Interiors: Bedroom makeover on a budget

As you’ll probably have picked up if you’ve read my blog over the last month or so we recently bought our own home. We’ve made a good start on most of the rooms to get them looking nice and being comfortable, and it is starting to feel like home now! The one room that we’d not really done anything in other than paint white is our own bedroom because it didn’t seem like a priority. We didn’t have curtains or a lampshade! But each night when I went to bed I looked at the blank walls, and the bed sheet draped in the window to act as a curtain and feel a bit miserable about it! So, when I was asked if I wanted to give one room in our house a makeover by Four Walls I took it as a sign to do something with our bedroom.  I was given a budget of £100 to makeover our bedroom, and this is what I managed to do!

Before: Bed sheet hanging miserably in the window that didn’t keep the light out, nothing on the walls, Sam didn’t have a bedside table, there was no clock, or even any personal touches!

After: A white (blackout) blind, a floating shelf above the bed, some coloured fairy lights to add ambience and act as a nightlight if needed, an alarm clock each and some decorative bits,

Total price: £99.12!

• • Floating shelf: £10 (Ikea)
  • Metal lamp shade £12.99 (Amazon)
  • Rattan ball fairy lights £3.66 (Ebay)
  • White blackout blind £18.99 (Amazon)
  • Candle holder £4.99 (Wilkinsons)
  • Bedside table: £29.99 (Sue Ryder via Amazon)
  • Alarm clocks 2 at £9.25 each (Ebay)

How different does the room look now? A few bits we already had, like the house shaped candle holder and the white box frame, but getting a shelf to display them makes all the difference! Plus I can safely have scented candles burning well away from the reach of grabby little hands! I admit that photo would be even better if I had managed to find time to iron  the duvet cover, but I don’t find time to iron clothes let alone bed sheets!

Sam absolutely hates the metal lampshade, claiming it’s not a shade as it doesn’t actually shade the light, which is true but I’ve tried explaining to him it’s all about aesthetics and continuing the theme of the brass bedside light that I had, and adding the new lampshade and the candle holder in the same style. We already had mini fairy lights on the headboard of the bed but when they’re turned on Arlo grabs at them, so I wanted some subtle lights for the shelf so he’s not be able to reach them, and these rattan ball ones look pretty even when the lights aren’t on! The alarm clocks are actually really clever, they look just like white wooden blocks but are sound or action activated. So they only glow when you tap the top or they hear a really loud noise. I wish I had discovered them sooner, and I think they look a lot more expensive that their £9 price! Sam finally has a bedside table, it’s got a small drawer for his charger and watch etc, and then a cupboard underneath for all the rest of his junk to go into, and amazingly for the price it arrived made, no flat pack assembly required!

Finally I am overjoyed to have a working blind at the window! Our windows are really tall sash style, so once that sheet was up on our first night it just stayed there as I am too short to get it down again! Having a proper blackout blind has a made a lot of difference as we can keep the room dark when the baby is meant to be asleep, and cool in the day too when the Summer really arrives! I could have chosen a different colour but the rest of our house is so colourful I actually really like having a crisp white room with a few metallic and wooden touches! It just goes to show with a bit of shopping around you can really make a difference even with a small budget!

So thank you to Four Walls for setting me the challenge, and giving me the budget to do so, you’ve made going to bed a much more enjoyable experience… now if you could only make the baby sleep through the night too that’d be grand!