Adding warmth and comfort to our master bedroom was a priority of mine when we left London and relocated to our home in France.
In the past few months, our French home has seen several complete makeovers.
The kitchen is now very functional, user-friendly, has plenty of storage and is a pleasure to look at.
The hallway also had a complete makeover with a fresh, new coat of paint, additional storage and is looking more beachy and inviting.
Next is the bathroom which I will share with you shortly.
Today, let me show you what we did with our master bedroom.
In comparison to other rooms in the house like the bathroom, our bedroom didn’t really require an update besides a fresh coat of white paint.
Twelve years ago, I designed the bedroom (see below) with a ’boutique hotel’ feel in mind. It’s a look I still see featured in decoration magazines and on Pinterest (you can follow my boards here if you wish).
White stonewashed linen duvet from here >> | Tolomeo wall light from here >>
BEFORE
- The “feature wall” behind our bed was painted with Down Pipe by Farrow & Ball. A colour, I first used in Mila’s bedroom in our home in London. Do any of you remember this?
It’s a bold, strong colour for a bedroom. Paired with adjacent white walls, it exudes modern simplicity without darkening the room. - Our bed frame and chest of drawers were from Ikea’s Malm collection. Both had a good run but after 12 years, they had become yellowish and were showing wear and tear marks. It was time for an upgrade!
- On the left-hand side of the bed, we had a large mirror from AM-PM.
Now that we are living in the house full time, I was aiming for a warmer colour scheme for our home. Something which would exude the beautiful natural hues of the surrounding nature in the Bay of Arcachon.
For those who don’t know the area, it’s a beautiful corner in the south-west of France with gorgeous white sanded beaches and pine trees (#cazauxbeachliving). The nearest airport is Bordeaux.
Ultimately, my tastes had changed too…
A decade ago, I was dreaming of staying regularly in beautiful, design hotels, wearing designer clothes.
Nowadays, I value more places that make me feel good and have an inviting and relaxing feel.
How about you? Have your tastes changed at home over the years?
As per the kitchen and hallway, I created a mood board to put my vision down on paper…
How to add warmth to your bedroom
They are different ways to add warmth to your bedroom.
Getting new curtains, painting the walls in a warmer colour, adding objects with a natural feel and wooden furniture like these inexpensive wooden stools or this beautiful Butterfly stool (on my wish-list!) can all contribute to the overall look of your future bedroom.
As per my mood board, I was aiming for a minimalist, modern bedroom with natural warm accents. So I first searched for a calming, light brown for our feature wall to set the tone of the room.
Natural Stonewashed linen from here >>
I ordered 3 shades of grey from Farrow and Ball: LAMPROOM GRAY, LIGHT GRAY and DOVE TALE.
You can order paint samples from the Farrow & Ball website here.
In our bedroom, Lamproom Gray turned out a bit green on the wall. Dove Tale looked purple. Light Gray had a light brown hue which suited perfectly the atmosphere I was going for. So I ordered the following to redecorate our bedroom:
– 5 Lt Light Gray no 17, modern emulsion for the feature wall behind our bed frame,
– 10 Lt of primer & undercoat to paint the remaining 3 walls and ceiling,
– 10 Lt of All White paint no 2005.
Useful decorating tip:
If you’re planning to paint a room in your home in a colour different from the existing one, I strongly recommend you order a few samples of your favourite colours.
Paint a few A3 sheets with each colour. Stick them onto your wall next to each other and see how they look at different times of the day.
You will be surprised how even various shades of whites will look different. Some will have a strike of blue or green, others will look completely dull or grey depending on the light filtering through.
Another thing to consider is your existing bedding…
Most of our stonewashed linen bedding is made of hues of grey (dark grey, light grey or blue-grey), white or natural. Therefore, I was keen to find a new colour for our wall that would work with all these tones so I wouldn’t have to replace them all.
DISCOVER THE NEW ARKET COLLECTION
How to add comfort to your bedroom…
Achieving at home, the same level of comfort we experienced in nice design hotels was a quest of mine for years until we got this Super King mattress from EVE SLEEP which is extremely comfortable and spacious.
You can read here the issues Steve & I faced at the time before getting our new mattress in 2015. It wasn’t fun and I’m glad these days of not sleeping well are over.
As we had a UK Super King size mattress, my first port of call to find a new bed frame to replace Ikea’s Malm bedframe was the EVE SLEEP website.
The EVE collection had massively expanded since the last time I looked at their site.
They now offer more mattresses but also beautiful upholstered bed frames, baby mattress and stonewashed linen bedding.
I was aiming once again for a timeless look but in softer in tones so I chose this chic yet upholstered bed frame in soft grey. 
The bedstead is covered with premium Italian wool-blend upholstery available in 4 colours
Steve put the bed together pretty much by himself in less than an hour.
Having assembled a few pieces of furniture over the years, we were both impressed with the quality of the fabric, the timber, the structure of the bed frame and slates and the overall attention to details.
Well-thought details include a tool stored in this pocket to put the bed together.
And here is the look of our master bedroom now…
I hope you’ve enjoyed the new look of our bedroom and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Source list:
- Grey bed frame available from EVE
- Stonewashed linen from Cultiver
- Tolomeo wall light by Artemide
- Beautiful sculpture by Kristiina
- Fine art photo print by me
- White ceramic pot by Zakkia Homewares
- Natural wooden stool available from here
- Freda rug from Made (gifted)
- Shoes: Uggs Classic Mini II, Chelsea boots (old Co. but check these), Leopard-print heels by Isabel Marant (old Co.) but check these
If you are in the market for a new, comfortable mattress, I have teamed with EVE SLEEP to offer you £100 OFF on a purchase of the EVE original mattress or the EVE hybrid mattress with the promo code MORNINGKARINE.Offer available only until 28th February 2019.
This article is posted in partnership with Eve and Farrow & Ball and contains affiliates links.
Lovely calme vibes!! And thelight grey is beautiful ! I would have never picked it myself (what’s in a name ) , but will definately keep it in mind to try the next paint job. Merci!
Thank you Sonja and yes it pays off to try sample paints before and see what they really like
Just lovely, Karine – all those textures! Appreciate you talking us through how you sampled several paint shades and arrived at “the one” :-)
Hi Jo
Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad you like it. Yes paint reacts differently in each room. I once order Pavillion Gray from F&B without doing sample swatches before and it turned out to be a very dull grey for our room
Hi Jo
Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad you like it. Yes paint reacts differently in each room. I once order Pavillion Gray from F&B without doing sample swatches before and it turned out to be a very dull grey for our room
“A decade ago, I was dreaming of staying regularly in beautiful, design hotels, wearing designer clothes.
Nowadays, I value more places that make me feel good and have an inviting and relaxing feel.”
Completely agree. Kindness, comfort and meaning. That’s what I look for now in my world. I guess it just comes with age. Love your rooms. They are so rich in attention to detail and consideration of the people who will inhabit them.
Thank you so much for your kind words Liza.
Yes I think that desire for wellness rather than “appearance” comes with age :-) and that’s OK.