From ‘sad’ bedroom to ‘happy place’
Homeowner left revamping to the expert and loves result
Dr. Scott Cohen looked around his home in The Woodlands and wasn’t quite sure what it needed, but he knew it needed something drastically different. It was dark and dated and, in a nutshell, just not him.
“It didn’t have any character — it didn’t speak to me at all,” said Cohen, 57 and a reconstructive surgeon. “I couldn’t put a name to any style. I’m in that bucket with most men. I didn’t have a remedy or style solution in mind, but I knew what my concerns were.” Cohen hadn’t worked with an interior designer before, but he called Nancy Charbonneau of Charbonneau Interiors in The Woodlands and asked her to come to his home and look around.
Offering lots of options and expecting Cohen to make a choice wasn’t going to work. He wanted her to present a plan that he could sign off on.
He might laugh when he tells the story, but he isn’t kidding when he says his job was to “say yes” and “write checks.”
Charbonneau updated more of the first floor of Cohen’s home, but the master bedroom is his favorite space — his happy place, he said. His “before” photos show a room cov
ered in goldish earthtones and big, heavy furniture. Wooden blinds were the only window treatments covering numerous arched windows and, despite the fact that it was a large room with dark hardwood floors, there weren’t any rugs.
Not shown in those photos, though, were numerous stacks of papers that had grown over time.
“I had piles of papers spread out all over the floor. I’m talking about 40 piles, an OCD kind of thing,” Cohen said. “I said, ‘One objective, Nancy, is to feel like I can get rid of these piles, and part of that is that I have to feel good about the room.’ The room now makes a difference — I wouldn’t put any piles in it because I love the room so much.”
Charbonneau said that Cohen gave her complete freedom in the room, other than knowing she needed to stay neutral and take it up several notches in sophistication.
Cohen didn’t come to her with anecdotes from HGTV home-renovation shows or dozens of photos on Instagram, Pinterest or Houzz pages online, so he had no expectations that his home could be reinvented overnight.
“I don’t make decisions based on style or trends. My goal is to create a space where the owner wants to linger … I want the space to have a feeling,” Charbonneau said. “The energy his bedroom was giving off was not good — it was sad energy.”
“My job is to create a space you want to be in, especially the bedroom. You spend so much time in your bedroom just to have a space that’s not contrived and not stiff and not too serious but beautiful at the same time,” she added.
Charbonneau liked the simple chandelier in the room but otherwise started fresh.
The gold faux-painted walls got a fresh coat of paint in a light neutral, and similarly colored draperies now frame the windows to soften the room. A new upholstered bed with a tall, tufted headboard allows Cohen to sit up in bed to read or watch TV.
Because the room needed more furniture, Charbonneau added a seating area in front of a fireplace, a cushy armchair and settee with a side table and ottoman all gathered onto a neutral rug.
“People put off the master bedroom as the last thing because it’s not a common area that everyone sees, but it’s one of those core rooms in your house. It’s like having a strong core in your body; to have a space you feel so good about helps you be stronger,” Charbonneau said.
Getting a new bedroom and improvements elsewhere in his home also was planned to align with a new chapter of his life: a simpler one. So the seating areas aren’t complicated or fussy, bedding is machine washable, and the rugs can handle Cohen’s busy dogs.
“Before, it was missing things that are cozy and make you want to stay,” Charbonneau said. “I’m passionate about textiles. There is literally a biblical element of bringing something in a space that … wraps its thread around you.”
Cohen still doesn’t know much about style, but he knows what he likes — and he likes his new bedroom.
“If someone had asked me how much of a difference rugs or draperies made, I would have said ‘none.’ It ended up being a huge deal. Just about every element for me ended up being a dramatically improved change,” he said. “And out of respect for Nancy and myself, I keep it looking pretty darn close to those pictures you have.”
Note: This is part of an occasional series of stories that looks at how a homeowner or family transforms a single room in their home. To be considered for this "One Room" feature, write to diane.cowen@chron.com.