It seems like every room we finish, or are close to finishing becomes my new favourite room but this one really is one of my favourites (shhh don't tell the others) because it's our bedroom.  I had very little to do with the transformation of this one since my future hubs did all the ripping out of the old features and the new additions which you'll see in a little bit.
We really love the look of paneled walls and since this room although actually quite large didn't really feel all that special we thought it was a great candidate for panel treatment. Around about the time we were due to start this room I came down with a horrible cold and retreated to bed so future hubs get's all the credit here as I didn't even see it until it was finished and painted.
Before starting we had played around with different combinations and sizes by using masking tape, which can be time consuming but it is worth doing as the layout we originally had thought we wanted just didn't really work with the room.  After the design it was time to start the measuring out and cutting which probably took the longest time of all the stages for this room.
The moldings which make the panel frames are plaster and are fixed to the wall with a plaster of paris mix and a few small nails to keep the plaster pieces in place while the "glue" dries, the nails are removed later so don't drive them all the way in.  Another really important tip for doing this type of work is to coat the back of the plaster moldings with PVA glue otherwise the plaster sucks up all the moisture from the plaster of paris gluing mixture making it stick to the wall too quickly and giving you no time to wiggle into the correct position.
After the wall panels were finished the walls were papered with lining paper and ready to be painted, since this is new plaster work it does need a "wash coat" first which is basically a watered down base coat. You could use plain white paint or the colour you intend to use, the "wash coat" is basically used to reduce the amount of coats needed to cover the new plaster as it will as without it it will absorb more paint.
The final paint for this room we have chosen is Farrow & Ball Elephant's Breath which has helped create a really luxurious yet comfortable, cosy feel perfect for a bedroom, we're going for a Hollywood Regency look in this room so we added a Gold Mercury Glass Chandelier from BHS.
Just wait until you see the carpet and furniture we picked for this room I'll be sure to update you more quickly than usual but you can follow I'll Take Both Interiors on Bloglovin' so you never miss post.
So that's the background on the bedroom transformation, are you a big a fan of wall panels and Farrow & Ball Elephants Breath as I am?

On our first viewing I think the Living Room was the room that really sold the house, it has this big bay window that just floods the room with light and gorgeous views all year around (although the garden is a little overgrown right now).

This is the Living Room before we started work
 As the heating needed some work anyway we decided to remove the two small radiators either side of the bay window since they would be an obstruction when placing furniture.  The one remaining radiator on the opposite wall was no longer sufficient to heat the room by itself so that was replaced that with a larger model which will be hidden by the sofa later.  A really obvious tip would be if you are undertaking any electrical or heating work prepare for mess, a lot of mess.
Once all the under floorboard work was done and the built-in's were removed from the alcoves we were ready to rebuilt the room starting at the top.

I'll start my updates with our most finished room right now and that's the Guest Room AKA The Gray Room, you can see from the last post that is wasn't far from being finished a little while ago but in true renovation style the wallpaper we had chosen for the room just did not want to play ball.

We had picked a slightly textured silver gray wallpaper but after applying it to the wall the edge's kept lifting no matter how much attention you gave them and and those that did finally stick were very obvious so we decided to scratch that idea and go back the drawing board.

A unique feature in room is that is has two wiring points for light, originally these both just had a pendant light with a simple paper shade and as we have re-wired the house it was suggest a few times that maybe we should get rid of the two light fittings and have one central light.
We decided to keep the two lights since it's a little quirky and just gives the room that something a little bit different.  For the light fixtures we found some absolutely gorgeous chandeliers from BHS in gun metal coloured crystal and they look amazing if I do say so myself keeping the two lights was definitely the right choice for this room.
In the end since we like the colour above the picture rail so much (Farrow & Ball Pavilion Gray) we decided to fore go wallpaper on the lower section and paint it with the matching paint as above.  Once the paint was dry we just had to move the furniture into the room, all that's missing now is soft furnishings and some little ornamental things.
 And that's the Gray Room so far, do you have quirky features in your house you love? Or maybe something you took out and wish you hadn't, drop me a line in the comments I'd love to hear your stories.

  Shopping List

Phew, what a busy week I've had! We're finally seeing some real progress in the house as we've been able to get some of the jobs done that make the house look prettier.

The most of the week was focused on the bathrooms so I thought I'd show you the story so far of the Master Bathroom.

When we purchased the property the Master Bathroom was quite a small room with a separate Toilet next door in one sense having the rooms separate seemed like a nice idea but the toilet room was absolutely freezing with no room to add heating it also did not have a sink so didn't seem like that hygienic of an option.  We came to the decision that we would knock the two rooms together to make a larger space but whilst planning layouts we hit some snags.  I really wanted a bath, my partner really wanted a stand alone shower but we couldn't fit both no matter how hard we tried.


The room next door was labelled a bedroom but we didn't really need it as one and a spacious bathroom is one of those home luxuries we dream of, so we decided to extend into that room too.  We've weighed up the pro's and con's and I'll admit taking away a bedroom was something we questioned a lot as to if it was the right decision, but at the end of it all this is our life house and the bathroom will be a greater benefit to us than a bedroom, we're both firm believers in do what makes you happy not do what people expect.


The new room needed the outside wall re plastering to bring it all to the same level and a new ceiling to even out the height difference, we also built a little wall for the sinks.

Once the plaster had dried which took forever, our lighting was put in (I'll do another post all about recessed lighting another day since that's a huge post in it's self) and we could finally get the tiler in which is when things really started to change.

The saga of the Navy Blue paint seems to have more episodes and drama than the Twilight Saga so despite finally choosing a colour the universe conspired to throw a spanner in the works and Fountains Blue was not to be.

I had to order the Fired Earth Fountains Blue paint since the store did not stock this colour and when I went to collect it something did not sound right, the paint seemed very watery I could hear it sloshing all the way to the car.  On to the room to be painted, lift off the lid and we were greeted with this

Dry sample to the right, wet sample on the bottom, mystery paint on top

Even though the dark sample above is wet the colour which is practically black did not change when it was dry it also developed a really oily residue, not a good look on a matt paint, clearly something had gone wrong and to top off it off we were now on a bit of a time crunch as we needed to get two coats on the walls before the carpet arrived, re-ordering was not option.
Farrow & Ball to the rescue!  Armed with sample pots of Drawing Room Blue and Hague Blue it was back to the nest to re-chose my problem blue. In the end there was a winner in Hague Blue, we did encounter a few more hiccups on the way but we made the deadline and today the carpet went down on time. Farrow & Ball were a tremendous help and I'm incredibly happy with the end result just going to show you things really do happen for a reason.

Farrow & Ball Hague Blue (sorry for the dust)

Walls - Check, Carpet - Check, Wardrobes - Next

I thought today I'd show the inspiration and progress in another of the rooms but first I should explain the origins of it's name The Gray Room.  When I was looking of inspiration on decorating and dressing rooms I, like many people, turned to Pinterest and while browsing I stumbled upon a the most peaceful, comfortable and sophisticated looking room in a beautiful gray palette, it was love at first sight.  Then because I was almost constantly discussing rooms and showing my other half pics to help keep them straight conversations almost always started with "you know that gray room"  we decided that the spare guest room should have a neutral hotel feel to it and that gray room was just perfect so the spare room in our home became known as The Gray room.  Now whenever you lose someone or something it's so much easier

 "Have you seen the paint brush?" "Yes it's in the Gray room"

 So that's the story and the inspiration now for the progress

Original room from property listing

After it's stripped bare, dark and dingy

First step was to fill some holes left by removing the sink and addressing some cracks to the ceiling before covering it and the walls with heavy lining paper.

Next step was the white coat for the ceiling, coving, picture rail and woodwork and the followed up with the first part of the gray makeover.

We've choosen a wallpaper for the main body of the walls but the picture rail section is painted, it did take a little while and quite a few samples to find a perfect gray as a lot looked too blue in the room but in the end Farrow & Ball's Pavillion Gray was perfect so with two coats on the wall that's where we are today.

Carpet fitters arrive on Thursday and after that we can wallpaper the wall and the room is almost ready to be dressed so I'll be sure to so you more progress when it happens.