Right before Charlotte was born, we bought and moved into our house upstate near Clinton Corners and Millbrook. It's a sweet little house and a landmark according to the local Clinton Historical Society.

It was built in the 1880s or 1890s and has been continuously occupied since then. It sits on the Wappinger Creek and one of its tributaries so our yard is susceptible to flooding, but the back yard and sound of the flowing creek is really hard to beat.

When we moved in, we did little cosmetically- the kitchen is in great shape and quaint wallpaper is on most of the walls; however, I have Big Plans.

Really Big Plans. We're starting our makeover with the Pink Room. The Pink Room is our main guest room and has a queen bed, a cedar closet and south facing exposure so it gets really nice light. Its wallpaper is sweet but has seen better days and has started peeling off on its own.

So, it's high time to rip it off and start over.

Interestingly, this is the only room in the house with carpet- a really nice wool that we will be keeping. In general, I'm happy with the furnishings too but want to change up the occasional chair and the lamps.

Here's what it looks like now:

Things I'll keep:

the dresser
the bedside table
the gold damask bed clothes (they're Yves Delorme and divine)
probably the headboard (maybe reupholstered)

Things I'll want to change:

new lighting
the orientation of the bed- maybe have it come out from the other wall so it's not in the corner
the height of the bed- a lower bed makes a room look bigger
the white chair in the corner- that is a swivel rocker from RH and it's great but feels BIG

Ok, now for the INSPIRATION!

I have so so many ideas for this room and also have already bought some sample paint pots. But first, let me show you what I'm thinking.

This first picture gets at what I'm hoping to achieve, though not in that color palette. I love the all over pattern and the upholstered headboard. (Photo from Tilton Fenwick- amazing interior designers.)

the next image shows a light bright hand painted wallpaper. (This is from Amanda Brooks house in the UK.)

Finally we have the color palette I love from an Indian textile. I don't love the orange but the aqua and gold are perfect.

We're probably not going to do more wallpaper because the wallpapers I like are $650 per panel. You can get cheaper chinoiserie patterns but it's still difficult to find wallpaper installers up here because it's not super popular. Everyone seems to be removing their wallpaper.

But if I could do wallpaper, here's what I like. The firs photo is a Cole and Sons wallpaper. The second and third are both De Gournay (the $650 per panel hand painted on silk wallpapers).

I think the all over design of the Cole and Son ends up being a bit overwhelming even though the images are lovely.

I love love love the De Gournay. I think their use of negative space makes them more livable and the vivid color is divine without being too too much.

But again, that price tag.

Even in a small room I'd hit about $700 for wallpaper costs alone, not including the cost to remove the current paper and new installation.

My solution is paint. I'll be paying about $200 to skim coat the walls and I'm doing the wallpaper removal myself (as of today- I'll let you know if that changes). Then my mom and I are going to paint.

Finally, to get the chinoiserie look, I think I'm going to hand paint using some Modern Masters metallics.

Here's a photo with some inspiration (even if my colors and styling will be different).

A mom did this freehand with metallic paint and one paintbrush. She's clearly talented, but it did take her around a year (her room is huge compared to mine).

This week I'm going to paint some foam board with our sample paint colors and then will paint some practice trees/flowers/birds with the gold paint.

I can't wait!

The Pink Room- renovation inspiration