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10 Beautiful Rooms

Happy Monday and welcome to this edition of 10 Beautiful Rooms. First up is a pair of pictures by the very talented Karen Knox, of Making Spaces. Karen has written for these pages before on how to plan your decorating budget and I think she’s extremely good at her job so I wanted to show you this room in one of her latest projects which might give you some inspiration for using paint in more interesting, slightly less conventional, ways.

You can see how the ceiling slopes at an awkward angle so she decided to make a feature of that by picking up the yellow from the fireplace and carrying it up over the beam that juts out from the ceiling. It’s a simple idea and one that works really well. Many of us live in old houses with random bits jutting out from walls so rather than pretend they aren’t there and try to hide them – which never really works anyway – Karen decided to have fun with it.

The room is already a slightly strange layout with the fireplace tucked so far into one corner so it made sense to carry on with an unconventional plan. She has echoed the yellow in the fabric cable holding the bedside lights while the rest of the room is strikingly monochrome. The dark skirtings tie the two dark walls together and the room looks funky and intentional – a celebration of its quirky shape and characteristics rather than an apology for them.

Talking of paint effects this is one of the rooms from the newly completed Revamp Restyle Reveal Challenge (click the link to find out more about it). Emma Jane Palin created this California style room and, while the room didn’t have any quirky features like Karen’s, she decided to make her own by adding these two stripes round the top of the room. I also love the pale pink, dark red and burnt orange colour scheme she used.

Striped walls by EJ Palin for Revamp Restyle Reveal
Striped walls by Emma Jane Palin for Revamp Restyle Reveal

Next up is the newly re-vamped TV room by Bianca Hall. Bianca is always ahead on colour trends and she turned this room from deep teal to this pale cream (marbles by Earthborn) so watch out because she’s always on the money and cream will be back for all of us soon. Bianca painted her sitting room blush pink away before anyone else did and she’s about to paint over it so keep an eye out for what she picks.

Cream and green by Bianca Hall for Revamp Revstyle Reveal
Cream and green by Bianca Hall for Revamp, Restyle Reveal

Two rooms by co-founder, along with Bianca, of RRR by Lisa Dawson are coming up next. She took on the master bedroom, his and dressing rooms and an ensuite bathroom. In four weeks. It would take me that long to choose a paint colour and clear the clutter. The door was painted in Hidey Hole by Earthborn paints to make a feature of it.

feature doors by Lisa Dawson for Revamp Restyle Reveal
feature doors by Lisa Dawson for Revamp Restyle Reveal

This is her dressing room which she papered in this very pretty wallpaper from Harlequin – including the doors which looks great and this time it does hide what Lisa admits were fairly featureless doors. Follow her link above to see the rest of the room and the full effect of the papered doors.

wallpaper dressing room by lisa dawson for revamp restyle reveal
wallpaper dressing room by lisa dawson for revamp restyle reveal

A kitchen next and Kat Williams, of RocknRoll Bride achieved this fabulous kitchen makeover in the same time frame and that included putting in a new window and replastering the whole room. I think she’s done a fabulous job – just shows what you can do with a small space – the large round mirror is an unconventional touch which works perfectly. The worktop is by Caesarstone, which I have just installed in my own kitchen which I will be showing you soon.

rocknrollbride kitchen with caesarstone worktop
rocknrollbride kitchen with caesarstone worktop

Melanie Lissack took on the challenge of doing up her sitting room in a month and while that may not sound like as big a challenge as a kitchen, or a master suite, she decided to add panelling to all the walls. And I should point out that the emphasis of RRR is very much DIY so there’s no hiring of tradesmen to do the work for you. Which is also why I won’t be taking part any time soon. I’m very much of the “here’s the design I created who shall I make the cheque out to?” school of interior refurbishment.

melanie lissack revamp reveal restyle
melanie lissack revamp reveal restyle

Another sitting room, another David Hyde pendant, this time belonging to OIivia Silk of Lust Living who decided to take the plunge and go dark using Trilby by Earthborn and contrasting with Cupcake for the lighter pink walls (Earthborn were one of the sponsors in case you hadn’t realised).

pink and grey sitting room by lustliving
pink and grey sitting room by lustliving

Then there was the spare room belonging to Malcolm Begg of Design Sixty Nine, who loves his new room so much he has moved in and it’s no longer spare. And do go and visit to see what he did with the vintage wardrobe which is another one of those simple but stunning ideas that we came in on at the top.

teal bedroom by designsixtynine for revamp restyle revea
teal bedroom by designsixtynine for revamp restyle reveal

Finally, a teenage boy’s bedroom because you asked for more spaces like that and Kerry Lockwood has done a great job with her attic. This metal beam was originally painted red and she covered it in metallic silver, which looks much better. She also came up against the immoveable force that is a teenage boy when she was desperate to paint the room green and was met with a flat refusal.

That rather cool sofa bed is from Maisons du Monde (another of their sponsors) and is perfect for gaming or as a spare bed for sleepovers.

single sofa bed in teenage boys room by kerry lockwood
single sofa bed in teenage boys room by kerry lockwood

And there we have it. Ten rooms – actually eleven this week. I hope you have liked wandering round. Now if you’re planning a project of your own and have got a little lost in where to start then come back tomorrow and I will show you how to use Pinterest in the definitive guide.

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

2 Comments

  1. I still see quite a lot of brass/copper – aren’t they supposed to be going out of style?

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