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finishing our bedroom with light and life

Getting our new house into shape has admittedly been slow going , but progress is being made…in the master bedroom at least! I’m lucky to have had good bones- it is spacious, with good light and lovely original hardwoods. Painting it palest blush pink (Farrow and Ball Middleton Pink, to be exact) brought some beautiful warmth, but the space still felt a little barren. So when I partnered with Orchard Supply Hardware to improve this room, I knew adding light and life would bring both the functionality I needed and Palm Springs ‘jungalow’ vibe I was craving.

As cute as my vanity was before this project, it was not super functional. It’s tucked in the corner of the room, near my closet rather than the window- far from ideal makeup lighting. I needed Hollywood dressing room type lighting, without spending a zillion dollars- more like under a hundred. And with a little youtubing, some amateur electrician work on David’s part (have I mentioned what a good sport he is?), and some help from the kind employees at Orchard Supply Hardware in Culver City, we totally made it happen!

There are a zillion tutorials on YouTube for this project- just search ‘diy vanity lights.’ We got all the supplies at Orchard, picking up vanity light fixture panels, globe bulbs (never soft white- it reads too warm for makeup), short extension cords, a power strip, command strip picture hangers, and a lamp remote kit. For a quick summary, David cut off the receiving ends of the extension cords, and wired the plug ends to the base of the light fixtures. They attach to the walls with the command strips for no long-term damage, and the wires snake behind the desk to the remote base, which plugs into the power strip. As a note- we needed to gorilla glue 1/4″ inch thick strips of wood to the back of the light fixture panels, and attach the command strips onto that. It needed a little gap for the cord to pass through since the fixture I chose goes flat to the wall.

The lighting is SO SO GOOD, but the remote is probably my favorite part- I’ve been behaving like a toddler when flipping the lights in and off again. I love that it’s helpful for energy conservation, but it’s also such a little thrill of luxury so easily and inexpensively. And once the lights were up and on, I was all about living my best plant lady life.

I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to bring the outdoors in- our complex is a lovely little desert garden oasis, full of palms and ferns, succulents and lots of greenery. In the pursuit of my greenhouse bedroom dreams, I might have gone a little crazy. If you consider making David drive slowly down side streets with a 10-foot-tall corn plant hanging out the window of our compact car a little much, then yes. But I don’t even care- beyond fresh air, plants bring me so much joy.

I’m especially obsessed with the dangly succulent hanging above the vanity. It’s called ‘string of pearls’ and I’m already looking forward to when it drapes all the way down around the mirror. The pot is from Orchard Supply Hardware too- I just gave it a little upgrade. I cut off the jute and replaced it with golden chain (it’s on big spools at the store and sold by the foot) that I braided into a four-strand braid to add heft and visual interest.

I put plants all around my big floor mirror, and am loving the effect! But if you are looking closely- at my ficus especially- I’m due to fess up. I have the blackest of black thumbs. I’m a notorious plant murderer, of even the hardiest species. The only reason I feel comfortable bringing all these green beauties home is because I purchase my plants at Orchard, and their lifetime plant guarantee is a total lifesaver. And if you join their rewards program, Club Orchard, it keeps track of your receipts so you don’t even need to – you just go exchange your dead plant for a live one!!

And I the spirit of full transparency, that fiddlehead fern has dropped several leaves and in general seems rather displeased after being stuck in the backseat of my car, repotted, and moved about, so let’s all cross our fingers that I can avoid taking Orchard up on that return policy.