OUR CONTEMPORARY LUXURY BEDROOM MAKEOVER

[AD] It’s been a loooong time coming but I can finally show you our bedroom makeover today – all contemporary luxury but kept very minimal. Looks easy, right!? But looks can be deceiving and it definitely wasn’t as straight forward as we had hoped.

One thing I was very sure about from the outset was the colour scheme I wanted for the bedroom, calm and relaxing but also moody and cosy. Sort of European city break boutique hotel. The challenge was of course that unlike a boutique hotel room it also had to accommodate all our clothes and a few spare duvets, sports gear and general bits ‘n bobs that you don’t need every day but need to keep at close hand. So storage was the key but we were lucky that the bedroom came with lots of inbuilt storage so all good, right!? Well… not quite.

The inbuilt storage looked… ok – not completely my taste but good enough with a fresh lick of paint. However we started noticing that our clothes were slightly damp when we took them out of the drawers in the morning and after much deliberation we decided to investigate.

To our shock we found that the whole wall behind the cupboards was wet and partially covered with black mould. Yuk! We got a damp expert in as we feared that water was coming in from the outside but he reassured us that the reason was a lack of ventilation behind the inbuilt cupboards and condensation rather than damp was our problem.

As we’re talking about a 1930ies solid brick wall with no cavity wall insulation we had to somehow insulate the wall from the inside and after some late night research we found wallrock, a thermal liner for the wall that regulates the temperature and prevents any condensation and therefore mould forming. So out came the cupboards and in came wallrock and some new free standing units that leave enough ventilation behind them and can also easily be moved. Fingers crossed so far we’ve not had any more problems but the real test is coming over the next 6 months when the cold is setting in.

Our mould problem was the impulse that caused the ‘renovation snowball effect’ and we had to get rid of the rest of the inbuilt cupboards in the bedroom until it everything was stripped back. We replaced the old horizontal radiator with a sleek vertical one that freed up the wall opposite the bed and we put up some huge IKEA Pax wardrobes in – a bit of a DIY challenge with more than a few swear words uttered but in the end we managed.

Choosing colours was easy in comparison as I had done my research at the lovely Farrow & Ball shop in Bath a few months earlier. I decided to paint the main feature wall in Railings, which is more blue than black and a softer alternative giving the room sophistication and drama. Our bed which was on order from made.com was going to be upholstered in a dark grey felt so it would blend in nicely with the dark wall. For the rest of the walls I chose Ammonite, a beautiful neutral light grey, neither too warm nor cool, just a perfectly calm and subtle choice for the bedroom. The ceiling, skirting and doors were to be brilliant white to blend in with the white furniture.

Until the very end I wasn’t totally convinced it would all work together but having lived and slept in the room for a good few months now I can’t tell you how happy I am with the result.

Selecting the soft furnishings and bedside lights were the icing on the cake but strangely it took me a really long time to settle on a complementary colour scheme. In the end I went for lots of texture with velvet, linen, knit and cotton adding a splash of autumnal burnt ochre with the linen bedspread and tassel cushion all from H&M Home who are fast becoming my favourite homewares shop. The Anglepoise original 1227 mini wall lights are a nod to my love of all things industrial and make the room look so cosy and comfortable as well as giving the best bedside reading light.

It’s become a real sanctuary and the cowboy and I make sure it’s a kids free zone. A rule that is sometimes hard to police but since the kids have got their own fantastic bedroom makeover I can’t see why they would want to take over ours. Watch this space for their bedroom makeover which is coming up in a few weeks.