With the kitchen, living roomand bathroom refurbished mid Summer last year (2018), next it was time for us to conquer our bedroom decorating.
When we first moved in back in July 2016, this room was the one that needed less work to be honest (or so we thought).
It was a little dull to walk into. Especially as the rest of the house was as if someone had vomited random acts of colour throughout.
One of the reasons we fell in love with our home, was the size of this bedroom.
Even with its dull lining papered walls, with one wall decorating in some very questionable wallpaper, this didn’t deter us. (Nor did the state of the rest of the house).
It was the perfect size to fit our King sized bed in, with enough room either side and at the end of the bed to walk around it. This was essential to us, because we didn’t like the idea of feeling claustrophobic whilst going to bed. Or waking up and getting ready for the day.
When we moved in, the walls were re-lining papered. Mainly to make sure we had smooth walls to start fresh from for decorating.
We borrowed some pine bed side tables, a chest of drawers and a clothes rail. As well as our bed, this is all the furniture (and storage) we had.
We lived with no other wardrobe or storage space to put our clothes and shoes away for nearly two years.
Truth be told this room was the one I felt the least inspired by.
I never had a vision for how the bedroom decorating would look or be styled, until the last year. When slowly this room started to take shape.
Back in February 2017 we had our first refurbishment task happen. We had made to measure wardrobes (hooray!!) built across the wide wall we have, facing our bed.
This size of this wall meant we could build floor to ceiling storage compartments, which have a his and her side. And a vanity area for (me) to get ready in.
We had a builder friend of ours come in (a few months before this build) to discuss how we wanted our wardrobes to look.
Having very little cupboard storage for two years, we knew exactly what we wanted. And how much space we both needed.
It was essential we had enough clothes hanging space for the both of us, shelving, and an area to put our shoes.
Because we wanted a his and her section, we decided to divide either side with the vanity area in the middle.
A beautiful personalised touch was that this area would be fitted with lights to lit up the vanity space when we needed.
This space would also be wide enough to fit a dresser, which we could use for more storage. I was able to find one the perfect width from Wayfair. An all white set of drawers, that only took an hour or so to assemble.
The wardrobe was finished with floor to ceiling mirror doors. The reason we did this was to really reflect the room and it’s size, to make it look even larger.
As the wardrobe was floor to ceiling, we also designed the top of it to be one long running shelf across the wall. This meant we could really utilise even more storage and have our spare towels, bedding, and other bits and bobs stored away out of sight.
As I mentioned the wardrobe was started in March. It wasn’t until the Summer however that (most of) the finishing touches began to happen.
Our made to measure wardrobe was built in MDF, which of course comes unpainted.
Whilst the hubby was working on our Kitchen refurbishment, I made myself busy by giving myself the bedroom decorating project to start.
Which yes, you’ve guessed it, was to paint our made to measure wardrobe.
We decided to paint the interior of it white. I used an oil based Dulux ‘Brilliant White’ paint.
The reason for the oil based was so the paint wouldn’t soak into the wood as much (after it had been primed), as it would of it was water based.
I must admit, it was a touch challenge; tougher than it looks or you think.
Main reason being because of the scale of this wardrobe.
It may not look big, but having to paint each individual section with oil paint, takes time and precision. Because you don’t want the paint to go over yourself (it’s a nightmare to get off).
And you want the paint to flow in a certain direction to look consistent and professional.
Also, oil paint takes AGES to dry, unless you use a quick dry option. I obviously did not!
Each coat needed a night to let it dry. And I think we left it an extra day than usual for the second coat. To make sure it was fully ready to put everything back into it; clothes shoes, storage.
So where I could have completed this task in one day (first coat in the morning, then the second in the evening), I had to spread it over two days
I can’t even begin to tell you the mess our clothes etc made in the rest of the bedroom, whilst the painting happened.
Let alone made us realise we do own too much stuff!
The complete finishing touches however has only just even finished, to make our made to measure wardrobes complete. This will be talked about in my bedroom decorating blog, part 2.
Make sure you let me know your thoughts so far about Part 1 of our bedroom decorating. And if you like the made to measure wardrobe idea for this room.
Plus, do you get stuck trying to find your Interior Style when it comes to bedroom decorating (or and decorating for your home)? Make sure you download my Interior Style Quiz, to find which Interior Style is best for you and your home.
[…] our Made To Measure Wardrobes now installed and painted (which you can read about here in Part 1 decorating our bedroom), the next step was to get some character, and begin decorating our […]