Weirdly enough, the tiny master bedroom of this house is probably the reason we ended up buying it. Not because of the super bland color palate, normal-sized windows, or annoying sloped ceiling, but because of the closet. We had given up the house hunt for the winter (our lease had a clause that we couldn’t move out from Nov-Mar) but I was still curiously opening my Zillow emails, just to see what was out there. Most of the photos of this house made it seem modest and quaint, but not super special.
But a photo of the corner of the gorgeously done master closet really made me take notice that someone had truly put some effort in, so I dragged M to the open house (even though he wasn’t interested when I showed him the listing). Sure enough, we left in silent agreement that it was the one. Not because of the closet, but because of all the other little touches, the layout, the neighborhood, and the feeling of relaxation we got while inside.
(For the record, that’s a sliding barn door… the top bar pulls down to eye-level, and there are 12 drawers and another cabinet on the left side that you can’t really see in this picture. All the drawers quiet close. All extremely unusual for a 1928 Sears kit house that is otherwise mostly well-maintained yet original.)
If this closet hadn’t been there, or even if it hadn’t made it into the top 10 photos, we probably never would have ever stepped foot here, and yet here we are.
Anyways, ramblings aside, I didn’t expect to do much in here. The closet is great, even though I would like to take all the pulls off and spray paint them to look enameled… but that’s it. We just moved in our furniture and ignored it.
Then while M was out one evening, I made a snap decision and broke out the primer. Our headboard is kind of sage-grey-beige and I hated how it clashed with the lavender-gray-blah walls.
I had already grabbed a paint chip of Behr’s #HDC-AC-23 Provence Blue and knew it was the way to go. It’s a little on the dark side, but it’s still coastal looking and light, and it made the white trim pop. Two days later, I had primed and painted two coats. We put the bed back where it belongs and, once again, I thought it was done.
And then a few weeks later we brought home a Ranarp floor lamp from Ikea for the living room. It’s really perfect for a house like this– visually light yet not bland, a little unusual, and with antique touches like the black and white braided cord. When I saw that there was a sconce in the collection too (and that it was $20!), I added it to the ever-growing list and eventually picked up two while we were visiting M’s parents in Virginia a few weeks ago. I also ordered this “No Sleep ‘Til Breuckelen” print which combines M’s love of weird maps and the history of New York with our house’s Dutch roots. I think the wall needs two other pieces to flank the print… it’s a bit too small right now.
The Ranarp sconces were ridiculously easy to install, even though everyone’s favorite blue-and-yellow store fails to package them with screws or anchors. Luckily I had some extras and the whole project only took about an hour.
I absolutely love the detail in these sconces! Good job Ikea!
The only thing that’s left in here is to spray paint those cabinet pulls a black gloss and order the curtains. I’m waiting for West Elm to run a sale…. pretty please?
Anyways, I love the room and the journey it’s taken so far. What do you think?
Cheers,
❤ v
giftable@home 
I love the paint color and the Ikea Ranarp clip-on sconces. What lightbulbs are you using in them? The website says max 7watts. That can’t be right, is it? Do you find they put out enough light? The floor lamp supposedly only takes a bulb up to 11watts too. None of this makes sense to me. How can the wattage for these lamps be so low? Any lightbulb guidance with regards to these lamps would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks Addie! The Ikea lamps are all rated to use their brand of LED bulbs, which have insanely low wattages but still put out a normal amount of light. I’m still clinging on to incandescents while I still have them, so here’s a little chart that can help. Since the bulb is exposed on the bottom, I chose all half-chrome globe shaped bulbs. This also helps diffuse some of the light and helps them work better as reading lamps. I got 25W bulbs for the sconces and a 60W for the floor lamp, both give off a perfect amount of light and look wonderfully vintage. Hope this helps!
So I know this post is two years old but I just bought a Ranarp floor lamp and the watt rating is 11w!!! I wanted it to use a 1000 lumen bulb but that’s 13w and would be unsafe. Then I got to thinking maybe IKEA is intentionally pushing people towards LED by listing a much lower rating than their hardware is capable of. What has your luck been with your lamps? Did using higher wattage bulbs than the rating cause any problems?
Sai, no worries! I’ve had the same bulbs in there for 2 years and no issues at all. We also have the floor lamp in the living room with a similar bulb and it’s fine. I agree with you, I think they under-rate their capability to sell their bulbs.
Thanks, that’s very helpful! The whole phasing out of the incandescent bulbs throws me for a loop. It makes for sense now. Thanks again!
Me too… luckily the chrome globes count as “specialty” and won’t be discontinued anytime soon as far as I know. I still haven’t found a CFL or LED that gives off a nice light… they all give me migraines 😦