The Master Bedroom

Here’s the newest photo from our home, the Master Bedroom. This really is one of my favorite places in the house (I’m not trying to be dirty). It’s very comfortable, and the bed has a lot of texture to it. The down comforter is great all year long. In the summer, it absorbs the air conditioning and in the winter, it absorbs the heat. Our oldest cat, Purr Purr, loves to cuddle up in the folds of the comforter.

I also love the fur throw. Don’t worry, it’s faux, so no animals were killed for it. But the headboard is real leather - some animal wasn’t so lucky.

Unfortunately, the details of the bed don’t show up. The comforter has a subtle white stripe pattern and there is also a down sheet underneath it. The red pillows in the back have a red stripe pattern and so do the red sheets. The red fitted sheet, which covers the mattress, has an awesome curled pattern that matches the pillow in the middle. And the lampshades on the nightstands have a mechanical pattern.

What It Means to “Expose Yourself”

You can learn a lot about a person just by seeing something inside their house. So occasionally, I post a photo from our home and explain what’s in the picture. Click here to see the “Expose Yourself” archives.

You can also “Expose Yourself”

It’s more fun than you think. Go ahead and do it. Take a picture and post it on your blog, and explain what’s in the picture. Several other bloggers have done it too. See the archives for more.

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It’s been awhile, but my friend over at Brown Pounder (kinky title, eh?) took some photos of his home to “expose himself” on his blog.

For the newbies, this is my concept for exposing yourself:

Take a photo of your surroundings (bedroom, living room, etc..) and post it on your blog. Even better, talk about the items in the photo. You can learn so much about people just by seeing the space they live in. And my Australian friends especially enjoy participating. Thanks guys!

On a sidenote, Mr. Brown Pounder himself will be doing some more participating on my blog early in the week. After reading about my own experiences with homophobia, he sent me his personal story of a very bloody night when he was attacked by some gay bashers. It’s saddening and intense, and I’m just glad he survived it. He has been kind enough to let me share it on my blog, so I will be posting it soon.

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I am considering this my newest entry in the “Expose Yourself” series because it’s been awhile since I provided any photos of the atmosphere around me.

About a month ago, I was talking about the ugly purple guest bedroom that’s in the house we moved into (click here for that post). Shortly after that post, we did paint the room. After it was all said and done, I was too tired to take any photos, or even blog about the experience. But now time has passed and I’m ready for show-and-tell.

Here is the “Before” photo of the guest room. (Taken by the owner.)

Here is the “After” photo of the guest room. (Taken by me.)

Details of the Walls

We decided to go with Kayak Yellow, a Ralph Lauren paint. It is a bold color and this photo doesn’t do it justice. We are in love with this yellow - it is the Perfect Yellow. Some yellow’s are too pale and look sick. Others have too much green and look dirty. Still yet, some are too bright and look like crayons. So it’s a very tough color to choose. I think Ralph Lauren’s team thought long and hard about this problem and came up with the best shade anyone could ever ask for. Everyone who sees it in person is impressed with our choice.

It took 2 gallons of paint plus one of those small tester cans to cover those damn purple walls. The purple was actually very dark and took a lot of work to cover.

Details of the Bed:

• The green pillows in the back and the sheet covering the mattress have a very thin white plaid pattern on them that give contrast.
• The white pillow cases are very smooth to touch and the pillows inside are white with a subtle polka dot pattern.
• The lime green pillow in the center is velour.
• The comforter has a modern square pattern stitched into it.
• There is also a solid green sheet that barely shows up. However, there was originally a white goose-down layer under it to break up the greens but Rodney stole it and brought it upstairs for our bed. This bed looks much better with the white layer.
• At the end of the bed, there is a red throw. It was really for our bed upstairs, but Rodney put it down here. I didn’t want red in this room but it actually looks pretty good.

Details of the Table:

• The vase is a housewarming gift from my parents. I love it because it looks like fire. The colors in it are red, yellow, and green.
• The candle is multi-textured with shades of green and sits on a black plate.
• The plant is a Dracaena in a blue, green, and white striped pot. Those are the real accent colors of the room; there is more blue outside of the photo.
• The lamp is a gift from Rodney. It’s a silver replica of a 1940’s lamp. I love the design and it has little holes in it that shoot out light when it’s on.
• Displays should be in odd numbers (3, 5, 7…) so this table needs a vintage alarm clock to make 5 items. I’m looking for one I like.

Wishlist for the Future:

• Obviously this bed needs a headboard of some sort. The room is kind of small, so I am hesitant that a headboard will fill too much space. We need something very thin.
• I want to put a large piece of artwork over the bed. I’m thinking of getting a large canvas and painting it solid blue. It would be a bold statement of minimalism.
• The corner needs a chair by the windows. Just a small sitting area. I am thinking of an old chair, either black or white, with scratched up edges.

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These homos in Australia have really caught on to my post about “exposing” themselves

Yesterday, Sunshine posted photos of his ultra-modern home with a great narrative tour. And Kerri posted photos of her refrigerator, complete with dirty words hidden in the magnets.

The concept is simple: take a photo of something in your home and post it on your blog with details about the items in the photo. You can learn a lot about someone just by seeing their home.

Try it on your blog, and let me know when it’s posted.

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I’ve been such a bum today. When I have a day off, it goes by too quickly. When I am working, it goes by slowly.

Well it’s 1:46pm here in Nashville, and I need to eat lunch and take a shower. Then, if I can force myself to, I need to go check out paint for our guest bedroom. Rodney is at work, he’ll be so impressed that I even got out of bed, much less went out

So we decided we would probably go with Lemon Twist for the walls. But now I’m thinking about also using Parakeet. We could paint the top section of the walls Lemon Twist and the bottom section Parakeet, so it would be split.

Nah, that would be a pain in the ass. Maybe we’ll just paint the doors parakeet and the walls yellow. Or maybe I’ll just eat and then go back to bed.

UPDATE: We didn’t get the Lemon Twist because Sherwin Williams was closed. I was in the mood to paint, so we went to Homo Depot and found a great alternative called Kayak Yellow. We’re actually really happy with it. I’ll post pics when it’s done. These damn purple walls take a lot of paint to cover up.

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Continuing the trend I’m starting of people posting snapshots from inside their home, this is my next contribution. I’m cheating a little because this is actually not our house. It’s a photo taken 4 months ago from the apartment we had in Raleigh, NC. But the story behind it is too cute to pass up.

Overview: Rodney works in an industry that requires flexible hours, and sometimes he has to work at night. When that happens, he doesn’t get home until close to Midnight, and I stay at home with our baby girls (our 2 cats). We’re so sad without our Rodney

When Rodney is on his way home, he calls me and Purr Purr (in the photo) knows it’s him. She starts making this excited sound when the phone rings. Then she goes and sits by the door to wait patiently for him. This photo was taken one night while she was waiting at the door.

Couch: A bright red couch in our living room. We love it, and it’s always the center of attention when we have guests. A contrasting lime green throw is on the top of it.

Artwork: I created a series of 3 different striped patterns in Adobe Illustrator, printed, matted, and framed them.

Tables: Distressed wood tables with grill-style trays underneath for storage. I bought Rodney the lamp from Kirkland’s (he loves that store) and it’s red with this glass texture like rock candy. There are also some Feng Shui items on the table, a striped bowl that matches the artwork, the phone, a Yankee Candle, and a flower arrangement by Rodney.

Okay, bloggers - your turn. Show me yours and I’ll show you more of mine.

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People as far away as Australia are “exposing” themselves! I posted an entry last night with a photo from our house and said I am always curious to peek inside other people’s homes (you can learn so much!). Well Miss Kerri, a sweet and sassy girl from “down under” responded by posting a photo of her bedroom on her blog. Thanks Kerri, love the stripes.

And then Purple Twinkie posted a comment with a link to a photo of his computer, bed and TV.

So now I *know* I’m not the only nosy person here who likes seeing what other people have in their house. Keep exposing yourself, bloggers, inquiring eyes want to see what you’ve got!

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You can tell a lot about a person by the items in their house. Whenever somebody posts their picture on a blog, I catch myself focused more on the background instead of the foreground. Yeah, I see you, I know what you look like… but what’s that on your table? What kind of computer do you use? What’s in your refrigerator?

I thought it would be an interesting experiment if bloggers took snapshots of items in their house, and explained its origin or purpose. Maybe I’ll start a trend. Here’s my first contribution with details below:

Overview: This is a shelf in our guest bedroom/home office. The walls are painted lilac from the previous owners. We plan to paint them a new color very soon. Lilac is fine, but not for this room.

Clock: Rodney got me this kind of retro fun clock, part of the room’s blue and green colors.

Flower Arrangement: Rodney did this almost 2 years ago, and I’ve kept it ever since. I think he does a great job with flowers.

The “Thank You” Angel: Rodney gave me this after I took care of him in 2004. He had all of his wisdom teeth pulled (never a fun thing) and after he recovered, he gave me this. It means a lot to me.

Ceramic “shot glasses”: My great friend Winso made these for me while he was taking a class. I think it was 1998, but it may have been 1999. There is a little note inside the one in the back. They are special to me because he made them himself. One of them has a hand engraved with the middle finger sticking up! That’s Winso’s unique sense of humor.

The great thing about writing this post is that it made me realize everything I put on this shelf was given to me by someone who loves me. That’s a nice thing to be reminded of. Thanks Rodney and Winso. I love you both.

Okay, bloggers… your turn. I wanna see something from your home.

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