Welcome To My Boudoir

For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted a peaceful bedroom. A bedroom that is worthy of a hotel, and we’re talking Savoy group here rather than Travelodge. I have wanted luxury: lovely sheets, lovely furniture, tactile rugs. My jewellery organized so it’s easy to see but doesn’t collect dust, low lighting for when all I want to do is crawl under those luxury sheets and read a book. I’ve been working hard at making this room a sanctuary, a calm in the storm that is every day life.

The pièce de résistance in my bedroom is of course my bed, which I slaved over for days and days and days (it used to be black). And then put up incorrectly and promptly broke. The moral of the story? Don’t buy bedframes from eBay that come without instructions unless you know what you’re doing. But definitely do give old pieces of furniture makeovers; it’s really quite satisfying. But only if you are a fan of spray painting.

The artwork in here has been carefully thought about. The NYC graphic map above my bed was bought when I was visiting in May, a trip that was really important to me and the Outdoorsy print was from this Etsy shop and, well, describes me to a T. The gold frame was a charity shop find.

I love my dressing table. It’s been hugely pared down from what it was in the old house (nobody needs 4 eyeshadow brushes, especially when they don’t wear eyeshadow) and now just holds the absolute basics. I like things around me that remind me of the past so there’s plenty of nostalgia here: the three flower fairy prints belonged to me when I was a little girl, the wooden tray was bought on a holiday in Malaysia and I have a coronation mug and tin because, well, I like the Queen. Happy times!

Something else I think is really important is lighting. I don’t use overhead lights in any room of my house because I find them too bright (except for when I cook on occasion) and there are a grand total of three lamps in my bedroom (two IKEA, one B&Q – I’m saving up for this one.  I also recently swapped out my cool fairy lights for some warm ones from Notcutts (aka fairy light heaven: these are on their way for the garden) I can’t get enough of fairy lights and on the nights I am out and come home to an empty house I have been known to put them on before I leave so I can enjoy the twinkly welcome home.

The most beautiful part of my new bedroom has got to be my walk-in wardrobe. Three rails, three shelves, storage boxes, beautifully arranged jewellery… I could live in there. But I won’t because you can’t lie down.

It’s my happy place, even when Hux gets in there and rearranges everything. This wardrobe has left me doubting I could ever live with another man, because really, where would their clothes go? It would probably take Ryan Gosling for me to give up my beautifully displayed jewellery.

My Dad gave the whole house a lick of paint before I moved in and most rooms, including this one, are in Wicke’s Putty. I was very into Farrow & Ball’s Ammomite but, you know, £66 per 5 litres is a lot to spend on paint. You can swing 10 litres at Wickes for £24.99 so it was a no-brainer and I really do love the colour.

The curtains are these from IKEA and I have a blind to put up so I stop flashing my neighbours. Sorry, neighbours. The bedding is also IKEA and though fairly cheap and cheerful I swear its the softest bedding I’ve ever owned. One bedside table is an IKEA drawer unit (though I’m on the lookout for an old table to refurb) and the other is a stool from Freecycle. My chest of drawers/dressing table is on long term loan from an old neighbour.

This room, it might not be quite hotel standard yet but it’s definitely an Alice-only zone (except for those early morning family cuddles which are basically a three in a bed free-for-all). It’s definitely my favourite room in the house – and I’m hoping you’ll have forgotten this when I declare my kitchen my favourite room in the house next week – and I just love spending time in here. As if I needed any more reasons to look forward to bedtime.