My bedroom has long been a room of contention. For ages I have been saying to Rob that we needed to do something but I just was never sure what that something was. The main problem we faced was that our room is an attic conversion, and with that come ones problem; we actually only have one flat, vertical wall. This meant that the bed has to always be in the position it is and if we want a chest of drawers {I really need it} then that also has to always be on the same wall. Having only one real option for layout it always meant that the room stayed as it was. And even though you can introduce pretty decor and room accessories there are only so many variations and to be honest, as much as I really liked everything I used to do with decorating and styling the bedroom nothing has ever made it feel complete until our most recent project. It seems so silly to say but I know it has affected us both and helped us both get a bit creative as Rob is excited about it as much as me. I have often felt that paint can change everything. It is a great thing to be able to paint furniture and recreate space using colour. It's weird though as we actually only ever use one colour of paint and that is white. It has always been white and white is the feature of the house. We use it as a colour to lighten to create visual space with a trick colour. That hasn't stopped us using colour though. I am a big fan of a statement piece of furniture {you should see my pink sideboard} and, in fact, in a bedroom I had a very light grey painted chest of draws which sat nicely against our white shabby chic pine bed and the white walls. It kept it simple and was a great piece for housing the ever changing room accessories.
It wasn't until our trip to Copenhagen this summer that I really began to get annoyed with our bedroom. It was my personal space and it actually brought me no joy to be in. I was ''artistically frustrated'' you might say and as time went on I decided it was being changed and quite dramatically.
That's when having a look through The Laura Ashley blog came in hand and seeing some fellow bloggers' rooms I decided that I was going to introduce a bold and dark colour to our room to create something different to the rest of the house.
I have never been a fan of the whole statement wall thing, I never really got it, until now that is. When I pitched the idea to Rob I felt he was probably just going along with it as he knew how dissatisfied I was with the space. It also meant he got on with a few home improvement jobs alongside me that had been on his to do list.
The first look at the Pale Charcoal Paint I had chosen from Laura Ashley left me a bit aghast. It was dark. No french grey here. It was going to be bold and different but I was happy with that. As soon as it was on the walls I knew it was right, and while I was painting that Rob actually painted the brown wooden rafters white which made the wall stand out even more. It didn't take long to complete and what was more impressive was how good the paint was. For us, it was going on a great base, just white, but the finish is so even and the matt texture is still so rich looking.
What makes more of a statement too is that instead of painting the chest of draws a complementing colour, I painted it the same. I used the LA furniture paint in the same colour as I wanted to walk in and just be hit by the rich grey. With the help of some new drawer pulls the finished piece looks fantastic! With the colour looking amazing, my mind was in hyper drive about how I wanted to style it.
With what I had seen in Copenhagen in the forefront of my mind, trying to inject a bit of that simplistic natural style into the room was important. Plants in wicker baskets was a must and the darker the green, the better. With the extra copper features I wanted to keep the rich colours flowing so the green came in and now sits so nicely with the grey backdrop.
Another Scandi. inspired pieces was the new refurbishing of our bed. Bless our bed. It has been so good to us having had a life of being chopped to fit under the eves of the roof. But it was the bed that was then Rob's little project. I will actually put a lot more of this on our blog, but having reshaped the headboard and footboard, and creating a bespoke, wood panel headboard, I then painted the remaining frame in the same pale charcoal paint. I did worry it was going to be too much but as the rest of the walls are still white and the bedding actually covers most of it I have been pleasantly surprised by how little you actually notice it being the same colour to the wall. There are just so many other nice textures to look at!
With what I had seen in Copenhagen in the forefront of my mind, trying to inject a bit of that simplistic natural style into the room was important. Plants in wicker baskets was a must and the darker the green, the better. With the extra copper features I wanted to keep the rich colours flowing so the green came in and now sits so nicely with the grey backdrop.
Another Scandi. inspired pieces was the new refurbishing of our bed. Bless our bed. It has been so good to us having had a life of being chopped to fit under the eves of the roof. But it was the bed that was then Rob's little project. I will actually put a lot more of this on our blog, but having reshaped the headboard and footboard, and creating a bespoke, wood panel headboard, I then painted the remaining frame in the same pale charcoal paint. I did worry it was going to be too much but as the rest of the walls are still white and the bedding actually covers most of it I have been pleasantly surprised by how little you actually notice it being the same colour to the wall. There are just so many other nice textures to look at!
Using some nice nude and grey colours in the bedding and adding some teal cushions, I have found they complement the richness of the grey, copper and green that were already going on in the room.
It was just the little things that then needed doing. I made some really simple brush mark art work for the brass LA picture frames and having picked up some jewellery dishes from in-store, placed them on the chest of draws which made for a nice simple display.
My art work was so easy. I just wanted to share as you to can create something similar. It started with the PHOTO FRAME which is actually meant for 4 pictures but I removed the mount to just have the base frame. Then, on some proper art paper used a dry brush and acrylic paint, literally pasted the paint on to paper. it is important that you leave the brush stroke edges, as that is the effect, it's not clean and straight lines. I then let it go slightly tacky and then got small bits of gold leaf and just used a dry paintbrush to place on top. I used the end of the paintbrush to make it look a bit distressed and created texture with it. The overall result in the frames looks really good and gives that minimalist look I was seeking.
I have also gathered a book stack instead of using our original bedside table because I was sick of all the furniture we had. This looks amazing and is a great way to use all the homey books. I specifically picked ones in grey, purple and blue colours to match in with the theme. I then spray painted my bedside lamp in a copper spray to match the drawer pulls.
My art work was so easy. I just wanted to share as you to can create something similar. It started with the PHOTO FRAME which is actually meant for 4 pictures but I removed the mount to just have the base frame. Then, on some proper art paper used a dry brush and acrylic paint, literally pasted the paint on to paper. it is important that you leave the brush stroke edges, as that is the effect, it's not clean and straight lines. I then let it go slightly tacky and then got small bits of gold leaf and just used a dry paintbrush to place on top. I used the end of the paintbrush to make it look a bit distressed and created texture with it. The overall result in the frames looks really good and gives that minimalist look I was seeking.
I have also gathered a book stack instead of using our original bedside table because I was sick of all the furniture we had. This looks amazing and is a great way to use all the homey books. I specifically picked ones in grey, purple and blue colours to match in with the theme. I then spray painted my bedside lamp in a copper spray to match the drawer pulls.
I am so pleased with the overall look. A real change and a fantastic use of colour. I know it's grey, which might not seem like anything new, but the grey is so bold and such a statement, Rob has had to hide the tin away so I don't go using it all around the house!
What We Used:
Pale Charcoal Paint / Copper Drawer Pulls / Copper Frame
What We Used:
Pale Charcoal Paint / Copper Drawer Pulls / Copper Frame
No comments
Post a Comment