Hurrah. I’ve finally done it … I have finished one room in The New House. It’s only taken me … ooh about four months. I started so well; painting, carpeting and getting the bed delivered and built all within a couple of weeks of moving in but then there seemed to be a lull when life and work took over.
When I first saw the house it looked like this.
But I didn’t need bunk beds or more wardrobes, just a nice space that could be an office or a spare room. I chose this room to decorate first because it was small and manageable with no wallpaper to remove, just a quick paint job, new carpet and a few little bits and bobs and it’d be good to go.
Regular visitors to the blog will notice the odd cushion or bin that are now in their final resting places, other pieces came from Ikea or were recycled, reclaimed or customised. I painted the walls in Potters Clay by Dulux from Homebase and polka dotted the two shorter ones with white vinyl that I got from the local hardware shop.
TOP TIP hand cut wall murals are easy to make using vinyls that are often found on the high street (maybe more commonly known as sticky backed plastic, well, it is if Blue Peter was your crafting Mecca when you were younger (click here if you want to know how to make a Blakes7 bracelet)). I drew round the inside of a masking tape roll for my polka dots and cut them out with scissors. If you are going for a more elaborate design don’t forget to draw your design in reverse on the back of the vinyl so it is the right way round when you stick it up. Oh and something I’ve learned the hard way… Don’t put the mural up on freshly painted walls. It’s best to wait two or three weeks for the paint to dry fully otherwise when you want to remove the mural the paint will come with it. (One way or another my walls will now always be spotted.)
Here are some more facts.
BED I didn’t want my spare room to be filled with a double bed for the odd occasion when someone would be sleeping in it and I knew I’d need lots of storage so this Hemnes Day Bed from Ikea was perfect. It had three massive drawers in its base that are now filled with my fabric collection and pulls out to be a huge comfortable double bed. The bed cost £260 and the two mattresses were £80 each. I changed the original knobs on the drawers for ones bought from Tiger and the Orla Kiely bedlinen is from TK Maxx.
CUSHIONS TK Maxx on the left and Matalan on the right. Couldn’t say if the TK Maxx one is still in store but you can still buy the Matalan one for £8 here. The carved wooden angel wings were a gift from my sister and were £35 from CoxandCox
CHAIR I found this chair in a charity shop in Sydenham when I was on my way to a friends for coffee. It wasn’t super fun getting it home on the train but I did have somewhere to sit. One day soon I will do a tutorial on how to upholster chairs like this.
CURTAINS I’ve decided that it’s best to try and only have two things from Ikea in any one room, that way your home will retain some individuality. I’m not saying I’m going to stick to that rule but I’m going to try! These curtains were just £25 from Ikea. They were ridiculously long when I put them up, so I had to cut about 50cm off the bottom. I made these tiebacks with the spare fabric and trimmed them with £2 a meter pom pom trim from my local fabric shop. The old owners of the house left all their curtain poles so rather than changing this one I simply painted it white.
DESK Here is the bin that was a blog post a little while ago and here is a chair that I found in the street. It has lived in my garden for about three years but even though its been rained, snowed and hailed upon it’s still remarkably sturdy. All it took was a little bit of filling, a lot of sanding and a nice coat of paint and it’s as good as new. The pinboard I made for a shoot and I’m going to show you how in the next couple of weeks.
I love this room. It gives me hope that one day the rest of the house will be as nice.
