Lots of times we get asked how we start the process of designing a room. For us, it usually starts with a feeling. For our latest bedroom transformation we agreed very quickly that we wanted the feeling of staying in a boutique hotel! Imagine the feeling of going to bed every night but feeling like you were on a luxurious holiday? It doesn’t really get better than that!?
Master Bedroom, as per the previous owner (Photo from real estate listing)
Unpack the Vibe
Next step was to unpack the vibe or feeling. We knew we wanted to create the feeling of a luxurious boutique hotel, but what does that mean? To us it means:
- Mood lighting – We are OBSESSED with lighting so much it’s unhealthy. But flexible mood lighting really allows the space to work in different ways and can enhance relaxation.
- Sumptuous soft furnishings – The best hotels always seem to blend a variety of materials to create a tactile cocoon-like feel. Mixing plush velvets with wools and high thread count cottons is the key.
- A bed for giants (we are both over 6ft) – Hugely important, you spend more than half your life in that bed, it needs to be an incredible sleep.
- Entertainment – A no-go for some, but a TV seamlessly integrated into the design was a must. There’s not much better than popping on last week's episode of Bake Off or George Clarkes ‘Old house, New Home’ before bed.
The Style
We live in a Victorian house, so it’s very easy to introduce features from different time periods because the house has lived through so many of them! A historic mash up is one of our favourite things to play with. For the core of our design we decided to create mixture of Deco & mid-century two era’s we are super passionate about.
Our Victorian home, built around 1874.
Although it seems very detailed we like to plan moodboards by cutting out furniture products and layering them onto photographs of the room in its current state. It’s here we start to experiment with colour palettes and layout before getting started. And the best starting point can be a single object or piece of furniture that unlocks the entire scheme.
Original moodboard, mocked up before we even completed on the house! How's that for manifesting!
The legendary myth of the colour Orange
We found the magnificent mid-century inspired Belsa Bed from Soho Home , in the Tangerine colourway, which really paved the way for the final design scheme. It worked fantastically with our very own Coral Odyssey velvet cushion design, which we just knew would have to feature on the bed.
Orange can be hard to work with because it sits as a mid tone, it’s not dark, and it’s not bright, and on top of that, there is a myth around orange - that it doesn’t go with many colours?! However, this is not true! Although challenging the key with orange is to partner it with something that can soften it. After a few colour swatches we found a very unlikely candidate, Greige 02 from Lick. It had just the right amount of green in it to counter the brashness of orange.
Super helpful colour swatches from Lick!
Show some Character
Now that we had decided the wall colour we realised we needed to add some historic character to the room. We used coving to create a simple panelling effect. It was really easy to do, and just involved some very careful measurements up front.
Simple panelling made with wood from B&Q
With the idea of panelling in the mix, we needed to turn our attention to the feature wall / wardrobe…
Don’t throw it, Facelift it!
We had an elephant in the room, and that was the giant wall of nana wardrobes opposite where the bed would go. We decided that the shells were good, we just needed a reinvention on the doors. Fist we knocked back the central unit to put it in line with the rest of the wardrobes and created a perfectly sized recess for the TV (hotel style). Secondly, we ripped the old doors off and created slimmer MDF ones ands then added strip wood t. We stained the strip wood with a dark oak to match the bed, which linked beautifully to the Orange velvet, which in turn looked great against the Greige walls.. The final effect feels modern but also harks to the mid-century theme.
Original wardrobes..
Old doors stripped off, new doors fitted and strip wood added, then stained...
Wood is stained, and doors complimented by sleek Onda door pull handles from Dowsing & Reynolds
Let there be light!
We have lighting overload in this room, but each one of them serves a different purpose.
- Reading Lights from Made.com that can swing directly overhead when you are in bed.
- Night lights resting on the nightstand from Soho Home. These beauties are STATEMENT DECO! Gorgeous glass orbs with a ribbed ‘whip’ effect. They are dimmable too, so brilliant if you need a low light in the middle of the night
- Indirect Lighting – Hidden LED strips were placed in the old picture rail. Perfect for watching TV to, to lift the room and it’s features before bed.
- Standard lamp – This light is fitted with a Philips hue light, which synchronises with the daily sunset, slowly fading up. This light proudly displays our Electric Lagoon Dew velvet lampshade. The shade has a gold lining which creates the warmest glow! The light also ads some elevation to the room, as the bed and side table are low riders.
- The BIG Light – We had been eyeballing this mid-century inspired light from Pure White Lines for some time. A flat sputnik style the ‘Moscow Chandelier’ is monumental, it’s a piece of art and commands attention, also useful for flooding the room with light with 6 bulbs!
The lights are never all on at the same time. It’s more about pairing a couple of the options for different moods and uses. It’s at this point I would like to recognise that all of the lights are super low energy using LED technology to absolutely minimise energy usage.
Bedside lamp, overhead lamp and strip lighting... all at play
Frame it
Nothing sets off a room like mouldings. We decided to paint our picture rail and skirting board black. It might seem like a strange decision, but it is a trick that we had seen in Amsterdam. It completely helps to frame the walls and the furniture between them. It also pulled through the black details in our Coral Odyssey accent cushions. It’s a decision we are very happy with and added a bit of daring design to the concept.
Black details... pulls the lighting and accessories together and frames the room.
Statement Carpet
Last but certainly not least, we needed a carpet. When we were planning the room we used Alternative Flooring's visualisation app on their mobile site. It’s so useful to be able to take a picture of your room, and their technology lay a carpet of your choice in the space. We usually go heavy on patterned wallpapers in our designs, we are maximalists after all. This design was slightly more restrained, so we knew we could go big on the carpet. And we did! This black hex print was so simple in its colourways, it really didn’t dominate the furniture and our coral Odyssey pattern.
Quirky B Honeycomb wool carpet, from Alternative Flooring
Keep it SUITE
What hotel suite is complete without a zonal seating area? Our wildest dreams came true when the G Plan, reached out to us after seeing our proposed design scheme on Instagram. We were given the opportunity to customise one of their iconic SIXTY TWO chairs. And we went to town! You can read more about our Coral Odyssey G Plan chair here.
Bespoke Sixty-Two chair by G Plan, in Coral Odyssey velvet and black leather
So there you have it, from start to finish, the way that we created our Mid-century bedroom! We hope you like it, we love to hear you comments, so please let us know!
Ross & Chris
4 comments
Hey Adam, Thanks so much! Yes, we are super happy with the bed 3 years on… it massive and sturdy. Definitely an investment, but they do have a sale on once a year.
Beautiful space! I was looking to buy that bed but it’s a big investment for something that has no reviews and I haven’t seen in person. Are you happy with it still?
Hey Oliver- it’s from Soho Home. There are a few different colour options too!