Guest Bedroom Makeover - The Reveal

Finally, the guest bedroom reveal! I am sorry it took so long, the hold up was over a set of wooden blinds that took more than three weeks to arrive and were so badly damaged they were completely useless. The moral of the story is if you purchase over the Internet make sure the supplier either has the product in stock or they manufacture within your country. I thought I was buying from a NZ company that manufactured in Auckland, instead they shipped direct from China (they failed to declare this information). Fortunately after persuasion, they refunded my money, I then had to start all over again. This time I contacted a reputable New Zealand company, Brightshine who manufacture their blinds here in Auckland. They came out to my home, measured, discussed paint colours and 10 days later turned up to fit my perfect blinds. They may have cost a little more than the other company, however they are beautifully made and worth the additional cost. I just want to add, this is not a sponsored post, I wanted to mention Brightshine as there are some "cowboys" out there so to speak, but this company is NOT one of them.

Another company I want to give credit to is Curtainalia  who made the  beige toile and elephant cushion on the bed and supplied some of the furniture and lighting. The owner, Kaye was extremely helpful and went out of her way to select fabrics and furnishing that would work with my colour scheme. I mentioned in my previous post I had fallen in love with the animal print cushion I had seen on line, it was my lucky day as Kaye had a small amount of this fabric available and was able to make the oblong elephant cushion which I think completes the room.

The bedroom was previously my studio, then a storage room for some of my mums furniture. The room has now been given a complete makeover with fresh paint, furniture and accessories. I wanted to create an inviting guest room inspired by Ralph Lauren's style. I also drew a little inspiration from one of the bedrooms in  Interior designer, Andrew Melville's home, I liked his idea of the black tripod side tables and gingham bed linen. 

The room has a slightly odd shape, a small hall/entrance way leads to an open square. The room was reduced in size when the previous owners stole a chunk for a cavernous walk in wardrobe in the neigbouring master bedroom, hence the small hall entrance. Not that I'm complaining as I love my large walk in, however smaller one would have enabled more storage space to be incorporated into this room.

Initial mood board 

I pretty well achieved my wish list with a few budget modifications - I have not yet installed my flooring

Before...

The reveal...

Prints - Picasso line drawings - A little bit overkill, I will be replacing the centre ones

 Homestead flannel sheets -  Spiro bed skirt (stone) - Bungalow duvet cover  (taupe) all Wallace Cotton

 Lamp - Alcamo Interiors - The opera glasses were my grandads. Walls, Resene Eighth Bison Hide

Love my Providence, Rhode Island trunk, it hides a guest's suitcase perfectly. Alabaster, painted cedar blinds from  Brightshine - 63cm extra wide for a shutter look without the cost.

 Toile linen cushions and elephant cushion from Curtainalia & Bel Cuscino

 Lamp & Atlas side table - French Country purchased through Curtainalia & Bel Cuscino  -  linen headboard hand made by myself ....instructions can be found here

The wooden mirror, previously from my living room has a pewter hand painted finish and works with the pewter in the lamps

Of course Poppy had to be in on at least one shot. I plan to balance the end of the bed with a dark throw, I literally ran out of budget :(

I haven't yet installed the flooring, originally I wanted to lay wall to wall sisal but now looking at options such as a chunky textured wool or a bound sisal rug. The other missing item is a gorgeous chocolate faux fur throw that was to go at the end of the bed. Overall I think I achieved the style I was looking for. As the room is in neutral tones, I mixed my patterns from tartan to toile to add interest.  I may possibly add some linen curtains to complete the room but for now I am happy and it's ready for its first guest tomorrow, a friends daughter who is returning from the USA. Last time she wanted to stay the room was full of furniture and the poor girl ended up in a youth hostel in the city, this time she can sleep in luxury.

Next week I will post DIY instructions and images to making the linen headboard. It is really easy, totally cost effective and the results exceeded my expectations. I Googled the topic to death but have come up with my own set of instructions as I found some rather difficult to understand or they were taking shortcuts and not achieving the quality results I was looking for.

I hope the reveal was worth the wait, I would love to hear what you think of the results.

If you missed my previous post about my inspiration coming from Ralph Lauren's style, you can catch up here.