Moody Blue Bedroom Reveal

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Today on the blog, see how we transformed a client’s main bedroom with moody colours, fabulous fabrics, and some custom finishes.

We seamlessly integrated some furnishings the client already had, which were timeless, elegant pieces, without compromising the design in any way.

This interior design ‘refresh’ project is the perfect example of how we sometimes work with clients looking to make small yet impactful decorating updates that can dramatically transform a space.

My client said at our final meeting, “I feel like I’m in a luxury hotel!”.

That’s just the look and reaction we were going for. Let’s dive in.

The Client

This project came to life thanks to a lovely local client in a similar stage of life as I am—embracing that partially empty-nester season. With her kids mostly grown, she was ready to turn the spotlight back on herself and update her main bedroom and ensuite.

Full view of principal bedroom before redesign, featuring four-poster bed, beige walls, dark wood furniture, and bay window with brown accent chairs, interior makeover by clairejefford. — BEFORE: Full view of the bedroom before, featuring a four-poster bed, beige walls, dark wood furniture, and with brown accent chairs

The ensuite makeover will be revealed in our next blog post.

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Our client’s large principal bedroom had good bones—we just needed to breathe a bit of new life into it.

She had a great sense of style and was very open to my ideas, especially when I suggested going for a bold and moody look. Yay!

Location

This refresh took place right here in my home town of Burlington, Ontario, on a stunning, large rural property surrounded by trees.

Assignment

Our goal was to dramatically refresh this deeply personal and private area of the home. The layout of the furniture was perfect! So there was no need to do floor plans, which is rare for most interior design projects we take on.

The client wanted to keep some of her existing furniture pieces that were in great condition and had timeless appeal.

Before image of traditional four-poster bed with cream bedding and “Happily Ever After” sign above, flanked by dark nightstands on beige walls, Burlington project by clairejefford. — BEFORE – traditional four-poster bed, flanked by dark nightstands on beige walls

This included her classic four-poster bed (shown above) and the gold-toned pinch-pleated drapery. I colour matched the gold shiny fabric with a metallic finish I brought from my studio.

Drapery Shiny Gold Fabric — The pinch-pleated drapery in a shiny gold fabric was staying

My client no longer wanted a TV in her room, so it and the tall dresser were dismissed.

Before Photo Bedroom Tv — Before photo bedroom TV, and tall dresser

We did reuse some of her other case goods (with spectacular results!) like this wide dresser below. I’ll share that transformation with you in a bit.

Before photo of dark wood dresser with floral arrangement and ornate gold mirror on beige wall, principal bedroom redesign by clairejefford in Burlington, Ontario. — Before photo of dark wood dresser and ornate gold mirror on beige wall

Inspiration

As I often do, I started with fabric to inspire the jumping-off point for the entire colour palette.

This gorgeous velvet fabric combined deep moody blues with rusty oranges—rich, warm, and undeniably elegant, especially when you add in the soft texture -it’s smooth like butter!

Close-up of velvet fabric in rust, navy, cream, and beige tones, used as the colour inspiration for custom pillows and decor in clairejefford’s Burlington bedroom makeover. — Close-up: velvet fabric in rust, navy, and cream tones, used in this bedroom makeover.

From this point onward, the other fabrics with similar colours and fun patterns came together beautifully. Below is how I set up the fabrics and finishes for the design presentation meeting.

Flat lay of design elements including Gentleman’s Gray paint swatch, accent pillow fabrics, wood samples, and area rug options for moody blue bedroom by clairejefford. — Flat lay of design elements including Gentleman’s Gray paint swatch, and area rug options

Here is the interior design mood board we created and shared with our client at the presentation meeting, in addition to the samples shown above.

All of these visual design elements help us to convey our design vision to client’s and to give them a good understanding of how the proposed new design will come together.

Interior design moodboard for Burlington principal bedroom, featuring accent pillow fabrics, rust swivel chair, area rug, artwork, mirror, table lamp, and paint colours by clairejefford. — Principal bedroom mood board: Fabrics, rust swivel chair, area rug, artwork, mirror, lamps, & paint colours by Claire Jefford Inc.

Love interior design mood boards and want to see more? Take a look at this business blog post with video where I share with interior designers the importance of leveraging these visual tools for their business.

Reveal!

Here’s how it all came together…stunning, right?

For the bedroom, we painted the walls Benjamin Moore Gentleman’s Gray—a moody, deep blue. This is similar to our beloved Hale Navy, but more blue and not quite as dark.

Close-up of custom velvet accent pillows in rust, navy, and cream pattern on cream bedding, styled against navy wall and dark wood four-poster bed by clairejefford. — Custom velvet accent pillows on new cream bedding, styled against Gentleman Gray’s blue wall

You can see how we pulled together the entire colour palette from that lush fabric. Notice the way it perfectly complements so many other decorative furnishings in the space – such as the custom rust orange swivel chairs, the high-pile area rug and the oversized artwork on the wall next to the nightstand on the left.

Detail of rust orange custom swivel chair with blue and white lumbar pillow on patterned rug, moody bedroom refresh by clairejefford interior design Burlington. — Rust Orange swivel chair with blue and cream lumbar pillow on an abstract patterned rug

Pair of custom rust orange swivel chairs with blue chevron pillows positioned in front of large window and gold drapery, part of Burlington principal bedroom redesign by clairejefford. — Swivels offer great versatility, my client can easily turn them towards the window to enjoy the view!

After photo of white painted nightstand with gold hardware and textured tree artwork on Hale Navy, part of moody bedroom makeover by clairejefford. — Sprayed nightstands in Cloud White by Benjamin Moore with gold hardware

We worked with the client’s existing nightstands and dresser, spraying them Cloud White by Benjamin Moore, with updated gold hardware. It’s quite the transformation at a relatively low cost.

After Cloud White dresser, oversized round mirror and gold floor lamp, and curated accessories in Burlington bedroom redesign by clairejefford. — After Cloud White dresser, oversized round mirror and gold floor lamp

For the lighting, we repeated the gold tones of the drapery in both the table lamps and the striking floor lamp next to the dresser.

The wall that previously housed the TV and the tall dresser, was now much more elegant with the addition of this gorgeous sofa table in dark wood and a curved gold base.

After Bedroom Artwork Dark Blue Walls Sofa Table — After bedroom dark blue walls with artwork and sofa table

Exposed

The biggest design challenge we faced was working around the dark wood four-poster bed with curved headboard and footboard. This piece, while classic, is quite bossy in terms of style.

Bossy doesn’t always mean bad, by the way! It simply means it couldn’t be ignored, especially since its’ presence is the main focal point in the bedroom.

But, here is an example I shared on a guest blog post of my good friend Maria Killam, of my very first decorating project when there was a bossy design element that I couldn’t play nice with.

Moody bedroom reveal with dark wood four-poster bed, navy Gentleman’s Gray walls, custom patterned pillows, and painted white nightstands, clairejefford Burlington project. — Moody bedroom reveal with Benjamin Moore’s Gentleman Gray walls, custom pillows, and Cloud White nightstands

While I love eclectic design, we couldn’t find nightstands and a dresser that worked not only in terms of style but also taking into consideration scale, the wood finish and price point.

We looked at over 200 nightstands! In the end, we decided to keep the existing ones- which were in excellent shape – and have them sprayed white to lighten them up and give them new life.

We chose Cloud White by Benjamin Moore as this was the same white paint used on my client’s trim and ceilings throughout the home.

If you love Cloud White, you’ll want to see where we used it here in another client’s bedroom for a custom TV wall unit, paired with Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore on the walls.

Gold Knobs Cloud White Benjamin Moore Dresser — Detail shot of gold knobs on Cloud White dresser

With the extra fabric my workroom had from the kidney pillows, they made this runner for my client to use on her newly painted dresser. She was so thrilled with it!

Table Runner Custom Fabric — Table runner custom fabric blues and oranges

Investment

It’s important for me to share pricing information when possible -and with my client’s permission – because that is almost always a big mystery for most people. Of course, pricing varies depending on the quality of furnishings, how custom the design is, and the tradespeople you hire.

But so you have an idea, here’s a breakdown of the investment for this particular project:

Fees for our professional interior design services: $5,000
Furnishings & finishes: Approximately $18,000

This included re-spraying the furniture with new hardware, all custom pillows, the 2 custom swivel chairs, the console table, the 10 x 13 area rug with underpadding, table & floor lamps, bedding and oversized artwork.

So we can really appreciate the magnitude of this transformation, here’s a look at the before and afters side-by-side.

1 Before Bedroom Beige Walls Four Poster Bed

1 Afterdark Blue Bedroom Four Poster Bed Cloud White Night Stands

4 Before Dark Dresser Bedroom Rectangle Mirror

After Dresser Cloud White Benjamin Moore Round Mirror

After Large Artwork Trees On Dark Blue Wall

Top takeaways

Embarking on a new decorating project doesn’t always mean replacing everything and starting from scratch. And sometimes it does, like with this fully custom living room we designed for clients.

It’s knowing what items you can realistically reuse, and when it’s time to kick things to the curb.

If you have classic pieces that are important to you, in great shape and possess an interesting characteristic about them that won’t hold back the direction you want to go with a new design, then go for it!

And remember, dark and moody doesn’t mean dreary. The mix of dark walls, rust accents, and soft gold tones elevated the design of this bedroom while still feeling warm, inviting, and extremely luxurious.

Your Say

Now it’s your turn—do you love this transformation?

What is your favourite piece of furniture?

Leave a comment below and let me know—I’d love to hear from you.

That’s a wrap for CLAIRE-ITY on another client makeover project. Stay tuned for our next post about this client’s ensuite – you won’t believe the big impact we made with just three changes!

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