Return to the Red Room

 "The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in...yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion...This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be so seldom entered...Mrs. Reed herself, at far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments, her jewel-casket, and a miniature of her deceased husband; and in those last words lies the secret of the red-room--the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur...All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality..."  Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, (my favorite novel)


So we are returning to my red room, and, as you can see, I have not painted it yet.  I loved reading all of your comments in response to my post about wanting to change the color, but one comment, in particular, stood out to me and made me pause and ponder whether or not I really wanted to delete the red.  Annie from Knitsofacto wrote...

"I rather like your red piano room ... there is so much pale painted wood or whatever in there that it balances the red, which in turn adds to the richness of all those books and your lovely piano. This is possibly going to sound daft and presumptive, but maybe wait until all the snow has gone and your eyes adjust from living in a sea of white before you make any decisions?"

Annie has a lovely blog in which her artistic beauty shines through in her photography and yarn dyeing. She also posts a lovely Color Collaborative post each month, and I especially like the one she did for March. Her experience with color made her comment even more thought-provoking. I asked Hubby to hold off on buying the paint, and I decided to take Annie's advice and wait a bit before making the change. I spring cleaned the room by washing the windows, vacuuming the cobwebs, wiping down the walls and trim, dusting the bookshelves and sorting through the books, donating the ones we no longer wanted to keep.  I removed the storage boxes from the top of the shelves and decluttered the top of the piano, replacing the dusty, old, dried hydrangeas with a few fresh twigs from the yard.  I hung a pair of sheer curtains that I already had in one window to see if I liked them in the room before purchasing new ones. I was afraid they might make the room feel heavier, but they do just the opposite.  The curtains seem to tone down the red and give the room a much lighter, airier feeling, and they diffuse the light perfectly, giving the room a softer more soothing effect. (By the way, did you notice the open window?  Saturday was a pleasantly warm, almost spring-like day. Now if we could just get rid of some snow.)  I think I would prefer the curtains to be a bit less "fluffy", and am leaning towards cotton gauze, maybe in tab top, like these.  What do you think?

I would LOVE your input!  Should I paint?  Should I leave the red?  Curtains?  No curtains? Should I slip-cover the chair?  If so, what color would you choose? I would love to know what YOU would do.  Did cleaning and decluttering the room make a difference or does it really need a color make-over?