This photo on Domino spoke to me. As we are summer and beach vacation lovers, this bedroom just screams my most perfect feeling: I open my eyes for a second in the middle of a nap after a full day of being under the sun on the sand and water, the smell of sunscreen mixing with the smell of sweat, a breeze coming through the open window, the elastic on my bikini starting to pinch too tightly, and realizing how blissful that kind of day is before closing my eyes again to finish the late afternoon slumber.

As you can see, this photo has the blue paint and wooden headboard. Our bed is from Ikea and is a fake wooden headboard, so we already had that. We also already had a white (really, cream) comforter, which I had admired from the other photos. What was missing was the paint color and imagery to help evoke that feeling in this room.

To get to this point, we first had to renovate the upstairs, which we did in late March, as described here. And then we had to paint. I chose Behr’s Glacier Lake, a deep blue, in a satin finish.

Daniel and I have been on plenty of tropical vacations throughout our lives so we had many images we could have chosen, but I thought our most recent tropical vacation, visiting my family in Haiti last year, would offer a nice selection for the room. We had eight photos, mostly of water and boats, printed and then we framed them and hung them over our headboard and nightstands (also from Ikea, which we got when we were living in Brooklyn). Haiti is beautiful and these images reflect that very nicely.

But this room isn’t entirely a dedication to our love of the tropics. I thought the blue lent itself well to colors that I think can look glam at times: black, white, gold and bronze. I found lamps at Target with gold bases that I really liked but the bright fuchsia lampshades didn’t fit the room. I spray painted the lampshades white, so now the white and gold lamps on our nightstands lend a hint of sophistication (at least, that’s what I’m telling myself) to the tropical side of the room.

They match the curtains (off white with embroidered gold circles) and bronze curtain rods, both also from Target. The circle shape on the curtains is reflected in the series of circular mirrors over the dresser, black-framed mirrors in various sizes. The color of the mirror frames matches the color of the frames of photos from Haiti as well as two black-and-white prints. One is a vintage black-and-white photo of the Hollywood sign that I bought when I was living in Los Angeles and, directly opposite it across the room, is a black-and-white charcoal drawing of a second line that Daniel and I bought on a trip to New Orleans, one of our favorite cities.

On the dresser are a couple of gold and white ceramic coasters, a Christmas gift from Daniel. Also on the dresser, in what could be the most glamorous thing we own, is a crystal vase from Tiffany & Co. (a wedding present) holding white ostrich feathers (part of our wedding centerpiece).

The dresser itself is one of my favorite items in the house. Daniel found it from a vintage dealer on Etsy. It’s a mid-century modern beauty with six drawers and a cabinet with three smaller drawers. It fits the space perfectly.

And because I appreciate details and admire when I can tell other people have put thought into the littlest touches, even our hamper was a decor choice. We saw it on a trip to Houston over Christmas, days after we closed on the house, and this was the first thing we bought for our new home.

We lost our bedroom closet (it was tiny anyway) in the renovation so our next step with this room is to build our master closet. I cannot wait for that!!