Guest bedroom reveal
We love having people stay, our little villa has surprisingly large bedrooms, we're not talking a rugby field but we are also not talking one of those rooms that could easily pass for an office. If you follow our Instagram you will know this journey, but here's some background to the madness.
When planning our guest bedroom reno we decided to go bold. The room doesn't get used often but the door is always open and you can see into it when walking down our hallway, so we wanted to create a sense of comfort for whoever sees it. The biggest challenge we faced was the paint colour, we were tidying up the walls and installing new skirting before the carpet was installed so needed to pick a colour that complimented the rest of the house.
Georgia led the charge with this room, we knew it was going to be a bolder room than the others so while we were painting the second guest bedroom we were deciding on the colour. The options were deep blue, olive green and grey, however, it was important that the room tied in with the other colours in the house so we ended up choosing to go a darker grey. The styling came naturally as the wooden furniture and white trims helped the colour become a statement so we leaned towards a boho/desert aesthetic
The colour embodies a sense of comfort and added continuity to the colour scheme we had in the living spaces. We landed on Half Baltic Sea by Resene, a warm grey that demanded a boho styled bedroom. It was a huge departure from the all-white colour tone that was in this room previously so was probably the biggest risk we took with the colours. You often hear people say that painting a room dark makes it feel enclosed - not the case, this room feels so much taller and cosy now.
The addition of the tall period feature skirtings, painted in Resene Alabaster was a great move and one that was influenced by Three Birds Renovations when Bonnie recommended cutting costs with skirtings by either going thin or getting a replica.
The ceiling is over 3m high and the darker colour really extends it so we needed something higher than the 50mm ones that were originally there. We took the opportunity here also to replace the switch plates and light switch with our favourite switches by PDL Schneider this has also been a small change but everyone notices them!
The previous carpet was a looped pile polyester that felt like walking on plastic, the underlay we found out was all in cut-up sections and half of it was actually just carpet underneath it so we replaced that with a solution died nylon recommended by Watkins Flooring Xtra. We decided to go with Fog Grey by their Miro range with an 11mm thermal underlay, plush is an understatement and the colour is perfect
The Curtains were so important for us for this room, keeping in mind that we had ugly pelmets and tall ceilings we wanted to hear from the experts what they think we should do, so we booked a consultation with Russells Curtains and Blinds. A local consultant Nicky came to our place equipped with thousands (literally) of fabric samples but started by listening to our challenge and then popped out to her van and bought back a range of linens. With her, we decided to go floor to ceiling white linen with a block out thermal liner, this would give us the elegance we've tried to add to the house, stay with our boho style theme and the added warmth
The curtains still blow our mind with how warm they keep the room and how having them handcrafted has meant that they are 100% tailored to our space. You'll also notice that we've gone with a black rail to keep on theme with the black features in the house, a nice suggestion from Nicky that we didn't think we could do.
The walls really set the tone here, heaps of earthy tones, heaps of natural timber and so many textures. We started by setting a tone and it was one of soft textures, so we knew we needed natural timber (ties in with the rest of the house) linens and clays. The duvet is by Domani X Farmers, bedside tables in a natural timber from Kmart. To capitalise on the giant walls, we went hunting for baskets to put on the walls to avoid the risk of the room feeling too cold. These were sourced all over the place, from thrift stores to the likes of H&M Home. It was a fun mission but ended up a tiresome one too - no one had baskets like these (check out our video on how to make a basket wall)
The curtains and carpet were an opportunity to add comfort, texture and warmth to this room so we weren't hesitant to invest in a premium product to give the house more warmth in the winter.
THE SAVE:
The furniture is easily a save, the two bedside tables look like $400 ones from a premium store but were $40 each from KMART. The basket wall was a save too by thrifting most of it