Decorating the bedroom

Lots of pain to manage today, so I treated myself gently.

Man Wonderful painted our bedroom cupboard doors a few weeks ago in a beautiful French cream: paint we'd had for a good few years, but it still looks good.
I'd been on the lookout for some fabric to make new curtains to complement the look, and struck lucky this week on eBay with two 72" brand new designer curtains for £6!
This afternoon I was able to measure, cut, and hem the six curtains needed for our bedroom windows from the two I'd bought.
Between the cupboard doors are four small rectangular 'indents' in the wood.  
MW had painted them cream along with the rest of the woodwork, but to finish off the look, I wanted to put something in these spaces.
I thought about pictures in frames, but I don't want to spend money that's unnecessary; then I hit on the idea of getting a sample of 'posh' wallpaper from the DIY store, and sticking four rectangles of this paper into the little indents.

At the big DIY store I took samples of five or six patterned papers, and the ones I haven't used will cover notebooks for little Xmas gifts!

I made up a teeny amount of paste, and stuck the papers onto our wall.

For the cost of two secondhand curtains, the bedroom looks transformed!

We sleep under a paper pieced quilt in shades of blue at the mo, and I'm working on a second one slowly in shades of grey.

How do you ring the changes on a teeny budget?


Comments

  1. It sounds absolutely wonderful.
    Hope you feel better soon.
    J x

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  2. How imaginative you are, and yes, you can certainly achieve much with imagination, a bit of paper and paint! Well done, you! I recently wrote about decorating our bedroom, too, on my blog - it hadn't been decorated for ... wait for it ... 28 years! Yes, Twenty Eight Years. But I always say that if ours was a stately home, which is most certainly isn't, that would be "recently decorated", would it not?
    I do hope the pain has subsided.
    How to ring changes on a budget? Well, I'm very fortunate in that I inherited my mothers antiques and various pieces, so I have what I grandly call my "resources cupboard" which isn't grand at all, but contains all the things I kept (a lot went to auction or to charity shops) and which are not out on display in plastic boxes, each item wrapped in bubble wrap and listed on a sheet for each separate box. Then, in spring and autumn, I have a change around of certain things, glass and porcelain in spring and summer, treen and copper lustre in autumn and winter. Also if you can find some discount fabric, make different cushions for the different seasons, collect leaves from the garden if you can't afford flowers, or out walking at this time of the year collect fir cones and conkers and put them in bowls, even some coloured candles or candles with an autumn-type scent (although on a budget you wouldn't want to be buying candles to burn ... it would be literally burning money, would it not?) I always think flowers are a very good way of making a room look nice, but on a tight budget perhaps even flowers are a step too far? And a different throw on the sofa or on the back of a chair, put greys and blues away and bring out some autumnal colours - if, of course, they 'go' with your décor. Even old books you might find in charity shops can look pretty if they have bindings in reds and browns with any gold leaf tooling, and then position something close to them, even a drinking mug or cup and saucer in similar colours. Bring the colours of Nature into the home, that would give your home a different look for this time of the year. Also, look how you display things, even ordinary things. If you have some pretty tea towels, keep them in a wicker basket on the worktop rather than hiding them away in a drawer (but put the washing up liquid and dishcloth and washing up gloves away when they are not in use - they're not pretty things; manufactures take note, we want nice washing up liquid bottles!)
    Margaret P
    www.margaretpowling.com

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  3. Using things you already have in a new way is always fun. I am not a fan of changing furniture around, but anything else is fair game! This great resource, the internet, is an amazing place for finding new display ideas and tester pots, scraps of fabric and recycled trimmings are fantastic for adding the finishing touches to new projects. I think the main thing is to do that which grown-ups so often neglect to do - play! Who cares if you have to take something apart because it didn't quite work? You can always have another go, especially if your materials are recycled or free. Whenever I am stuck and in need of inspiration I think of my grandmother. During the war she had 4 growing children and a stair runner with holes in it - a noisy and dangerous combination! So, with balls of hairy parcel string and two broom handles, she knitted a new one. It sounds like something from Monty Python, but it is true and apparently it was much admired and lasted for years. Have fun. Tracy.

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