Thursday, January 24, 2013

Olive green recup'

While we were still in the process of  buying our house, the vendors generously allowed us in to start some decorating - sounds crazy, but it worked, given the drawn-out French system. Ben and I chose pale cream walls throughout, as the house is dark in the traditional heat-reducing way, but we did decide to paint the walls of the brighter bedrooms in actual colours - hence our bedroom has pale green walls, which was pretty much Ben's choice.
When we moved our furniture in I put all our old blue-themed bedroom accessories into the green bedroom, and spent the next few years disappointed with the room: nothing seemed right, and I felt cross that I hadn't stood up for blue. A few years later, I decided that the answer was to give up on blue and buy (yes, buy) some green duvet covers and use all our other green accessories - I have adored the room ever since!
To me, the two duvet covers I bought back in 2008 are still 'new', and I am still very fond of them as they set me off on the discovery that this house was going to work well for us. This one is partly bamboo fibre, too, so it's green in two senses, and very comfortable. However, it suffered a mishap this summer when some guests got a peroxide-containing product onto the pillowcases and the lower half of the duvet itself, so it's been out of action while I hunted for green cold water dye in enough quantity. As you may be able to see, I dyed the pillow cases solid colours, and dip-dyed the duvet cover so that the intact top part retained its pleasant two-tone stripe, while the bleached lower part gets increasingly olive, neatly covering up the pale patches.
It's all worked swimmingly, and the olive green goes ever so nicely with the walls and the two édredons whose enormous, feather-filled weight are keeping us warm this winter.
This bed owes a lot to blogging friends - the lavender heart in the first photo was made by Dandelion Beck in Australia, the French-ticking heart bag on the bed head is a Lululiz creation and the way to tuck in a French duvet was taught to me by Penny at Violet White!
I told you about the eiderdowns the very day I got them, but here's a find I haven't shared with you before - last year I was lucky enough to find two embroidered draw-string bags, one in France, the other in Edinburgh.
This is the Edinbrough one, and, as it contains green, it's allowed in the bedroom and is now holding my handkerchiefs from the handle of my bedside drawer. Although green is Ben's favourite colour, not mine, I now find our green bedroom incredibly refreshing and peaceful. I had to make my peace with what we had (green) and not try to force it into something we didn't have (blue). A valuable lesson!
 
What Son 2 and I have to make peace with today is that we are both ill. I've just taken some ibuprofen to go with this morning's paracetamol and I'm feeling rather better now! What a relief - but it's a day of racking coughs and tissues thrown onto the fire, and I'm grateful for a cosy house and good medical care, and a warm dog snuggled up next to one, or both, of us.


12 comments:

Elizabethd said...

Well, it looks lovely, very co ordinated.
So sorry you are not feeling well, and hope it passes quickly.

Selfsewn said...

I've just painted our kitchen olive green, and I love it, it's quite a sophisticated colour!
We are having a 3 week France trip this year, and we shall be in the Dordogne region for part, any places we should visit?

Beck said...

Hello lovely Floss, how nice to hear from you today. Sorry you are not well, hope you are feeling better soon. Take care my dear xox

Serenata said...

Sorry to hear you are not well, hope you feel much better soon. Love the story of your bedroom. Our bedroom still needs decorating fourteen years after moving in. It was bad then and still is! Perhaps one day we will get round to it.

Angela said...

Beautifully restful room - lie down there for a bit and get better soon, Floss!

Kezzie said...

Sorry you are unwell, I do hope you are better soon! lLots of honey, lemon, thyme and ribena combined! Well done for rescuing the ruined duvet!

Frances said...

Floss, I do hope that you feel much better soon. That lovely bedroom will certainly contribute to your recovery.

xo

Winkel's Crazy Ideas said...

So sorry to hear you are not well, hope it goes over quickly. Sounds so cosy with the dog snuggled up. Love various shades of green in the right context and your bedroom looks really nice. We havn' t finished the upstairs yet, so our bedroom is full of boxes. Frustrating but not indefinite - or so hubby says. Pam xx

Sue said...

Green is a lovely restful colour. I do hope you feel better soon. I am just getting over something similar so totally sympathise, and recommend hot blackcurrant with a sprig of rosemary and leaf of sage in it - very good at fighting the germs.

gillyflower said...

Soft green is such a restful colour for a bedroom, and somehow warmer than blue, and it looks lovely with the pretty eiderdown.
Gorgeous drawstring bag, what a find!
Hope you and your son are feeling better.
Gill xx

Anonymous said...

Hey there Floss
I'm sorry to hear you're both ill - it's so dull and boring isn't it? But a cosy fire and cosy home will help to put you right, for sure!
I very much like your dip dyed duvet cover - all very fashionable at the moment! My favourite colour is green and there's plenty of it in our home. And though I've never had blue in my home in the past, I now find myself, over the last couple of years, gradually introducing little snippets of blue here and there. So I guess you and I are traversing the same two colour ways but from different directions !!
I hope you're feeling much better very soon,
xx

Luisa said...

Hi Floss, I really love what you have done to reinvent your bedroom. I love your French eiders too! Hurrah for green! I am turning a little green in my home too! xx