DIY Master Bedroom Makeover Reveal
It has been a long time coming, but finally, I am delighted to reveal my lockdown bedroom makeover! I decided to redecorate the master bedroom in January, putting my plans into action and starting work early March stripping the existing wallpaper. I pulled together a mood board for the design of the room - then COVID-19 hit. I was left with a calamitous bedroom that we nicknamed ‘the squat’, as all the DIY stores closed and furniture manufacturing grounded to a halt. As I scrabbled to buy overpriced primer online and had my allotted decorating time cut short to be a home school mum to my 6-year-old, there did end up being many plus points in trying to decorate this room during a pandemic. First of all, the room gave me a focus - rather than spending the evenings getting more and more anxious watching the news, I ploughed my efforts into panelling the walls. The design of the room also changed a lot from what I originally intended (with more pleasing results). Unable to obtain the new bed I had picked out, I decided to take the plunge and have a go upholstering my existing bed (something that worked out better than I could ever have imagined), resulting in the bed of my dreams! I also whiled away many a lockdown day hand-sewing the scatter cushions and scouring eBay for lighting options that I could collect in a socially distanced manner (I purchased the second-hand central pendant from a local couple who left it in their front garden by the bins after I paid them via PayPal).
How the room looked the week we went into lockdown in England .
So, here are all the final images of the room that I took last week once the last of the styling pieces finally arrived. I wanted to create a modern space, at the same time it still had to appeal to my love of colour and have a feminine twist. I’ll add a full source list of the items in the room towards the end of the post.
The starting point for this room was adding in Parisian-style panelling. I used chunky polymer dado rails from Screwfix and a central MDF picture rail from Wickes to achieve the look. I’ll do a separate blog post on exactly how I did this in a couple of weeks, so do sign up to my newsletter in the box at the bottom of the page to not miss it.
I wanted a warm neutral for this room, as I knew from the dark blue tones the room was previously encased in that this sunny space benefited from a lighter shade. I found the perfect paint colour via the new Crown x Elle Decoration paint collection and chose the colour ‘Flawless’ - a shaded white with a soft caramel undertone.
The previous dressing table in this room took up loads of space but had little storage. I decided to create a hack with a base kitchen unit from IKEA to swap that around. This METOD kitchen unit carcass is hosted on the wall (letting light and air travel underneath it) and provides three shelves for storage inside. I added panelling to the doors to match the walls and primed and painted it so it blended and looked more cohesive in the room. I took the measurements for the top of the unit and emailed a local stone yard to cut me a piece of marble that could be situated on top. After a few email exchanges with London Marble, I became the proud owner of this amazing fossil-embossed black marble off-cut (which they polished up for me) and I slotted it on top of the kitchen cabinet.
Once the room was completely decorated, I set about upholstering my bed from a grey buttoned number to the lovely lilac shade that it is now. This DIY was a lot easier than I ever expected, and I managed to do the whole thing in a day. Next week I will do a detailed blog post on how I did it, but the fabric I used was a velvet by Linwood called ‘Isis’, which is part of their Omega collection.
For the styling of the room, I kept out the clutter and chose pieces that I really loved in pink, aubergine, black and rusty-red colourways. All these colours were complementary to the lilac bed and the black window frames that I had painted to make the room feel more modern.
The bedroom chair in the corner of the room I managed to source from a charity shop £5. I was delighted that the cane seat matched the woven basket I purchased from H&M Home to store magazines and bed throws for the colder months.
Another thing I did was change up all the hardware. I replaced the window fittings, sockets and cupboard pulls with new brass ones, so that the room felt more cohesive.
SOURCE LIST:
Panelling: the box panels are created using polymer dado rails from Screwfix. The central rail that separates them is from Wickes. I cut all of these at an angle with a brilliantly compact mitre saw by Evolution.
Paint: all the walls, coving and woodwork are painted in ‘Flawless’ by Elle Decoration x Crown Paints. *
The bed is upholstered in ‘Isis’ by Linwood Fabric. *
Bed cushions from the back to the front: Pillow cushions in ‘Brick’ by Linwood Fabric (hand-sewn) *; Large bolster cushion in ‘Wild Grasses’ fabric by Earthed by WM Clark (hand-sewn); Aubergine cushion by Dunelm.
Rattan basket by H&M Home
Shell Lali knobs - Anthropologie
Bed throw - Homesense
Super soft luxury white bedding - Bedfolk *
Artwork - Gurilla
Bedside candle - Fornasetti via Heals. *
Vase and lilac candle holder - HK Living.
Bedside light - Tala
METOD kitchen cabinet as a dressing table - IKEA The polished marble top is by London Marble.
Bedside tables - Swoon Editions
Pendant light purchased second hand on eBay but you can find similar here
Wall light was sourced previously in Islington.
* Indicates that these items were supplied to me as PR samples.
These shell pulls are by Anthropologie
What do you think to my lockdown bedroom makeover? I’d love to hear, so please let me know in the comments box below!
