From Dreary to Fabulous

I was drafted in to fix this horribly dated bedroom in a shared house. The property is in a great location and has some fabulous period features, but this top floor bedroom was very neglected and in desperate need of a facelift.

The dark wood panelling and wooden louvred doors sucked the light out of the room. The landlord preferred to keep both, so the challenge was to make them work for the present day. The louvred doors conceal a good amount of storage, including hanging rails and drawers, which make good use of the restricted headroom beneath the sloping ceiling. Repairing the shelves and rails inside and giving the whole wall a coat of fresh, contemporary light grey made an immense difference in brightening up the room. Rather than replace the dated hardware, a quick coat of spray paint brought the knobs in line with the new colour scheme.

The slatted window blinds were ugly and damaged, so needed to be replaced with a better solution. The room has period, single glazed sash windows which can be a bit cold in winter, so by replacing the slatted blind with a heavier, fully lined roman blind, as well as improving the look I was able to improve the insulation.

Previously the bed had a solid base, which was a waste of valuable space. Replacing it with an open bed frame means that a tenant will be able to store items underneath too. As the room is quite narrow I didn’t want to clutter the space with nightstands or additional furniture. A great alternative to a nightstand is the corner shelf mounted above the bed, ideal for a book, phone or even a reading lamp. Another wall mounted shelf adds storage and display options without cluttering the floor.

Rather than mount a picture on the wall, I chose to put up a picture shelf. This means that a tenant can customise and have their own artwork on display, making the room feel more like home.