May I ask... what is a sleeping 'pod', and what is a 'trapped' sitting room?

Ditto to LuAnn. And can you see one room from the other?

I think she calls it a sleeping pod because it is such a small bedroom.

The sitting room is accessible only through the bedroom, so it is trapped (?) by not having it's own entrance?

To answer the OP question, I think that unifying means that the elements are intermixed in both rooms. In other words, I don't think that two chairs in the Bali Ha'i style in the sitting room would unify of themselves, I think they would look like leftovers if they were the only South Pacific kinda of detail. MCM or antique would have to be mixed into the bedroom mix.

Your basic design idea sounds wonderful and I love the idea of the bamboo chairs, but like LuAnn and Camlan, I have no idea what you mean by "trapped sitting room" and "sleeping pod". I'm hesitant to give any decorating opinions without knowing more.
Lynn

I just googled "sleeping pod" and came up with a Star Trek type cocoon bed.

Ah, yes - the bedroom is tiny...less than 10x10 because the previous owner built in a walk-in closet so as to be able to say the house was 2 bedrooms LOL. A 6x6 closet in a less than 10x10 room.

The trapped sitting room is exactly that, trapped. The only access to it is through the "pod". You cannot, in the current layout, get there from the hall. In our future renovation we remedy that, but for now, it's trapped.

Pal, that's my concern about unifying. The pod is simply so tiny that there is no getting anything other than the absolute basics in the room. My only chance to get anything antique or MCM into the pod would seriously say "one of these is not like the other!" in a jarring, obvious sort of way.

I think my only hope is to find an extremely tiny chair that can go in the corner and try to avoid stubbing my toe on it in the night (since it would be in my personal traffic flow).

Unless you think *lighting* could be my trasitional, unifying element. Because I'm still working on lighting. There is a bit of chinoiserie...I could use some subtle things like that in both spaces.

Luckily, it isn't like the pod and sitting room need to be photo spread/design book worthy, but I want it to reflect my husband and me (preppy meets Lilly Pulitzer meets Hollywood Regency...or something like that).

I would dearly love to see pictures! I love smaller spaces and love to see what people do with them. Do you already have the sofa and other pieces? Do either of the rooms have windows? window treatments or faux window treatments could help with the unity quest.

Pictures would help a great deal!

I think the rattan chairs would be great! There are so many styles of rattan, though. I would consider painting them a bright color!

Nancy

I like the Asian influence on the Bali Hai style! I live in a tiny house and have been more drawn to Asian style because of the clean lines but deeper colors. Maybe you can use color as a unifier? Paint them in a coordinating color with what is in the room.

Oh I get it now. I think your rattan chairs would unify the rooms.

Do you need a chair in the bedroom? If not, I'd leave it out of the bedroom. We have 10x10 bedrooms and a chair in there is just in the way. You didn't say what size bed you have. One of mine has a full sized bed in it, and just one small dresser and there is just enough room.

I have definitely found myself more drawn to bold colors and big pieces that create some interest. In the past, I tried the subtle beige thing, but it just isn't me. Maybe that's why I was never happy. Even with this house and all its issues, I am happier overall because the house has a lovely energy.

I don't have any pictures, yet, but I am hoping to snap some befores today. And windows? Oh, we have windows! Because of the location of the aforementioned closet, the windows on the facade of the house now die into the walls that form the closet. In the sleeping pod, I bought blackout roman shades, but I'm not sure what I am going to do in the sitting room. The longest blank walls in the sitting room are just under 6' and 6' - but both have a window as their corner if that makes sense. Say I put a dresser on the long wall, the piece will block 18" of window. And make window treatments even more challenging. Argggghhh!

It is frustrating, but I am trying to figure it out. Another reason why it is so hard to photograph the sitting room is because it is on the side of my house with the neighbors' silver metal roof. It reflects in there in a way that is literally painful to look at. So, another complication.

I'm off today to go buy the paint for the middle floor. Sherwin Williams Begonia for my office (okay, stairwell landing) accent wall, SW Naval for the sleeping pod feature wall (at just under 10' it is the longest uninterrupted wall in...THE ENTIRE HOUSE! and Modest White for all the other walls.

I really want to splurge and do an over the top wallpaper in the upstairs hallway, because we honestly may never actually renovate or won't do it for years, but just my luck that I would buy my dream wallpaper and my husband will say, "let's just do it!"

Honestly, I am hoping that we can make the second floor so darling that I can just ignore all its crazy bad space issues. A girl can dream!

We have a queen sized bed, and honestly, I was sad to give up my king sized bed but even I can admit that it isn't going to work realistically. There's another bed pod room on the second floor, but with two walls of windows and the neighbors' reflecting roof, I just can't sleep in there. Also, it has no good wall for a bed..no room for a second bedside table, no room for a dresser...nothing. It's not even a good office because there are really no outlets conveniently located.

Yes, I'm hoping that the rattan chairs would tie the two rooms together. All the Bali Hai pieces are from different sellers, so they are different colors. My plan is to unify those with some Amy Howard lacquer in Citrine. I actually *didn't* want to paint the rattan chairs. I had to buy the bedside tables as a pair, but the two, in the same style, won't actually fit along the bed wall...so I have a spare that I planned to use as an end table in the sitting room.

The color scheme is navy, citrine, cream and brass. I was hoping that some how, I could tie the spaces together with color and a touch of similar styling. I didn't think about getting MCM into the sleeping room...and the MCM sofa is more because I like the clean tight lines rather than the MCM look, generally.