A “Very Gray” Bedroom Gets a Cozy, Vintage-Inspired Makeover

Sarah Everett
·3 min read
Bedroom before being renovated.
Bedroom before renovation.
Bedroom before renovation.
Wainscoting being installed in bedroom.
Neatly made bed in newly renovated bedroom.
Wainscoting on wall in newly renovated bedroom.
Books on shelves in newly renovated bedroom.

ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER

HOME TYPE: Historic Home

PROJECT TYPE: Bedroom

STYLE: Cottage, Farmhouse, Vintage

SKILL LEVEL: DIY

RENTAL FRIENDLY: No

Victorian-style homes come with lots of upsides — hello, ornate hardware, ceiling medallions, and stained glass — but, like with any 100-year-old home, renovating something historic might come with some unexpected hiccups if you’re wanting to make any changes.

When Henrietta (Etta) Morris (@ladybayhome) was renovating the bedroom in her historic home, she found that the walls weren’t completely flat, which made adding paneling and molding a difficult — but worth it in the end.

“We wanted to brighten up the space to make it a warmer and more inviting guest room, which also doubles up as my office,” Henrietta says of the room makeover.

Wainscoting being installed in bedroom.
Neatly made bed in newly renovated bedroom.

New architectural details give the room some charm.

As mentioned above, Henrietta and her husband added crown molding and tongue-and-groove paneling (they had the latter professionally cut) along one wall, in keeping with the style of their historic home.

They opted for lightweight synthetic crown molding with pre-mitred corners, “which made the process fairly easy,” Henrietta says, and they painted that and the ceiling in Dulux’s Edelweiss White. The walls and tongue-and-groove detail are painted in Dulux’s Country Sky, a light blue.

Wainscoting on wall in newly renovated bedroom.

The wallpaper also adds a delicate vintage touch.

“Our guest room ‘before’ was very gray, with gray walls, gray carpet, and peeling wallpaper,” Henrietta describes. “It was functional, but felt cold and dark.” This time around, she and her husband selected a warmer, cheerier, vintage-inspired wallpaper with a light blue block print pattern.

“It’s a much warmer and cozier space now, which is much more welcoming for guests and makes for a lovely workspace,” Henrietta says.

Bedroom before renovation.
Books on shelves in newly renovated bedroom.

The side tables were upcycled — goodbye, orange stain!

“We bought two pine bedside tables at a vintage market for £25 [about $30 USD], which I upcycled,” Henrietta adds. She sanded them and applied white furniture wax to remove their once-orange stain. And that’s not the only wood detail in the bedroom. The alcove shelving maximizes space.

Henrietta and her husband had the shelves professionally cut. “We had some leftover sheets of oak faced plywood from my parents’ kitchen extension earlier this year, and after living with them under the bed for months realised we were never going to have the time (or skills) to DIY it, so we had a carpenter … cut them to size,” Henrietta says. “I’m excited to have some more places to put house plants out of reach of [our] toddler and cats, and we finally have a home for all our overspill books!” Henrietta says on Instagram.

And of the entire room, she says: “It’s a much warmer and cozier space now, which is much more welcoming for guests and makes for a lovely workspace.”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.

Further Reading

We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Ashley — Here Are the Best to Suit Your Style and Space

We Tested (and Rated!) Every Sofa at West Elm — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need

I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (It’s a Game-Changer!)

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