Our Guest Retreat, "The GROVER SUITE", Revealed

We’ve probably all heard about positive chi as it relates to how rooms feel? Well, chi louise! This space has it maxed. Even without anything in it, all the feels are off the chart. Bring in a whole lot of comfortable furnishings and it has become everybody’s favorite.

Hello Faithful Farmers!

I'm so excited to share one of our two guest suites upstairs - "The Grover Suite". A spacious bedroom, a charming dressing room, and an oh so handsome bathroom. Oh, and while I’m at it, I must ask, can an old Colonial home have a modern mirrored sputnik chandelier? You’ll have to be the judge!

Our Plans for these spaces were to:

Remove the wall paper.

Retain the original charm by keeping the existing footprint.

Replace all the floors.

New heating and air conditioning.

Refurbish all the original windows.

Keep all the original moldings - base, crown, window and door trim.

All new electrical and plumbing.

Completely gut bathroom enlarging the shower and raise the ceiling.

My design direction for this whole suite was to lean masculine, carry my black theme from the rest of the house in, and to bring in some umph! I'm calling this space "Eclectic Bohemian with a Modern Twist".

THE BATHROOM

When I first saw this space and how it was connected to a dressing room, I fell in love. It just said old charm to me. I didn't even think about taking down the wall between the two to make one big modern bathroom. I kept the wall where it was, and even put the plumbing fixtures in the same locations. The two big must-haves for this bathroom were to make the shower larger, and to raise the ceiling. The new ceiling height would be dramatic, but how was I going to bring the umph?

Let's start with the shower. Way too tiny. My husband had to duck to get in it.

The ceiling height in the bathroom was around 8 feet, but the shower was even lower, around 7 feet. Why did they do that if the structure was there for higher ceilings?

I don't know, but I kind of over compensated. The new shower height is10 feet.

Ta da! The height is pretty dramatic, and the chandelier? Some umph! I love the texture the small scale herringbone tile brings in. I added picture frame molding around the perimeter of the bathroom about 12" from the ceiling to bring in some architectural detail, and to be able to visually bring the height down because it's a relatively small footprint and it was more in scale. It also provided a great line to change the wall color.

I kept the tub in the same location as well.

But not just any tub would do.

I'm even offering wine with that second umph.

And some bath salt and chocolate to make any guest feel truly pampered.

Up next, the vanity. Some people may have chosen to axe the tub to allow space for double vanities, which would have been a great decision, however, I was just fine with only one vanity.

I love designing masculine spaces, and nothing says manly more than beautiful wood and stone. I added a few flowers in case the manly "man bar" guy has a lady friend.

Just to make sure there is space for him AND her . . .

I added a makeup vanity in the dressing room. However, if our masculine guest is traveling alone, it could easily be used as desk as well.

This dressing room is one of my very favorite spaces. I'm so glad I made the decision to keep the original footprint and the built-ins. They just don't build them like this anymore.

This is ending up being a pretty long post. In case you're feeling tired, let's go check out the bedroom.

THE BEDROOM

I'm not sure how you'll feel about this space, so I'll start back at the beginning and tell you how I ended up here. I had 63 chandeliers, pendents, or sconces to specify for this project, just the main house and master alone. So, it’s safe to say, I looked at dozens and dozens of fixtures. Somewhere during the process I came across this little sputnik spiky chandelier. It just grabbed my attention. I couldn’t shake it. I think I was just craving something different, something out of my norm - and this fixture did exactly that. So that’s where this room design "eclectic bohemian with a touch of modern" all began.

Here are a few of the main furnishings in the space.

It’s almost as if RH had a sneezing fit and droplets of cool furnishings ended up all over the room! No tissues required though.

One item on this board that isn't RH is my favorite little Sputnik.

It's from Lamps Plus and you can find it HERE if you're interested. It's stainless and crystal. I was nervous after I pulled the trigger because I thought it might be too overpowering. I also worried that the mirrored, jagged almost "knife blades" could be a little off-putting. Needless to say, when it arrived and I saw how perfect it was I was both relieved and excited that I followed my instincts.

This bedroom is a very generous size at approximately 18' x 19' so there was plenty of room for seating areas.

I chose a gray hue with a slightly warm undertone for the wall color. It enhances the modern fixture yet also softens the look by bringing in some warmth. With comfort as a huge priority for this space, I chose an upholstered chesterfield style sleigh bed.

I paired it with black nightstands to inject the familiar black theme found throughout the house and to add some excitement through contract. Both the modern style lamps and the vintage artwork have a hint of stainless to support the theme.

To connect this furniture layout with the seating area across the room, I positioned a subtle patterned rug that married the two.

I placed my Grandmother's vintage trunk at the foot of the bed which began to develop the "eclectic" portion of the room style. There is a wealth of treasure inside. Don't tell anyone!

I added a second seating area in the corner to the right of the leather sofa. It's a great place to sit and read a book. There are also binoculars at the ready to view the tremendous amount of wildlife right outside the windows.

Last week I heard what I thought was a tussle between turkeys. I ran halfway down the driveway to discover a momma turkey was battling a coyote while trying to keep her babies safe. I yelled and then had an "oh know" moment when the coyote looked at me like I could be his next meal. Luckily he went on his way and all the turkeys were safe.

Just hours before typing this post, that Ballard Designs mirror was not black. I painted it to bring some weight to balance all the furnishings on the other side of the room. It did the trick!

This guest area is one of the most soothing areas of the house. It's on the West end of the house cozied up to the hillside with views galore out the front through the portico, and beyond looking over the pool. It's truly quite magical. Private, no window treatments required, did you notice?

Cheers to many baths with wine, chocolate, bath salts, and this guy. I did a little switcheroo. He says "goodbye" for now.

Sandy Sheldon