Brindabella Bedroom Blitz – Episode #3

A long, long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away?) we renovated our bedroom – building an enormous ceiling height built-in wardrobe along one wall for much needed storage, rolling up the faux-timber lino to reveal the original floorboards, painting the whole room including the old sash windows and replacing picture rail and re-building cornice as we went. You can read about our adventures here and here. It was our big Summer holiday project last year (which actually ran well into Autumn as we slept on a mattress on the playroom floor for months, but y’know…) and I’ve only just realised I never re-visited the great Brindabella Bedroom Blitz to show you the finished result, with new bed, curtains, re-vamped bedsides, light fixture and cushions.

Of course, it’s still very much a work in progress…but, it’s been like this for the past year with not much ‘progress’! Originally we were going to attempt to make an upholstered bedhead in a natural linen, but once we got bed shopping (oh, bed shopping!) we basically got completely bamboozled and just bought a whole ensemble on sale which was a fairly similar upholstered bedhead to what I had in my mind anyway. Safe to say I was very much over bed shopping by the end, especially with a teething then-8 month old Eleanor in toe. Our new bed was finally delivered to our new shiny bedroom space, and I was a bit disappointed to begin with that the fabric was slightly darker than I imagined in the store, of course. I had wanted it a similar colour to the lamp shades (which are from Freedom from a few years ago, the bases were from a local discount shop years ago). We also are still undecided whether we’d like some button detailing on the bedhead, which was our original plan. Nothing too structured or tufted, probably just six covered buttons, not pulled too deep. Jury is still out on this, I have fabric samples from Warwick to do the covered buttons, but the thought of punching holes in our fancy new bedhead makes me slightly ill.

Having a bedhead to show off has changed the way I dress our bed with cushions, previously I was sort of trying to hide our plain-pine-nothing-special bed, with two big European cushions then ones in the front. Now the big Euro’s were hiding the new bedhead, so they got ditched quickly. I’m still playing around with the perfect cushioning combo, they’re quite right on The Block: it’s an art. One which I may never master, but fluffing around is constant.

Perusing Spotlight looking for some wardrobe solutions we came across some duck egg blue curtains, the perfect measurements for our windows, for $30! I had always wanted a soft blue to be in our bedroom, and although I did want longer curtains (to be mounted much higher than the top of the window), they were $30, so home they came. Matt made a pelmet box, which we used to have in this bedroom when we lived here in 2010, to encase the top of the curtains. In hindsight I think it’s much too narrow, needs to be more substantial, lying in bed looking at it Matt tends to agree! So I’m not 100% happy with the curtain situation – they need to be mounted higher and with a chunkier pelmet, but we worked with our bargain curtains and for $30 that’s ok.

To add to the duck egg blue with the curtains I bought a cushion from Etsy seller Island Home Emporium in a damask print. The quality of the cushion is beautiful, with lovely piping detail and zip closure, but I’m not madly in love with the colour…or the damask print. I added a plain white square cushion and linen with doiley cushion (which I made) from the spare bed in Eleanor’s nursery, which I love much more. Perhaps the key is to stick to my neutrals and just play with different textures. The quilt cover we have also had for eons, in a very subtle taupe and white stripe. My ideal vision for our bedroom though is to have a king size quilt, with a textured white quilt cover.

Our light is the one thing in our bedroom makeover which I am 100% in love with! Much, much deliberation went into the perfect light for this space. Finding something appropriate, not too modern, not too Nana-esque though, was slightly challenging. In the end I went with a schoolhouse pendant from Melbourne based Fat Shack Vintage, they have loads of great vintage and industrial lighting options. The hand blown opal glass is perfect for our Art Deco/Nouveau home – ours is the ‘Chelsea’ in the largest size.

Our beloved ‘Freedom’ canvas by photographer friend Ben Simpson hangs above our bed, after worrying that perhaps it would have to hang too high due to the new bedhead. I am still considering a set of three white simple frames for above the bed, but there is really nowhere else in our house for ‘Freedom’ to hang… We did want to orientate the room differently when we spruced it up, with the bed facing out the window rather than the wardrobe, but then my dressing table wouldn’t have fitted along the other wall. So the original furniture configuration stayed. My dressing table was my great-grandmother’s, and has been in my bedroom since I was a little girl. I love how the crisp white walls now make the gorgeous old wood shine.

I searched high and low for appropriate new bedside tables…everything was too modern, too expensive, not enough storage…that I eventually threw my hands in the air and decided to paint our existing bedside drawers (which were originally a dark timber stain). The new bedside drawers I was looking at were exactly the same shape, with three drawers, but in white and with nicer handles, for $300 each! A few coats of white paint out in the shed and some lovely new handles from a local gift shop (which were quite expensive but I was happy with that as I’d saved so much in not buying new bedsides!) and they were perfectly suited to our new bedroom. A certain little pyjama clad person is quite obsessed with the wedding photo on my bedside table: “Dadda! Dadda!” She is often seen carrying the frame around the house kissing it!

So…I think we’re done! For now. As I said, it’s a complete work in progress. I’m still not sure whether to add buttons to the bedhead, whether the horse canvas is in the right spot, the duck egg cushion situation and I’d like to get a new quilt and quilt cover. But compared to our chaotic and cramped bedroom of 12 months ago, with no storage and the beige/cream walls – this is a marked improvement! This room is now our favourite in the house. Even though it’s south facing, with the crisp white walls the light just bounces and sings in here. Our bedroom has become a great photo location! Now we’ve got our sights set on doing a similar job to Eleanor’s room this Summer…so stay tuned for the full reveal of that in about 12 months time?!!