Naomi – Author at Plaster & Disaster

It’s hard to believe that it has been over a year since I set out to makeover my bedroom in early 2016. I have learned a lot in that time – mainly that I am not good at making over rooms in a reasonable time frame. I like to go slow and if I’m not “feeling it,” I’d rather move on and work on something else for a while.

However, today I am thrilled to finally declare the room DONE and get to share it with you all!

But first, a trip back to where we started. When we bought the house, this was a small beige room with warped luan board walls and tiny windows. In our renovation before we moved in, we added a new bay window and re-did the walls in plaster. We painted and furnished it with mismatched pieces that we brought from our previous bedrooms and called it a day.

It was livable but not that pretty, even with my best attempts at blogger-styling. So what does it look like now?

I’m crazy about this room. Most of my house is bolder and filled with primary colors, so it is nice to have a softer space to retreat to for bed.

It is also lovely to wake up here, because the light streams in and the room feels very bright and happy.

I love the wall color (Iced Slate by Benjamin Moore). It changes in different lights, sometimes looking gray, sometimes blue, and sometimes with a purple undertone. I warmed it up with a rug I found on craigslist for $150. The pattern and colors are perfect, and the yellow accents in it picks up the color of my painted doors.

With uncharacteristic restraint, I went with clean white bedding: this duvet cover and these sheets, both from West Elm. They are simple, but have nice details and texture that makes them feel special.

Another favorite moment in this room is Brad’s super cool dresser. This is one of the few pieces of Brad’s furniture that have made it as a permanent part of our decor, and it is pretty amazing. He bought it in New Mexico and liked it so much that he had it transported all the way to Massachusetts.

It is actually the main reason why the room is the color that it is: I wanted a darker color in there, but knew that this piece would look better in a light room.

I am also thrilled with the light fixture, which is a bit of a crazy choice for a bedroom. I found it at Brimfield, had it rewired, and then finally installed it a few weeks back as one of the finishing touches to the room.

I feel like it adds a little edge to the serene space, and therefore ties the room in a little bit with the rest of the house.

Here are the major projects that went into this room:

Hang shelves in the corner: This asymmetrical choice was actually Brad’s idea, and I used a pricey red oak board because I wanted the warm wood tone to stand out. (You can also check out how I styled them.)

DIY Bedside Tables: I resisted the blogger urge to do a RAST hack, and used some flat pack bedside cabinets from Home Depot to create bedside tables of the perfect size and style that I was looking for. I also had to learn how to install hanger-bolts to get my MCM legs to work…

Custom Storage Bench: With a narrow space at the foot of the bed, I couldn’t find a bench that would fit but I really wanted the storage. I built my own in a simple but modern shape, and finished it to match my red oak shelves.

Hanging Tapestry: I had a lot of wall space to fill with new art, and I wanted the space to be soft and flowy, so a tapestry was the way to go! I spent a while looking for my favorites, and then hung it with a thick wood strip along the top so it wouldn’t look tacked up like in a college dorm.

Personalized Art: I wanted to incorporate a picture of me and Brad in this room, and so when Sage and I challenged each other to create wall-worthy art from snapshots, it was the perfect opportunity. I also got to echo the yellow color again to tie everything together.

And the things that shouldn’t have taken so long:

Covering that Hole in the Wall: I had “grate expectations” for a quick and easy project to cover up the ducts in our walls with wall grates, but it ended up being a tumultuous and ultimately ambiguous endeavor.

Painting the Divided Light Window Sashes: Finishing this room finally gave me the motivation to paint the window sashes throughout my house – a long project that I had been putting off since replacing the windows a couple of years ago. Key lesson learned: just get the windows that are already white.

Buying Lamps: It took forever to pick out lighting to go on either side of the bed, and embarrassingly that is the real reason why this room took so long to finish. I wanted matching ones to counter the asymmetry of art and shelves, but I couldn’t find the perfect choice. I pulled together a list of my favorites all the way back in March and ultimately decided to go with lamps over sconces, but nothing was quite right. Finally, I got sick of waiting and got these ones from West Elm on a whim when they were on sale for $60 each.

They’re not my favorite lamps objectively, but I really like them for the space. They go well with the other lighting and the vibe of the space. I only wish they were a little taller.

Thanks for checking it out! I am sure that I’ll keep fussing with this room and changing things now and then, but overall I’m satisfied with where it is now and I look forward to stopping working on it and thinking about it for a little while!

Last week I shared the new lights that Brad and I got and installed recently and I’m happy to report that we still totally love them. A lot.

In that post, I breezily mentioned that we picked these out after I spent a while searching for my favorite. Well, welcome to the depths of my insanity, because I am pretty sure that I looked at around 10,000 different lights over the course of a couple of years on every website that I could find that sold them. I’m not exaggerating – that is my honest best estimate.

Why so crazy? I think that everyone who is into decorating has a few things that they are particularly obsessed with and notice first when they come into a space. For me, it is the lighting. I love statement lighting, and it was hard to reconcile that with the idea that we have low ceilings and a lot of other things going on in our house, and so reasonably tame flush mounts were the way to go. And even once I reconciled with that I was still convinced that they had to the the perfect reasonably tame flush mounts if I were ever going to sleep peacefully again.

Since I put so much into it, I figure that you all might as well benefit from that work through a roundup of my favorites. Flush mount roundups have been done to death, but I think they’ll keep being popular because finding something that is compact and stylish is just hard. I’ve broken down my favorites into three categories – ones that are simple but still lovely, ones with more of a personality/POV, and flush mounts that are really chandelier substitutes for those with low ceilings. (I should also add the disclaimer that really this is a flush and semi-flush mount roundup, that affordable is something that everyone will define for themselves, and that the listed prices aren’t a guarantee but are just what the lights were being sold for on the day I pulled together my final list.)

Simple & Reasonable Flush Mounts

This is the category of light that I ended up buying – not a light that is going to make a big statement, but something that is attractive and that will complement the decor. These won’t take over the room but won’t fade into the background, either.

1 / Esdale 1-Light Oil-Rubbed Bronze Flushmount ($35 via Home Depot): A nice simple school house style light – I love them for the price! We may put them in our less used spaces.

2 / Cedar & Moss 8 Semi-Flush ($159): Pretty affordable, and these would go really well with MCM or modern styles.

3 / Otis 4″ in Antique Black with Opal Drum Shade ($177): As you know, these are the lights we ended up getting. There are cheaper school house lights, but I hadn’t found any with the same squat profile that I liked so much. They only come down about 8″ and are understated and quaint. I love them!

4 / Satellite 2.25″ with Factory Shade No. 3 ($168): Another from Schoolhouse Electric, and the shade also comes in different colors if you want something more bold.

5 / CB2 Bell White Flush Mount ($60): Very small, but very cute and affordable. They might get dwarfed in a big room but for a bathroom or small office, they’re awesome.

6 / Art Deco White Glass Ceiling Light ($99): I considered these as a more ornate version of a school house style, at a better price than the ones I got.

7 / The Intermediate Schoolhouse ($152): Awesome stripes if you want something with just a little more “oomph.” It also comes in different colors.

8 / Sleek Cylinder Ceiling Light ($178): An actual flush mount! This is a great “boob light” replacement if you need something really trim to the ceiling. I like that the light isn’t hiding (it’s not white/pretending to be recessed lighting) but the shape is so simple that it will be understated.

Affordable Flush Mounts With A Point of View

I kept saving lights like these, even though I knew I needed something simpler. These have a distinctive style and would add a lot to a room. I really love them all!

1 / Hollywood Small Semi Flush Mount ($270): Pricier, but I love the design and detail on this! Would be awesome if you don’t have a ton of pattern already and could use a little more.

2 / Clear Glass Prism Pentagon Ceiling Light ($169): Love the shape, and it would go great with a more “modern blogger” style room.

3 / Bowdoinham 1 Light Semi Flush Mount ($79 via Wayfair): This is definitely affordable, and has a great hit of color! It comes in other colors, as well. I don’t love the shape as much as the Schoolhouse Electric one in the above list, but it is less than half the price.

4 / Cedar & Moss Spectra ($189): These are awesome (as you can see it comes in two colors) but I don’t think the bare bulb look would be right for my rooms. For the right space, though…

5 / Cedar & Moss Aurora Surface ($269): This is a really nice “pendant alternative” if you need something semi-flush. I think it would look odd in the middle of a big room, though?

6 / Modern Ringed LED Ceiling Light ($168): An actual flush mount, and an LED no less! With the strong black and gold look, I actually think this is a flush mount that can be “glam.” I didn’t think that was possible.

7 / Marshall Craftsman Flush Ceiling Fixture ($175): This would add a ton of character/substitute for architectural detail in a house. My house isn’t craftsman at all, or this would have been a strong contender.

Semi-Flush Mounts for When You Really Want a Chandelier

Finally, there are the extravagant semi-flush mounts – the ones that are actually chandeliers that have just been squashed up to the ceiling. I love these and kept saving ones like them, but for the price and the “busyness-factor” they weren’t right for me. However, if you have low ceilings and want to splurge for something to go over the dining table or to dress up a space, they’d be perfect.

1 / Hollywood Large Semi-Flush Mount ($325): Slightly stretching the definition of a semi-flush mount here – but this would be great over a low-ceilinged eating area or bedroom.

2 / Cedar & Moss Voyage ($259): I am crazy about this and wish I could fit it into my home – it has the vibe of a cool, modern sputnik-ish chandelier, but less than 2 feet from the ceiling.

3 / Zazu 12 Light Flush Mount ($1030): Okay, this is not affordable. Don’t I know it. This is like a flush mount version of my favorite chandelier of all time, and I probably would have changed up my entire decor just to make it possible to have them in every room. Of course my house would have looked like crazy-town (in a bad way) to have theme everywhere. But I still had to include them here.

4 / Sphere + Stem Flushmount ($329): This would work in a more ornate style room, or in a simple dining room.

5 / CB2 Vega Brushed Brass Flush Mount ($250): This would totally substitute for a fancy dining room chandelier – just check out the look that you can get with a similar one here.

Well. That was a lot of thoughts about flush mounts that I have been bottling up for years. Hopefully it was helpful (or enlightening – ha!) to someone. And please let me know if you found other favorite flush or semi flush mounts that I missed!