This is a continuation of what you might consider my ‘before tour’ – the rooms that are liveable but are in no way, shape or form, complete! As a little background, in our previous home, the second bedroom was my office and the third small box room was my dressing room. Eventually, we’ll have a similar set up in this house, with my office being part of the works we have planned for the downstairs and this room becoming solely my dressing room. When we move the kitchen from one side of the house to the other, the current kitchen will eventually be turned into my office. But for now, I am using one room for both functions.
Thankfully, the room is a decent enough size for the time being and I’m making do with both in one room. After all, for many people, the bedroom serves ALL of these purposes so I am fully aware of the privilege of having a whole room devoted just to things I need to do other than sleep. I’m not complaining! ;)
One thing I feel the need to talk about straight off the bat is the decor choices I’m having to live with from the previous owners. This room was originally their son’s room. At some point, the flooring here was replaced with a ghastly speckled grey laminate and one wall was covered in a cheap dark grey brick-effect wallpaper. In my empty house tour, I called it “prison chic”. It was pretty bad. Within days of moving in, I tore all the wallpaper off the wall, deciding I simply couldn’t work in a room that felt like a cell! I’d rather stare at bare plaster than that! So while the grey walls aren’t too bad (at least it’s neutral), there’s one wall that’s pretty frightful and the flooring is shocking too.
And then there is the issue of the mismatched furniture. Of course, the decor in each room in our previous home was different. The dressing room was awash in mint green (a mistake to be honest with you – never do your makeup in a room that casts a slight green light over your face!) and the office was pink, black and gold. So after moving, I’ve had to combine the furniture which would normally never really work in the same space. It is what it is!
Thankfully, the lovely folks from Dwell have come to my rescue. My eventual plans for the dressing room will include contemporary white furniture to keep it light, bright with a lovely open feel. I had a mint green chest of drawers in here that just looked ridiculous with the black desk and teak mid-century sideboard. So they have been gracious enough to send me their beautiful Basel chest of drawers to give the room a taste of what will come. On top of the desk is the large antique glass mirror that was originally in our hallway. At some point, we’ll hang it properly but for now, I don’t mind its placement.
The mint chest of drawers was moved into our guest bedroom (where it actually works rather nicely with the greens and greys in there) and this gorgeous item has a home here. I love the strong contemporary lines it has, a graceful rounded piece with 4 normal drawers and 2 huge deep drawers to fit everything I need. It’s handleless but as you can see, the design creates the inset handles which open and close the drawers with ease.
I can’t tell you what a revelation it is to go from a vintage piece without smooth tracks for opening and closing drawers (the drawers were forever sticking!) to this smooth operator. The tracks make the drawers a joy to open and close – so smooth and effortless that I’m wondering why I waited so long to get a piece of furniture that actually does its job so well! It’s clearly a really beautifully built piece and even comes ready-assembled so I literally didn’t have to do anything but take it out of the box. And the delivery guys actually put it straight into the room which meant that Wayne and I didn’t have to huff and puff to get it up the stairs.
I genuinely couldn’t fault the service or the high quality of the furniture. They have so many wonderful pieces on the site for a contemporary edge which I adore when combined with more ornate pieces for an eclectic look. They also carry quite a few items in this particular range including a sideboard, a TV unit and a compact sideboard which is perfect for a hallway or if space is in short supply. The piece looks much more expensive than the actual cost and if you hurry, they are currently running loads of sales on the site so this particular piece is marked down from £549 to £399! (Price current as of 17 June 2018)
Over on the other side of the room is my desk. You will have seen my ‘fantasy desk’ set up in my previous post and in the future, the console table (which marries so beautifully with the chest of drawers) will live as a vanity in this spot as the perfect place to do my makeup. However, for now, I am still using the black upcycled desk for my workspace. I did splurge on some fabulous velvet-effect blush pink curtains which desperately need to be hung higher and wider – another job to get to on the list!
In the meantime, they frame out my desk perfectly and make me almost forget about all the other things that I hate about the room. The faux peonies were a recent purchase from Hannah Halfpenny which I only discovered is local to me here in Shrewsbury. It was rather delightful that I ordered it around 1pm in the afternoon and it was delivered just after 5pm the same day. How’s that for local service?
To the side is one of my vintage rattan hoop chairs along with some necessary storage that I didn’t really have a place for.
The storage in this room will need to be sorted out eventually – in fact, storage for both the dressing room and the future office will need updating with the new rooms in mind – but for now, I’m just making do with what I already have. Of course, this wall will eventually be sorted out – it’s a mess for now and is a bit of an eyesore in the room (although trust me, it’s better than what was here before)! I’ve fallen out of love with the mid-century style sideboard too. At some point, I’d love to replace it but it’ll probably be a while before I get around to it. For now, it holds so many necessary items that I’m reluctant to part with it.
One of the things that will, of course, stay exactly as is is the gorgeous little corner fireplace. I mentioned it recently but even though it’s not a working fireplace, it’s just such a little fun detail to decorate. It stores mostly just my everyday jewellery.
So that’s the “before tour” of this space. A week from today, the re-wiring of the house will be starting. In order to keep the chaos to a minimum and keep our sanity in check, we are only getting half the house done. This means, we essentially have to ‘move out’ of the living room and the master bedroom while these spaces along with the guest bedroom, bathroom and hallways are being torn to bits. We’ll be moving over to the other side of the house which includes this room so we’ll be moving our bed into here! It’s gonna be chaos for a while so you’ll have to forgive me if my blogging becomes slightly more sporadic in the meantime.
Once the work gets underway for our kitchen and dining room remodel and extension, then we’ll finish up getting the house rewired on the other side including this room. Which means, until the electrics are done in here, I can’t really do too much to update the decor. Sob! I do have big plans for the space, however, which I can’t wait to share with you in time. In the meantime, I hope you’ve enjoyed having a look at my very ‘not done’ rooms and special thanks to Dwell for making my dressing space much more pretty!
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Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post but was provided the chest of drawers free for my review. As always, all words, images and opinions are my own and I only ever work with brands I love and think you’ll like too! Thanks for supporting the companies that support Swoon Worthy. Please note, this post contains affiliate links.
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I love this post Kimberly – so relatable! I’m very much in the same boat. Can’t imagine there being much in the way of “before” and “afters” for a few months at least, so it’s more a case of “before” and “It’ll do for now” haha – You’ve made it your own already though and I’m WELL impressed you’ve got art on the walls already. It’s taken me about 6 months to unpack all my frames haha xx
It’s so exciting having a new home to put your stamp on. Your comment ‘prison chic’ really made me laugh!
Love the chest of drawers from Dwell. Really lovely looking and timeless.
Look forward to seeing the updates x
It might be mismatched and not yet as you fully want it, but it looks good and has definitely got the beginnings of your stamp on it already. I actually rather like the stripped off wallpaper effect on the wall. Love the little fireplace and the contrast of the white furniture on one side of the room and the black desk on the other.
I’m loving seeing your styling talents at work in your new place. You sure you need to redecorate? Looks lovely now. x
I love the light in this room, but my favourite thing is that corner fireplace! So cute!
ohhh so much white ! Such exciting times, love the fireplace. xxx
The black and gold desk set up – desk, chair, lamp, accessories – looks so good in that window, framed by the blush pink curtains!! Gorgeous shot!
Even though it’s not how you want it yet, you always make everything look so good in the meantime! Can’t wait to see the progress of all the rooms – and good luck with the re-wiring!! xx
Have you thought of getting your sideboard spray painted and attaching new handles and legs. Just a thought. 😊
I hadn’t actually considered that but only because it’s a vintage piece which is in really good condition so I’d feel guilty about painting it! Haha! I’ll probably sell it as is and find something more suitable ;) xxx
Hi Kimberly, love all your new posts since your move. I have since been looking at the furniture and accessories I have with new eyes and trying to use them in different rooms and different purposes. I don’t want to buy anything new and your style helps me work with I have. Thank you for inspiring me.
I love that you’re not afraid to show “for now” uses for the things you already have – and it makes obvious that those things can be used in more than one location in your home. I agree that the sideboard is salvageable – paint and shiny gold hardware and you have a new piece either for dining room serving/storage or for office console/supply storage. I’m sure you’ll make the right decision for you.
Those new draw are beautiful they look so sleek and stylish xxx
Thank-you for showing how to make the most in the interim. This is inspiring too.
Our house purchase has just completely fallen through. Trying to keep the faith and think it is because there is something better around the corner!
The inspiration to make do is helping :-)
BTW – where did the gold phone holder come from?
Oh Andrea, I’m so sorry about your purchase falling through! It’s so heart-breaking. We had found one we loved and while we lost ours during the bidding process (which took over a month for some reason), I was devastated. But then we found this place which really was SO much better for so many reasons. It wasn’t meant to be and something better is around the corner for you, I promise! As for the phone holder, it’s from Amazon ;) https://amzn.to/2tjaiji xxx
Thank-you Kimberly- fingers crossed it does mean something even better is in store!
I love seeing all your before posts and getting little snippets of your plans for each of these spaces. The funny thing is how great your before rooms look. You’ve do e such a great job at making all the rooms feel homely and put together.
For a room with so many “design challenges” you’ve managed to bring it all together totally cohesively and it looks fab! Most would call that a finished room, haha. Amusingly I had the matching Dwell small cabinet which I donated recently to the Design House MCR event we both contributed to.. a lovely piece (just didn’t fit in my tiny flat anymore) xx
As always, your ‘make-do’ is pretty darn attractive by most people’s standards :-) Currently also making do in nearly every room and they do NOT look this good.
I am a really big fan of the uncovered plaster wall though – if we had found something similar in our house I was thinking about leaving it as a feature (maybe with some sort of sealant). Alas, whenever we took off wall paper the plaster all came with it! The joys of 200 year old houses! x
Two things. Are you using the agate cheese board in the dressing area? You crack be up. Also, can you give me some details about your crossover handbag? I’m in the market and hope that it comes in tan.
Yep, totally using the cheese board! Hahaha! It’s too pretty at the moment for my ugly kitchen! ;) The white bag is from Mango but it was from last summer so I can’t find it on the site! So sorry about that! xx