Oh how i’m going to enjoy writing this post, firstly because I love a final reveal post. And secondly, this one will mostly be a cathartic rant about my self-titled “WORST CLIENT EVER”, with some tiny pieces of info about interiors in and amongst.
This was the second bedroom of a generously proportioned 1930’s house. It was being used as a guest bedroom and home office, but as i’m sure you will agree, it needed some work. I’m going to skip the whole process which you can catch up on here and here and just get on with the before and after photos, interspersed with more cathartic ranting.
The brief for this room was… let’s say, “fluid”.
- Needs to be a guest bedroom with double bed
- Bed needs to have drawers underneath for storage
- Bed needs to have a comfortable, upholstered headboard
- Needs a wardrobe for guest hanging space
- Needs a chest of drawers for storage and a TV on top
- Needs an office space with lots of storage and all cables hidden away
- Definitely plants
- Everything needs to be almost built in to keep cleaning to a minimum
- Wants a ceiling light that doesn’t cast shadows on the ceiling as it will distract from working
- Needs black out curtains
- I want to use these pictures
- No actually, i’ll put these somewhere else
- Don’t need a TV now
- Needs one bedside table
- No, needs two bedside tables
- Actually we will have a TV again at some point but it doesn’t work in the right hand alcove so maybe we should have put it in the left hand alcove?
Originally, I suggested we plan the layout so the office space was in the right hand alcove and the wardrobe in the left, so when you came up the stairs and looked into the room, you saw what looked just like a bedroom. The right hand alcove was also slightly bigger and by the window and would have tucked the office area out of sight from the landing area.
But WCE 100% wanted the home office set up in the left hand alcove….
So we worked with that and I sourced a mid-century desk that near as damn it, fit right in. Having no gaps or space down either side prevents us from letting “stuff” accrue over time, a top tip to keeping a space clutter free.
Before
So as the desk and home office was set up in the left hand alcove, I suggested they get a larger, HD desktop monitor and stream TV channels through the PC. There was no aerial in this room anyway, so TV viewing was either DVD’s or t’internet based. This would save the room from having two screens and leave more space, so to me that was a win-win. It also meant they could have the wardrobe in the right hand alcove and a chest of drawers next to the bed to be used as a bedside. So a win-win-win!
After
But WCE didn’t like that idea either and wanted a separate screen in the right hand alcove which meant we now needed a very large chest of drawers to fit like a glove into this space.
This G-Plan chest of drawers picked up from eBay were an exact fit. And I mean EXACT. They do look lovely don’t they?
But where’s the TV? That’s not a TV, that’s a cat.
Well that was one of the fluid aspects of the brief. The TV, like the Hokey Cokey was in, then out, then in again. And out again for now, which worked well for pics of course, so i’m not complaining. Cartman the cat looks much better on top of here anyway.
So where did the wardrobe go then?
Good question. It’s not ideal, but the wardrobe had to go next to the bed and as we only needed one bedside table (initially, don’t ask) it worked out ok for a guest bedroom.
G-Plan wardrobe from eBay
Ugly bed number 1
Ok, now it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. The elephant being the bed. This bed, the one above was all kinds of broken so it was outta there, which I was very happy about. There’s nothing attractive or vintage looking about these kinds of beds so as soon as it went, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Then, midway through the project, once all the walls had been wallpapered and painted and the room was beginning to look all pretty n’ that…… I was told, this was going to be the new bed:
Ugly bed number 2 – WCE’s other half’s bed
And then I did this for several days….
Once i’d realised my tantrums weren’t going to make any difference whatsoever, I decided I needed to drown the elephant with layers and layers of oversized, botanical bedding, cushions and a tablecloth.
That’s right. As well as ordering kingsize bedding for a double bed, I also bought a tablecloth and kindly requested that my WCE get her sewing machine out.
“Make me a headboard cover fit for an Aquamarine bedroom”
I said.
Huge thanks to H&M for saving my sorry ass by stocking a very distracting bed set and a tablecloth in a perfect colour to cover up the elephant bed.
The mirror that was previously hung on the chimney breast wall, now hangs over the bedside table which was picked up from eBay for about £10. Atop sits a lamp I picked up from a charity shop for about £3. I painted the shade in some left over Aquamarine emulsion to tie it all in. Not a bad little corner for £13 ish.
The reflection in said mirror shows the beautiful mid-century ceiling light which I sourced from Homeplace. I absolutely love the shape of it against the wallpaper.
And for reference, here’s the full run down of the shopping list:
- Bedding, cushions & blanket – H&M Home
- Desk, chest of drawers, bedside table and wardrobe – all sourced from eBay
- Desk lamp, curtains, office chair & storage baskets – Ikea
- Wallpaper – Anaglypta Wildacre
- Paint – Walls in Aquamarine, Skirting in Invisible Green & Ceiling in Stock Mid
- Artwork – all vintage
- Mid-Century pendant light – Homeplace
- Bedside lamp – charity shop
- Boxfiles – Wilkinsons
- Cardboard A4 folders – Paperchase
- My sanity – down the back of the sofa
Before | After
So there you go. The Aquamarine Guest Bedroom is finally complete. Hooray!! And even though I didn’t get my way (I wanted the coving to be dark green too), the good thing is that I managed to make it work and I despite vocalising my frustrations at several points throughout the process, I never physically attacked anyone**. Go me!
As ever, I love hearing what you guys think, about the room that is, not about me moaning.
** Just to be clear, I am friends with WCE and I was granted full permission for the online roasting. But to be fair, she totally deserved it.
How frustrating to have everything chopped and changed like that but it looks like a lovely restful room! Well done!
Despite having the worst client ever, you created a lovely peaceful room. And maybe you each learned a thing or two… she learned that she needs to do a lot of thinking ahead of time about her needs and likes before the design process begins, and to trust the designer, and you learned – what? That though it’s a pain, you CAN design beautiful rooms even for awful clients. I bet it helped that you like her. Imagine how it would have gone if you didn’t!
Loving the Anaglytpa Wildacre Wallpaper – it looks fab!
The room looks great and you are totally pushing me in the direction of anaglypta!
Love the animations in your blog. Wow! Love the room designs. Methinks I need to employ you for my next project. Love your blog.
You deserve a well earned break now. 🙂
I like this. Excellent use of oriental influences with mid century, will be passing on to my sister for inspiration as she is a similarly tricky customer…
Well done! Looks amazing. You’re client is one
Lucky lady
Glad you wrote the bit at the end about her being your friend as I was a little shocked!
Oh my god I laughed my head off at this post (the gifs!! lol) but also WOW! You’ve done a beautiful job here despite said WCE and the brief constantly changing throughout! I adore the wallpaper and the beautiful palette in here and how clever are you with getting all that perfect furniture at such good prices that fit the room so well?! Amazing job! Good to hear you are still friends with your client too 😉 xxx (PS And this is why I couldn’t be an interior designer – I have zero patience so hats off to you)
Simply wonderful! Nobody can imagine how much I’d like to have Karen near to me… here and now! 🙂
This was hillarious I have continually pulled faces at anaglypta wallpaper (childhood trauma) butbitnlooks so pretty
While that bed is all kinds of ugly, it also looks all kinds of comfy and I am always pro reusing things where possible so well done for making such a lovely room around such an ugly thing. The ugly things doesn’t even really look ugly any more thanks to that amazing bedding (and the extra tiger action). The teak really looks gorgeous against the blue-green of the walls and actually I like the idea of seeing the office from the hall since it is such a very nice office. Fantastic job!
This was a fun read! 🙂 Well done on another resounding design triumph, it’s all come together beautifully. Very clever to cover the bed like that, and how amazing that you found such perfectly fitting furniture for the alcoves!
Hahaha, I loved reading this post! Although I have to admit that I was a little worried with all the ‘worst client ever’ remarks thinking that might be a dangerous business move lol. Was so relieved to hear that the clients were/are friends. I love the wallpaper and bedding, but that bed is just awful. You did an amazing job disguising it with the headboard cover. My mum did a similar thing in the playroom at their house. My brothers old leather sleigh bed was just as hideous. I hope they are happy with the results! You did a fab job given the circumstances lol!