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Good morning, if you’ve joined me from lovely interior designer Dee Campling‘s website then welcome, please take a look around whilst you’re here! Well, we’ve made it to the finish line, all ten bloggers taking part in Revamp, Restyle, Reveal over the last month (including Bianca who took on a whole kitchen for her sins) have got to the end of our month long decorating hiatus with brand new spaces to enjoy. I can’t wait to see everyone’s final reveals (scroll to the bottom for full links) and I can honestly say it’s been really inspiring seeing how much people have achieved in their transformations over a four week period whilst juggling all the usual things in our busy lives. I’ve also loved seeing all the transformations of others using the hashtag #RevampRestyleReveal on Instagram. It’s been fun, exhausting, satisfying and, for me with my colour choices, quite liberating. I can’t stress strongly enough how super happy I am with my new space, it’s completely transformed the feeling of not only the space itself but of every connecting space too.

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Everything looks better framed by the completed hallway at its entrance, suddenly the upstairs looks finished! I knew it was going to feel different of course, but I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by just how much of a transformation it feels. We were so lucky with all of our sponsors, as you will see as you read through, to have been given such lovely items and materials to work with so I’d like to make a massive shout out at the start to each and every one of them for such fantastic resources.

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The Feel

If you’ve been following along, which I know thousands of you have, then you may remember when I posted my plans for the hallway a month ago I had a strong focus on warm neutral colours, natural materials, pattern and mark making. You never know when you start on a project exactly how things are going to end up in a design so it can be slightly daunting to share plans online so publically, but happily I don’t think we went off brief too far. I will admit that some of my mark making ended up in a different place (more of that later) but overall I think the result in the hallway is pretty well what I visualised a month ago. I wanted something stylised but also completely liveable within the context of a family home, something that combined personality and comfort, here’s how I got there!

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The Colour:

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First off, and always the biggest game changer moment for me, is colour choice. I am absolutely over the moon with the gorgeous shades I was given by Earthborn for this project. The central colour used in the hallway is a very gorgeous shade called Peach Baby which is so soft and muted, it has a little punch to it but is versatile enough to be used as a neutral that provides warmth without an overbearing presence. The Clay Paint range from Earthborn is really thick and I hardly needed a second coat (though I applied one to be on the safe side!). It’s really easy to use and provides a wonderfully rich colour.

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The Colour Wall:

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Next up was my colour wall which I painted in a shade I identified on my wants-list back in June in my New Neutrals piece before I knew who our paint sponsor would be. Paw Print is a beautiful grey with a muddy undertone that provides a warmth which compliments the Peach Baby on the other walls. I accented it with geometric shapes in complimenting colours Ballet Shoe at the top and Secret Room at the bottom (see pictures above). It was the first time I’ve used decorators tape and I was really impressed with how simple it was to use and the paint quality was so high that I only needed tester pots to complete these sections.

 

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Continuing Geometric Lines:

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Having been really pleased with the outcome of my colour wall I started to test my ability to not completely fluff sharp lines on other walls (!) and I painted some triangular shapes in Paw Print on the central wall that joins the upstairs to the downstairs (above).

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I was so pleased with the result and having painted Teds door in a lovely deep grey called Trilby I decided to break the lines up a bit with some more colour blocking, using Hobbywood on the bottom of the door and Wood Smoke on the top linking it to the panel opposite it (also painted in Wood Smoke). I am delighted with all of these shades, they are all such beautiful and liveable shades with natural tones and using pops of them across the space has really lifted the mood of the space. What felt white box-y and un-loved now feels fresh and playful but also muted and stylish.

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Natural elements:

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To ground my colours I knew that I was going to need items with natural materials to help balance the space and emphasise my love of natural surface. I have wanted a mid-century dresser for more years than I can remember and I have been pretty sick of my mirrored drawers since we moved, I loved them when I got them a decade ago and in the Art Deco living room of our first home they had created the perfect line, but here in the hallway this item had always felt out of place. I need storage here as we only have limited clothes storage in the bedroom which adjoins thanks to my massive dislike of overbearing wardrobes. I feel so lucky to have been given this Mid-Century style oak dresser from Maisons du Monde, it exceeds all expectations as to how good it looks in situ. I love it’s simple mirroring of classic Mid-Century lines on the drawers, it’s solidity and timelessness, the way that the wood grounds the space and adds a touch of much needed natural warmth. This is definitely a piece I won’t be tired of in a decade, it’s one of those pieces that I can imagine in many of my rooms and in this space here it’s so perfect.

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Alongside this piece, I was also very kindly gifted this lovely leather magazine rack which is perfect for storing the overspill of design magazines that have been known to pile up in our bedroom!

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I have also added a natural woven basket from Maisons du Monde’s Nordic range, its super useful in this space as I’m using it to gather up stray toys and the endless pile of things that need to move up and downstairs on a daily basis, the system is working really well for us saving me a lot of trips up and down, and our cat Dinah also rather loves to sit in it as a look out point!

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Scandinavian Design Pieces:

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When I heard that Amara were going to be providing some of the pieces for our makeovers I had no hesitation in knowing what I wanted! Amara is the kind of website that I constantly have a wish-list on and each of the pieces I chose from here really lifted the space. As I love the Scandinavian look so much, especially those that are less afraid of colour, I asked for pieces from some of my favourite brands that made use of natural tones and textures. First up is this gorgeous Broste runner which is made of leather and cotton, it has a great depth of texture which well exceeds it’s price point, the beautiful blue-ish grey really softens the white lines of the floor I painted.

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I also asked for a gorgeous Broste pot which is colour washed in natural earthy tones and looks so special on the table, and this gorgeous brass candle snuffer made by Ferm Living. It’s such a pretty and simple piece in a warm metal which looks so well amongst the scheme.

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Finally, and by no means least, I asked for an item I have wanted since it was launched in Spring, the very cool Terrazzo patterned bean bag in Rose Stone by Ferm Living. This is one of my most favourite items I’ve seen this year, it’s perfect in the hallway as it’s just the right size for our child to perch on whilst I’m doing tasks upstairs and it looks so stylish. Its also equally at home in the adjoining rooms up here and has been moved back and forth with great frequency so it’s a really useful piece as well as a beautiful one.

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Styling:

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The dresser is my main area of styling in the hallway so I’ve been quite careful about which pieces I’ve put on it. I have a collection of small vases that I bought inexpensively on the high street and a gorgeous green and gold candle from Maisons du Monde in front of this beautiful pink vase, also from Maisons du Monde, which I’ve styled with sprays of Eucalyptus. The sideboard also contains a selection of plates by Marimekko, both of which you can pick up on Amara, a splatter candle holder I picked up through Amara at the start of the year, and some mark making designs which brings me onto the blue and pink vase you see below.

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Experimenting:

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I decorated this Vase in a freestyle (slightly anarchic) fashion using Frenchic Paint in shades Hornblower (mixed with a tiny dash of Loof) and Nougat. I had no real plan past experimenting, believing myself to be a bit of a Jackson Pollock (always one for delusions of grandeur). I splatted paint with abandon and actually I’m really pleased with the results of this quick drying toxin free paint, I love the colour range, but also the fact that you can mix your own palette from within them and this paint will stick to pretty well anything you want it to. This Vase would not have been half so successful if I’d used a traditional paint, I love how thick some of the splats are on it, creating real texture.

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You may also remember that I was intending to do some mark making art work in this space, inspired by a pot painting workshop I attended a few months back. Well I did make some prints, using Straw by Earthborn and Panther by Frenchic as background colours and acrylics for the mark-making but actually I felt art work was going to really overwhelm the space, so I have kept the wall simple with wood accents and two pieces of artwork, including a collage by the very talented Sophie Wallace especially made for me. But I have rehomed my mark making downstairs in the cocktail room and you’ll be hearing all about that in a blog post next week!

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D.I.Y

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Final part of my diy, and I feel bad for relegating it to last place as it surely took the longest to complete but as you’ve probably noticed I’ve painted the floors in the hallway white. This was, as floors always are, pretty laborious and it involved sanding back thick black Victorian polish, but I will be doing a separate post on diy floors in the coming weeks so if you’re looking for tips do drop back then! I was lucky enough to work with AO again as a part of this makeover who provided me with, not one, but two new vacuums. I have been so impressed with both my Dyson Lightball Animal Vacuum and my cordless Morphy Richards Cordless Supervac, and I can honestly say this makeover, particularly clean-up on the flooring makeover would have been a lot less effortless without them. Now I have no excuse for an untidy home! What do you think of the space, do you like the white flooring? How about the colour wall and experiments? Let me know in the comments below.

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Next up, and final stop on the Revamp, Restyle, Reveal blog hop is the very talented and incredibly stylish Fiona from Around Houses who has been making over her spare room, there’s some fabulous use of marble wallpaper and a gorgeous pink on the walls, do hop over to see, I can’t wait to see her finished shots in the space.

 

The Sponsors:

Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors for providing such brilliant products, without whom these makeovers would not have been possible. To see a full list of all the bloggers makeover and links scroll down to the end. Enjoy the tour! 

AO

Amara

Maisons Du Monde

Frenchic

Earthborn

 

 

The Bloggers:

 

Fiona Cameron, Around The Houses – Guest Bedroom Revamp

Lisa Dawson, Lisa Dawson Styling – Entertainment Room Revamp

Bianca Hall, French For Pineapple – Kitchen Revamp

Oliver Thomas, Oliver Thomas Interiors – Living Room Revamp

Kerry Lockwood, Kerry Lockwood In Detail – Girls Bedroom Revamp

Melanie Lissack, Melanie Lissack Interiors – Master Bedroom Revamp

Kate Young, Kate Young Design – Master Bedroom Revamp

Meera Pendred, Arty Home  – Living Room Revamp

Dee Campling, Dee Campling Interiors – Boys Bedroom Revamp