Let's Take a Vote

Apparently I worked too hard on my Monday, as I was completely worn out on Tuesday. I made it through teaching in the morning and then spent much of the afternoon on the computer, looking for economical (yet beautiful!) ways to redo our master bathroom and bedroom. And this is where you come in...

First, let me tell you about our bathroom and bedroom as they currently look. We moved into our house over a year ago, and these rooms have looked pretty much the same since that first month. My big plan was to get the rest of the house decorated first, and then tackle the bedroom last summer. Obviously, that didn't happen. We still have stacks of picture frames on the floor with nothing on the walls. We still have the same bedding we bought when we got married almost 10 years ago. (And I didn't like it all that much when we first got it!) And we still have the yucky, gross, stained carpet in the bathroom that was there when we moved in. So the new plan is to tackle some DIY home renovations in the bathroom this summer, mostly in the evenings when the kids are asleep. And since our bathroom and bedroom are almost like one big room, I'd like to decorate both spaces at the same time in the same color scheme.

Even though this is kind of embarrassing, I'm going to show you current photos of the bathroom and bedroom for a couple of reasons. One, posting "before" photos makes it even more motivating to get the work done and post "after" photos. And two, I want your opinions! I have been having the hardest time choosing colors and bedding for this project. Bedding is always a challenge for me, as I have to find something that both of us like. (Gary has made it clear there will be no flowers on the bedding, which I understand--but it eliminates about 75% of the available options.) And, I have to find something relatively inexpensive, as we already spent the home improvement budget for the year.

Okay, enough stalling. :) Here's the bedroom as it looks now. I didn't even bother to straighten it up for you. (It will make the "after" pictures look that much better, right?)
We have cathedral ceilings in the room, which are great, but also a decorating challenge.
The sinks from our bathroom are technically in the bedroom--hence the gross carpet in the sink area. (The shower and toilet are in a separate room, thankfully!)
Now for some ideas. I'd love to put up a board and batten treatment on the wall behind the bed, to give some architectural interest to such a huge wall. (Ha, I almost sounded like I knew what I was talking about in that last sentence!) Here's an example:
And here's another one:
So, if I can convince Gary to go for it, that may be step one in the bedroom. But what about decorating? Originally I wanted to go for a nice soft blue and a soothing palette, something like this:
But I have been having the hardest time finding bedding for this idea. So then I thought about a simple beige, white, and chocolate brown (or black) color scheme, similar to this:
It's somewhat masculine, so Gary should appreciate that, right? And we want to keep our beige walls (which were just painted when we moved in), so that would work well. But is it too boring?

Okay, now it's your turn: tell me what to do! Have you found any (reasonably priced) bedding recently that you really love and want to share with me? Do you like the blue or the brown color scheme? Do you have a third, super awesome idea? Have you stuck with me through this long (boring) post? Do tell! And I promise to share the after pictures when we get there!