Well, it’s been a while since I shared some snaps of my home renovation so I thought it was about time I posted some more horrid ‘before’ pics and gorgeous ‘after’ photos. I actually decided to dial-down my DIY efforts during August, for fear of missing out on summer altogether! Nonetheless, I really wanted to get my spare room into shape so that I could have friends to visit and enjoy some fun days out together.Plus, the lovely folk at Inspired Wallpaper heard about my project and have offered a £50 gift voucher for my readers to win – so now you too can transform your home with some gorgeous wallpaper designs – read on to enter and find out how we gave our guest room a vintage-inspired makeover this summer…
In all honesty, this room was ALL my husband’s idea. I can’t take the credit; the man had a plan, and we simply did c turned it into reality. Ever since we moved in, hubby had the idea to create an arts and crafts style bedroom to tie in with our carved-wood bed (inherited from his grandma). Of course, as soon as I heard this, I got stuck in with the research and read this article on how to create a Pinterest perfect home before getting stuck into some serious pinning.
Here’s what the room looked like before we started…
We knew that a patterned feature wall behind the headboard would help the room to look more spacious (patterns all round would have been too much in this small double room) so we searched for some William Morris style wallpaper. After scrolling through the Inspired Wallpaper website for a few minutes, we found our dream feature wall. Call off the search! Crown’s Flora Nouveau wallpaper in peacock green was the ideal pattern.
A little more digging revealed that the pattern was originally designed around 1910 – the same era as grandma’s bed and grandad’s tallboy wardrobe – perfect! The pattern is inspired by plants and flowers but in that classic Art Nouveau style of the time. This wallpaper has a light metallic sheen in the gold sections to bring it up to date and the slight reflectiveness stops the wallpaper (and dark wood furniture, for that matter) from feeling too oppressive.
We only needed to two rolls to do the wall, so at £15.99 per roll this was a really low-cost way to make a big impact in the room. It inspired our choice of paint colours too; we took a sample of the paper to Homebase and scanned the dusky duck-egg colour to get a great colour-matched paint for the side walls.
On the opposite wall we used a very dark bluey-grey to match the dark tones in the wallpaper. We couldn’t get a good colour match for this dark tone using the paint scanner, but when we popped into B&M later the same day, we found the ideal colour already on the shelf for just £10 (it’s a Johnstones basic paint).
We umm’d and ahh’d about the flooring and decided to give the floorboards a lick of paint. The plan was to possibly carpet the room in the future, but when we saw how great the colour looked (just using the same dark paint we used on the wall) we decided to give it a coat of varnish and keep it.
We also – naughtily – used the same flat matt duck egg wall paint on the woodwork, window sill and doors. Okay, I’m sure there’s a reason why you need special wood-work paint, but I wasn’t going to pay for more tins of paint than needed! Now all the elements of the room blend together and your eye isn’t distracted by door.
Here are some ‘sneak peek’ photos of the wallpaper…
All the pieces of furniture and soft furnishings have since been added, so I’ll be sharing some photos of the finished room over the coming weeks so keep an eye out on my blog. And now onto my exciting autumn giveaway!
The fabulous folk at Inspired Wallpaper.com would love to give one lucky winner a whopping £50 voucher to spend on ANYTHING you like from their beautiful website. Whether you want to create a stunning feature wall, transform a whole room or use some gorgeous patterns in your DIY upcycling projects I’m sure you’ll be able to find a use for this £50 gift voucher. There are plenty of ways to enter via the Rafflecopter entry form below and be sure to let me know what decorating project is next on your to-do list – I can’t wait to hear your plans!
Giveaway is open to UK residents only and runs 7th September – 1st October 2017. 1 winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter. Good luck everyone!
October 1, 2017 at 11:32 pm
My hallway – it hasnt been done for years and it really needs an overhaul as its the first thing people see when they enter my flat
October 1, 2017 at 10:39 pm
We’re going to do the lounge – floorboards, painting, new furniture
October 1, 2017 at 9:13 pm
I’ve just bought a new build house so I’ll be doing my living room, downstairs toilet and bedroom when i’ve moved in and my walls have ‘settled’ 🙂
October 1, 2017 at 2:22 pm
just finished my daughters bedroom, will be finishing off our kitchen/utilty next
October 1, 2017 at 12:04 pm
The bathroom needs gutting
September 30, 2017 at 10:40 pm
My 2 girls 7 ans 8 share a room and I think it’s time we got rid of the winniw the pooh paper… they are NOT impressed.
September 30, 2017 at 8:56 pm
a new kitchen
September 30, 2017 at 11:45 am
Our hallway is our next decorating project
September 29, 2017 at 11:42 pm
I am planning on starting my sitting room again as it is looking a little tired and now the children are a little older, I am able to go for something a little more sophisticated
September 27, 2017 at 4:30 pm
We are in middle of renovating our sitting room, currently have floors ripped up while we concrete them!
Pingback: Room tour – My arts and crafts guest room makeover |
September 17, 2017 at 11:41 am
decorate the bathroom.
September 16, 2017 at 10:29 am
I just bought some new bedding for my guest bedroom which has a beautiful vintage feel of flowers & birds. I would love to add wallpaper to the feature wall behind the bed and pick up another colour from the wallpaper to paint the other walls (much as you have done). I am also planning on making some appliqued cushions for the bed.
September 15, 2017 at 8:21 pm
Love the wallpaper! I have just finished painting all the radiators on our ground floor, which now look like new. My next project is to make curtains for our guest room and maybe give it a coat of paint to freshen it up.
Pingback: My summer garden tasks & a new spot to sit
September 13, 2017 at 7:31 pm
We are hoping to start on our spare loft room and tiny bathroom. Love that wallpaper, it looks amazing!
September 13, 2017 at 7:28 pm
I’m looking to do my hallway and stairs next 🙂
September 12, 2017 at 2:31 pm
I’d like to tackle my kitchen next.
September 12, 2017 at 9:40 am
Actually my whole house needs to be re-decorated! But one step at a time, so dining room would look fab with a feature wall with some snazzy wallpaper
September 11, 2017 at 5:14 pm
I’m planning to build some shelves to put up in my kitchen!
September 11, 2017 at 8:15 am
my whole has is currently slowly in the process of being updated 🙂 my bedroom is next
September 10, 2017 at 11:10 pm
The living room
September 9, 2017 at 5:12 pm
My bedroom needs a makeover
September 9, 2017 at 2:37 pm
Great inspiring transformation, the same, my bedroom needs some personality x
September 9, 2017 at 12:28 pm
the chimney breasts in both rooms
September 9, 2017 at 8:14 am
Your room looks fabulous now! Next on my decorating list is a bedroom where my son currently is. He’s moving out and I can’t wait to get started on decorating it and move my nice pieces of furniture back in there.
September 8, 2017 at 10:28 pm
I’m planning to revamp my bookshelves next – they look a bit tired
September 8, 2017 at 9:26 pm
Redecorating my bedroom
September 8, 2017 at 8:32 pm
My bedroom really needs decorating.
September 8, 2017 at 8:14 pm
I’m up cycling a table & chairs
September 8, 2017 at 7:27 pm
I’m planning to do the living room and had not considered wallpaper until now x
September 8, 2017 at 5:33 pm
I am planning to decorate our bedroom and I absolutely love your wallpaper!! I was thinking of muted greys originally but I am now thinking something much more bold like this would be fab! xx
September 8, 2017 at 12:49 pm
We’re moving house and buying a renovation project so I will be dipping into your blog for ideas along the way!
September 8, 2017 at 10:32 am
Spare room next week & our bedroom October/November!
September 8, 2017 at 2:49 am
We’re planning to redecorate our spare room next.
September 7, 2017 at 9:02 pm
The wallpaper looks great with your furniture a perfect match!
September 7, 2017 at 8:05 pm
we’re trying to sort the bathroom
September 7, 2017 at 6:19 pm
What a fantastic difference to the room! That wallpaper is amazing too, I love it.
I would love some wallpaper for my cheap ikea table that I want to retop….