Home Decor: A Fairytale Bedroom

Six months ago I wrote about my plans for H's bedroom. After living in our new house for eighteen months we have slowly been working through it room by room, getting rid of the magnolia everywhere and adding our own touches. It is still an ongoing process but when we moved Little J into Miss H's toddler bed in May and bought her a new mid-sleeper bed I knew the time had come to get on with my ideas.

It has still taken another three months to finally get it all done, and there are still a few bits to finish off, but I want to show you the result of months of planning, preparing and creating.

When the children's beds were in place we split the huge wardrobe H had into two sections - one for the each of them. This looks so much better as it takes up a lot less space, and with a set of small drawers inside there is plenty of room for their things. I added some washi tape to the fake chrome door handles to try and make them look better and am planning on putting wallpaper over the plastic panels to finish them off.

The theme of the room has taken inspiration from the fairy bedding I bought at Dunelm Mill last year. At one point I was considering pink and mint green as the colour palette but once I had this bedding I decided to go for purple instead of the green. I bought a large tin of pink paint and only a tester pot of the purple, which was plenty. I also used a beige to add a more neutral tone to the room.

One of the main elements I knew I wanted to include was a feature wall at the far end of the room. I got it into my head that I wanted to paint a silhouette of her and so a couple of months ago I managed to begin.

I love the idea of painting stripes onto a wall and as H's room is a little narrow I decide horizontal stripes would make it look wider. It took myself and Mr H and lots of painter's tape to complete this, but last weekend it was finished and I am so thrilled with the result.

An idea I found on Pinterest was the use the Ikea spice racks, upcycled as bookshelves. I bought six of these, for £3 each, and painted them the chosen colours of the room. Mr H then mounted them to the wall under H's new bed and they look fantastic. I added a furry rug and fairy lights to create a magical, cosy reading area under her bed which we can snuggle in each night before bed for story time. The children were in awe when they saw this part of the room and kept gazing up at the lights.

H has lots dressing up clothes and nowhere to put them - instead they have been crumpled up in a cardboard box at the back of our sofa, mostly untouched. So when I found some gorgeous hooks at Dunelm Mill I knew they would be great for hanging all her clothes up to create a little dressing up area in her room. I also put a second, smaller set of hooks up next to them for her bits of jewellery and hairbands. Now most mornings when I go in, there are a range of tutus and headbands dotted over the floor from her dressing-up antics.

Finally to finish the room off I have been collected several pieces of art and images to frame for her walls. I found some old frames in a charity shop for 25p each and painted them matching colours to the bookshelves. I filled them with postcards from The 1973 Gift Shop and Violet & Percy.

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I have also finally hung the illustration the fantastic Helen Poole Illustrations created of both the children. Just using a couple of images I emailed across, Helen pulled together a beautiful piece which capture my two perfectly, even H's clip which she wears all the time! I also found a space for a piece by the amazing Works of Heart, but more to come on that in another post.

Helen Poole Illustration

So there we are - from a bland, practical room to a boudoir fit for a little fairy. I am completely thrilled with the result and glad that my time and love came together just as I wanted it to.