We have three bedrooms in our apartment. The blue room is the spare bedroom, the green room is the Airbnb room and the Master is our bedroom. The Master bedroom mirrors the living room so it’s huge! It houses our bed, as well as a wardrobe, fireplace, my workspace and Graeme’s music studio. We opened our home to short term lets about a year ago. We always stay with locals in their home when we go travelling so we thought why not! We have met so many amazing people through Airbnb, which, in my eyes, is the true meaning of short term leasing. Plus, we certainly don’t need three bedrooms to ourselves! Why do you live in such a huge place? You may ask! Graeme has actually owned the apartment for a long time so it was more cost effective for us to renovate and move in rather than buying something new.

The Green Room

Since the ceilings are so high, I wanted to incorporate a four poster bed into one of the bedrooms. I was inspired by Anthropologie’s ‘Campaign Canopy Bed’ but there was no way I could afford it. So, I set up an alert on Gumtree for ‘four poster bed’ and found this beauty, locally, for £140. It is a king-size and it was really easy to build. It creates the wow factor for guests too.

I went for a very colonial look with this bedroom. A mural of the world map stretches right across one wall. You could just lay in bed and stare at that map for hours, dreaming of all the places you’d like to visit one day, especially if you have a severe case of wanderlust, like me! I got the peacock chair for £20, also from Gumtree. I realise this was a very lucky find since chairs like this can go for hundreds! The original fireplace was the inspiration behind the colour choices in this room. The green tiles are reflected in the walls and the black surround is now one of many black accents in the room.

The Blue Room

This room, previously, had a blue accent wall and I thought the colour really complimented the mustard yellow tiles on the fireplace, so I decided to paint the whole room in a similar colour. I wanted to add some extra character by integrating the peg rail across two walls. Instead of a headboard, the macramé hanging above the bed creates a statement. There isn’t much furniture in this room and most of it is modern and shop bought. However, the antique Persian rug brings it all together and stops it from feeling stark. We may eventually change how this room functions. During lockdown, it has proven to be a useful craft/ laundry room!

Master Bedroom

The wooden floorboards throughout the flat were sanded and re-varnished. We didn’t make a lot of changes to the bedrooms other than flooring, painting and adding new light fixtures. The Master bedroom originally had big, bulky radiators so we replaced those with tall column radiators that take up less space and look slicker. I made bedside cabinets out of post box fronts, which I found at a salvage yard. I created a desk and shelving unit out of steel pipe and reclaimed scaffolding boards. You can see how I made it here. The chair came out of a grand hotel in Edinburgh. They were getting rid of a lot of items during a refurbishment so I snapped it up for £20 and upcycled it. This room reflects our rebellious side and was great fun to decorate. It’s like the black sheep of the house, it’s not often seen by guests and it serves as a creative outlet for us individually.

Each room has so much character and is uniquely decorated. I think it’s important to respect original features. Most of my design choices are made around highlighting these features and making everything else compliment them. You can still have a modern or quirky interior, without ripping out fireplaces or covering up panelling! I like to paint every room a different colour because each one makes me feel something different. The Master is definitely the wildest but it inspires me, and since I spend most of my time there, I need it to feel that way.