All posts filed under: Wallpaper

The Loo. Toilet. Whatever you call it, our WC gets a makeover

Published by Karen Knox

It’s often the most overlooked room of the house. Not even big enough to warrant its own basin, mirror or any extraneous faffing. The separate bathroom and loo combo leaves a lot of people with a space that’s not big enough to swing a small hamster, never mind a cat. This is our first floor layout… since we had the loft converted and sacked off the second smallest room in the house for our dream staircase. You can see on the floorplan, our bathroom and WC are two separate spaces. And despite most people’s preference to knock these spaces into one to make a larger family bathroom, we didn’t want to do that with the house only having one loo when we moved in. And actually, I still prefer the layout like this. I like not having the loo in the bathroom. Especially with a five year old in the house whose aim isn’t always 100% accurate. Sure, our bathroom isn’t large, but for a family of three it’s more than adequate. More so now …

‘Painted’ Wallpaper from Black Parrots Studio

Published by Karen Knox

About 2.5 years ago I wrote a post about how I was looking for just the right wallpaper to hang in our living room. It’s not a big space, so didn’t want a pattern on all four walls, but something to sit behind the sofa. The gallery was ok for a bit, but I knew deep down that there was way too much art in this room. It was time to downsize. Our house is late mid-century, built in the late 60’s so the proportions reflect that. We don’t have high ceilings, or period features, our rooms are pretty average, size wise. This meant finding a wallpaper was actually really difficult as it couldn’t take anything too busy, but it also needed to do “something” design wise in order to live up to the other walls in the room that are covered in some of my favourite pieces of art. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) What i’ve been looking for: A black wallpaper – almost …

The Aquamarine Guest Bedroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

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 …

The Aquamarine Room – Pre-reveal

Published by Karen Knox

We’re not quite ready for the final reveal for this project yet, but this room is looking a hell of a lot prettier than it did last October. Before – Oct 2017 If you listed closely, you will hear it… can you hear the walls?? “Help me…. heeeeellpp mmeeee!!” Not one to leave a room in distress I was more than happy to turn this room into something not only camera worthy but also ridiculously functional for my very particular client. Nearly after I can’t always discuss my clients so candidly on the tinterweb… it’s not professional, but this client is an exception. Firstly, because she’s now a friend (for my sins) after working with her on and off since 2015. Sherwood Forest – Jan 2016 And secondly she has been, now how can I put this nicely… she’s been a real pain in the arse during this project. I’ve said this to her face, so i’m not going behind her back here. She also reads my blog. So she’s now read it as well as …

The Red Room – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

It’s final reveal time. At last! (previous post here). I’m super excited to be able to share the photos from the Red Room project. For those of you that have been following this one, apologies, but i’m about to recap. Here is the storyline for this one: Initial consultation – The brief was to make the room work in terms of function (family room with a TV and plenty of seating), keep the red walls (hence the project name) and pull it all together. Before My plan was to block off the doorway into what was originally a room intended to be a dining room in order to give them a long run of wall to turn allow sofa seating a view to the soon to be TV. I’d already moved the sofa at this point btw and asked them to live with it like this for a few weeks to get used to the new flow around the house. Always something worth doing when you’re about to adjust layout that requires building work. The vintage …

The Multi-function Room Goes Aquamarine

Published by Karen Knox

So first off, massive thanks to everyone who took the time to feed back on my previous post. Everyone’s ideas were just what I needed for a little inspo boost. So again, thank you! And so, back to normal stuff… it’s project update time! You can catch up on the Multi Function Room here. Here’s the room on my first visit. The second bedroom which needs to become a guest room and home office in one. Here it is about a month later with the gorgeously botanical Wildacre Anagpytpa freshly papered on the walls and the ceiling painted (don’t worry, we’ve got coving and skirting boards to be fitted – i’m not starting a new “trim-less” trend). Here’s Cartman the cat inspecting the workmanship, plus a little close-up of the wallpaper pre-paint. Speaking of which, here’s the colour scheme: Little Greene Stock – Mid | Aquamarine | Invisible Green Aquamarine on the walls, Stock – Mid on the ceiling and Invisible Green, that super dark, deep green will be going on the …

The Multi-function Room

Published by Karen Knox

It’s new project time peeps. And i’m back at a property i’ve worked in a couple of times before. Remember these projects? Sherwood Forest And this one too… The Magnetic Playroom Both in the same house with the same lovely client and i’m back again, this time for a bedroom/home office re-design. A nice chunky project indeed. It’s a good sized room at 3.5m x 4.5m, but it needs to work hard as i’ve been given a rather complicated brief. The room needs to fit double bed with storage (with space to run around easily) double wardrobe (more storage) chest of drawers (extra storage) large desk with space for two screens and closed storage for files etc. space for a TV (meaning this room will have 3 screens to try and make look good. Ack) It’s fair to say there’s not much staying in this space, so we’ve got a lot to source as well as a lot of remedial work to do before we get to any of the fun stuff. Oh I tell a …

The Red Room – Pre-reveal – Pt 2

Published by Karen Knox

Because sometimes things take a little longer than planned… here’s Pt 2 of the pre-reveal. I wasn’t planning a Pt 2, but I also wasn’t planning for one of the light fittings to be broken, for the curtains to be such a pain (why are curtains always such a pain?) or for the electrician to be quite as elusive (why are electricians always elusive?) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) But we’re about a week away from being done. After a four hour picture framing, gallery wall hanging, plant moving, nik nak fiddling session yesterday, I couldn’t possibly wait to share some pics I snapped before I left. Mantel piece styling with pieces from Ikea, Wayfair, H&M Home and….. … this super cool, not freaky at all black and gold hand from the very talented Muck N Brass. The cinema style wall light from Rockett St George looking tip top above the home bar (still to be stocked). Still a bit more work to do here (small shelf… vinyl… more …

The Red Room – The Pre-Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Just got back from a visit to The Red Room project. Big smiles here 😀 I dreamt about it last night as i’ve been itching to get there all week. I spoke to the homeowner after all the major work had been completed last week; new stove, mantel piece, door blocked up and plastered, walls wallpapered and then painted. So we’re onto the final straight peeps. The fun stuff! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) This is what it looked like on my last visit, which you can read all about here. So many of you loved that distressed plastered wall, but alas there was a door to board up and skim over, so it wasn’t meant to be. This time. (Let me quickly add that 3 minutes into taking photos, my camera died so most of these have been taken on my rubbish camera phone which goes little way towards doing this room justice. But! I will be back v soon for the final reveal …

The Red Room – During

Published by Karen Knox

I went to visit the Red Room project today. You know, the living room that was red and staying red, but then it wasn’t staying red and going black instead. Remember that one? If not, you can catch up here. Well we’ve been making progress, stripping all of the walls, painting the ceiling and woodwork in preparation for the new wallpaper. All of the furniture has now arrived too, including the gorgeous Ox Blood Chesterfield from Chesterfields at the Boathouse. And this solid oak wiring bureau in near perfect condition picked up from a local vintage dealer. How pretty is that? Remember the Welsh Dresser? Yes, the one here in the left hand alcove. Well that’s now been given the Annie Sloan treatment and repurposed as a fancy home bar. The power of black. It never fails to amaze me. I picked up these cute drawer pulls from Homesense last month to add a little touch of brass Only £6 for a set of 4. Love it. The doorway behind the sofa is getting boarded up …