MAKE-OVER: MASTER BEDROOM

So, where do I begin? This bedroom was in bits when we moved in but it was good size so we could see past this and knew it had potential. The room is by no means finished. I actually like living in a house before doing any major changes to it; it is nice to take your time so you won’t regret decisions afterwards. There are still quite a few items we need to get for this room but we are getting there.

My husband had great intentions to paint the room himself but after removing wall paper, skimming the walls and repainting them for the other 3 bedrooms (which took him months) he said it’s not worth the hassle and I agreed. There was so much work to be done that it was best to get professional painter/decorator to do the job.

Here’s the before picture.

First of all we had to remove the old built-in wardrobe that was actually making the room feel busy and we couldn’t even fit our king size bed in there. Once the wardrobe was gone we discovered 3 layers of wall paper that had to be removed. Luckily we had a great painter/decorator to do the job for us that we had used before. Apparently the walls did not require replastering but he had to skim and repaint them as well as use some supportive tape underneath the hairline cracks on the ceiling (which are common in an old house like this).

Here are the after pictures.

Finally we have a room in our house that it not black and white! I actually made a conscious decision to make upstairs more neutral/beige where as downstairs is pretty much black and white. I feel it keeps things consistent and also in my opinion warmer colours are more suitable and relaxing in a bedroom. There is still a lot of whiteness but the walls were painted using Dulux Natural Hessian which is a natural beige colour. I love how it works with the white ceiling and the white wooden door and the window sill. In fact, we have used this same colour in every bedroom upstairs and I couldn’t be happier with it.

In addition to the paint job, we replaced the old carpet with a fluffy beige one, spotlights were installed and all the old plug sockets were replaced with chrome ones. The floors were uneven so they had to replace part of the wood flooring. The floor is still not perfect but it is much better and does not squeak anymore when you walk on it (it used to drive me nuts and we still have this issue in the other bedrooms) but using a good quality underlay has made a big difference too.

As you can see there are no paintings on the walls yet. I am having a real trouble deciding whether to get few big oil paintings or install wall shelving. The problem is that I have hardly any shelving in the room but then again do you really need any in the bedroom?! Also, if I choose to put up a painting I would ideally want one large one over the bed but finding the right size and style has proven to be more difficult than I thought. I also considered getting a large wall sticker but I don’t think it will look quite as good. So many decisions to make!!

The dressing table is something I’ve always wanted to have!

The bay window allows a lot of natural light to flow into the room and I love it. However, it has been a bit of a nightmare trying to find suitable curtains to fit. Ideally, I would have preferred blinds but I don’t really have that option unless we remove the rail so we opted for beige pencil pleat curtains in stead. These are our temporary ones until I decide which ones I really like. I would have much more preferred eyelet curtain style but because we have a bay window it wasn’t possible. I am considering getting beige suede curtains or beige blinds but haven’t quite made up my mind yet.

I got the over the door hook hanger from www.secretsales.com a while ago and I have to say it is brilliant and looks the part. The only negative is that if there is nothing hanging on it can be noisy when you open the door but I didn’t want to damage the door which makes it a great alternative.

Original 1930s door handle

It’s funny how my taste has changed in the last few years. I disliked the door handles when we moved into the house. They are the original 1930s door handles (as are the doors) but I found them really old fashioned. After a few years I have actually learned to love them! They add character to an otherwise modern house and actually can look quite contemporary with our black and white colour scheme. I am not crazy about the doors though. I like the style of them but because they are real wood and quite soft, they show small dents very easily and paintings them over and over again has left them looking a bit rough. Then again, some would argue that it adds character and makes them unique which is probably true.

We bought all the bedroom furniture from a local furniture store called Paul Simon. The cabinets are part of their Kensington range and come with several different colour combinations. We felt the stark white compliments the walnut effect and makes it more dramatic looking whilst still looking refreshing and simple. The cabinets are sturdy and have plenty of room in them. I bought some Ikea drawer organisers to fit inside them which have been very handy.

Tea light holders: Iittala Glass display box: Iittala Vitriini

This empty space would be perfect for a chair??

Coving dilemma.

We still have one major dilemma; the coving (see above). The coving does not go all around the room which is a shame. Our painter said he didn’t know how to do it as the ceiling is curved. If/when we want to get this fixed, we need a carpenter to do the job properly. The coving would need to be moulded but I am not sure if I will like how the end result will look like hence I am having difficulty deciding what to do. If only I could go and snoop around neighbours houses to see what they’ve done… 😉

We still need more furniture for this room (a chair at least and perhaps some shelving) but  most importantly I need to find some paintings for our bedroom. It might also be a nice idea to have some family pictures on the walls. Perhaps a photo collage would work well on one wall. Annoyingly, I have gotten so used to the empty walls that I don’t seem to be in a hurry to do anything about them..