Get Inspired: A New England Bedroom

Last week, over luncheon, a friend told me about the newly decorated bedroom of a woman we both know and admire, a lively, well-read, Southern-born doyenne who lives in a historic 19th-century house overlooking a particularly rugged stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. And I found myself filled with envy as the boldness described took hold of my mind.

The walls of the high-ceiling room are black, with a touch of aubergine added to the paint to give the inky colour mystery and warmth while relieving its density. The bed, a lit à la polonaise, is hung with great swaths of flamboyantly ruffled white organza that tumble onto the floor in starched scallops; ditto the windows framing view of rocky coastline. Antique engravings of Raj-period India hang thickly on the walls, and everywhere are stacks and piles of books.