Guest bedroom makeover

Getting this bedroom sorted has been a long time coming. When we moved into the house in September 2016 it was in a sorry state (along with the rest of the house), but the bathroom and downstairs took priority, so here we are three years later and it’s finally finished.

Before…

This is the room when we viewed the house in september 2016.

the house had belonged to the same family for fifty years.

There were certain things in this room that were a given. We knew we wanted to continue using the Sisal carpet that we had laid in the Airbnb room and landing and we had to change the windows too. We were also working on a pretty tight budget, so the only work that was carried out by tradesmen was the window fitting and carpet laying. Everything else was done by Alex and myself.

One of the first things I considered was colours…

Paint

This took quite a while to decide on, but I eventually chose Craig and Rose ‘Chalky White’ and had it colour matched by Dulux Trade. My thought process for choosing this colour was based around the fact that the room is North facing, so doesn’t get tonnes of natural light - the type of light is also quite cool. With this in mind, I wanted a colour which could bring some warmth into the room. The other consideration was resale (potentially next year), so it couldn’t be totally outrageous and needed to be a colour that wouldn’t scare prospective buyers.

With all this in mind I narrowed down my choice to a ‘warm off-white'. Something that is pretty straight forward to choose, right? Not so much. I sampled about 10 different testers (a variety of Farrow & Ball, Craig & Rose and Dulux samples) my fave was Craig and Rose’s ‘Chalky White’ as it has a lovely warmth from reddy undertones that I thought would really suit the room.

I couldn’t justify paying the posh paint price tag though, so headed to my local Dulux Trade centre for the first time - what a revelation. I was super impressed by their service and paint quality. I learned that Dulux Trade paint is different from standard Dulux paint - much thicker, has AMAZING coverage (a 5 litre tin did the whole room) and they have a much bigger variety of colours to choose from. So Dulux Trade kindly colour matched my chosen colour, and to my delight they found an ‘excellent’ match. I opted for Flat Matt and saved £££.

Paint cost: Around £50 for 5L (bearing in mind the coverage is MUCH better than posh paint brands).

The Bed Frame

We had an existing frame to incorporate into the design which we found on Gumtree a while back. It’s a super solid frame, but unfortunately had been given the ‘shabby chic’ look by the previous owners. So I sanded it down and painted it another Craig and Rose colour, (Dulux Trade colour matched) and bought it in a Satin Wood finish which has a slight sheen which reflects light. The paint I used was quite quick drying, and it only took two coats of paint for a really good finish. The time consuming bit was moving the bulky frame around carefully between coats. It took me about 2-3 days in total to complete this. The colour is ‘Monogram’, which Craig and Rose recommends as a complementary colour to ‘Chalky White’. This colour is described as a dark grey, but has very subtle dark green tones. The Dulux colour match was only ‘good’ this time, but I think it brought out more of the greeny tones, which I really love. I also painted the inside of the cupboard door in this colour.

Paint cost: Satin wood is quite expensive (around £40 for 2.5l colour matched ) but i’ve got loads left over for future projects!

Mid face lift!

The finished painted frame

The Indian Rug

One of the items essential to this scheme. We bought this amazing rug back from India a couple of years ago, and it’s been in storage waiting patiently for the right home. So this scheme has very much revolved around the rug. Red isn’t a colour i’ve used much before and I wasn’t very confident using it, but luckily it works well with reddy undertones of the paint, and the neutral carpet too. It’s also encouraged me to add more red into the room, with the artwork and cushions - and has definitely changed my feelings on the colour. This particular shade really brings so much warmth and character into the room.

Furniture

Most of the furniture in the room is things we were given or sourced second hand. The lovely leather chest belonged to Alex’s grandfather, and the chest of drawers was given to me by my mum - I just replaced the handles.

Soft Furnishings

The carpet we already have laid in the rest of upstairs is Kersaint Cobb Tiger’s Eye Flint from Designer Carpet (£18.99 per m2) - this is not the easiest to fit as it is made from natural fibres, so make sure to check with your carpet fitter first before ordering online (we had to wait about a month before finding someone who could do it).

The lamp bases were a gift, and the shades were from Pooky in the sale.

Beautiful silk Ikat cushions from My Little Wish - Etsy shop

Both the sheer roller blinds and the linen roman blinds were ordered from Blinds2Go (priced by size) - they are very plain and simple, but this was mainly for re-sale purposes. I would quite liked to have gone for something a bit bolder…

Installing the blinds.

sisal carpet laid.

Art

We have been fortunate to have acquired a number of pieces of art. My great Aunt was a prolific artist and art collector, and we were generously given lots of her work and some of her collection. The deep red oil painting is called ‘Persephone’, and amazingly is just the right tone to work with the rest of the decor in the room. The other big piece of art is a patchwork of African tribal fabric which has been mounted on a board (pics to come) - we don’t have any other walls in the house big enough for this piece, so luckily it fitted in ok!!

Above the bed we hung three of Emma Cowlam’s amazing drawings. Emma so kindly gave these to me when we first started working together, and i’ve been waiting to put them somewhere special. Emma is a fashion illustrator who draws and works with thread, finding inspiration from stylish women she sees every day.

Emma Cowlam’s gorgeous ink illustrations.

The finished bedroom!

I really hope you liked reading my first interiors blog post, if you have any questions please send me a message!

Hatty x