Temporary Empty Nest and Furniture

The oak floor throughout the first floor
except for the master bedroom and
bathroom which are carpeted.

I helped Jessie pack last night till 1:00 am, and then we got up at 5:00 to go to the airport. I am too old for this--I need more sleep. After putting her on the plane for Atlanta, Dave and I stopped for breakfast at Kerbey Lane. When we got home (7:30 am) we fell back into bed, and I didn't get up till after 11:00. Dave had to shake me awake even then. I think I could seriously have slept all day. I'm ready for bed now and it's only 9:30! In spite of my sloth, I did a lot of creative thinking today. While visions of glass and other media did dart in and out, I must admit that today's main focus was again wood.

Our ceilings are all wood

As I was dozing this morning I was thinking about the frame (mostly the headboard) I'm going to build for our bed. I was running through the qualities of different kinds of wood in my mind, and I was also considering the enormous pile of stripped juniper cedar logs and limbs that is building up in the front yard to see if there was a way to use them.

Driftwood bed

But the bed won't exist in a vacuum, it will have to fit in with the existing base elements of the room. Right now our bedroom has a 30 year-old teal wool plush carpet. We are going to replace it with wood when we redo the bathroom. Initially we thought we might do a bamboo floor since the flooring we have in the rest of the main floor isn't available anymore (you can see it under the dog), but then we decided that something that radically different, combined with the layout of our house, would make the bedroom and bathroom look like an add-on instead of an integrated part of the house.

Upcycled pallets

So we'll probably go with a similar style of varying widths in an oak for the floor--maybe one that's even a bit darker than the one shown. We also have to consider the pine ceilings in every room on the first floor including the bedroom (the dining room ceiling is shown above). The windows also have wide pine trim and decoration around them,
and I don't see replacing it or changing the color on it.

Blue pine

Much as I like the stripped cedar, that rustic look just doesn't feel right. Maybe for Montana, but not this house. Likewise the cool beds people are making out of upcycled pallets really don't fit in with the armoire and the style of desk I would like to add in there. Another thought I had was blue pine which is wood from beetle-killed pine that we have a lot of in Montana. But though I love it, its predominantly grey cast would not go with ANYTHING we already have.

Luckily there is a reclaimed wood place in Missoula that I will visit to see what I can scrounge and possibly have cut. Maybe I should see what's available first and design around that.