*AD | This post contains a gifted collaboration with Simba Sleep and The Little Deer, includes affiliate code*
We’re finally in our new home, with our feet under the table *kinda* mine are actually tucked under a blanket. I need to get up and water the plants but I won’t get up and water the pants because I’m a useless plant momager.
We don’t have a functioning kitchen just yet and as I sit here and type this, the boiler has had some kind of quarter life crisis, so we’ve got hot water but no heating. Good one Barbara. Barb is a great name for a boiler, innit? She’ll do.
Looks like we’ll be stoking the fire in the lounge sooner than we thought…
We’ve been in the new gaff for just over two weeks and although there’s still an ever-growing list of jobs to finish off before any one room is ‘done’ (is anything ever truly finished?), I think we’ve made a good start on our Victorian doer upper.
I’m going to kick off the first of these renovation makeover posts with our bedroom; the styling ideas I had in mind, furniture choices, paint colours and all the shelfie faffing!
Introducing the Spiced Honey room…
When I was mood boarding for this room, I knew I wanted it to be a calm, balanced space with texture, colour and most importantly, warmth!
I started with the bed as the focal point and built out ideas from there. It’s a fairly spacious room, so getting some linen bedding and styling it with cushions was always going to be an easy solution for creating that quietly soothing, cosy mood.
Paint colours
I can’t do a bedroom post and not talk about the colour choice, can I? Our decorator hated it, he called it my mud room but it just goes to show, if you’re confident in your decisions, trust your gut & see them through. It’s your home and you’ll be living there, not the decorator, not the architect, not the electrician – YOU.
Admittedly, Joe wasn’t enamoured by the idea of a wall this spicy. He said, ‘it will be like waking up in an acorn’ but once I helped him visualise it / made him think it was his idea, we went for it.
And now? He loves a muddy acorn just as much as me. Hazaar!
We painted the back wall Spiced Honey by Dulux – an earthy brown with warm copper undertones. It changes colour slightly depending on the time of day and it’s been integral for pulling this room together.
Even our decorator came back to see it once all the furniture was in and the penny finally dropped. I’m glad he saw the light in the end! It was a bold move but I think if you’re going to take any risks in your home, the bedroom is certainly the place to do it. It can take it.
Je ne regrette rien! Ta very much Dulux for coming up with a colour to match my very DNA.
Curated open shelving
I think open shelving works in any room. It’s a simple and effective way to display some of your favourite objects in a balanced and aesthetically-pleasing way, all the while injecting some of your personality into the space.
The beauty of open shelving is that you can chop and change it as you please as your interior tastes change. You can edit your shelf styling seasonally, swapping out dried flowers for daffs and Spring botanicals, or as you collect new magazines and accessories you can move a few things around.
It’s cost effective and it means you’ll always have the opportunity to breathe new life into your space – much like changing the bed linen and cushion covers.
I’ve gone for a mixture of books, magazines, old records, candles, decorative accessories and art work in complementary colourways and I love the end result.
You’ll probably find me here faffing away every Sunday for many moons to come!
Mindful clothes styling
We are fortunate enough to house our bulky wardrobes in the second bedroom freeing up a lot of space (and sanity) in the master bedroom.
This has been game-changing, not only for the physical sense of space but for our head space, too.
We were previously renting a one bedroom flat, with little to no room to get dressed in the morning, so much so we had to opt for sliding doors on the wardrobe as hinged doors wouldn’t fit.
This meant only one of us could get dressed at any one time and as you can imagine, getting ready in the morning was a peaceful, harmonious affair with absolutely no bickering. None.
Shoes would fall on my head. I stuffed a sock in Joe’s mouth once. Yeah, it was character building stuff.
But we started at the bottom, now we’re here! So messy, bulky, bobbly clothes safely out of sight and out of mind and now I’m left with a 100cm gap to play with in the bedroom?
Uh huh, it was calling out for a clothes rail from The Little Deer, a fantastic Brighton-based interiors studio bursting with beautifully made and carefully curated pieces for your home. All the pampas grass you can see dotted around our home on my Instagram is also from here. They also have a view by appointment studio in Lewes, so if you’re ever in the area message them to see if you can drop by for a snoop and a homeware haul.
Just like the shelving, a clothes rail is another opportunity to play around with colourways and textures, and again it’s something you can easily update regularly.
I’ve selected a few key minimal but cosy pieces on my rail and I think it’s a nice way to make the bedroom feel like a bedroom, without overwhelming the space with clutter for the sake of it.
And on the other side of the bedroom, I’ve set up a little styling corner with this clothes screen / room divider from Wayfair. I love the boho California leaf print and I think it’s a great statement piece for an otherwise empty space.
A good night’s sleep
Over these past few months, myself and Joe have really put our backs through their paces.
We’ve carried everything from fridges, ovens, washing machines and the kitchen sink (literally) up our impossibly narrow staircase and crowed, ‘pivot more, pivot better’ approximately 117 times at each other. Miraculously, we somehow managed to make it out the other side alive with our relationship still in-tact. Even if he did underestimate how strong I am.
Having already chosen our rattan Reema bed from Made, choosing a quality mattress to go with it was a must.
We had our previous mattress for 4 years+ and it was causing all kinds of niggles for both of us. It had a big dip in the middle of it that felt akin to being on a rocky, rickety log flume.
Yeah. To say I haven’t slept very well at all for the best part of two years is an understatement.
With that in mind, here’s two of the sexiest words you can introduce to the bedroom: Memory foam.
Since we’ve had the Simba Sleep Hybrid, my sleep experience has had a complete overhaul. It usually takes me a good 1 – 2 hours to drift off but since changing our mattress, I’m falling asleep sooner and enjoying more restful, undisturbed sleep too.
The unique patented springs and flexible zoned base are designed to respond individually to each sleeper, meaning your movement doesn’t affect your partner. Quite the upgrade from the rocky mattress filled with hollows and craters we’re used to.
It’s even got a cooling comfort layer designed to tackle overheating – bye, bye random night sweats.
Again, this is something I previously experienced nearly every night, so a combination of the breathable sleep surface of the Simba Sleep Hybrid Mattress* and switching to linen bedding has made all the difference.
It’s firm but soft – the best mattress combo – moulding to your body and providing pressure relieving support in all the right places. Not to be dramatic but my back feels like it’s been on that 10 Years Younger show.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing our bedroom makeover and as always, if you have any questions or thoughts on what you’d love to see next, let me know!
Love you bye!
*If you’re looking for a new mattress, you can click here to get £75 off your Simba Sleep Hybrid*
