After a summer of travelling we returned to chaos of 2 adults, 3 kids and a small dog in just 65 square meters, with all our boxes mostly still stacked high. The first room to tackle was our master bedroom. And the reason for this unusual space to start, as I discussed in renovation priorities post, is because our bedroom is one of the cornerstones of storage in our home.
We started off with a bland, white room. The flooring is original wooden flooring, which I love. The walls and ceiling were in a reasonable, but dirty state.
Tackling the walls
I wanted the room to be bright and airy, but have a feeling of cosiness about it. To create the bright airy feeling we went with lots of white walls and white furniture.
Then, at the 11th hour, I decided to create a feature wall, a grey wall.
I love the warmth of grey. The first tester was for a graphite grey, which came out almost black. Even the small patch made the wall come closer. I quickly swapped it to a much lighter grey.
Lighting
Long winter nights, especially, make lighting rather important. A central ceiling light, mood lights and functional lights are layered in the room. Our central ceiling light, a relatively simple pendant light with a bright bulb fitted. It illuminates the room well; almost too well to be used first thing in the mornings or in the evenings.
The plan is to have bedside lamps and hanging light fittings in the windows (something very Scandinavian, that I hadn’t seen much before moving her.)
Multi-functional furniture
All the furniture in a tiny apartment has to work hard. In our case, our bed comes with a large storage compartment under it, our bedside tables are actually cupboards for our clothes and the wardrobe will hold all sorts from Christmas presents to swapped out toys, to paperwork.
My office is probably the most single purpose area in the whole room.
Getting down to work
As we began decorating our master bedroom, I created a task list of what needed to be done. (I’m sharing this, because it may come in useful for others too)
Radiators
Our radiators, were a horrible yellowed off -white. They needed respraying!
Materials needed:
- Spray paint- I found some heat resistant motor block spray paint in pure white. Perfect!
- Sugar soap
- Masking tape
- Newspaper
The spray painting took about 2 days, 3-4 thin layers and 2 can of paint. It was rather intoxicating and definitely a task to do by open windows.
Walls and Ceilings
The ceiling and walls had to be prepared, sanded, filled, and sanded again, before finally 2-3 coats of paint could go on.
Materials needed:
- Floor protection
- Sugar soap
- Sand paper
- Chaulk
- Filler
- Paint
- wall- white + grey
- ceiling- white
The preparation and painting took us about a week around work commitments. It’s a messy and dusty job.
Windows
Our Windows were fine, but as we are close to the cycle path I wanted to add a privacy window film to the bottom section of the window. This allows light in, but stops prying eyes from looking in. First all the windows needed a good wash. Vinegar is your best mate for this. A quick scrub and then they were ready for the privacy film. Static privacy film is a great product: just squirt some water on the window, take the backing off the privacy film and put the film in place. The wet surface of the window helps re-position the film and a squeegee helps get all the bubbles out. The good thing about it is that it can be removed anytime without leaving a trace. It sticks just with static.
- Vinegar
- Static privacy film (this is the blossom design window film)
- Spray bottle
- Squeegee
Furniture
We already had most of the furniture for the room. It was “just” a matter of finding the nuts and bolts that had been packed somewhere different than all the furniture elements when we moved.
- Assemble – tools
- Fix to wall- wall plugs + screws
The room came together nicely. Just in time for the arrival of my parents, who stayed with us for nearly 2 weeks. We gave them our new bedroom and slept on the living room sofa. 😀
While they were visiting we were working on the second bedroom, the boys’ room. In the process of preparing that room we made a big change to our plans for the spaces…. but that’s another story!
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