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Good morning friends, and welcome to a new month. It’s now officially Spring in the UK, which means official home makeover time, right? My goodness, I am so happy with the Spring refresh in the bedroom. I am almost pinching myself each time I enter the room and see that our half-thought-out mess of a bedroom has transformed into something stylish and tranquil that I want to spend time in. This room has long been my favourite, partly due to the light and the space, but also in part due to it being a child free sanctuary that’s also free from work and to-do lists. Never have I loved it more so than now that it’s decoration has been complete. You may remember that when I shared the bedroom back in January I wasn’t entirely happy with my unfinished space, it was full of pauses and question marks. I felt it needed more cohesion and to either embrace it’s slightly Scandi vibe fully or give up and have some colour and personality injected into it. Well it may surprise you to learn that I have somewhat uncharacteristically embraced full on pared back Scandinavian elegance. The refresh has consisted of some well planned beautiful design pieces, a couple of cheap high street finds and some beautiful new paint colours, including a decision about the floors that I had been avoiding for a full year. Time to catch your breath friends and pull up a cuppa as this is post is long!

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Sources: Farrow & Ball Railings Floor Paint, | Farrow & Ball Ammonite Estate Emulsion,  |  Muuto Wood desk lamp, Houseology |  Normann Copenhagen Tablo table, Houseology  | Murmur Bud Cushion, Houseology  | Normann Copenhagen Edge Cushion in Rose, Houseology |  Carina Nude bowl by Bloomingville, through Houseology  | Ceramic Sip & Slurp cups by Studio Arhoj.

 

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|The Colour|

I must start with the colours. A lot of you will know that colour is my passion, I’ve even thrown it into the blogs byline as a clue. But whilst I am a firm believer in the power of colour to enhance your mood, I don’t always choose colourful or punchy combinations, not quite always at least. I think that the pared back muted tones in the right space are just as magical as any of the bolder choices I’ve made in other rooms of the Design Soda house. You may remember that I’d spent a long time debating floor colour over the last year, stuck somewhere between an urge to stick with natural tones and going very dark with paint. Thanks to the pressure of two photoshoots on the horizon I had to make an instinctive choice and decided on black. But which black? There are so many on the market and they all produce subtle differences within a scheme. I wanted something slightly fashion but I didn’t want the effect to be too clinical so I grabbed the Farrow & Ball colour chart (never far from hand!) to ponder. After much debate on the merits of various blacks (mainly me, I’m not sure my husband was quite listening) we plumped for the beautiful inky blue-black of Railings and I completely love it. This floor colour, which I’ve used before on the walls of a bathroom, has a gorgeous richness, which is great against both the flat white of some walls and the feature wall behind the bed which is now painted in the very prettiest soft grey. We painted the skirting boards to match and look how it glides across the space below, all sleek and inviting.

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I’d been unhappy with the slightly clinical feel of the bedroom for a while (mentioned in this post in January) so I spent a long time thinking about what colour I may like to bring in for a feature wall. I flirted with a very bright and graphic combination containing hot pink and bold blues, then with my instinctive happy-colour of green-blue, and finally a very dark grey like Plummett, before coming across the colour we went with almost by chance. I had popped down to the diy store to have a quick look at greys as an option and this one just spoke to me, it’s a really soft and chalky colour with just the tiniest hint of something warm in it, maybe a pink or a brown. I had pretty high hopes for it amongst my selection, and loved the name Ammonite, evoking all the wonders of natural history (another of my design passions), but honestly I fell a little in love with it when it was actually on the wall. In some lights it is barely there which gives it a feeling of iridescence, it’s so calm and simple but has a real depth to it. I had become a little over all the ubiquitous greys that take centre stage as the new neutrals in the interior design world, but for Ammonite I’m definitely happy to be bowled over by an exception. We have painted the feature wall as a start point and I love it so much I am wondering if I want to bring it into the whole room. What do you think?  I really like the contrast of it to the black and the white but then its such a gorgeous shade I’m sorely tempted to paint it everywhere. 

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|The Products|

 

I was really lucky with this refresh to be approached by a company that I have long-loved and featured on the blog several times before, Houseology, to pick out some of my favourite pieces from their outstanding collection for my refresh. Houseology stock a truly brilliant array of high design pieces that add real weight to any scheme so I knew I was going to be in good hands. In fact I feel thoroughly spoilt, some of these items I have loved for years and they all bring a wonderfully relaxed aesthetic that is both grown up and calm. I took the dressing table and plant from the halfway point of the makeover as my jump points with the refresh and chose some beautiful pieces of Scandinavian origin that expanded on these elements. A few of the items are things I had been coveting for a while (the lamp and table), others were new finds from brands I already loved (the cushions and bowl). Being able to invest in a few select quality pieces has really brought my redesign to life and created a cohesion to it. I have long been an advocate of high street finds and vintage pieces, but where the high street are great at copying design sensibilities innovated at the high end, when you are looking at really great simple design you just can’t beat the originals. 

|The Lamp|

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Take this wood lamp by Muuto which is designed by Stockholm based architectects Taff. In essence it is the simplest of forms, plain understated wood and bolts fully on show, but I love the play that it makes of it’s function and the warmth that the wood gives to the marble table top it is placed on. According to Muuto, the design is a counterpoint to traditional sleek desk lamps and there is something really unique about its form. They say:

“The all-wood lamp is a lowtech counter-weight to the usually very modern and technical desk lamps. All details on the lamp are chosen through a pragmatic perspective and all bolts, screws and joints are em- phasized. By using very simple methods we have been able to give WOOD Lamp a very honest and iconic expression”. 

What do you think? It’s a beauty isn’t it? It takes a while to assemble despite its simplicity (perhaps that is more a reflection of me!) and gives off the most perfect accent light for a bedroom.

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|The Bedside Table|

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Now this table, the Tablo by Normann Copenhagen, has really wowed me.  I love it, not only from a practical point of view, it is just so handy for putting the days trinkets and magazines on to keep them off the floor (I’m pretty teenage in my ability to decorate my bedroom floor with detritus from the day) but it is also the perfect height to act as a coffee table when sat up in bed, and all the pretty things are only ever at arms length. Above its practical attributes, for something so simple in form, it is truly beautiful. I love the contrast of it’s sleek minimalist top against the warmth of its solid, rounded wooden legs. The company describe it as a table without redundant details which is a pretty apt description. It was designed for Normann Copenhagen by Nicholai Wiig Hansen with form at its centre, in true Scandinavian style nothing is added for decoration but with purpose in mind. It’s name, Tablo, is in part inspired by the French term tableau for scenic arrangement. I love its understated simplicity, and as it’s the first item you see as you enter the room its lovely to have such a joyful object to glance upon on entry. I’ve styled a few vignettes on it so far and they all seem to come alive on this surface.

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|The Cushions|

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And of course a room refresh in the Design Soda house wouldn’t be any kind of refresh without some keen attention to textile details. Cushions and textiles are often some of the most important elements in my rooms, I look at them pretty copiously and have Pinterest boards devoted to both cushions themselves and woven textiles for the home. I am always happy to pay a pretty penny for a well crafted textile made by a person or company that I like the design ethos of. I knew that I wanted something by British brand Murmur who are known for their texture and heritage style, mixing natural elements in designs that are built to last. They are not Scandinavian but their design sensibility is thoroughly at home within its ethos. I was a little torn as I had seen a teaser of some of the great new patterns from Murmur that Houseology were launching this season and in particular this cushion which is a beautiful modern interpretation of welsh blanket techniques. But in the end I chose this cushion from the past season called Bud, I love its gentle femininity, it’s layering and the pretty colour combination it produces against the grey wall. This design is currently sold out but you can buy a blanket in the same design here. The next cushion I chose was this lovely Rose Coloured Normann Copenhagen textile called Edge. I love the fact that you can read the design stories behind all of these Scandinavian pieces. This one was created by Danish designer Jan Gustav Sorensen and has a strong focus on the composition of both colour and textile qualities. It’s such a simple idea but the contrasting panel at the edge of this cushion (hence its name) is everything. I love the play of textures with a graphic sensibility, it is charming but not in the traditional sense with textiles I’m drawn to, I love it for it’s total uniqueness.

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|The Bowl|

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And the greenery (more of this later), but one last item I was kindly gifted by Houseology was this nude coloured geometric bowl called Carina by Bloomingville which I intended to house a mini succulent garden in. I’m really keen on these small bowl presentations of plants and have a few around the house. I like to use my favourite bowls for this as it means that I can enjoy them out on display all the time (and they don’t fall prey to food stains). When my cat isn’t trying to destroy them, they make a great little Spring accent, mirroring some of the lushness suddenly in abundance outdoors. I really love this bowl, its geometric lines balance well with the feminine colour and the Design Soda husband isn’t offended by its pinkness next to his side of the bed so it’s a win-win round here.

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|The Details|

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As I’m sure you all know, I’m all about mixing a few select higher priced items with great high street finds, so I have kept everything else in the refresh pretty basic from H&M Home & La Redoute to Jeff koons style at Very and AllPosters artwork.  The speckled black and white dish that I’m currently using as a tea light holder in the top image above, was a bargain from H&M home for £6.99, it sold out within the first week but I hope they restock them as I want more! The bedding was from one of my absolute favourites for homeware – La Redoute, I’ve bought two black and white sets, the other has a cross pattern (which you can just see on one of the cushions in shot) and through my Belgian friend Patricia of No Glitter, No Glory, I have discovered that the extra flap on this french duvet is quite ingeniously made to be tucked under the mattress at the bottom of the bed to hold it in place, how clever.

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This light may look familiar to the bargain spotters amongst you. It’s a copy of the hit Aldi light that lit up Instagram and sold out in seconds before Christmas. This one retails at £20 from Iconic Lights and I sprayed it with copper before assembling it. The blush and mint trinket pots on the table are both H&M home.

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I’ve been changing up some of the artwork in the house lately, and the bedroom hasn’t been immune. I picked up this vintage book cover of a Virginia Woolf novel designed by her sister Vanessa Bell for £11 on AllPosters. I will admit that I have only half-read this book many years ago, and I bought the poster mainly for the it’s design, but I will now be prioritising it on my Summer reading list, and also hoping to catch the Vanessa Bell & Bloomsbury exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery before it disappears. 

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I have repainted the drawers above in muted tones more in keeping with the room, swapping the yellowed cream and bright blue for Lamp Room Grey by Farrow & Ball & standard White Eggshell from Homebase.

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One final indulgence, but one which I think really sets everything else off are these handmade ceramic cups (£20 each from Studio Arhoj) which I’m using as both decoration and plant pots. I’m trying to add bits of greenery to each surface in the room to enhance reflect its calm natural. There are potted plants, a terrarium in a glass bottle up on the shelf, some leaves in frames, my mini succulent garden, a cactus, and this little succulent beauty on the table in a perfectly crafted ceramic cup.

So, what do you think? Is the Scandinavian look here to stay? I’ve resisted for so many years, but I have to admit I’m massively pleased with the result. Please scroll down to the end for full item details.

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Here are my list of sources, if you spot anything not listed it is likely linked in my previous post on the bedroom, but if you can’t find the source, please drop me a comment below and I will endevour to let you know.

Product List:

• Farrow & Ball Railings Floor Paint
• Farrow & Ball Ammonite Estate Emulsion.
• Farrow & Ball Lamp Room Grey Eggshell.
• Muuto Wood desk lamp, Houseology.
• Normann, Copenhagen Tablo table, White & Wood, Houseology.
• Murmur Bud Cushion, Houseology.
• Normann, Copenhagen Edge Cushion in Rose, Houseology.
• Carina Nude bowl by Bloomingville, through Houseology, no longer available. 
• Ceramic Sip & Slurp cups by Studio Arhoj.
• Black and white speckled dish, H&M Home.
• Marble desk light, Iconic Lights.
• Black & white gradient dot bed linen, La Redoute Home.
• Pink & Green stoneware boxes H&M Home.
• Green Cactus vase, Primark.
• Virginia Woolf book cover poster, All Posters.
• Balloon dog, Very.

I would like to thank both Houseology for the fabulous products that they kindly gifted and Farrow & Ball for the paint they supplied, without both of which my bedroom would still be in a pretty sorry state! Thank you for supporting the brands that support me, as ever all opinions are honest and my own.