My bedroom makeover

My bedroom is finished at last! This has been a very long project, from the original idea at the end of January, starting work at the beginning of February, many weeks of painting on Saturdays (and taking Sundays to recover!), to the finishing touches at the end of March.

I started planning my bedroom makeover when I saw photos of Emma Chapman's bedroom, and immediately created a Pinterest board to gather my ideas. Certain themes came up time and time again on the images I was pinning - a mixture of light and dark woods, mid-century touches, triangles (especially on cushions), gallery walls, bold wall art, miniatures shelves, mixed textures, wooden stools, vintage items, small splashes of colour, and lots of white paint!

To begin with the walls were cream at the top, and mint green at the bottom. The first thing was to cover the walls and dado rail with a few coats of white emulsion. This sounds like a quick, easy job, but it took weeks! Meanwhile I was sewing my patchwork cushion, ordering a few items that I needed, and working on all the other little projects for the room.

The room has come together on quite a limited budget, not because I couldn't afford any more, but because I'm naturally thrifty and prefer finding creative solutions than buying something new. And I really mean this is a budget makeover, unlike some of the "budget" makeovers you see in magazines that actually cost thousands (I suppose that is a budget, but it's not mine!). Here's what I spent.

New:

Paint:                   £40
Bedding:              £50
Faux sheepskins: 2 x £10

Secondhand:
Vintage mirror:    £5
Triangle shelf:      £3
Miniatures house: £2

Total:                    £120

Everything else I already had in the room or elsewhere in the house, or I made using materials that I had. I made over a lot of things in the room, including my make-up case, the miniatures shelf, and a small mirror, and I made my finials, cushion, map chest, triangle prints, and light fitting, and painted the triangle art on the cupboard door. I added some storage under the bed using drawers from a vintage desk.

The triangle shelf ties in with something I'm trying to do all around my house - create areas where I can have ever-changing displays of some of my favourite things. At the moment I've got my two vintage Lotus Pottery pieces and three from my collection of Dala horses there.

I gave the bookshelves a good declutter, and dressed them with some things that I love: vintage jewellery boxes and tins, cherry blossom perfume bottles, favourite old and new books, vintage spools of thread, beads and ornaments.


On the little vintage stool are some family photo albums and a vintage camera I borrowed ages ago from my parents' collection! It took me a whole evening to arrange all these little items to my satisfaction!

I've decided to make more use of plants in my house, so at the moment in the bedroom there's a tray of plants, another plant on the shelves, and some yellow roses on the bedside table.

I kept the layout of the room almost the same, the only change being moving the bed about a foot out from the window (and tucking one of the bookcases in the corner). This makes it so much easier for me to make the bed, and open and close the curtains, without taking away much space from the rest of the room. It also makes the radiator more effective, means I can sit at the radiator if I want some warmth, and can use it for drying the odd pair of socks! And it makes the peg rack near the wardrobe more useful, as I can hang clothes on all the pegs rather than just half of them!


I've added splashes of yellow and turquoise throughout the room.

I'm delighted with how the room has turned out, it's exactly what I had in mind and it feels like a peaceful sanctuary with so much light flooding in. And I feel that I've created a room that's full of meaning to me, with items that are particular favourites or that I've made myself. The bedroom feels a lot less cluttered now that it's all one colour, but it's filled with quirky touches that make me really happy!

I've got a few projects from the bedroom makeover coming up on the blog this week, and I'll be rounding them all up in my end of month post.