There’s something about this time of year that makes me want to close the shutters and hibernate until spring. I love all seasons but the stormy weather which is being forecast over Christmas fills me with dread! I much prefer clear blue skies to wind and rain.
We’ve now been in our house a few months but have spent most of our savings on furniture. We’ll be saving for a while until we can re-decorate, which unfortunately every room needs. With great timing, HomeServe has come up with a bit of a challenge. They invited me to tackle a cold-looking room by giving it a makeover to make it feel as warm and snug as possible in time for Christmas.
The only trouble was which room to pick! Our living room is lovely and cosy so I knew it didn’t need anything. However our bedroom is in desperate need of a makeover. We have the most wonderful bed with a tempur mattress which just gives the best nights sleep ever 🙂 However the walls are terrible. For some reason the previous occupant used lining paper on the walls and painted over them. The lining paper was put on so badly it overlaps and just looks terrible. Three of the walls are off-white and the third has a dated floral wall paper on. The floor has a a strange lino which features white painted floorboards! Eeeeeek.
We’ve put a white blind up but that’s all we’ve done, apart from buy some white Ikea furniture. Our plan is to transform our room as it’s beginning to depress me.
My top 5 tips to warm our room up :
1) Take down the awful chandelier the previous owner put up and replace it with our lovely orange Orla Kiely lamsphade.
2) Make a new cover for the antique wooden pew in our room and add some colourful cushions too. It’s my sanctuary when the children are fighting 🙂
3) Put up some shelving brought from our old house, along with some recent photos and some of my vintage finds to make the room feel more homely.
4) Make some curtains to cover the cold white blinds. I’ll be looking for some new bedding in the January Sales to upcycle.
5) Hang our new print of Ruislip Lido, a local landmark. We bought the print at our local farmers market at the weekend and found a spare frame for it. It features some lovely colours which will tie in to my new colour scheme.
Some of these things I can do straight away and I know will make a huge difference. The whole room needs a coat of paint and I’d love a feature wall behind our bed which will take a little more planning. We had a beautiful Orla Kiely print in our previous room and I’m tempted by her striped petal wallpaper.
It features a number of colours which would be great for adding a cosy dimension to our bedroom. I particularly love the orange as I know it will add some depth and warmth to our room. I was thinking of investing in an orange rug to keep my toes warm as I still have to get out of bed during the night for Little Sis (she’s just turned 2!).
It’s going to look great when it’s finished and is already making me feel warmer just planning 🙂
Hi, Thank you for your great comments about your mattress.
We think they are fab too! Have a great Christmas.
My room is also a bit depressing, I think I need some of that wallpaper!