I live in a small rented cottage with my husband and my toddler. Because we’re saving for a deposit for a mortgage and because our daughter is only just two, our house is rather chaotic and shabby.
Most of our stuff consists of cast-off items no longer wanted by friends or relatives. We can’t paint the walls the colours we’d like, because we don’t own them. There is constant mess.
I don’t like living this way.
The thing is, we recently decided NOT to live this way. We earn enough cash between us to actually have nice things and save. OK, so we may not be able to paint, but we can put up shelves and spruce up old furniture. As long as this is our home (which it will be for a while longer at least) we want it to be a nice place to be. Working 70 hours a week has to have some benefits.
So we’re starting with the bedroom.
In typical parent fashion, we’ve made sure our daughter has the best of the best while we put up with second rate stuff. While she has bunting and solid oak furniture, hand-made quilts and fairy lights, we have dirty washing and 90s pine, broken drawers and dust.
I’ve been meaning to rectify this for the last month or so, but work, life and exhaustion has got the better of me. So when Feather and Black invited me to take part in the Bedroom Challenge, I thought this could be the kick up the backside I needed.
I have three weeks to change this:
… into a place I want to be in the evenings. I want to turn this space into somewhere I don’t mind going when I have to be in bed before 10pm for an early alarm call on a weekday morning. I want it to reflect myself and my husband’s tastes, rather than being a mish-mash of old furniture and mess.
I love the bedroom furniture on offer at Feather and Black. I would love to trade in this chrome bed I was given for my 16th birthday and replace it with something that my 6ft 5″ tall husband could sleep in comfortably. I’d love to say goodbye to the chrome and welcome a beautiful wooden bed in its place.
But with the mortgage deposit savings account firmly in mind, I have to try and do this room up on a more limited budget. There’ll be some new items but there’ll also be a bit of revamped love given to the pieces we already have.
I have three weeks to complete the challenge. During that time I’ll post about my progress, share any inspiration along the way and hopefully not make your eyes sore with more 90s furniture.
In the meantime, you can follow the other bloggers taking on the challenge at the Feather and Black Facebook page.
Wish me luck – and if you have any interior inspiration or words of advice I’m all ears. As you can see from the photos, I’m not exactly Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen.
***
Disclaimer: Feather and Black have provided me with a piece of furniture and a small budget towards this challenge.
what a fab challenge!! I’m in need of a kick up the backside as well, in fact, the whole house is!!!
Looking forward to seeing the end results!
Sometimes it takes a challenge like this to invigorate you – I’m rather relishing the prospect of having a little project to motivate me to spend some time on my OWN space. x
ooh how exciting! I look forward to seeing the transformation! We had a bed identical to that – it went down the tip a few weeks ago now that we have some more ‘grown up’ furniture at last!
x
Alas we can’t afford to change the bed yet – but I’m hoping some new sheets, a throw and some fairy lights will help disguise it a bit!
Dont lose your sense of “you” in the makeover! As someone who has expererienced a sleepover in your current space, how can it be improved?
Wildly is the answer! There’ll be no risk of losing our sense of “us” – seeing as most of the furniture in there has been handed down to us and wasn’t actually of our choosing I think the makeover will finally give us the opportunity to stamp our own style on the room. That’s what I hope anyway!
Blimey, I want those exposed beams. The stick-on polystyrene ones from Wickes in the vicarage just don’t sing the same way. My children have the wardrobes with doors hanging off, the concrete mattresses and Auntie Vi’s mouldy upholstery because it takes adult sensibilities to appreciate the best. As I’ve said before, you’re a much nicer mother than I am.
Not at all – you sound far more sensible than me!
Have you tried Christian Community Action’s furniture sales (http://www.ccam.org.uk/home/furniture-sales)
or Freecycle http://groups.freecycle.org/ReadingUK/posts/all?
Freecycle is ace! We have the furniture, it just needs doing up. Going to spend all weekend refurbing and then moaning the fact I HATE MY BED!
You should get some plywood, cut it out in the shape of a bed-stead and stick it on the end!
Actually, not that bad an idea!
Big job, I wish you luck and a space that you and hubby and relax and enjoy :0)