Firstly thanks so much for all of your lovely responses to my home office feature last week, secondly I figured before I begin on my second personal interiors post I should perhaps give you a bit more background to the house we live in, in order for you to make more sense out of the room proportions and thus our decor and layout decision making process.

We live in a Victorian 3 bed semi in Warwickshire, it was originally built as a two bed in around 1905 and the prior owners built a very sympathetic and spacious extension. My office space is essentially what “should” be the Master bedroom in that it is the largest room, but the space we use as our place of (often disturbed by a small baby!) sleep is at the rear of the house and our garden backs onto a school playing field. It is so so peaceful you could hear a pin drop and the light is amazing, we just preferred it – hence why it became our main bedroom rather than the guest.

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The downside of this is that is is very narrow, you can literally fit a kingsize bed and two bedside tables width ways. Length ways you can’t fit anything else in (i.e. a dressing table, fancy bookcase etc) as essentially your wardrobes take up all the room.

For whatever reason we have never decorated this space “properly”, I don’t know why, there was just always something else to do instead. We used to have an oak framed bed and two large double oak framed wardrobes in there plus a splash of green in the linen/a large canvas on the wall. It was very…oaky. I didn’t love it. Most of the time I didn’t even like it all that much.

Fitted wardrobes definitely made the most sense in terms of conserving the limited space available when we set about starting our “makeover”. Jeez they are expensive, and the vast majority we considered (and we researched A LOT) were not all that aesthetically pleasing. Frankly many were just plain unattractive. I didn’t want to pay thousands of pounds for furniture that hurt my eyes.

We ended up discussing our requirements with a carpenter and after making some cost reducing compromises we had our own design built for £900. This included the necessary plastering, bespoke grooved doors, painting of the new plastering and the interior shelving and hanging rails. To cut costs we went for white melamine rather than real wood shelving (we are the only people that see it after all!) and James painted the doors himself. We also sourced the door handles from an eBay seller for a few quid each (also see “blatantly copied Lauren’s from her gorgeous upcycled chest of draws“…)

After much faffing with sample pots at Farrow and Ball and a brief flirtation with Manor House Gray (too green) and Downpipe (too dark) we decided on the shade “Plumett”, the perfect medium grey with-the-slightest-tinge-of-blue.

The beautiful beds I had lusted after (I wanted some kind of luxe looking grey headboard) were all very spendy so we asked our carpenter if he could chop the headboard off the current one and fix it to what is essentially a French-inspired screen. The throws cover the end of the bed so you would never know there is some orange-y legs under there (!) and we saved ourselves a small fortune. Plus the screen is a real focal point in the room and I love the mix of white-washed colours. I couldn’t find a throw that was “right” to the point I actually annoyed myself with the whole thing – it was my husband who suggested we use a mixture of different grey tones and textures and I’m pleased with the overall effect.

Lighting wise we used to have some kind of oversized centre pendant, I’m not a fan of centre lights in general if I’m honest so as per the throw situation, I drove myself slightly nuts-o with trying to locate a replacement. We have the hanging lights over the side tables as an alternative as well as specific over-wardrobe lights and then lamps for reading. As you may have gathered…..I do love a bit of industrial styling. Ahem. And grey.

The key to keeping our bedroom tidy, calm and relaxing is clever storage, we have several sliding containers-on-wheels underneath the bed and our bedside tables are actually old french filing cabinets from my “old” home office that are surprisingly roomy, I keep all of my magazines and general unsightly bumpf in mine. We also had an extra (very high that I can’t reach!) shelf put in the very top of the wardrobes where we store towels and bed linen.

I hope you enjoyed the reveal folks, as always please feel free to ask any questions/share your own experiences in the comments box below.

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Where To Buy

Bedside Tables: These are reclaimed french filing cabinets from Pale & Interesting.

Wardrobe Lights: From Rockett St George.

Pendant Lights: Oh my goodness you will LOVE this website – so reasonably priced! Industville.co.uk

Pillow Cases: Yep you guessed it, I am a officially a Jasmine Dowling fangirl.

Alarm Clock and Mercuried Vases: From a selection at The White Company (I wait for their generous discounts!)

Wardrobe Door Paint: “Plumett” by Farrow & Ball

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