With home spending on renovation and decoration increasing by more than a third during the pandemic, it’s safe to say that people in the UK are beginning to tire of their homes. In search of something new, and with a little more time on our hands, we were ready to make changes, and create homes we’re truly happy to live in. Maybe your bedroom is getting a little boring, or perhaps you’re not as zen as you could be; you need a change. Here’s how to renovate your bedroom, from start to finish.
What Are Your Needs?
Before you make any major moves with regard to your bedroom space – whether buying furniture or paint, or even ripping out existing features – sit down and think about what you ideally want from a renovated bedroom. Is storage a priority, or are you hoping to create space for yourself? Maybe you want to introduce soundproofing solutions, to block out road noise or noisy neighbours and create a more peaceful environment for rest; or perhaps you want to make room for a work or hobby desk, to give yourself a dedicated workspace apart from the rest of your home. Your aspirations may be even higher than modest changes such as these – you may want to install new windows, replace the flooring or even knock through a wall to create a larger space.
Deciding the direction in which you want to go with your bedroom now will save you time, money and headaches down the line. If you find yourself halfway through your renovation, realising there isn’t enough natural light to complement the new design, you’ll either delay your renovations to course-correct or end up with a finished bedroom not quite like what you had in mind.
Planning Out Your Space
Your next step should be to define exactly how your ideals and expectations will fit into your bedroom space. Draw up a room plan to scale size, with pen and paper. Measure your furniture and fittings, and find the measurements for any new pieces or potential installations, such as window bays, fitted wardrobes or desk nooks. Using these measurements, you can create paper templates to the same scales as your room plan, and use them to figure out how best to place things in your space.
You can also take pictures of your bedroom, and manipulate the images using computer software to create mock-ups of how your space will look with different décor solutions, whether paint shades or wallpaper. This will make it easier for you to select decorating supplies from swatches and product books.
Gathering Your Supplies
With your new room planned out, you can now start to gather everything you need to make your renovation ideas a reality. Building supplies should be first on the list; you’ll only be able to decorate and then kit out your room following any fundamental renovation work, from moving a radiator to creating fitted furniture. If you’re carrying out these tasks yourself, make sure you have all the tools you’re going to need, and a Milwaukee tool box to keep them safe and organised in. Next up, decorating supplies: gather your paints, brushes and wallpaper. Now you can order any final furniture pieces and finishing touches.
Getting Started on Your Renovation
At last, you can embark on your bedroom renovation journey! Any major works such as moving radiators or creating new windows and skylights are best left to professionals in those fields, but other minor decoration and flooring work can absolutely be done DIY. Your workflow with regard to renovation should be: major renovations; wall decoration; fitted furniture; flooring solutions; final pieces. Before long, you’ll be looking at the bedroom of your dreams.
