Spare room makeover

My concept board and picks of accessories.

In my last post, I showed you how an amazing feature wall, created by making a photo into wall paper through wallpapered, can be a great starting point when deciding on a room design...

In this post I will tell you all a bit more about my concept and design for our previously bland and uninspiring spare room....

Above you can see my concept design for the room makeover, featuring that amazing custom made wall paper that I designed, using my friend Kristine Scott's amazing coastal photograph, and below you can see how the room used to look:

When we bought the house 3 years ago, it was OK....livable, but only OK, not to my taste, decor wise!

It had some great features, and as they say "good bones", but was rather bland and unadventurous!

The last room in the house still reminding me of it's previous state, the spare room, was not the worst offender: With a rather nice fireplace feature and a perfectly unoffensive lilac color on the walls it has not been top of my priorities....

....but aside from housing guests, it's uses has been limited and it has ended up becoming the dumping ground in the house: The room where everything I didn't need or want around was stored, and I would shut the door and forget about it!

Hands up who else has a room like this in their home!

With that gorgeous pixilated image covering the entire wall where the bed is, I am making a BIG artistic statement in here, and really setting the scene for the room. 

That wall paper is the STAR of this makeover, so everything else is going to have to compliment it in a very subtle way!

As with all the other floors upstairs in our home, I've decided to paint it white. (See my tutorial on how to paint wooden flooring to see how) And I was lucky to already have a tin of paint (Leftover from when I did my daughter, Mia's room makeover) that was a good match to the top of the image on the wall paper.

So the makeover is already under way, and I've actually finished painting the room.

Now I need to add all those little things that make a room come together:

Another important part of this room design, is to keep accessories to the minimum .

This will also help not to steal any thunder from the feature wall, and prevent the room from looking too busy and cluttered!

But this does not mean that the accessories is any less important:

For the mood board, above, I've carefully chosen some simple, but fun and well designed pieces that will help me set the tone for that relaxing atmosphere that I want to create:

I've been lusting after the Z1 cotton lamp by Nelson Sepulveda for ages now, but unfortunately it is way out of my budget, so , in true Nostalgiecat style: Expect a DIY option to this coming on the blog soon.

The paint color, Crown Seldom Seen, is a calm, almost white pale grey, and I love it!

When the lovely people at Lighting majestic contacted me to see if I wanted to choose a light to do a product review of, I literally spent days perusing their huge selection of lights....When I came across the Blyton range by DAR , I fell in love: The pale wood, with the unusual tree-like design and the "old- fisherman's-metal-pendant-style" shades I instantly knew that the Blyton floor lamp  was the perfect choice for my new-look spare room! It had just the right amount of  hint of seaside about it!!

I know that the Ombre-effect is out of trend now, but I am not one for slavishly following trends, and I may DIY some curtains like these, as I feel this effect will perfectly compliment my scheme!

Another top of my lust list, is the string pocket shelving. I am really trying to stretch my budget for these, but I've got a feeling I may have to find a suitable compromise here...

I already own one of these House doctor natural baskets, and plan to use it to house a green plant to brighten the interiors with! "Shopping your own home" and reusing things you've already got, in a new space or maybe even in a new way, is a great way to change up your interiors when the budget is tight!

Another top of my wishlist, has been this gorgeous round ,brass House Doctor mirror  , and I was lucky enough to get one sent to me from one of my favorite online shops, Not On The High Street...

I love the simplicity of the design and think it will look fantastic in the room!

That's it!

Simple and calm...

Apart from the odd decorative accessory, maybe a plant or two, I don't feel like this room will need much more that this, as I want that wallpaper to be the star attraction....and the less stuff that's in there, the more calming and inviting the space will feel.

But I am turning the old boiler cupboard into a book shelf, so that I can keep my reading material readily available when I get a moment to retreat into this room for some relaxation!