[AD] Our Nordic Luxe Beige Bedroom Before and After
This post includes gifted product.** Well, that's quite a mouthful. A Nordic luxe beige bedroom. I was beginning to think this day would never come. Two years ago when we moved in, I couldn't see this past the Prince-inspired purple feature wall and peeling wallpaper. And I'm a big Prince fan. But here we are. Back with another before and after. Prepare to witness the fruits of our blood, sweat and tears, of which there have been plenty of each!
How The Bedroom Looked Before
My advice to you? Always be suspicious of papered walls in old houses. It is trying to trick you into thinking "nothing to see here!" Our bedroom couldn't even be bothered to hide the fact that most of the plaster beneath had blown. And good luck trying to actually remove that wallpaper, my goodness. I've no idea what was used to fix it to the wall but I don't think it was your bog standard paste! You can see more of what lurked behind the paper and the freshly plastered walls here. Oh and how you loved those plaster walls. I know you'd prefer that we left them like that, but we wanted the room to feel finished.
The journey from start to finish has been quite a lengthy one which in all honesty, I'm thankful for. It gave us the time to better understand how the north facing light moved throughout the day and made choosing the colour a lot easier. It gave us time to realise that we needed to put a new floor down, as much as we loved the baseboards, sanding and staining wasn't going to be an option this time. Ultimately, it gave us time to understand how we used the room, how we wanted it to work for us and how we wanted it to feel.
The full design post demonstrates how we arrived at warm beige and how I pulled together the look inspired by past stays in design hotels. The most important part of the whole design is that the room felt like a sanctuary. I wanted it to feel minimal with a Nordic luxe look, drawing on high-quality materials, including the Havwoods oak flooring, black metal hardware and additional furniture. There would be contrasting textures of velvet, linen, metal details and warm wood.
How The Bedroom Looks Now
Our journey towards the finish line began in summer, using our plastered walls as our starting point.Work included:• Laying a new engineered oak floor.• Tiling the hearth plate.• Polishing the fireplace.• Painting the walls and woodwork.• Replacing the radiator for a Victorian column style.• Replacing hardware including sockets, switch and cupboard handles.We used the same shade of beige, Lark Song by Valspar, across all the walls and woodwork for a contemporary tone-on-tone effect. It's amazing to see how much the colour changes depending on the light - sometimes appearing almost plaster pink, other times with slight green undertones. It has the ability to glow when the sun hits the corner with the mirror in the early morning and feels warm and moody in the evenings.
I picked out furniture and accessories with similar warm tones to lift the wall colour, starting with the Sinnerlig bamboo lamp shade that we got last year, tying it in with oak picture frames on top of the chest of drawers. Continuing with tonal furniture, we kept the floor length IKEA mirror and I chose the Shelf90 in ash and leather, designed by SSM and handmade by their studio in Sweden. It's been on my list for such a long time and is the perfect size for a select number of books and our mini speaker. This part of the room will really come into its own as a reading corner when we eventually find a suitable chair for it. No, I didn't get to keep The Spanish Chair.Somehow we instinctively choose furniture with skinny legs which actually give the illusion of space by allowing the floor to be seen underneath. Our hospital-style metal bed has been with us for a few years, a John Lewis design no longer sold, but we still love it. A new of mine is the black metal planter from Cox & Cox which in which I planted grasses instead of my usual houseplant.Given that I tend to lean towards jute woven rugs, I surprised myself in choosing this 'Dolce' charcoal grey viscose rug from the Houseology Collection. It feels super silky underfoot and ties in with luxury hotel style. It also bounces the light as you can see from the photos and connects tonally with the oak flooring, provided by Havwoods. If you read the installation post, you'll know how much of a difference the new floor has made to the room. In fact, the overall look wouldn't work without it there to pull it together. It feels so much warmer and quieter too, which means no more avoiding those squeaky floorboards in the night.
The wall lamps are designed by Pederjessen for Mater, who I featured recently for their sustainable Danish design. The black Ray lamps are a nifty piece of design. Did you know that the oak part of the shade is held with magnets allowing you to pivot and direct the light? Did you notice something missing? Yes, bedside tables. A previous attempted failed but ultimately, I'll be adding discrete and narrow bedside ledges which will sit below the lamps, painted into the wall.
Of course, a home is never truly finished and we’ve left space for this room to grow. Much of the practical work has been Rob’s baby. He’s done an incredible job and is putting the finishing touches to tiling the hearth plate (hence why you haven’t seen much of it). I’ve left space for a large round mirror to hang above the chest of drawers and there's bedsides and a reading chair to sort. For now, though, we can finally see out the winter in a warm and inviting bedroom that we can’t wait to spend time in.
On Pinterest? Check out my beige and greige interiors board for more inspiration or #TheChathamHouse on social to follow our renovation journey.
Beige paint - 'Lark Song' by Valspar in matt for walls and satin for wood and metal.Engineered oak flooring - Shadow Grey 188 from the Havwoods Karelia range.**Black metal sockets and vintage toggle switch - Dowsing & Reynolds.Knurled Skyscraper cupboard handles - Dowsing & Reynolds**Bamboo Sinnerlig lamp - IKEA.Black Ray wall lamps - Mater.**Black metal planter - Cox & Cox.**Oak picture frames - Cox & Cox.**Shelf90 in ash and leather - SSM**Charcoal grey 'Dolce' Rug - Houseology.**Morten oak chest of drawers - Heal's.**Anthracite grey column radiator - Trade Radiators.'Monolith' printed cotton fabric - Laura Slater.