Well, it was so nice to receive so much positive feedback on my little headboard reveal earlier this week so thank you for that!  I have to admit, it’s a challenge to hold back when I feel like I’ve taken a leap towards my final vision – all I want to do is just keep going and going and get it all done.  Alas, the spirit is eager but the budget is weak.

In the meantime, I’ll share some of the things I’ve been thinking about doing but as I’ve said before on this blog, this is real decorating on a real budget in real time.  So it won’t all be done in the next few days or weeks or realistically, even within the next couple of months but of course, I’ll share it all every little baby step of the way.

There are two little things that I’d like to tick off my list for the bedroom next, however:  bedside tables.

My existing bedside tables are just ugly cheap stand ins that were only supposed to be temporary.  About 6 years ago, I had moved from flat living into a house and I didn’t have much furniture to fill it.  I needed something – anything – to stick a lamp on to get me by.  Well, I remember I found these at ASDA (seriously) on sale for £10 each.  I simply whacked some paint on them, changed the handles (which were initially satin nickel but I spray painted gold) and called it done.

I don’t have any before pictures of them (this was pre-blog days) but they originally looked a bit like this (except mine have a back panel):

Best Seller.  That means lots of people buy this hideousness.  Oh dear.

Well, I’ve now lived with them for far far far longer than I ever expected, I suppose I just hadn’t prioritised it before.  Well, they can now consider themselves prioritised.

So, I hear you ask, what is to come in their place?  (Ok, I didn’t hear that but humour me here.)

I have been keeping an eye on eBay now for probably 6 months because that was my first choice. Find a matching pair with great bones and give them new life.  The shame is that I can’t seem to find anything that meets the following criteria:

1.  They must be within reasonable distance to me so I can pick them up myself, avoiding courier costs.
2.  They must be within my budget.  Budget as usual is pretty tiny.
3.  They must be a matching pair.*
4.  They must contain only drawers and no shelves.  The reason for this is because I hate styling that bottom shelf because I never know what to do with it and we could use the additional storage.
5.  They must be wider, slightly higher and slightly deeper than what I currently have.  Do you know how difficult it is to style a bedside table when you only have enough room for a lamp, let alone anything else?
*I have considered purchasing two different styles for each side and that’s still a possibility if I come across them, but I really can’t find two individual pieces that I love enough (meeting the above criteria) to not care that they don’t match.  Besides, I quite fancy the symmetry of matching bedside cabinets.

Now, I’ve never claimed to be any kind of a trend-setting trailblazer and I am just as easily swayed by what I see on blogs as anyone else.  What I keep seeing (and I’m sure you’ll have seen them too) is the amazing Ikea RAST makeovers and man, it is sooooo tempting to do my own.  The size of the chests of drawers are pretty much spot on, they’ll provide much needed storage and, at £20 each in my local Ikea now, they are definitely within budget.  This is what one might call a WIN.

The simple shape of these plain little tables just BEGS to be hacked.  And bloggers everywhere are putting their own personal spin on them with aplomb.

Two paired up together even make a pretty damn sexy console with the right handles and styling.  Swoon.

I love the unexpected burst of sweet pink in this next one, don’t you?  I do love the detail of campaign style as well.

Classic Dorothy Draper styling means that even those of us who can’t find this style on our fair shores can have a bit of the action too thanks to DIYers who have shown us how.

Overlays are a great option as well and they ship worldwide (yay!) for pretty reasonable shipping prices.

To be fair, I am most tempted by the campaign and Dorothy Draper styles and I’m seriously considering bringing one of those styles into the room with a bang of strong colour.  And yes, I did suggest another strong colour to contrast with the headboard.  I can almost hear the collective gasp from here.  Stay tuned for that one, promise it’s gonna be ace.

I’ll be sharing the rest of my wishlist for the room soon!  In the meantime, have you tried your own Ikea RAST Hack?  Have a favourite of the ones above?  Or maybe a different one I haven’t shown? Ever buy shitty furniture from ASDA?  Looking for the elusive sexy pair of vintage night stands yourself?  Go on and share in the comments.