It started on Thursday morning. I sometimes have a little browse of my local listings on Facebook marketplace – I’ve been keeping an eye out for a vintage mirror to use for our dining room (no luck there) and some bits for the guest bedroom seeing as the renovation project has, unsurprisingly, eaten into most of my ‘house fund’ account. I’ve always been a fan of buying second-hand – well any time really – but especially when budgets are tight and while there’s a lot of rubbish, you can find the occasional gold. And gold I found.
A vintage bamboo and rattan shelving unit for just £25 and they could deliver locally. Boom. I eagerly sent the buyer Facebook’s standard ‘is this still available?’ message and then fearing it may not sound as though I was keen enough, hastily sent another, gushing about the piece and saying how much I loved it and that I hoped she was still selling it. Within a few minutes, she responded – yes, it’s still available, would you like to buy it? A few hours later, her hubby showed up in a van, offloaded this vintage gem and I was a very happy camper.
Of course, Wayne’s first response upon seeing it was, “What is this monstrosity?’ and then quickly changed his tune when I proudly proclaimed it’s bargain price. As he helped me carry it up the stairs, he remarked, “It’s actually really good quality, isn’t it?” probably relieved when I told him it was meant for the guest bedroom where he didn’t actually have to interact with it.
While I am going to continue to share the story with you, I figured you’d probably want to see the finished result so to save you scrolling, here’s the new look…
On Friday, I happily spent a bit of time styling it up, realising I finally had a place for my growing book collection and a spot to put some extra towels for guests. It meant I could clear the chest of drawers in here (something in time I’d like to replace as well), allowing more space for a guest’s own things and while I loved the piece, I wasn’t satisfied.
Now let me just pause here to say – despite these shots – this room needs work. Like A LOT A LOT of work. Old lining paper needs removing, probably replastering (including the ceiling) and it needs all new electrics. It desperately needs holes in the walls filling and all the yellowing woodwork repainting and new carpeting too. It’s a big job, probably taking the whole thing back to bare plaster and starting again but the likelihood of that happening any time soon is pretty much non-existent. I’d love to do it all at some point but there are just other areas of the house that are a bigger priority and so it’s pretty far down the list right now.
Over the year and a half that we’ve lived here, I’ve done my best to make it at least comfortable for guests (which we have many including my mother in law who comes to stay with us once a month as well as other friends visiting from London and Manchester). You might recall the very first little mini-makeover of this room which I did in a couple of hours, just using stuff I already had 3 days after we’d moved in. So you can say, over the time we’ve lived here, I’ve done a lot of just tweaking including buying a new platform for what was our previous mattress, bringing in the mustard gold velvet headboard we had in our old bedroom, adding the mint green chest of drawers that used to bein my old dressing room, getting a new (old) lamp base from a friend and purchasing a little wood clothing rail for guests to hang their things.
So back to our story and the shelving unit is in and styled up but I still wasn’t satisfied. I went to bed that night and it was either as I drifted off to sleep or early the next morning when I decided I had had enough of the grey-purpley-mauve ‘feature’ wall in the space. I’d been working with it, sticking with a lot of greys and greens in the room but the truth was, I disliked the colour and wanted it gone.
The next morning, I got up and had a look to see what leftover paint I might have knocking about. I realised I still had a good half a tin left of the Little Green Paint Company’s Hellebore that I’d been gifted for use in my vanity/makeup space makeover and knew it’d be enough to just repaint over that feature wall. As much as I would have loved to repaint the whole room, this would have to do for now. And it was something I already had sitting around, so ya know, win-win. Of course, Wayne wasn’t thrilled I was ‘pink-ifying’ yet another space in this house but well, he wasn’t about to argue with free paint and he doesn’t do any of the painting around here anyway. So he didn’t get a say! Ha!
Plus, one of my favourite colour combinations is mustard and pink so I knew that the headboard would really sing against that rosy hue. Within around 3 hours (including drying time), the wall was complete and I put everything back in place again.
So £25 and around 3 1/2 hours (painting and styling), and the room is looking so much better. I love the combination of the pinks and the golden tones in this space and the view from the hallway is just so much lovelier now. Yes, the room still needs plenty doing to it, of course, but this has made it just that bit bearable for a little while longer. Ahh the power of paint, right?
In time, I might do some more tweaking just to make it a little more bareable. I’d like to replace the chest of drawers in here at some point and get some new curtains and a blackout blind, it needs at the very least a pendant shade for the bare bulb that hangs in front of the window. But for now, it’s fine and while I don’t want to spend a lot of cash on it until we can do it all properly, sometimes little changes here and there make a space that much more liveable for a little longer until you can get around to the big spending.
I’d love to know what you think of the changes! Have you done any room-tweaking lately on rooms that need a lot of work just to make them liveable? Let me know below!
It dose look good pink and goes so well with everything you’ve already got, and you did it so quickly. Thats one fab speedy make over that didn’t cost the earth and it looks beautiful. Xxx
Thanks so much lovely – I am so happy with how such a small change has made such a big difference! :) xx
There’s nothing like the thrill of cheap gold! I regularly stake out a local charity shop specialising in furniture (I once got a Kartell Componibili cabinet for a fiver!). The room now looks very much part of the overall scheme, you can easily get away with leaving it as is for a good while to come. Any guest would love to stay there. Tx
Oh my goodness – a fiver?! That’s incredible!! Oh I do love a good vintage find ;) It really feels so much nicer in there now, the pink makes everything a bit warmer and more glowy. I won’t be able to help myself making more tweaks here and there but it’s definitely an improvement :D xx
Yes! I recently FALLified our guest bedroom with HOT pink and deep oranges…deeper hues (for FALL you see). But I wish I would’ve been smarter when we first moved in…same issue with MIL coming to visit and just bought a bunch of stuff and threw it all together and I hated it! You were much smarter.;). I also just this week missed out on a bamboo/rattan shelf! I messaged on FB Marketplace and it had just sold! :/. There’s another one but an hour away so I’m debating! Your guest room looks lovely!💕
Hot pink and deep orange sounds AMAZING!! I love the sound of that! Oh shame about missing out on your own bamboo/rattan treasure but hopefully you can get your hands on another ;) Thanks lovely, I’m really pleased how much nicer it feels in there now! xxx
Those vintage rattan units were great – and could be used anywhere in the house, even in a bathroom. I had one years ago and it was moved so many times that it finally needed to be “retired.” I wouldn’t mind having one again. Think I’ll keep my eye out for a good one.
You did a great job updating your guest room. It’s welcoming and so fits with the rest of your house decor. You’re very talented at making something stylish out of pretty much nothing – and that’s meant as an extreme compliment.
Oh ya know when it arrived my first thought was, ‘Oooh maybe I should put this in the bathroom instead!’ but resisted the urge! I’m sure it’ll have a long life in my home moving everywhere it’s needed :) Aww thank you for the lovely compliment – you are too kind! xxx
The shelf unit looks great, and who doesn’t love a bargain! The new paint on the wall looks much nicer, it’s a warmer colour, so perfect for the winter. Your pink linen bedding would look good in there too, although you probably don’t want to give that up!
I splashed out, and took advantage of the 10% first order discount, plus the free delivery weekend at Made.com, and ordered that set, and a matching sheet. Same colour as yours, as it goes with our room. It felt a bit odd at first, due to the texture, but I soon got used to it, and I love it!
Aww thanks Julia – I think that was the one thing I noticed immediately is how much warmer the room felt (that grey-purple was doing this north-facing room no favours as you can imagine!) ;) The linen bedding is definitely staying in our room though – haha! Oh so great that you ordered the Made set – it’s so lush, isn’t it? Definitely a few nights to get used to and after that, you’ll want nothing else next to your skin ;) xxx
Love the changes! So fun to see what you did without spending a lot of money!
Ahh thank you! I’m always amazed how creative you can get when budgets are stretched ;) xxx
Looks fab, Kimberly!! What a difference a (half a) day makes! I love these interim phase solutions, especially when you realistically know it’ll be a year or two before you can do it up properly. And, I daresay you’ve given me the kick in the pants I needed to Just. Get. Started. on re-painting my home office. It’s pure white right now (White Heat by Dunn-Edwards), and I’m going for a soothing, beachy mid-tone aqua (Glistening Aqua by Valspar — very lowbrow brand, haha!) I think the white frames of my gallery wall will really pop against it! Thanks for the inspo!! As ever :-)
Ahh that’s so fab, Claire! I’ve always thought aqua and white are such a lovely combination – agree your white frames will look gorgeous against that colour! Best of luck and happy painting :) xxx
Great find and excellent styling! Love the colour combination. Btw Where did you buy the leopard print cushions and throw?:)
Oh thank you Amanda! The leopard print velvet cushions are from Stuck on Hue (I’ve had them years now and they’ve never been out of rotation – gorgeous quality):
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/177800150/leopard-velvet-decorative-pillow-covers?ref=shop_home_active_2&crt=1
And the throw is from River Island:
https://www.riverisland.com/p/leopard-faux-fur-throw-900163
Hope that helps! xxx
Kimberly
May I ask where you got your “just-seen” wooden hanging clothes rail, please?
Lovely make-over and a brilliant set of faux plants: am buying some in a moment and going to use your tip about balancing them in my own guest room.
Hey Denise, I purchased it from Argos last year but they don’t seem to have it in stock any more! Although this is really similar (just in white rather than wood):
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8069407?rec=PDP%5B4738639%5D:bottomSlider:P1:OHAT:alternative:8069407:sPEhFogg846gLDjyVlOu
And fantastic – have fun with your fauxs! I use them quite a bit in this room because I’m not in the space that often, I always forget to water the real ones! Whoops! LOL! xxx
I absolutely love this room. I wish I had your eye for mixing colours and patterns. I would never have thought to put pink and mustard together, or floral and leopard print. I’ve saved this room for inspiration.
“relieved when I told him it was meant for the guest bedroom where he didn’t actually have to interact with it” – hahahaha!!! Robwould have the same reaction – what the hell is this?!
I love this mini-makeover – what an improvement! xx