room. Here’s the inspiration pic she posted on her blog which sort of shows the look (not necessarily the colors) she’s thinking about…

Oh, and she loved the layout in this photo from Coastal Living magazine too…

So it looks to me like she’s into lots of texture; warm, earthy and sunset-toned colors; and woods that are on the warmer side too. Sweet!

I sent her a tweet asking her what kinds of things her girls were into before I hit the e-drawing board, and this was her tweesponse:

“My girls aren’t picky. It doesn’t need to be overtly girly, either. They’re easy!”

So I took my cues from colors that might be named things like Sheeps Wool, Prairie Peach, Worn Coral, Crushed Lavender, Tattered Twine, Cloudy Gray, Sunset Pink, Rustic Red, Wild Watermelon and Honeysuckle- and went to town creating some inspiration drawings.

For Drawing #1- I coated the walls in a “sheeps wool” color. An dark off-white that’s a little on the dusty side, so that the bright white furniture and trim would pop. One that would add a bit of contemporary flair, and that would be a little edgier than beige and friendlier than gray.

(Move your cursor on and off of the photo below to see the interactive version of the drawing. PS- Google Readers have to click over to our site to view this one!)

(Note: My drawing is for inspirational purposes only, and the ideas shown in it are just that. Spontaneous, totally flexible, just-for-fun, ideas. I didn’t include lighting, ceiling fans, and many other things that would obviously be necessary in the room. This is just about palette and pattern and throwing ideas around. And since this is a just-for-fun-photo-consultation, and not an actual-and-perfectly-to-scale-virtual-consultation, I have no idea if any of the furniture, ideas or accessories I used in the drawing would actually work in the room. Boom.)

After the walls were painted, I popped some wallpaper on both of the long walls. Again, this is just an idea, and you could go with a million different papers or even wall stencils if you like the idea, but when I saw Amy Butler’s contemporary take on a vintage floral pattern I was like, “Whoa. That kinda reminds me of the cover of Ree’s book.” Check it out, here’s the wallpaper:

And here’s Ree’s book…

Pretty cool, huh? The wallpaper I used in the drawing is called “Momento”. The description on the Graham & Brown site reads, “Momento is a wonderfully warm pop bouquet pulled from the fond memories of the happy floral designs Amy grew up with. This nod to flower nostalgia is made modern with its bold scale and fresh color.”

The wording made me smile, so I thought I’d include it in this post so that you would smile too! It runs $85 per roll, but if you’re just doing a couple of walls, it might just be worth the splurge! (?)

You’ll notice I also popped in a wood laminate floor and some Flor tiles so Ree could get a look at how that all might sort of come together.

And, of course, I had to throw in those awesome built-in beds too. Love those things!

A white-washed wood planked ceiling, barn-style closet doors (stained a luscious pecan color- mmmm!), a wall-full of white painted desks (maybe it’s just three white file cabinets, topped with a long table top?) and two, mismatched desk chairs complete the look.

I didn’t include them in the drawing, but on the wall above the desks I’d probably use some kind of organization boards, like these from Pottery Barn…

And a mirror would look mighty fine up there too. (Note: I didn’t show the organizers or a mirror in the drawing because they looked too tiny and blurry when I popped them in there and it was hard to even tell what they were.)

Here are some of the elements I pulled from around the weird wide web for the rest of Drawing #1:

(Wallpaper- GrahamBrown.com; “Shine” pillow, Desk, Striped Duvet, White Desk Chair- PBTeen.com; Rattan Desk Chair, Wood Trunk, and Jute-trimmed Pillow- PotteryBarn.com)

And while I was at it, I actually put together a few more drawings, that all feature slightly different ideas…

Drawing #2…a polka-dotted duvet…

Drawing #3…a couple wild watermelon walls and an indoor/outdoor rug…

Drawing 4…wild watermelon colored walls, an indoor/outdoor rug and a faux cow skin rug!

And because I remembered Ree mentioned possibly wanting to paint the walls a few different colors, I put together Drawing #5, which features a couple of sunset pink walls and a tiny slice of watermelon on the side!

I literally could have kept going and going and going (have I mentioned I’m obsessed with fiddlin’ around in Photoshop?) but my drawing hand eventually “suggested” I call it a day.

Anywho, before I sign off I also just wanted to take a sec to chime in on a few decorating-related questions Ree posted on her blog the other day. She asked,

“Where’s the best place to start? There are so many decisions to make. Wall color. Wall COLORS. Flooring choices. Flooring colors. What furniture to use. What furniture to refinish/repaint. Etc. Etc. Etc. Do you designers/design enthusiasts always start with the color scheme/painting plan? Or do you start with room/furniture arrangement? Or do you start with the floor/rug color you want first, and let everything build around that?”

Me personally, I always, always, always start with space planning. I think it’s the most important step to getting a room to function and feel comfortable. Back in the “old days”, I used to just buy furniture because I liked the way it looked, only to find out it totally didn’t work or fit into the room when I got it home. Not good. These days, I always work up a space plan first so that I know exactly how many pieces of furniture I’ll need and what size they need to be before I buy them!

Next, I move onto my “soft goods”. For instance, in this room, I’d start by picking out the bedding, because it tends to be the hardest thing (for me) to make a decision on. After that, I’d build the Flor rug around some of the colors in the bedding. And when that’s all nailed down, it would be easy to pick out the perfect wall color(s) by looking at paint samples up against the fabric and rug choices. Last but not least, I’d finish by choosing/building the furniture and accessories. That way, if something works shape/size/functionality-wise, but it’s not the right color, it’ll be easy breezy to paint it out in a color that coordinates with the new palette!

That being said, there are no set-in-stone rules, and what works for one person, may not work for another. The main thing is to have fun…by following your own instincts and creating a place that celebrates and echos who you and your family are!

Wanna submit a photo for our Pick My Presto series?

Send an email to LaylaPalmer [at] aol [dot] com titled, “PICK MY PRESTO- Living Room“. (Replace the words Living Room with whatever type of room you’re actually submitting.) In the body of the email, include your name, your blog name (if you have one) your design likes & dislikes, and one photo of the space in question. (No links please.) It should be clear, and measure at least 400 pixels high x 600 pixels wide. (In other words: at least 4″high x 6″ wide) The bigger the better though! Make sure it’s a photo you’re comfortable with us showing and writing about on our blog. Then, whenever I’m feelin’ the urge, I’ll randomly select someone’s email and have a little fun creating some traditional or cottage style presto change-o inspiration. Oh, and since I love surprises, I probably won’t email you to let you know I’ve “picked your presto” unless I have a specific question for ya about your space.