My sister has some old oak bedroom furniture that is chunkier than yours (1980's) and she painted it a dark brown/black. It looks amazing. She had it painted at a body shop with car paint because it should last another couple of decades. She changed out the hardware and replaced the mirror that sits on the dresser like yours. I can't remember if she just removed all the wood from the original and reframed it with molding or if she got a new mirror. Her "new" bedroom furniture looks like it just stepped out of a pottery barn catalog.

Hi Vampiressrn, I havent gotten very far but heres what I've got. I made a "ethnic" headboard and footboard. The headboard is made of dogon doors. I dont know if you are familiar with them but in African tribes the father carves the dogon doors when his daughter starts menustrating. It is suppose to signify womanhood. The headboard is basically in 2 pieces. Each piece is made with a dogon door and African statues. The headboard isnt completely finished. Still needs some touchups of paint. Its on a king size bed. Maybe I will clean up and make the bed so that I can show an uncropped photo that shows both the headboard AND footboard LOL! The footboard will have a platform that will hold a coverlet, books, etc. Anyway, I have a long way to go before its completed.

Something I did in my guest bedroom while waiting for the perfect pieces of art was to get a photo calendar with pictures I like and buy some simple black frames. I had a set of four, looked pretty good. The one I had was Japanese watercolor art. Later, I bought two large beach watercolors. I love the beach and I found having beach pictures in the bedroom very relaxing! I like landscapes, but if you don't, then by all means don't. I had some landscapes in my bedroom, but moody ones. One was a cabin glowing with firelight covered by a huge amount of snow illuminated pink by a sunset. Just the perfect spot I would have liked to be and since the snow made it impossible to get in or out of the place, it just evoked peace and relaxation or me. To a Floridian it might have been a living nightmare, lol. Later it was a little homestead cabin on top of a hill, a woodcut. When I went full on beach in one room, I had the typical tropical desert island scene, which also says relax, no interruptions. Landscapes can be very abstract too, my friend's daughter does very abstract landscapes. I'm not trying to sell her stuff, just including a link because I think she does beautiful work and it's a good example of "out of the box" landscapes. Might be too casual for your taste, but who knows, http://emiliesart.blogspot.com/p/gallery-shop.html I also loved metal wall art, and botanical prints. I would love some kind of sculpture made to look like tree branches, but again, that's just me.

The exterior is a hodgepodge victorian/gothic farmhouse. The interior has been modified several times (and not well) My kitchen is being reno'd too will have shaker cabinets. All hardwoods everywhere. Here is a photo of exterior and before pics of bedroom & bathroom