A sanctuary,
The whole 16 years of travelling around moving from house to house. My partner and i have never had what I would call a “grown up” masterbedroom. It has always consisted of broken furniture, casualties from a rough move. For example, a bed handed down to us with no headboard and missing slats. That infant proved to stand the test of time.
Our home that we are in now, is ‘meant’ to be our forever home. ( I use the air quotes around the word ‘meant’, as you never know what could happen in the foreseeable.) For now at least for the next 6 years our son is attending secondary school, we are staying put.
Despite a run down bedroom, we are home proud people. Each home we have owned, has always looked beautiful in the main hubs – like the kitchen, living room, guest bedroom and bathrooms. I always invested in those areas for two reason. One we spent so much time there, and two because that’s what people would see when they visited. Talk about keeping up appearances. The more effort that went into those spaces, the more neglected our master bedroom got. I was always on the backward idea that it was a place to sleep. So it never really mattered what our room looked like as our eyes were shut.
How wrong was I. It was only until I started travelling for work, staying in hotels. I noticed I was getting a good nights kip. Perhaps the absence of the dog barking, or a child waking me up me throughout the night, was the real probable reason I was able to get any beauty shut eye. However, for the purpose of how I convinced my husband that the master would be the first room we’d renovate. Matching silk sheets, fluffed pillows and an actual headboard was going to change our sleeping lives forever.
The Brief
I wanted our bedroom to become a sanctuary. A space in where after a long day we could kick off our slippers and lay in bed with a good book -(who am I kidding swiping through our phones). We wanted to be able to sleep soundly waking up feeling refreshed. Isn’t that what everyone wants? I love that hotel feeling and how luxury hotel interiors feel. There is one particular hotel my husband and I loved. In fact, Im going to go as far and call it the best we’ve ever stayed in – yes it was the best family holiday we have ever had. And it’s definitely all because of the hotel we had visited. Its called Myconian Korali a boutique hotel on the small greek island of Mykonos.
This hotel is a beautiful contemporary hotel with bright and clean lines, with a real spa relaxing ambiance. As an interior prospective full of texture and warmth, using natural materials like wood on the walls with contrasting man made concrete mixed with expensive silk it was very luxurious, it was very boujee.
Off the back of this holiday we felt inspired and set about duplicating that slice of Mykonos heaven in our own private part of Devon!
Que pinterest and google.
Inspiration
Now we don’t have the bank balance of a big hotel so I set about creating our boujee bedroom on a basic budget. To save money we needed to use some of the furniture we already had and make it work. A new bed was a must! However, the bedside tables and chest of draws we already had was perfectly fine. It was more the cosmetics of the room we needed to focus on.
The best way to create a hotel feel is through good fabrics, lighting and something bespoke. I spent hours looking through Pinterest and I was always drawn to these floor to ceiling headboards. This was going to be my something bespoke. I became obsessed with these vertical wooden slat walls. Having no idea how it could be created without the expense of a tradesman. I mean there was lots of beautiful pictures of them but nothing out there that I could find to show how to create it.
It was by chance that I just typed in a hashtag on instagram, for the life of me I can’t recall what the hashtag was but It brought me to a business that provided what I was looking for thewoodveneerhub. [Ad] FYI for future reference the product I was needing is called a ‘decorative slat wall panel’ I had no idea that’s what it was called, sure would of made my quest to create my DIY bespoke headboard alot easier if I had known.
Thewoodveneerhub is a fantastic company selling all kinds of materials to transform your home and who ever runs their instagram account is so lovely, they couldn’t do enough to help me. Customer service is 10/10.The website is so easy to use and has a tool that allows you to test your chosen material in the space you intend to use, all from the comfort of your your smart phone. You should so check them out.
Lighting
With my headboard sorted I moved on to the lighting. A good hotel room has perfect lighting. Whether you’re using lamps on your bedside table or having wall lights either side of the bed? Good lighting is key to creating that ambiance. Opting out from the traditional bedside lamps and wall lights. I went for a modern approach, with hanging ceiling pendants either side of the bed instead.
This was for two reasons. – The overall finish is unique and contemporary, but also for the practicality! I’m a wriggle bum in my sleep and I’m forever waking up to broken lamps on the floor. Not to mention it also gives more space to a place book, along with any other nightstand essentials without the area looking cluttered. Creating a great way to keep the bedroom feeling tranquil and spacious.
I took to dusklighting [ad] as they have a selection of beautiful lighting for very corner of your home, all at a reasonable price. I picked up these beautiful concrete pendants for £30 that’s an absolute steal. They are such great quality so heavy and contrast against the wood is beautiful.
Last but not least was the fabrics. I went with white bedding [ad] as most hotels always have crisp white bedding and I can use these white sheets as a base to build around in the future. If I ever wanted to add different accent colours through throws and scatter cushions it would compliment against this clean pallet. I you are looking for bedding that doesn’t break the bank. Dusk.com [ad] has an amazing range!
I love it, every night when the pendants are on I feel like I’m staying in a 5* hotel. My favourite part has to be our DIY floor to ceiling headboard its such a statement and creates a real focal point for this space, a real contrast to the mishmash room before it.
And there you have it, a little long but my journey to what I never thought I would actually need. My very own Master suite to Dream in.
much love
S x
Cannot wait to read this!!
Well done Sakina xxx
I really love this post!!!!! Have a good night sleep Sakina🌃🛏🌛🌛🌜