I'm so excited to finally have this room complete and ready to share with you! One of the things I looked forward to most about moving to our new house, was having a workspace again. For so long I'd worked in the corner of our living room, cramped and messy - and of course that usual thing of never feeling separated from work as it's right there, a few feet from the sofa. So now, having this space is fabulous, and in fact, it is currently my favourite room in the house!
Day bed: Ikea / Vintage pendant light: V Interior / Curtain: H&M / Pirate cushion by Lucky Boy Sunday/ Spotty cushion: Rigby and Mac (via Trouva) / Triangle cushion: H&M / Throw: Oliver Bonas / Elephant print: Petit Pippin / Bird plate: Donna WIlson via Moonko / Hello bear print by Aless Baylis / Beautiful print: John Lewis
When we moved in, this room slightly resembled a cave - a cave with a Statue of Liberty mural. Clearly someone had taken some time to paint this on the wall, but as you can imagine it wasn't quite to my taste! Here's a couple of 'before' pics. I worked in here for the first few months, and to be honest found it quite depressing (her stern expression didn't help!), so just before Christmas I bought a wallpaper steamer and started stripping the walls.
The walls weren't in great shape so I decided that I would get the whole room re-plastered, so I would have a nice base to work with. We also pulled up the horrible carpet which you can't really see here (it was grim), and my dad painted the floorboards white for me.
Around the same time Dulux had got in touch with me about doing a makeover collaboration for their Lets Colour magazine - perfect timing! So I agreed to complete the room by the end of March and shoot it for the magazine. It really helped to give me a deadline to get things done!
Desk: Habitat / Chair: Voga / Floor lamp: Barker and Stonehouse / My Daily Melody print: Audrey Jeanne
I wanted to do something a bit different in the room, seeing as it is my creative space. I selected Dulux's Jasmine Shimmer in Light & Space, and painted the ceiling and half the walls in this gorgeous soft pink colour. I was a bit unsure how it was going to pan out, but I am so chuffed with the result. The pink looks so lovely next to the earthy tone of the bare plaster.
One of my aims with the room was to have lots of storage for all my books and magazines, and I desperately wanted some plywood display shelving to perch my current favourites on. My lovely hubby set to work creating this! Homebase cut the plywood to size for us and delivered it as it wouldn't fit in our car, and then we simply added the pink painted ledges (also in Jasmine Shimmer).
Bookcase: Ikea
Magazine rack: La Redoute / floor lamp: Barker and Stonehouse
Vintage pendant light: V Interior / Vintage cupboard: Goose Home & Garden
Sheepskin rug: Barker and Stonehouse
I then added further storage with an Ikea bookcase, a magazine wall rack and my vintage cupboard. The Ikea day bed also has amazing storage in the three drawers, and the drawer on my Habitat desk is useful for hiding away paperwork that tends to build up.
pink plant pot: Anthropologie / Belly basket: Olli Ella
Window cushion: Donna WIlson
Mini wall hanging: Kate Housley
Monstera print: The Lovely Drawer / Bear print: Seventy Tree
Then it was just a case of adding a few finishing touches, some of which I already had, and others which I had fun sourcing! I've put the sources in the photo captions where applicable, although some don't seem to be available any more I'm afraid.
As of tomorrow, I am no longer doing the part time job I've been doing for the past 15 months, and I am back in the world of freelance. I've bought myself a sparkly new laptop and I feel re-energised to get to work on lots of lovely projects this year (if you need a writer, editor, blogger, picture editor etc - do get in touch!). It definitely helps to be able to work from this lovely new room that's for sure!
Thank you to Dulux for supplying the paint for decorating this room. Look out for it in their Lets Colour magazine soon!