Bedroom Renovations

Hi everyone!

Boy, what a day!  I'm really sorry for not managing to post early this morning as per usual, but I've been having real issues trying to upload my pictures of the rennovation of our bedroom. 

Finally I've got a decent connection and can add all my little pictures.  So exciting.

So here is where we've got to so far:

Firstly we ripped out the old cupboards firstly, they were horribly old fashioned.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the old cupboards, but managed to get pictures of the new wardrobes, which I'll talk about in more detail next week.

We had our ceiling skimmed by a plasterer, and then painted it white with matt emulsion by Dulux.  This brought the old carpet into question, and we ended up ripping that bad boy out.  It was horrible and stained from years of neglect!  So it took quite a few trips to the rubbish tip to get rid of all the underlay, carpet, old wardrobe (mainly chipboard) and all the grippers.  We also removed the skirting boards and in certain areas had to remove the lining paper.

Basically our bedroom has a few walls that aren't extremely level or straight for that matter, and some of the walls aren't beautifully flat and flawless.  This made us decorate all the walls with a double-layer wall paper design.  We initially horizontally papered the walls with a standard 1000 grade lining paper, and then went over this lining with vertical strips of 1400 grade paper which is much thicker.  This gives you a wonderful surface to work on and paint on.

We haven't finished all the wallpaper lining but will endevour to finish that by this or next weekend.  Primarily all the work is undertaken on weekends and the progress is slow.  BUT this past weekend we went to our local timber yard and bought our new skirting boards.  They were much cheaper than the DIY stores like Homebase and B&Q. 

My husband took the correct measurements and cut the wood to fit perfectly in the gap.  He then drilled holes in strategic areas and screwed the board to the wall.  In the corners we had to make a slanted cut for the boards to create a corner and it can be pretty tricky.  If you want more info on this just email me or leave a comment.  The drilled holes were then filled in with a generic filler, and sanded down to smoothness once dried.  Then we corked around the upper edge where the skirting meets the wall.  Corking is a white substance that looks like filler or silicone in a bottle, it is purely decorative really and gives the skirting a beautiful look to just finish off the skirtings. 

The skirtings were then painted with a wood undercoat, sanded down and glossed with white gloss from Dulux. 

SOOO, with all that being said we've still got to do the last bit of lining wall paper, the wall paper for the back "feature" wall, and buy a carpet.  We bought our light fitting from B&Q for approximately £40, and decided that this fitting would be perfect because it doesn't dangle from the ceiling (it is fairly low and we'd hit out head) and it has 12V Halogen bulbs in and this means it is cheaper to run than the normal bulbs. 

Join me next week to discuss the next steps and then the fun bit of decoration and furnishings :)

This is what our room looks like at the moment, note we've fitted the new wardrobe (Ikea) and the skirtings.

Here you can see the area where we'd like to make a feature wall.

This shows the area where we've had to create a corner and had to cut the skirtings in a slanted manner.  Also notice the corking at the top of the skirting (meeting the wall).  It ensures that there is no gaps between the skirting and the wall.

Corking up close.  Sorry about the yucky floor :)

This is the PAX wardrobe we chose from IKEA which is 3 metres long and includes glass doors.  More to follow on this shortly.  You can also notice our overloaded pasting table hehe.

This is a look at our very smooth ceiling (which was previously artexed) with our new light fitting.

This is the spiral light fitting that we chose from B&Q for approximately £40.

Just a random shot of the room.

This is the Satinwood Gloss that we used on our skirting boards.

We used this Dulux Undercoat in white (this is oil based).

Haha, sorry that this is upside down but I couldn't get it the right side up.  This is the 1000 grade lining paper that we bought from Wickes for £7.99 for 40m.  Good bargain.

This is the more expensive Red Label 1400 grade lining paper (unsure of price but will let you know soon). This gives a brilliant finish and is great for your paint.

Unfortunately on this spot the plaster had blown, so my husband chipped it off and filled the spot in with Pollyfiller.  I wouldn't recommend this method as the best finish is without a doubt browning and plaster.  He was lazy though :)

We noticed after removing the window dressings that our window wasn't sealed properly and my husband strategically placed foam into the gaps, cut the extra off and filled any holes with browning and plaster.  This made a huge difference and the room is warmer now.

That is an example of the browning he used to fill the gap around the window.

My husband removed the plug socket as it was in the way of the new skirting board.  The old skirting board was slightly shorter.  We'll keep the plug socket off until we've finished the papering.  I'll be showing you how to paper around a plug socket soon.

Sorry that this was such a long post with loads of pictures but I've had to explain everything before continuing on with any more stuff I'm planning on showing you.

DIY'ing overload,
Angelique :D