[HOW TO] Create a bedroom you’ll love

I hate decorating. Painting is so messy and the prep alone is such a pain. But I do love the end results.

We just repainted our bedroom. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the tired yellowing peachy walls – complete with holes! But, believe me, it was not pretty – and certainly not somewhere we wanted to spend any time.

Now, though, it is a haven to retreat to.

The decoration process started, as most processes do these days, with a Pinterest board! I love the whole simplistic minimalistic Scandi decor of white washed walls and white washed bare floorboards.

Working with what we had (dark red carpets which we can’t afford to change right now), we set about doing everything we could to make it as Scandi as possible.

We went for cream walls. We did white walls in an old house and they looked quite cold and uninviting in the winter, so we went for a slightly off white shade – Dulux’s Natural Calico.

I’ve changed our bed linen too – for all white – white pillow cases, white duvet covers, white sheets – it looks cleaner and kind of hotel-esque.

The room is quite small (with a fair amount of furniture) so we wanted to keep the wall decoration as simple as possible. One of the things I kept seeing on Pinterest, was a picture rail above the bed. With an impending trip to Ikea, I grabbed one and we added it to the wall.

We already knew we wanted to use the letters that my sister made for us for our wedding in the bedroom and the rail was a great way to display these. I didn’t want to add too many different colours to the display as we were trying to ensure everything else was light and simple, so I picked out the yellow and blue and used a couple of photos from our wedding and a holiday snap of a blue Fiat 500!

For the rest, I’m trying really hard not to clutter up my bedside table too much!

Is your bedroom a place to hide out in or a place you’d rather hide from?

[HOME] Desk Over

Yesterday I shared the inspiration behind my desk-over, courtesy of HEMA, and today, it’s time to share my new desk space. At my day job, we don’t have our own desks as we “hot desk” so there’s no space to personalise. In my old job, I had postcards and photos on the wall, make-up and shoes in my drawer! So I decided to let this desk-over be an opportunity to personalise a little space for myself.

As I said yesterday, storage is a huge priority for my current set-up as there were papers and notebooks and cards and magazines everywhere.

1. Pen pot – this keeps all of the biros and scissors and even odd ink cartridges from lying about and getting lost.
2. Magazine holder – I love magazines but hate the clutter they create, so this means they have a place to live. If it gets too full, I’ll have to empty it!
3. Letter tray – I love the mint colour of this and the fact that I can now throw my notebooks, papers and anything else in here and it looks organised, rather than chaotic.
4. Sticky notes and To do memo pad – I’m trying to get organised! Trying to!

HEMA have some great organisation solutions and I chose a letter tray and magazine rack in a bright mint shade. I did like the desk sets but felt the plastic ones offered longevity.

These two pieces cleared almost everything away. I also cleared up the letter holder that my mum gave to me. She found it in a charity shop and gave it a new lease of life with a coat of Annie Sloane paint.

In an attempt to get organised, I added a cute set of post-it notes to my new desk and a “to do” pad to make sure I keep up-to-date with my blogging.

Finally, I added flowers because they brighten the whole space and make me happy when I see them.

I’m determined now to continue to keep this space clear and ready-to-use so that I always have a place to work from.

Do you have a home office space? Is it kept looking pretty or do you use it more as a dumping ground?

[HOME] New Favourite Store: HEMA

You may remember I mentioned a new favourite store I’d discovered, HEMA. I had been playing with their alphabet stamps for wedding place names. Well, they’ve now launched their online store and to celebrate they’re offering free delivery for a limited period.

HEMA offers a wide range of bright and bargainous bits for around the home, from desk supplies to bathroom and bedroom accessories and even food and make-up! This is literally going to be your one-stop-shop for everything you never knew you always needed!

We’ve picked out a few of our favourite pieces:

1. Photo rack – this would be great for showcasing postcards, notecards and photos – and it’s dead easy to change around too.
   Photo rope – as before – this would be great for a kids’ bedroom.
   Beauty organiser – this is top of my wishlist right now for getting my make-up organised.
   Jewellery box – how cute is this jewellery box for storing all of your favourite pieces?
   Label writer – who doesn’t want a label writer?!
   Small basket – this would work in the bathroom for keeping all of those bottles currently strewn across many shelves in one place, or in the kitchen for keeping all of your baking bits together, or wherever!
   Sticky notes – need we say more?
   Mug – this is just a very small example of the homewares available.

Have you seen HEMA before? Will you be shopping? Check back later in the week to see my first few purchases as HEMA have challenged me to a “desk over”!