Design Dilemmas
Episode 20. How To Plan A Room. From the first lightbulb moment of inspiration and finding your core style, right through to the finishing touches.
When it comes to questions that pop into my DM box, there is none more popular than how to plan a room. It’s an age old problem encountered by many. Move into house decorated by previous owner, feel elated at prospect of making your own mark on it, have panic at the amount of work to be done, become overwhelmed by task in hand, have palpitations about implied cost and upheaval, traumatise self by scrolling through countless inspirational Instagram images, leave it indefinitely as too stressful to think about. Yep, been there. Having lived in both new builds and very old houses, I can confirm that this sequence of events applies to both.
The first house in which I totally transformed a room was a four bedroomed semi detached 1920’s property in which we lived on Hemdean Road, Caversham. Comprising of three levels, our bedroom was in the loft, complete with en suite bathroom. Unfortunately, the conversion had obviously been done on a budget as there were no dormer windows, meaning that only about two metres of the space was head height. The ensuite, crammed into the corner, had a tiny bath with a ceiling so sloped above it that it was impossible to relax in it, least you rise unthinkingly and knock yourself out. The same applied in the bedroom - this, disastrously, had consequences after bringing Max home from the hospital and placing him carefully in the moses basket next to the bed. The next morning I woke, looked over at my lovely, gurgling newborn, picked up him whilst still lying down, lifted him above me and promptly walloped his head on the sloped ceiling. Shocking. Luckily there were no ill effects. I don’t think so, anyway.