A Peek Indoors with Whitney Torres of Athens, GA

I'm so excited to announce that Patina & Purl will be hosting a new series entitled "A Peek Indoors." This monthly series will focus on the home decor and styling skills of some of my favorite bloggers, artists, and homemakers. Each post will focus on the contributor's favorite room in his/her home. 

What better way to kick-off the series than with a special guest post from my sweet friend Whitney of Hey Whitney blog. I am so in love with her minimalist style, even though it couldn't be more opposite of my own decor style. She someone manages to achieve a homey, inviting look while keeping things simple and crisp. Today, she is sharing her lovely master bedroom with us. 

"When I first committed to writing this post for Abi, I immediately started thinking about the new duvet cover and curtains I wanted to buy for this room. New pillowcases would be nice while I was at it and, oh! maybe my husband could quickly build that headboard he's been promising to make me. After a few hours spent searching for "linen duvet cover" on Amazon and gaping at the prices, I realized that I was trying to throw together my dream bedroom in a week, rather than sharing the room as it currently is. And the truth is, this room (and the rest of the house too, for that matter) aren't my dream rooms. There are approximately one million things that I would change in each of them, but for the time being they work for us.

When my husband and I first made plans to move to Georgia, we weren't sure yet if I would be getting another job, which would determine where in the state we wanted/needed to be. To tide us over, we decided to rent this rambling brick rancher in Athens. Luckily, we are able to rent from some very good friends so when we eventually find a house to buy, we won't have to worry about leases and contracts. If you've ever rented before, you know what a big deal that can be!

Believe it or not, I didn't set eyes on this house until we pulled into its driveway with all of our stuff in the back of an enormous Penske moving truck. Normally, this is something that I would have never done. But, from the get go, I've always known this house is just a place to tide us over until we find our one-day home. Having that attitude from the very beginning helped me to overlook a lot of things that I wouldn't necessarily have chosen in a house (lookin' at you, wood paneling).

Our bedroom is one of my favorite rooms in the house, probably because it's one of the few rooms without paneling in it! I'm usually all for painting as soon as we move in, but because we knew we weren't going to be here for terribly long, we left most everything as is. Luckily, this room had been painted by the previous renters in one of my favorite shades of grey.

Our nightstands are two of my favorite things in our bedroom. They are actually old card catalogs that my grandmother salvaged from a library in my hometown. I had them in my room for years as I was growing up and used the drawers to keep all of the letters from my friends. Remember the good old days of snail mail?! I had a quite a few from Abi in there from when we were twelve or thirteen and constantly sending letters back and forth. We recently added some hairpin legs to them and they are functioning quite well in their second life as nightstands.

I like to refer to our style as minimalism with a touch of mid-century modern. Really, though, it's combination of cheap and lazy. ;) One thing is definitely true, I don't like clutter in my home and tend to keep things as sparse as possible. I gravitate towards clean lines, mid-century inspired furniture, and lots of neutrals.

I feel like I'm the last person who should be offering decorating advice, but one of the things I've really come to appreciate in our bedroom is the Threshold blanket that covers the foot of our bed. Not only is it perfect to pull over us on cold nights, but it also serves the double purpose of hiding the foot of the bed. I hate being able to see under a bed, but I can't bring myself to buy a bedskirt ruffle (can you say 1980?) and this blanket is doing the job just fine until we get our head and foot board made. 

Forgive the shameless bragging, but I am so proud of the weaving that is currently hanging over our bed. It is the first weaving I've ever done and, although I made about one hundred mistakes in the process, it feels good to say that I made that! Usually, my husband Mark is the crafty one in our relationship so there aren't many elements to our home that I get to say that about."

Thanks for sharing, Whitney! 

Like Whitney's style? Find more at: 

Hey Whitney Blog | Instagram @whit_torres | Twitter | Facebook