This post is in conjunction with TEMPUR®, but as always, thoughts are my own.
Spending so much time at home during three months of lockdown has meant that I’ve been noticing all the little jobs that needed doing around the house.
One of those jobs was our bedroom. We had redecorated the room in 2017 with a blue feature wall, but the colour wasn’t as expected and it’s been bothering me ever since. On a whim, I decided to finally get rid of the blue by painting over it with white, to match the other walls. The idea was to make the room feel peaceful, more of a sanctuary rather than overly stylish. I really wanted to feel a sense of calm when going into our room at night, as well as when waking up.
Kris really wasn’t into the idea – he thought it was a lot of effort for a room that was perfectly good as it was. I insisted, and he left me to it. So, two coats of white paint and four or five hours later, I had done it. That first night in the all-white bedroom he said he felt very serene – not a word he uses too often – and despite the slight smell of paint we slept well.
Why did I choose white? I felt like a neutral colour palette was a sensible way to go, not least because the room already had a very neutral base – the curtains are a biscuit-y hue (we’ve had them since we moved in 12 years ago), the bed has a pine frame, the floor is a pale laminate. Even the fluffy scatter cushions are very plain with cream and white stripes.
I didn’t want to spend a fortune on what was basically freshening up a room. I used one tin of white paint, and I shopped at Dunelm for a few extras such as the wool blanket (£40), the rug (£80), and the eucalyptus stems (£6). I got creative with the bedside cabinets by upcycling them – two coats of white chalk paint (£25) and six gold cup handles (£2.50 each) and they’re like new pieces of furniture. The ginger jar was a birthday gift from my mum and injects just the right amount of colour, and we already had the white lamp. The only thing left was to treat ourselves to new bed linen in the La Redoute sale. Which brings me on nicely to the cleanliness of our room…
Creating a calm, stress-free and relaxing environment means as little clutter and dust as possible. I feel like I am forever dusting the tops of the cabinets, the skirting boards, and hoovering right under the bed. Especially important because the dog sleeps in our room too, bless him. However, something I definitely need to pay more attention to is our mattress. We’ve had ours for over a decade and all I’ve done to clean it in that time is bang the dust out with my fist and hoover it every now and then. There really doesn’t seem any other way to clean it properly, so for my next mattress I will definitely be looking into buying from TEMPUR®, because theirs have zip-off covers – I love the idea of being able to remove the outer cover, wash it in the machine and hang it out to dry. That feeling of fresh sheets, but on another level.
I was gifted a pillow by TEMPUR® for this project and I used it for the first time on Saturday night. For the three nights before, I had woken up with upper back pain (I get that occasionally) and then, after using the TEMPUR® pillow, I woke up feeling no pain and very comfortable – for the first time in forever my head, neck and shoulders felt really supported. It’s convinced me to start investing in their pillows when I can (this one is £99) because I have been converted in just one night. For now, the one TEMPUR® pillow we have is mine, and I’m not sharing.
Before working with TEMPUR® on this post, I hadn’t realised that the materials were actually created by NASA in the 1970s to cushion astronauts during lift off when journeying into space. Fast forward to today, after much research and development, the materials are now used to make things like a mattress and a pillow that evenly distribute weight for a comfortable night’s sleep. And they’re still the only mattress product recognised by NASA and certified by the Space Foundation. Pretty cool, huh? If the comfort of spacemen isn’t a selling point, I don’t know what is.
So, what’s next for our new bedroom? Hopefully a leaning mirror at some stage (with a gold frame, Anthropologie’s large Gleaming Primrose mirror would be nice but at £750 it’s almost as expensive than everything in our bedroom put together), and a new mattress is definitely at the top of the wishlist so we can put the perfect final touches to our lovely little sleep sanctuary.
Bed linen, La Redoute; fluffy cushions, TK Maxx; pom-pom cushion, Debenhams; blanket, Dunelm; eucalyptus, Dunelm; rug, Dunelm; ginger jar, CharlesTed Interiors; lamp, old; artwork, Livingston Designer Outlet (as part of a paid collaboration).
With thanks to TEMPUR® and my readers for supporting The Daydreamer.
Oh, my – gorgeous room! But, I need to know – where did you get the picture frames from that are above the bed? Thanks!
Author 6th July 2020 / 21:16
Oh thank you so much Suzie! The pictures were from Livingston Designer Outlet a few years ago. Here’s the post when I did the room then https://www.thedaydreamer.net/bedroom-makeover-with-livingston-designer-outlet/
Thanks for visiting! XXX
It does look so calm and serene. I think we will go for white bedding in our new bedroom as the carpet and bedframe are grey so will have a look at La Redoute.
Love the handles on the drawers, finishes it off perfectly. X
Looks divine with a fresh vibe/feeling when you enter.