I’m finally getting round to sharing details of my bedroom make over with you which we started work on back in March. This year has been such a busy one with work so the bedroom progress has been very slow, but I’m happy to say it’s finally complete.

One of the main reasons for the makeover was that the black walls felt too dark. The reason that we originally went for such a dark colour was to try to disguise the wood chip which was on every wall in there, including the ceiling. We didn’t want to remove it as we were worried about how the walls would be underneath and if they needed replastering this could turn out very costly which we didn’t want in a rented home. The black did work to hide the texture but it just felt too dark and gloomy. So during our hallway renovation, I spoke too the decorator to see what he advised. He said that we could remove the wallpaper and hang a thick lining paper before painting, to give the walls a smoother finish. So that’s what we decided to do.

Before

We had heard so many nightmare stories about removing woodchip so it wasn’t a job that we were looking forward to. We did a little research  and read that a steamer could cause the plaster underneath to crumble more, so we decided that we would just go for it with a Stanley knife and a bucket of water! So we slashed the paper with the knife in a criss cross pattern, then using a sponge we soaked the top surface of the wallpaper and left it for 10 minutes before peeling it off. The top layer came off fairly easy so we then used the wet sponge again to apply more water which helped the layer underneath to peel off much easier. It wasn’t a quick job but I have to admit that it wasn’t as painful as we expected. We left the ceiling because there were a few areas that felt really lose so we didn’t want too risk it. You can see on the photo’s below how the walls looked once the woodchip was removed. Some areas were worse than others so we needed to apply filler before the decorator came to line the walls.

During

Once the walls were lined.

After

As you can see, the lined walls weren’t perfect but they were a lot better than before and it was much cheaper than having to get them re-plastered. I went for an off white on the walls and a really dark grey on the woodwork but I didn’t want a really matt finish so I chose Dulux satinwood rather than eggshell. The off white is a Dulux shade called timeless and the woodwork is a Dulux colour mix in Night Jewels 1. I love the contrast between the two colours.

We were desperate for two new chests of drawers because the ones we had were years old and falling to bits! I really wanted some solid wood ones so I chose these two chests from the Classic range at Oak Furniture Land. They’re perfect to add warmth and provide lots of essential storage. I might even let my husband have a drawer or two!! I then added a gallery wall and accessorised with lots of plants.

I thought that was our bedroom makeover complete but something was bugging me.  I wasn’t quite happy with the space above the bed. I adore my vintage gym mat which I use as a headboard so I didn’t want to distract from that but it just didn’t quite feel finished. I ordered a bespoke sign from Signhive which I love but it didn’t look right on it’s own hung above the bed. So that’s when I decided to build a peg rail shelf to go above the bed. It was very simple to do and very cheap. You can fine the step by step videos over on my Instagram highlights under DIY.

So what do you think? Leave a comment below if you’d like any further details.