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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Looks great very calm and relaxing. Screens and old doors make fab headboards and focal points. Love the colour and the handles on your wardrobe doors.
Thanks Stacey! it is very relaxing, sometimes I take myself off for 10 minutes just to read a magazine x
I love this post!! I’m so going to pick your brains as I need to get ours done!! When I don’t know now our little man has arrived!! 😉 do I see a pic I took from Bristol?!? I loved that weekend xx
Ha ha yes! That was me at 8 weeks! x
Love the bedlinen! And the grey shade is spot on. I’ll be copying the colour palette for sure. Thank you for the inspiration x
Pleasure Jennifer, the throws were from H&M, John Lewis and the White Company x
Perfect colour on your wardrobe doors! Big thumbs up! I’m hoping once we’ve both been paid this week (hello, it’s been over 6 weeks now!!) we will be able to buy some of the DIY things we need and get started on our bedroom.
Do send us the results Kitty! these things do always take longer than expected, we first started on the bedroom over a year ago! x
Oh crumbs I’m under no illusions about it taking ages, there are lots of little hairline cracks and divets so we need to prep the walls, get the Polyfilla out and probably do an primer/undercoat. I’d like to have the door off and strip it as well as it looks like it’s had dozens of gloss coats over the years! Love the carpet in your room by the way, what a boring question but does it hoover OK? I can’t stand carpets where loads of fluff and threads stick to them!
It’s actually super carpet for no fluff – I’ll try and find out the make, James sorted it out at the time. I would love floorboards with under floor heating in an ideal world but so expensive…maybe the next house 🙂 x
I REALLY love the french inspired screen. I ended up shelling out quite a lot for my romantic french looking bed, but this would have been the perfect solution. I am keeping this one under my hat (/on my Pinterest boards) for the next revamp 🙂 You have a great eye for style Charlotte, as if we didn’t already know that xx
Thanks so much Emma! I am a fussy Madame but I eventually find what I like in the end x
Perfect timing! We’re decorating our bedroom this week.
Built in wardrobes are something we would love when we have a bit of extra cash, I would love to maximize the space we have.
I really love how bright grey can make a room.
Doesn’t it Amy? I was pleasantly surprised, I was worried it was all going to end up looking a bit…..grey! x
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Are the small shelve-type things the same ikea shelves you used in Mabel’s room? We’ve got a blank space and something like this would be perfect. Where did you get your photo frames from? I love them all. We still don’t have a wardrobe and are (still) debating between getting a fitted wardrobe made or going with an Ikea PAX. I am also driving myself (and the boy) slightly crazy looking for the perfect throw! I can’t wait to get our bedroom sorted this year. So much inspiration here, thank you. x
Hi Sian! They are indeed – those shelves are so versatile! The metal frame was H&M (they do some lovely ones and ever so cheap!) the grey laser cut look and the white square ones were from Boots of all places – only a few weeks ago, they had all frames at 50% off. x
Charlotte you really should let your house out as a boutique hotel! That bedroom looks so romantic and snuggly without being fussy and overbearing. We are so short of wardrobe space I actually can’t put all my clothes away at once, so they tend to live on the spare bed. It’s going to be worse this summer when (excitingly) we’ll have to find space for baby clothes too!
How exciting! Even though we have more space I still have to be quite ruthless with swapping seasons in and out (At the moment Spring/Summer is in crates in the loft) otherwise there still wouldn’t be enough room! x
Love, love, love this room. We are currently looking for a new home and I can’t wait to design our bedroom. I will most certainly be pinching some of these images for my inspiration board. They are the best fitted wardrobes I have seen. Why are there so many ugly ones out there?! Xx
Louise I have no idea! In the future I would definitely always go for this plastered option with doors, cheaper and looks better I think. We went to view a new build recently and it was so well done….except for the fitted wardrobes, so big and bulky. Good luck with your new home search! x
Thanks for the tip.
Absolutely perfect. It so looks like a boutique hotel! LOVE.
Thanks Helen! James will be impressed with all of these “Boutique Hotel” complements, that was the look he wanted! x
Love it….where are the little shelves from?
Hi Jean! They are from Ikea, you can get this size of much longer ones, they come in black too x
Love this Charlotte. The screen is amazing and so unique, great idea. After your last post I’ve officially become a Jasmine Dowling fan too and have ordered a cushion for the spare room. I had never seen Rockett St George before and the biggest parcel has just been delivered. Thankfully Hubby is away! Thanks for the inspiration and keep it coming!
Pleasure Jane, What did you order from Rocket St George?! You must share!
Love! Where is your Paris quote print from? Have seen this quote on prints before, but none as nice as this.
Hi Laura! It’s actually one that Becky designed for the RMW boutique ages ago, Lauren and I have the same. Drop me an email as I have some A3 left, I can post it out to you (FOC obvs!) x
Wow, amazing – THANK YOU! Emailing now x
Gorgeous decor! I am a fellow grey addict. And you can never have too many throws! I recently bought a beautiful bedspread from The White Company – it looks lush but is so cosy that getting up in the morning is even harder! I love your hanging lights, did you have to rewire them? I wanted to relocate our central light but the idea of having to pull up floorboards in the room above put me off…
Hi Hannah, Hmmm, leave it with me, I need to check exactly what the electrician did in the end – I’ll come back to you x
LOVE LOVE LOVE your bedroom, especially the screen. Can I ask where you got that?
We’re just in the middle of a purchase of a house that needs work before we can move in and I hope to use a lot of grey!
The wardrobes are ingenious! do you find you have enough room? We got a quote for small fitted wardrobes in the house we’ve just sold and it came in at nearly £4k! er, no thanks!
p.s I have that topshop beaded jacket, and I don’t wear it nearly enough!! x
Hi Becks, I actually got it at a trade show at the NEC, sorry to be a pain – it was a bit of a one off/random purchase I made at the time.
I have enough room for a season (by being very strict!) – I have a double rail (top one is tops and shirts and knitwear, bottom is jeans, skirts and shorts), jackets on the inside of each door plus specific shoe storage and various boxes to store underwear, tights, handbags etc. Maybe I should do a “How I organise my wardrobe” post 🙂 x
well, seeing as though when we moved out of our house (yesterday) I chucked away 4 bin bags of clothes, plus one bag going to charity – I am desperately in need of a wardrobe organisation post!!
the screen was a find!
Defo do that!!!! I need major help to organise our wardrobes!! Love the room and Devo that screen was a one off! Xx
You definitely need to do a ‘how to organise a wardrobe’ feature! I was going to ask how you decided on the internal layout and did the carpenter do all that too. We’ve just had a quote of 4k to do the inside of a 4 door wardrobe!!!
Oh it’s lovely, those wardrobes are going straight on my pinterest board for when we do our bedroom! we’ve just finished redecorating our living room with lots of grey so totally loving the colour scheme, F&B have a great selection of greys don’t they! Please do consider a wardrobe organisation post as I for one would love to read it!
Hi Amanda! Sure! it will also make me actually organise it properly! 🙂 x
Love it Charlotte! We just bought an old red brick house and are in the middle of a full renovation project. Stress! Love the bedside lamps. Were they from Industville too? Kate x
Hi Kate! They were actually from an interiors store in The Cotswolds somewhere about 7 years ago (!) but Industville have some gorgeous ones, as do Cox & Cox at the moment. x
LOVE it! What a great use of a small space. I guess having a small room means you have to keep it tidy otherwise you’d be tripping over stuff all the time. We have a small bedroom too, but have enough room beside the bed where my clothes tend to accumulate. I must work on this for when the baby comes, as need the space for a cot! x
Ha ha ha! M-J mine used to end up on the spare bed…..at the moment I have a jumper, some tights and a cardi on the back of the office chair I am sitting on (!) x
Charlotte, what a lovely bedroom you have. We’re just about to put some fitted wardrobes in so an organising post would be great. Can I ask where you bedroom blind is from? Xx
Hi Steph, it was from Capricorn Blinds – they have a dreadful radio jingle (!) – it was a shop near Birmingham but not sure if they are Nationwide. You can have similar made at John Lewis x
This room is like my idea of bliss, I adore the industrial touches.
I discovered those ikea shelves after seeing Mabel’s room and they are bloody marvellous I use them for so many different things.
I actually picked up a tester pot of plummet yesterday as I am contemplating painting my office that colour but can’t decide whether it would be too dark for all of the walls as it’s quite a small room. Now I’ve seen the doors against a pale background I’m toying with just doing some of the accent features in plummet, any advice? do you think plummet on all walls in a relatively small room would be ott?? Helen xx
I think it would look lovely – and striking. As long as the room has “light” and the other walls are white/very pale I think it will be fine. I LOVE the colour x
Absolutely love this room – just as I did the home office post last week! This is just like my Pinterest house!! Wardrobes are so clever and look so much better than you’re average fitted wardrobe! X
Bless you Heather “This is just like my pinterest house” = so cute. I have a board “Desirable” which is probably similar. My personal pinterest is Pinterest.com/caosrmw – I’m not a frequent pinner I would love to have time! but I do have an interiors blitz every so often x
Immaculate taste as always Charlotte- its a very beautiful room indeed! That is such a good idea to get the wardrobes built in like that – I don’t get on with wardrobes and don’t have them in any room but have never thought about getting the plasterer in to build them in like this. It’s such a beautiful and completely useful feature! (I imagine the sort of thing Sarah Beeny would be impressed with for sell-ability too)
Can’t wait to check out some of the websites for lights – I have a few lamps on my ‘need to replace these broken things’ list.
I really feel I should have given James more credit for the wardrobes, it was him that came up with the concept – and found the fab carpenter! Industville is amazing, I have a super one from there in the living room too x
This is a beautiful, beautiful room Charlotte. Impeccable taste as always x
Thanks so much Steph x
Not sure if I’m allowed to put this on here but Cassafina have a good sale on industrial lighting at the min!! I’ve seen some lovely ones!
I’ll take a look Becks!
wow your bedroom is uber-stylish! I really enjoy and envy your style, Charlotte!
Thanks Anja! x
Wow love your bedroom and inspired to use grey a bit more in my own house. Have a cupboard in my hall I’m going to paint using plummet. What white did you use on the walls? It all looks truly stunning, what a lovely sanctuary you can relax in:)
Hi Tina sorry for the late reply! It was just bog standard Dulux white matt emulsion – dirt cheap with no weird undertones in it. it looks all different sorts of colours depending on the light/relections from the wardrobe and ben linen etc x
LOVE this Charlotte!! Im a big fan of industrial styling & grey too 🙂
Love love love your deco! Currently looking to decorate our bedroom with an industrial style theme!
You mentioned your doors were custom made, do you mind telling us where they were from? You have inspired my bedroom look 🙂
Hi Charlotte – I’m coming rather late to the party! Just looking at your ‘small’ bedroom makeover. Gorgeous. I am renovating our Master bedroom. We have had a bespoke wardrobe built in MDF, to be painted tomorrow (!). I had settled on F&B eggshell with their wood floor primer (as advised by F&B technical) – but can’t decide on whether to use the wood floor paint on the doors or just eggshell. What is the finish you used on the wardrobes in Plummet? The sheen level is lovely.
Thanks
Lovely, can I ask what finish paint you used from Farrow & Ball? Thanks