Seven years ago, we moved into our house with me stinging badly from the knowledge that the fourth bedroom was not, in fact, going to become a bedroom. It’s been many things since, the proper birthplace of BeadMerrily and all the associated businesses and nearly, so nearly, Freddie’s bedroom, even though I never prepared for it to become that for him. And I didn’t dare make it into a bedroom for Bene before his arrival – everything felt far too precarious for that.
So it has been an office and a room where I wept and a room I envisioned filled with medical paraphernalia and shuddered with fear at the thought and a junk room (very much a junk room) and then latterly a place where Max slept while I wrestled with getting Bene though jaundiced feeding woes and colds, bronchiolitis, asthma and more. But mostly junk, the middle floor room that stayed undecorated and not quite used and staring at me from the lounge as full of might-have-beens and never-was.
But it was time. Bene might think the king sized is his and no boy should sleep alone and he may well think the oh so smart cot is purely for teddy bears (I weep for those few months when he slept long and happy nights in it!) but all little boys should have a bedroom and he needs somewhere for his cars for a start! I’m a hopeless decorator (I don’t like the preparation… and I’m not too good at completing either) but since my Dad was coming over from Egypt (yes, he lives in Cairo, no I’m not entirely cool with that right now) I thought I would nab him for a bit of decorating!
The end result… is this.
Dad did a big load of painting, mostly an ordinary cream with one green wall that matches the grass on the picture wall and then we held our breath and prepared to erect the Photowall. This was a review product and I was very, very nervous about putting it up, so I was relying on my dad remembering tricks form the olden days when he used to hang a fair bit of wallpaper. I had, however, forgotten that he used to swear a bit while doing that… so when presented with a picture wall to hang, he looked a bit scared too!
However.
The wall arrived in 6 pieces, having been sized on their website by the lovely Maria (but I’ve just tried to do it myself and it is very easy… put the cm dimensions in and you get a price and you can adjust the image so you don’t cut off parts of it you like if your wall is smaller than the full design). The very top of each piece needs to be cut off (top tip… it has the number order on… don’t do what I did and cut them off all at once!) and you also need to trim your last piece vertically if your wall isn’t exactly a full number of strip drops wide.
It’s not difficult.
Next up came hanging it. You don’t paste the paper, you paste the wall (with paste which comes in the box) so you can just have the paper on the floor. It’s very strong, can be repositioned, don’t seem to stretch or bubble and looks great.
It didn’t fall down overnight (lucky as my Dad was sleeping on the floor in there!) and looks breathtakingly fabulous. Our wall would be just over £150 in all and it is absolutely, utterly and totally worth that. I was really impressed. We put it up in much less than 3 hours (with significant flapping and faffing due to endless help from visiting small children) and it didn’t cause any swearing at all.
Bargain. Thank you Photowall. I adore the one we chose but seriously wish I had had reason to put a Moomin one up in my own room. I want a Moomin wall. *stamps*
See? Not stressful.
As for the rest of the room, it’s mostly reclaimed old Vertbaudet jungle furniture from the younger girls room with a heap of cuddlies that we have had forever. Looks fab though. And I do love his sleepi. Damn boy needs to go to bed in it again. It’s a south facing room so my love friend Graham from Leary’s Blinds has made him a sun proof blind and I just need to make some curtains, put a lock on the craft cupboard door and make him some pictures for the plain walls. Piece of cake. Might even do it before he’s 7.
Thank you Photowall for the free review wall mural and thank you to my lovely dad for giving up a significant portion of his revolution free holiday in blighty to make his grandson a bedroom.
Looks fab!I’ve just been browsing the site. I need to shoehorn three boys into one room soon, and trying to decorate to suit the tastes of all three boys. I’ve already spotted a couple of designs that might work.
Oh crumbs. Good luck 🙂
Looks beautiful but for that price I’d be too stressed about little ones and crayons and bigger boys and swords etc. Maybe when they are more grown up and won’t want the scheme changing quite s frequently…
It has a fairly robust, shiny surface. I’ve not tried it but I am pretty sure at least some marks would come back off.
Wow – what a fantastic wall design! It looks great.