old navy



Ok, so the office is done!  I hope you enjoy these photos.  This room is incredibly hard to take photos of because it is so small and the lighting is so bad but I think they came out alright.  The next photo is just for dramatic impact.  After seeing the way the room looked when we first got here, anything would look good. :)
















The vintage 48 star American flag came from an estate sale for $5.  I was inspired by the Ralph Lauren store in Paris.  I took it to Michaels to have it framed and the estimate (with a 65% discount) was $475. So that is why it is hanging like this.

Btw, have I told you that if you need an Ikea Ektorp Sofa to look on craigslist?  We paid $25 for this one and Ikea sells a new white slipcover for $49.










So what do you think?  You like?  I really do.  The paint color is Benjamin Moore's Old Navy in case you are interested.  I never set out to, but it appears I've created a Ralph Lauren Shrine.  And I'm okay with that.



80 comments

  1. Oh, I LOVE it!!!! I really love the navy color on the walls- soooo pretty especially with the white sofa and gold frames. I've always been a sucker for navy :) Wonderful job!

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  2. Love it ! The navy helps set off the pictures on the wall. I'm okay with a shrine for Ralph Lauren, he has style.

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  3. WOW Janet!

    Love, love, love. Can you please talk about the crown molding? It looks like you put that in as well? You have such an eye for design.

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    1. well julia, we did the crown and base molding when we originally renovated. the only room that had any molding was the living room and it was in bad shape b/c they had cut doors into the walls, so we could not save that molding but we had a guy find a really good match to the original and so we had the whole house done in it. so glad we did it then!

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  4. A Ralph shrine indeed. Your study looks beautiful! The transformation is amazing. I love the way the flag is hanging instead of a frame. Oh, just gotta love craigslist. I see SO much good stuff on craigslist in my large metro area.

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  5. I absolutely love it, so dramatic and cosy! x

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  6. It's lovely, so comfy. We have a navy accent wall but your shade of navy is better. So sophisticated. Great job! It is wonderful.

    Lisa in Fort Worth

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  7. Love this! Our study/library is also navy and I especially love it in the fall/winter - so cozy! I love the flag hanging as is - just shows you don't take it all too seriously (except for the budget!). well done!

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  8. Looks fabulous Janet.
    It exudes old school money in my opinion!
    Another successful make over....I also loved the redo/transformation that you did for your girlfriend awhile back.

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  9. I'm with everyone else, it looks amazing, can't go wrong with anything RL!

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  10. Well if you're creating a shrine to a designer, Ralph Lauren is a good choice. The room looks lovely. Have you tried framing the flag yourself? There are kits out there, or perhaps you could find a suitable framed print at an estate sale and swap it out for the flag.

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    1. i will be on the lookout for yardsale frames so i can fashion something myself. thanks!

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  11. I love it! That color looks great and the office decor is very nice and cozy.

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  12. Three cheers for the red, white and blue. Love it. Love it. Love it.

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  13. You did a really good job of pulling that room together. The color is perfect. I don't understand why Michael's thinks they are giving a good deal on framing. I have taken pictures to actual frame shops and didn't pay as much as the so called "discount" stores.

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    1. I recently needed a 6" x 6" oil painting framed. Michael's was going to charge about $65.00 (after all their pseudo discounts)and not really even do what I wanted, and my small local frame shop framed it exactly the way I wanted for $30. Shame on me for not thinking of the small local frame shop first.
      Rosa

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  14. I absolutely love it and I am thinking of redoing my home office so here is to an inspiration!

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  15. Janet, it look sooooo good! I actually think the flag looks just right unframed. I love all your details. Well done, it looks like a mag shot.

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  16. That is so beautiful and classy looking! I can't believe you found an Ektorp sofa for $25!!! We just got ours last December and paid $300, including the slipcovers...plus had to pay for a trailer to bring it home! You scored!!!

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  17. It's fabulous Janet- bravo!!
    xo~
    T

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  18. LOVE IT!! I've been wanting to paint a room Navy! The RL store in Dallas also has a flag & I took a photo of it last year for inspiration.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  19. Janet -

    Just wonderful!

    Thanks for showing us.

    Also, thanks for the example of how to continue to have style but be thrifty.

    Thank you,

    Ann

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  20. Gorgeous. It is beautiful. The American flag is just perfect. I believe I might still be checking around for framing options. Perhaps a good coupon, or a thrifted frame. You are amazing that way! The flag would be fantastic framed. I think I need an old navy room.

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    1. the reason the price is so high re the framing is b/c the flag is 58x34 so the frame needs to be pretty thick to have any structural integrity. also b/c it is fabric it has to be stitch mounted. for right now i'm ok with it just hanging but i'll be on the lookout for a really big frame at a yardsale that can be re-used. thanks!

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  21. Looks amazing, brave colour choice and it has paid off.

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  22. Like it a lot! You've definitely capture the Ralph Lauren look.

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  23. I love it!!! Immediately I thought Raph Lauren, before I even read anything. It's lovely. So rich, warm and timeless.

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  24. WOW ! I love it - you did a wonderful job, and I also love how you decorated. The flag looks great, just hanging the way it is. Beautiful room.....

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  25. Bravo Janet! I am with the rest, it looks fabulous. Who'd have thought you would be influenced by RL? Paula

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  26. Wow, it's a really stunning room. With the dark walls and then the crown molding and ceiling in a lighter tone, it feels like a rotunda or, that's not really the right word, a something...like a gallery room, maybe? Like a dome, drawing the eye upward, almost a feeling of light coming down into the room; I love the effect. I can't describe but, yes, I REALLY like; you do have a keen eye for decorating. It's s really clean look; tight-clean and streamlined but with great decor. I'm impressed. Are those matchstick window shades; you have them in the bedroom, too, don't you? I like how they pick up the wood floor but then are softened by the light curtains. Do they give enough privacy, like if you're on the outside looking in, can anybody see in? I'm about to do all new blinds where I'm moving and it's kind of a quandary.

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    1. thank you vicki. i think the blinds do a good job on the privacy issue. i think they vary from brand to brand. mine are cheapies from lowes.

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    2. They're growing on me. I am almost a non-window-covering person, at least in daytime. I have to have a lot of light and a lot of outdoors-coming-in thru the window. I have two aunts with nice homes who always had their windows hung in venetian (horizontal) blinds just barely tipped so we were always walking around in semi-light indoors and it was so darn claustrophobic. Somebody told me later that it was a way to get by without any guests noticing the dust bunnies too much...well, yeah, duh, we couldn't see...

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  27. I've wound up with two china closets since Mom died earlier this year. Hers is from the 1940s and is almost all wood except for the glass front doors and I was sort of fixated on the idea that it didn't really show off glass the way I wanted and seemed better for ceramics. Then, I was in someone's law office and noticed they had a similar vintage one and simply used it like a lawyer's bookcase (where the glass doors are horizontal and swing up, whereas with the hutch it's vertical and the glass doors pull out). I see you've done the same thing. Just like armoires can be turned into wet bar/drink stations, a china hutch can become a bookcase; love the multi-purpose ideas and what's nice, too, about the glassed-in area for books is how it protects the books from dust, dog hair (at least in my house; it even gets in the ice cubes...), etc. I have a friend who turned a home office/sitting room area into a home library and it's not even open shelving but she has to bring in a cleaning crew once a year just to pull down all the hundreds of books, clean each one and each shelf (in my world, 'tis moi who is the "cleaning crew" and, well, that's much too big of a job for me so, the more I can get under wraps, knick-knacks and otherwise, the more the clutter is contained and away from the dust bunnies). My husband and I definitely want to be painting built-in bookcases (a white/cream) with a very dark backdrop like your Old Navy; it adds such depth and probably will really pop out the colors of the book spines/covers. I like every single thing you did for this room; it's terrific!

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  28. Well, this is I think my third comment which is excessive but I actually like the flag the way you hung it; flags are meant to be hung. It gives different depth from the other framed things in the room. I can see if it's fragile that you might want to frame it to protect it; otherwise, leave it just as you have it (so it gets a little dusty, maybe, maybe not...I have a piece of silk I painted which I simply stretched over a blank/unused painter's canvas; gives it a boxy-framed effect). I saw someone hang a cloth-fabric artwork once from a curtain rod mounted on a wall's flat surface; it worked. Or a beautiful Native American loomed blanket hung on a quilt rod as an art piece...

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  29. Ralph should be taking lessons from you! Gina

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  30. I love it - well done. It is just gorgeous!

    Victoria xx

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  31. A standing ovation to you, lady!

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  32. Love, love, love the color! The room looks wonderful!

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  33. See what happens when I stay off line for a day?

    Fabulous things.

    I love this room. Every picture, the antlers, the flag, your skill and style.

    Hurray for the red, blue and Janet.

    xo Jane

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  34. Yes. That color is just delicious. Even poetic.

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  35. I love it, Janet! I love RL design and clothing. The paint color reminds me of my old bedroom. I just loved it so much I would probably paint my next master bdrm. navy again.

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  36. Hi Janet,

    Your room came out wonderful...the pic taken before you moved in reminds me a little of how our house was...the "before" and "after" pics are quite dramatic and I always have always enjoyed showing them to visitors when they come to our house for the first time.

    I noticed the horns right away, my husband has two that he brought back from Texas years ago. I have thought of putting them in our office as well! How did you anchor them to the wall?

    Linda
    xo

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    1. thanks linda. the antlers are shed antlers so we used twine to tie them together and then just looped the twine over a nail. does that make sense?

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  37. Love the room...love the color...love that flag!

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  38. I like it! The unframed American flag looks fantastic too.

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  39. Just love it! What a beautiful room. Is it a surprise for your hsband? How does he like it?
    Janice

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    1. no it wasn't really a surprise but he does like it a lot.:)

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  40. Love everything! Sometimes rooms seem either summer-y or winter-y to me, but I can picture both curling up on the couch in the summer, and working with a cup of tea at the desk in the winter.

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  41. Hi Janet - love the room - Ralph Lauren shines through no doubt. The flag hung on the wall looks great. When and if you tire of that you could always hang it from the same type of rod you have for your living room drapes. Line the top of flag with clips and it could appear to be waving. Looks wonderful as is though... Love your place..:)

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  42. Well done you. I love strong, dramatic wall colours and so few people are brave enough to use them. The flag looks great. I would have enjoyed a scarlet sofa in here and the deer horns the other way up!!

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  43. Thanks to your post I had the presence of mind to grab a huge 30x40 framed relief art at a garage sale today for $3. It will go in my modest stockpile of frames, waiting for future art. Custom is just so extortionately expensive I have to be patient and wait for frames and subjects to come together...

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  44. Wonderful!

    NancyO.

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  45. Love how the crown molding combined with the navy wall draw the eyes out and up visually expanding the still-cozy space. What vision you have! Love this treatment for a small space. Just beautiful. May I ask what the room dimensions are?

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  46. Ralph would be so proud. He's in AD next month...
    Next time you go to a garage sale, please buy me a gift. You always find such gems! Michael's is a complete rip off. Find a good local framer who you like and respect and although you won't save a lot of money on framing, you will support a local family and not "Michael" who must be a trillionaire by now.
    xo Terri

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  47. I love this look. The gold frames really set it off. Well done! Jane in Australia

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  48. Hi Janet,

    This is my first visit, I found you via a comment you left on Ben Pentreath's Inspiration blog. What a lovely room! I have been steeling myself to paint my tiny bedroom in dark blue. It has one tiny, north facing window, and although the walls are white, it never looks bright. So, I've decided to go for dramatic, instead! Thanks for the inspiration!

    BTW, the fabulous white chairs in the following post--please DON'T "freshen" the paint! There is so much charm, I think, as well as nostalgia, in keeping original finishes wherever possible. Especially as they came from Europe!

    Cheers,

    Diane at Collagitation

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  49. SO fabulous and SO very Ralph Lauren, which I was thinking before you ever mentioned it. :) I will remember the Ektorp trick.
    Another amazing decorating job by the talented Janet!

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  50. Love it! Love the navy and the white sofa. Have you thought of mounting the flag on fiberboard with velcro? I have seen antique quilts hung this way. I worked for a company that had many antique quilts covering the hallways and this is how they were hung by the art director.

    Michelle in California

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    1. good idea. i have been thinking along those lines. Thanks!

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    2. Wow, what a great tip. I'd never thought about hanging a quilt that way or even a piece of tapestry, etc. Thanks.

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  51. In a word, splendiferous. It seems inviting to curl up with a good book, :)

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  52. The room turned out great Janet! Love seeing the "before" too. Regarding the frame- might Ikea have one that large? Or perhaps a large inexpensive canvas (Michael's with coupon;) that you can then use the above idea to velcro it onto. Or even making your own frame from stock moulding? My other thought was that your bookcase would look fabulous in a cherry red! Ralph would be proud!
    xxoj.

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  53. Hobby Lobby is soooooo much cheaper than Michael's for framing but I think the flag looks great without a frame.

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  54. the navy + gold is stunning.
    love the antlers.
    love the flag.
    here's one idea for framing the flag...
    what if you just buy the frame {paint it gold, maybe} and hang the bare frame around the flag.
    i like the free flowing flag, but maybe this would give it a little something more ♥

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  55. Janet, I've been reading your blog for a couple of years now, and you always inspire me with your aesthetic and your frugality. So simple and so beautiful. Thank you!

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  56. hey I Love it! when I see the computer I think of Larry demanding high speed internet and going mad when it's slow! You have great taste x

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  57. Beautiful room and perfect nod to the master himself Mr. RL. I know painting furniture isn't at the top of your list but that tall cabinet would look awesome colored in a darker tone!

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  58. I see a door that leads to the laundry room - you must show us! I bet it's as beautiful and simple as the rest of your home.

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  59. May I ask what finish of the paint you went with? I'm about to paint my room navy and I adore this inspiration! thank you. - stephanie

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  60. thank you & i went with BM's regal select matte finish.

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  61. You could always use a dowel and backing fabric the way some people hang quilts. it might protect the integrity of the flag better.

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kindness is never out of style.

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