Peek into these cozy, distinctive boudoirs

The bedroom is the soul of a home. It’s the place for rest, rejuvenation, rekindling. Time spent there alone or with a lover is sacred. Therefore, its design should be highly personal. For a bedroom to become more than a mattress and two nightstands — a true boudoir — it needs a marriage of flirtiness and coziness.

Historically, a boudoir was a lady’s private room for dressing or performing quiet activities such as embroidery. It was separate from the bedroom and for women only.

Today, the soft, ladylike nature of the space remains, while the separate function has gone away. It’s often denoted by ornate or cottage-type décor and sumptuous bedding.

We peek inside two of the most private of spaces, where local couples spend their nights as well as their days. Artist Carol Schieszer uses her boudoir as a quiet afternoon retreat to prepare for teaching an evening class, and stylist Molly Bingaman often uses hers as an alternative to her home office.

Both boudoirs are full of light and use fashion accessories to boost the feminine mystique. Boudoir may derive from the French “to sulk,” but there’s no moping in these happy, welcoming rooms.

What’s behind closed doors? Come hither.

Filled with meaning

Carol Schieszer gets her beauty rest in her heavily accessorized boudoir. The pink salmon walls provide a glowing backdrop to art and the openly displayed jewelry that doubles as art.

“I used to make a ton of jewelry and sell it. I love accessories. It became an art to me, so I displayed it, and I wear all of it,” says Schieszer, who now runs an after-school art program out of her home.

Handmade quality shines here, from the necklaces Schieszer beaded herself to the painted dressers, wrought iron bed and even a painted rug on the shabby chic, whitewashed floors.

Schieszer’s son, Kurt, now 23, created several pieces of work when he was in middle school that are still lovingly displayed in the room. Since he moved away to Columbus, Ohio, last fall, the pieces have even more sentimental value.

Schieszer loves shopping at antique and thrift stores and finds inspiration in Anthropologie’s storefront windows, but she doesn’t hunt for specific objects. Her home evolves organically, as she adds mementos, gifts and things she likes as they come into her life: wire flowers around the mirror, a lamp from a friend who has died, stained glass from her previous job at Endacott Lighting.

“Even though it’s filled with stuff, it’s meaningful stuff,” she says.

The boudoir is full, but Schieszer says clutter means a different thing to her. “I like order and I don’t want to store things,” she explains. “I’m very visual. I want everything to show or I don’t want it.”

Despite the boudoir’s exceptional femininity, a man does share the space. Schieszer’s husband, Larry, contributes to the scene by painting and hammering nails into the plaster walls, and he gets the garage to do what he wants. Schieszer says his preferred style would probably include taxidermy and logs.

“This wouldn’t be the way he would decorate a room, but he loves it,” she says. “He is my biggest supporter. He likes everything I do.”

A sleek retreat

Personal stylist Molly Bingaman knows what it takes to dress a woman’s body and uses the same principles to style her boudoir. She has always had a knack for understanding how to piece together an outfit and helps clients unearth their personal style by making the connection between what one wears and how one feels. Designing a room requires a similar process of discovery.

After living in the home seven years and focusing on designing the more public spaces, Bingaman and her husband, Robert, have just recently gotten around to working on their converted attic bedroom.

“The bedroom is so private it’s easy to sweep under the rug until later,” Bingaman says. “But we should be designing for us first.”

Seafoam-colored walls, southern-exposure skylights, shaggy bedside rugs, live plants, a hint of shab and a punch of bold color all come together to define this unique space. When the couple married, Robert agreed to let Molly be in charge of interior design, but as her style evolved, it began to steer more in his direction.

“My eyeballs like antiquey things, but it feels stressy,” she says. “The cleaner, straighter lines that seemed more like him are more calming to me now. He is reflected here in how things are getting simpler, sleeker.”

The room is quite large, spanning from the front to the back of the house, with a narrow staircase that poses a huge design challenge: The bottleneck prevents much furniture from going up; the bed actually came in through a window. But the room size offers up a huge bonus: storage.

“I’m grateful daily for my closet. It’s a little lab for experimenting,” Bingaman says.

Her clothing and accessories are folded or hung neatly and are not as numerous as one might expect, as Bingaman has boiled her belongings down to what she knows works for her. Trays of jewelry sparkle, scarves add pattern, and a dress form brings a curvy silhouette to the area. Keeping everything exposed reminds her of what she owns.

While Bingaman’s career path drives her to focus on looks, she emphasizes that style is deeper. “It’s about slowing down and being thoughtful about design, not just how it looks but how it serves you throughout the day,” she says.

This story was originally published March 14, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Peek into these cozy, distinctive boudoirs."