What not to do

Yesterday I showed you a couple of looks around one bedspread.  While the styles were different, the strategies were the same: bold color, floral patterns, solid drapes, matching finishes on the furniture.  I mentioned that the other way to make this small-scale bright pastel bedspread work would be in a softer, mostly white space where the pattern can take center stage.

I went about putting one together and ended up with this.

Pretty, right?

Right, only: fancy.  There's really no way that the inexpensive cotton print could no stand up to the elegant finishes in this room: taffeta, velvet, gold leaf, antiqued mirror, quartz.

This is a funny thing about making moodboards divorced from seeing the actual items: you sometimes focus on color, pattern, and shape without concern to finish or scale.  Fine and fun when it's just an idea (like this series), but of course you have to consider ALL these factors when designing an actual room.

So, to put that quilt in a pale and neutral room, it should be more like this:

Cotton, linen, weathered wood, wool textural rug, funky details like multicolored buttons in the tufted chairs and contrast thread on the tasseled curtains: casual but not boring.

Although all told?  I think that quilt just wants to play with as many colors and patterns as possible, and I still prefer yesterday's looks.

What about you?