Before & After: Our Bedroom
When we bought our new house last year, we had the keys for 6 weeks before we moved in, as we wanted to get as much decorating done as we could before all of our belongings occupied the entire space. Along with the lounge and kitchen, our bedroom was one of the main rooms we wanted to get completed before we moved in - we thought if we had somewhere freshly decorated to sleep, eat and relax then that would do us until the other rooms could be finished.
The bedroom when the previous owners still lived in the house - there was a lot of pine!
Above and below are pictures of the bedroom before we got our hands on it. The room has a feature cast iron fireplace, picture rails and original wooden floorboards and doors and is a big space with an en suite and the whole room looks out onto the garden. There wasn't a lot to do to this room apart from decorative work, including getting rid of the pine window surrounds which we felt really dated the room, and painting the ceiling, walls and woodwork.
In our London flat, we had a light and dark grey bedroom (below) and we really liked the cosy and grown up feel the colour gave to the room and wanted to keep a similar grey colour scheme for our new bedroom. As I'm sure you all know by now if you're a regular reader of this blog and follow my interiors Instagram @dottysdecor, I am a lover of colour and pattern so of course I wasn't going to just stop at grey in here! Browsing through Pinterest, I kept seeing the colour combination of grey and pink and I really liked it and best of all, so did my husband Steve.
We didn't want a soft girly pink but a more in your face bright coral pink, and after searching through Wallpaper Direct, we found the perfect wallpaper to bring in some pink to our bedroom.
We both loved the wallpaper as soon as we saw it and as a lover of all things tropical, the palm tree pattern was the perfect fit for the decor of our new house. Best of all, even though the wallpaper looks quite expensive with its shimmery silver-grey palm trees, it's only £16.99 a roll which I thought was a complete bargain. I often get people asking me where it's from on Instagram and I think it has a really unique and cool tropical pattern.
Albany Miami Coral wallpaper from Wallpaper Direct
With the paint for our bedroom, we wanted a grey that was quite warm which would compliment the pink, and after working through many a paint colour chart, I found the one in Crown paints Soft Shadow. We didn't even buy a tester pot as I knew it would work perfectly as the paint has an almost purple undertone to it and compliments the pink.
For the woodwork, we chose Farrow & Ball's Ammonite for the window surrounds, skirting, door frames and picture rails, which is a subtle understated grey that has a really warming feel to it. It was quite a slog painting the window frames, as we had to sand, prime and undercoat them before painting 3 coats of Ammonite on, but I really think it makes a drastic difference to the previous plain pine wood.
With the rest of our bedroom, we really wanted to bring in a Scandi and slightly boho style to the room. I love the simplicity and clean lines in Scandi furniture and how it can have a bit of a retro feel to it whilst also being modern and that's the look we wanted with our bedroom furniture. I also wanted to incorporate a bit of a 1970's boho retro feel, with some rattan furniture and accessories alongside a rustic style rug, and I think the Scandi and boho pieces work as a great juxtaposition to one another.
The rattan chair I found in a local charity shop for £6 (for two!) and the furniture, including the dressing table, chest of drawers and bedside tables, are all from CFS Furniture. The dressing table stool is a classic piece and is a Ghost stool by Kartell.
For the accessories, I wanted to keep these relatively muted so the feature wall of wallpaper was the real focal point and the rest of the room had a subtle, calming feel. I chose wooden and rattan light coloured accessories next to hints of copper, and brought the pink out further through small details such as a hanging planter and the inside of our lampshade, a purchase from Made.com. I also added a Moroccan inspired berber style rug to add to the boho, laid-back feel.
Coral planter by Tiger (in stores) and faux plant by Ikea.
Pom pom basket by Greige.
Rattan laundry basket from Homesense.
Floor lamp by Aldi (past season), mirror by Ikea and picture frame from Oliver Bonas.
Rug from La Redoute (yes, that Instagram sensation rug!) and shoes by Topshop.
Storage unit by Sainsbury's (past season) and vase, a charity shop bargain for £3!
I wanted to bring in a few personal areas so created a feature wall of artwork using two Ikea picture ledges and on these I have framed a mixture of prints, postcards and favourite wallpaper samples along with my husband's lego model of New York, which is a reminder of our Honeymoon there a few years back along with the New York map print.
Picture ledges and Life is an Adventure print by Ikea (part of a set). New York model by Lego.
New York print by Ikea, pineapple candles by Primark and alphabet candles by George Home.
With the soft furnishings I wanted to keep these grey, again so that the wallpaper was the stand out feature in the room, and I have two bedding sets that I rotate. The one mainly pictured here is by Orla Kiely (past season) which has a very subtle leaf print throughout and my other bedding set, below, has a pineapple print design and is by Secret Linen Store.
We continued the touch of personality in our room through our bedside lights, where we utilised alphabet lights that we had made by The Word Is Love with some of our wedding present money a few years ago. The marquee style letters signify our sides of the bed and are actually really bright and I think they add a cool personalised statement in the room.
We made our bedroom makeover affordable by mixing high-street and designer pieces with second hand purchases and charity shop finds and it really is a room we love to spend time in and not just sleep in - the mixture of scandi and boho styles next to a colour palette of pink and grey has created the perfect cosy and relaxing grown up space for us.
