This post contains PR samples as a collaboration with Photowall. For more information please read my disclaimer.
When it comes to your home, it should always be your safe place – especially your bedroom. It’s the place where you spend the majority of time, a place to rest, refresh and sleep soundly. I always loved my bedroom from the first time I saw it – a large room with wardrobes right across one wall. What more could a girl want? And even better – this year I got all of the wardrobe space to myself! When it came time for a second lockdown I needed to set myself a goal, something positive to work towards and pull me through the four dark and miserable winter weeks stuck inside. Timings seemed to work out perfectly as my Mum had booked in a decorator for her house pre-lockdown so she needed to be out of the way. We both decided to book a week off work to spend some time together and transform my bedroom. It was time to start a-fresh!
So here’s a little backstory, I moved into my house in September 2019 with my ex partner and we decorated the majority of the rooms together. Since being on my own I’ve decorated the kitchen, purchased new furniture and artwork to make it feel more like mine. When it came to the bedroom originally, it was a joint decision and I was happy with that at the time. The wallpaper is from B&Q and paint is Melon Sorbet by Dulux. This room was wallpapered and painted by myself and for an amount of time I really enjoyed this room. Unfortunately my room became full of sadness, bad memories and needed a proper refresh and a makeover, it was taking its toll on me. That is where Photowall comes in.
The Photowall website is packed full of thousands of wallpaper choices to completely re-invent a space in your home. From wallpapers, prints and full wall murals – there is a treasure trove of designs, patterns, prints and colourways to find exactly what you’re looking for. The website worked with ease and the process of ordering was simple. You measure the space that you’re wanting to paper and input the information onto the website, once you’ve ordered it creates and cuts the paper to fit to that space. This is this perfect, not only for your decorating budget but you only get the paper that you need and there’s no excess waste to impact the environment. If you’ve had experience papering before you can end up with a lot of spare due to pattern matching and it can be quite frustrating! Along with the paper I was sent the wallpaper kit, it’s priced at £16 with all of the tools that you’ll need. It includes a brush for applying glue, a seam roller for making the seams invisible, a paperhanging brush for smoothing the strips, a knife, a spirit level, a pencil, a tape measure and a cutting guide for trimming excess wallpaper.
The first step after was stripping the parrot paper off the wall. Using a scraper we peeled the top layer of the paper off which revealed a thin layer of paper underneath. We got a jug of warm water mixed with washing up liquid and a clean paintbrush. Using the water on the brush, we painted over the excess paper which then came away super easily with a scraper. All in all it only took us an hour to get rid of the paper on the wall, leaving us with a blank canvas to for the paper. Along with the new wallpaper, I also wanted to change the colour on the walls. The shade of green seemed to make the room feel smaller and darker than it was so I wanted something on more of a neutral/pastel vibe to brighten things up. I went for Dusted Fondant from Dulux which is a gorgeous lilacy soft pink tone. It really makes my white wardrobes stand out and the room feel so much more open. I absolutely love using Dulux paint, it’s really thick and luxurious and you can see the colour straight away when you’re putting it onto the walls. We only needed two coats of paint on the other walls which dried quickly so we made amazing progress in just one day!
We started off the papering process by using the top of the width of the wallpaper piece as a stencil to map it out on the wall. We were directed to wallpaper from left to right so it was important to make sure that the first piece would fit properly and was straight. When we found the right point in the wall, we measured all the way down and straightened it off with a pencil line as our guide. We used the spirit level at all times to make sure it was symmetrical. We repeated this process for every piece the we applied. When reading the directions for the paper, we realised that it was paste the wall instead of paste the paper. Neither myself or my Mum had done wallpapering without a table before so it made it a little bit more stressful as we didn’t want to do it wrong! But I think we have now been converted to paste the wall fans. The process was much more simpler and mess free -it’s great if you’ve got a lack of space too or working in a small room.
Once we had marked out the area, we used a generous layer of paste to coat the entire section, ready for the paper to be applied. As our wallpaper base wall was light in colour, it was really to simple to see exactly where we were pasting. We couldn’t find a bowl/bucket large enough to mix all of the paste so we had to half it. At first, it looked like it wasn’t going to go far due to it being quite thick but we were mistaken. The wallpaper came on one roll with the pieces clearly numbered 1-8, the pattern match was great on the pieces and you were given a good amount of extra paper on the top and bottom to get things perfect on the wall. The process of hanging the paper was actually really simple, it’s got such a luxurious finish and it really has changed the whole look of the room. We actually ended up only using half of the paste and the paper is still currently hanging on the wall so we definitely used enough!
As for the finishing touches and furnishing, I purchased some affordable additions to go perfectly with the vibe of my new room. For bedding, I wasn’t too sure on what colours would work well so I play it safe and went for a plain black set from George at Asda. Although it’s simple I absolutely love it and I’m considering only purchasing blacks or whites for bedding as they compliment the wallpaper so well. I threw my Mongolian faux fur cushions on the bed from Matalan for the time being but I will be on the look out for some monochrome cushions and hopefully some cushions that are similar colour match to the paint on the walls. The room feels so much bigger and brighter and the wallpaper really compliments the black and white accents!
I purchased my Tribal Side Tables from B&M, they were all black besides the lids which were a light wood. We bought some Black Wood Effect sticky back plastic from Wilko and covered them ourselves. I love these tables as the lids lift off so they’ve got hidden storage but won’t get super cluttered. I added some marbled little vases from Home Bargains that I have as spares in my house. I’m looking out for some faux flower bunches but in the meantime just bought some fresh flowers from the supermarket to make it look pretty. As for the light fittings, I purchased the ceiling light and table lamps from the Rayner range at Argos. I love the exposed bulb details, the fittings came with bulbs that are extremely bright and have changed the whole feel of the room.
My dressing table has not been featured on any of my social media platforms although I’ve had it since April! I purchased the Helmer units from Ikea, I did originally want the Alex drawers but I actually prefer these are they’re made from metal so extremely sturdy and easy to keep clean! To make it a table I also bought the Linnmon Table Top and Loberget Swivel Chair from Ikea. I found my mirror second-hand on Facebook marketplace and my ring light is from Amazon (I use this for all off my filming and makeup pictures)! I cannot even express how much this makeover has changed my mindset around my bedroom and I would recommend anyone in a similar situation to do the same. Starting a fresh has completely changed my cleared the space for me. In addition to my blog post, we also filmed the process and I’ve recently shared in on my Instagram so feel free to watch! I think we spent the majority of the process belly laughing and it was so much fun!
