Amsterdam House Tour – Master Bedroom

Actually, I think this is my favorite room in the house. Is there anything more important when it comes to home decor than an inviting bedroom that is a refuge from the entire world outside? For an introvert with insomniac tendencies, I submit that there is not. So here is mine. Red velvet curtains, crisp linen bedclothes, fuzzy throw blanket, and all. I have been in love with this bedroom since the first night I slept in it, or in fact since I first saw it in my mind’s eye before it even existed.
All the little details are what I love. Like our gorgeous mosaic lamps, which I bought off Etsy from a Turkish seller, along with chandelier #1 for the living room, which you did not meet because it did not survive the journey. 

And this romantic statue Tony saw at the Nepalese stand in Albert Cupymarkt, and I snuck in and bought for him as a surprise. 

Which is standing on top of a pretty rosewood table that’s utterly impractical, but which I adore, and have dragged from house to house along with my bookshelves. 

Or this tiny pillow embroidered with the cross of the Order of St. John’s from our vacation in Malta at Christmas. 

Like the living room, our bedroom is blessed with abundant natural light. The windows are almost floor to ceiling, and it’s a pretty high ceiling. As you can see, besides the red velvet (which is actually more of a rich mauve in real life), we’ve dressed those windows in airy, patterned panels that let the light in, but provide almost impermeable privacy. If you look closely, you can see that they also make beautiful patterns on the opposite wall when the sun shines in. 

Yes THAT wall. I told you before about the wall that we built to divide the former great room into the cozy living room with which you’re already acquainted and this, the master bedroom. Here’s what the bedroom end looked like before.

Notice the opaque adhesive privacy screens formerly attached to that big window. I hated them because you couldn’t see out at all. The curtain panels we have now are pretty opaque from the outside because it’s always lighter out there than in our bedroom. (It’s true; as soon as the natural light fades, there’s a beautiful antique lamppost outside each window that lights the sidewalk perfectly. You can read by that light from inside our bedroom.) But from the inside, you can see right through the panels to our lovely little neighborhood outside. 
Here’s a better view of the celebrated wall from the bedroom side. I pretty much got to decorate this room just as I pleased as well, and I am still enamoured of that lovely soft green I chose for the wall. You can see that there’s a strange little boxy corner in the bedroom created by the fact that the wall had to go around the hole in the floor leading to the basement. Or it would be a strange little boxy corner if it didn’t perfectly accommodate my wardrobe. Because closets are not a thing here. At least not in this house. On top of my wardrobe I keep my summer hats, and down the side of it we’ve hung a shoe hanger. Because in case you haven’t noticed, our whole house is tiny, so we take advantage of every spare bit of space available. In fact, it’s a good thing I’m not one of those people who loves rearranging furniture, because there is one, and only one configuration where everything fits in this bedroom. And that’s barely. 

Case in point: there’s probably a foot of space between the end of the bed and Tony’s wardrobe. Just enough to squeeze past. And off to the right, half hidden by the window sill, he’s managed to fit in a miniature set of drawers. I’m not even quite sure what he keeps in there; just that he was very pleased to fit the thing in. Just, without a centimeter to spare. 
Our wardrobes (like the bed, bedclothes, mattress, and curtains) hail from IKEA. Where they have a pretty extensive and customizable selection if you ever find yourself closetless. The great thing about these wardrobes is that you can configure them in literally thousands of different ways. Here in Tony’s, for instance, we have space for a large container at the top for out of season clothing. Next he’s got a hanger rod hung at exactly the right height for dress shirts. You can’t tell that well in the photo, but off to the right is a little built-in tie-holder the rolls in and out. Below the shirts is a glass shelf that he mostly keeps empty. Below that is a shallow little felt-lined drawer with an intricate organizer for belts, necklaces, etc. Below that (not pictured) are several drawers for the rest of Tony’s clothes. Fortunately we are not the sort of people who collect a lot of clothes, because as you can see, even with the organizing we are working in a pretty small space. The observant will also note that we have different wardrobe doors. Mine open outwards, and one of them is a mirror. Tony’s slide, and his wardrobe is double wide. Although the other side of his wardrobe isn’t really strictly his. It has two of those storage boxes on top, and then extra hanging space, especially for longer clothing (below which is just space for my boots) and then two small drawers for my yoga clothes. That bottom basket is our short-term dirty clothes hamper. Laundry will be discussed in more detail during a subsequent post. 

And yes, there’s a reason you got a peek into Tony’s closet and not mine. He’s the sort of person who can open his closet and let you take a photo without having to do any frantic last-minute tidying. And I’m definitely not.

I’ll end with something that’s not technically part of our bedroom, but then again, is. Because that door you saw in the very first photo (did you notice it was a door?) actually opens. 

We’re on the ground floor, so we don’t have a balcony. But what people often do here is put a chair or bench outside on the sidewalk. We went one further and got a tiny little café-style table with two chairs, and put it right outside our bedroom window.  

It’s perfect for a lazy afternoon coffee, casual drinks with a couple of friends on a summer evening, or sitting outside with my dog and my laptop and blogging like I am right now. You might think it would be weird sitting out on the sidewalk as people go by, but it’s just like sitting outside at a café. In fact, we’ve met quite a few neighbors this way. 

And that concludes the bedroom tour. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Slaap lekker!