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Sandra Hambley featured in the Washington Post’s House Calls

By  Sandra Hambley |   | Posted in " Bedrooms, custom furnishings, Design, News "

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Sandra Hambley solved this week’s design dilemma in the Washington Post’s House Calls column. The objective of the House Calls column is to provide homeowners with budget friendly decorating solutions that they can complete themselves.

Sandra has created several designs for House Calls, typically for rooms that the entire family will use, but this time Sandra was asked to create a floor plan with furnishings and accessories shopping list for a tween boy’s bedroom. Caeden, who lives with his family in Kensington, had some specific ideas for his room’s design. For colors he requested purple and teal, and he really wanted to incorporate animal prints and a cool chair.

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Before photo of Caeden’s room.

Sandra’s Design Concept

The design strategy for this bedroom was to utilize Caeden’s preferred color palette of teal, yellow and purple to create a loft style bedroom with standard 8 ½ foot ceilings, while keeping an open feel and including hip seating for lounging and reading.

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Caeden’s new bedroom layout.

The client’s inspiration beds included either a loft style bed which required a minimum of 10 foot ceilings and or a hammock style bed that offers limited functionality /storage. By combining those two key requests, we included a low-height loft bed of 45” with steps that included drawers. Due to the size of the room, we added a 36” coordinating bookcase so create uniformity in the room.

The client requested an animal print rug which created a challenge with the vibrant preferred colors. So we opted for a cowhide ottoman from Pier 1 in similar warm brown-gray tones as the color in the bed and bookcase wood. The cowhide not only adds interest and texture, but also additional seating for a friend. We provided 1 rug option in the target color scheme that does include an animal print in the teal/turquoise squares.

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Furniture selections

For flooring options, we provided 2 design options from Flor floor coverings to include 18×18 square carpet tiles. Some of the carpet tiles have a shaggy texture for comfort when barefoot. For versatility in style, color and cleanliness, each tile can be easily changed to integrate more or less color, and cleaned as necessary.

To capture the leisurely, comfortable and chic feel of a hammock bed, we integrated a fun swing chair in blue/green from Anthropologie that fits perfecting in the corner of the bedroom. Reviews said pillows were necessary to maximize comfort, so teal and yellow were added from Pier 1.

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Accessory and flooring selections.

Lighting is always critical in every room, so we added an extendable swing arm wall light for reading in bed, a new ceiling hugger fan light to replace the existing fixture and a simple, and colorful table lamp to add above the bookcase. Most rooms, including bedrooms are underlit so having at least 3 sources of artificial light in 3 separate areas of the bedroom is necessary.

To integrate the color scheme in the bedroom, without clashing with the main hallway color of Pittsburgh Paint color Oregano outside the bedroom and visible when the door is open, we selected BM November Rain 2142-60 , a light brown-gray neutral color, and added colorful, horizontal stripes of BM Waterfall 2050-50 and BM Mellow Yellow 2020-50. We also found teal bedding from Pottery Barn kids to properly dress the bed.

We personalized the space by adding a personalized name wall decal and a deer head specified as an inspiration piece by Caeden. We integrated Caeden’s existing artwork (6 pieces of framed art, a functional bookcase and a purple race car).

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Artist’s rendering of finished room.

You can read the article in The Washington Post here. You may also be interested in reading about Sandra’s living room update she completed last year for House Calls.


Signature Design Interiors provides customized decorating, remodeling and staging services for busy individuals and professionals who are looking for turnkey service. From start to finish, we handle ALL of the details for you from budgeting, drafting floor plans for fit and function, sourcing furnishings and remodeling materials, and finally project managing the entire back-end process of ordering, measuring and installing until the last detail is complete. We serve the Washington Metropolitan area including - Washington, DC; Northern Virginia – McLean, Vienna, Reston, Herndon, Arlington, Alexandria, Annandale, Burke, Tysons Corner,  Centreville, Chantilly, Oakton, Falls Church, Clifton, Fairfax, Fairfax Station, Great Falls, Gainesville; Loudoun County - Ashburn, Brambleton, Dulles, Sterling, Leesburg Montgomery County MD - Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring; Prince Georges County Maryland, MD - Bowie, Laurel, Upper Marlboro. We will also travel to assist with vacation homes.

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