The bedroom was always quite far down the list of rooms we would revamp, I can’t really remember why I assume it was something to do with it being functional. But at some point last year I decided functional was not enough and started ripping out the build in wardrobes we had in there. Pretty much forcing our hand to make over the room.
This is what the room looked like when we moved in. 70’s built-in wardrobes that didn’t fit our bed between them, green carpets, the wallpaper had faint yellow stripes and the fireplace was, well, orange…….
It’s pretty interesting right? But we sort of sucked it up and lived with it. Changing up the curtains, painting that orange, trying to make it liveable. But, then I cracked……… I just couldn’t live with it anymore. I wanted a nice bedroom……. And I couldn’t be happier with the results.
Once the wardrobes had been ripped out we then had the fun job of taking the wallpaper off the walls. It turned out, that behind the wardrobes was more of the woodchip that keeps appearing in the house! So much fun. And taking off the wallpaper revealed even more walls in need of plastering.
If you’re in Sheffield I can’t recommend Jon at J S Plastering enough. He totally helped us out when a plasterer we’ve used a few times before let us down, and did a fab job too! We ended up having all the walls plastered and the ceiling boarded. There was woodchip on the ceiling and our electrician had warned us not to try and remove it as he thought it might bring the ceiling down, so the best option was to cover it. I’m sure there will be people who are distraught about the removal of the original features of the woodchip (I’m looking at you Apartment Therapy readers) but hell, it had to go!
I’ve had the idea of what I wanted the room to look like for a long time. Navy blue wall behind the bed, white everywhere else. But finding the colours was the big issue. I wasn’t sure which blue to go for, and then Pantone released their shades for 2018, and their Sailor Blue from the Spring Classic colours was just perfect. Luckily there are quite a few places you can get paint made up to any colour you like near me, so as soon as I saw it, I knew it could happen.
Just as it happens, I had applied to be part of the Valspar Paint Club and a few weeks before the painting was due to start, they got in touch to say I’d been selected, which meant that we could use their vouchers, and the colour matching paint mixing service to paint the room.
We used their V700 premium paint and went with a custom mixed Pantone shade on the blue wall, and I chose to use their ‘Blank Space’ white on the other walls. I’m not a fan of a harsh white and this one has a slight grey feel to it that was just what I wanted.
As we’d ripped out the wardrobes we had, we popped to Ikea and picked up an entire wall of their PAX wardrobes. Jim has two double wardrobes, one of which has drawers in them, and I have a double and a single wardrobe. Jim spent the Christmas break putting them together for us, and installing lighting to insides of them. I can honestly say, there’s nothing that makes me feel more grown-up than opening my wardrobes to be met with lights. My 16-year-old self would be disgusted in how happy that simple thing makes me.
He did a totally amazing job of building and fitting them though.
As we have so much Ikea furniture in the room already (our budget didn’t run to new beds or a new dresser for me quite yet) I did want to avoid getting my vanity from there, but, and honestly, I searched and search, I just couldn’t find a thing in my price range that I liked from elsewhere. So, I went with a Micke desk as my dresser, and bought an Eames style chair to sit in front of it.
My beautiful friend, Liz, made me that amazing blanket for a Christmas gift knowing what colours the bedroom would be. Isn’t it just perfect……
One of my favourite little touches are the Made.com sconce lights. I love the pop of white on the blue walls and it also makes me super happy to not have a lamp taking up space on my bedside table, because it basically gives me loads more room for books!
There are still things we need to do like add wardrobe door handles, and put up some more pictures and if I am honest, figure out what we’re doing with the fireplace hole because the stacks of wood are a bit of a temporary measure, but I am so so happy with the room and I just love crawling into bed at night and seeing just how much of a different space we’ve created.
What do you think?
Walls – Valspar Premium V700 paint in Pantone 19-4034 and Blank Canvas.
Carpet from Mintons. Our local carpet shop.
Wardrobes – Ikea Pax
Dresser – Ikea Micke
Bed and drawers – Old Ikea Malm furniture
Sconce Lights – Made.com