HOW TO RENOVATE YOUR HOME FOR SPRING
After some pub conversations, spring seems to be the season of change, wardrobes, relationships, jobs and careers - everyone seems to at it. I moved to Clapham South from Northfleet, Kent in 2010 when I needed change in my life, I guess I was running away from a failed relationship, as it was easier for me to deal with. Little has changed in 2016 and after another failed relationship, this time rather than running away to a different part of London - I've decided to renovate my home, a fresh start, a project to focus my mind on rather than focusing on self pity and the inevitable hurt and pain that comes with a break-up.
THE MAIN BEDROOM
This room had a huge built in wardrobe that took up the whole one side, it was massive and made the room look small. So the first thing I did was remove this wardrobe to make the room more roomy. This exposed a pretty horrendous looking wall which I planned to get bricked up to make a feature wall, New York loft apartment style.
Because my room is not the biggest, I wanted to save every inch of space, so rather than using normal bricks to make the wall, I found these slim bricks. Slim bricks are about 2cm's thick and they are the front of normal bricks wire cut off to make them slim. You can then just use adhesive to stick them to plaster board then grout them as you would tiles or normal brickwork. For my feature wall I brought the reclaimed vintage bricks.
I then got the walls patched up and freshly painted using Johnstones Manhattan Grey, sticking to the New York theme! Carpet laid. The light was changed from a silver 3 pronged light to a brass one with 5 light bulbs. The blinds have been changed from dark brown wood to white gloss with grey fabric details. The dark brown was making the room dark and small but with the new Next Made to Measure white blinds they reflect the light better.
Now the fun begins with the furnishing of the room. I wanted a space that wasn't cluttered so I brought these gas pipe clothes rails from Ziito, the key is to keep them spacious and don't over clutter them with clothes, so I went through all my clothes and sent about 10 black sacks worth to charity. A London flat wouldn't be complete without some radiator covers! These are great because they hide my crappy looking radiators plus they give you extra space for photos etc to put on top. There are lots of companies out there offering made-to-measure radiator covers, although they are expensive, so I shopped around and found these from screwfix. They look great, they offer various sizes so you should find one that fits perfectly and they are also very easy to put together and install.
My chest of drawers is from Swoon Editions and reclaimed pine/elm with brass handles, it took quite a long time for delivery as they are all made to order, but was totally worth the wait. I then swapped my tiny Samsung TV with a new Samsung curved TV, ready to have a Netflix box set session on chilled out Sundays.
All good interior design is down to the finer details, the small touches that give the interior character. A friend of mine introduced me to Tom Dixon and I have become completely obsessed with their amazing designs ever since. Established in 2002, Tom Dixon is a British product design brand. With a commitment to innovation and a mission to revive the British furniture industry, the brand is inspired by the nation’s unique heritage and produces extraordinary objects for everyday use.
My first Tom Dixon purchase for this room was this copper vase (shown below), from their Tank range, mouth-blown glass with precious copper bowl detailing, perfect for single stem flowers. I've had quite a few mandles in my time but this Oil Candle is perfect in design and smell.
My final two purchases to complete the renovation of my first bedroom was a copper vase by Tom Dixon (again!) which I potted some miniature cacti and this industrial table lamp by Cargo Home Shop.
SHOP THIS INTERIOR DESIGN
HALLWAY
The second room to renovate is the hallway. It already had a lovely brick wall but the paint work and carpet had seen much better days, so a quick inexpensive face-lift is all that was needed here.
I wanted ceiling lighting that would project an awe-inspiring pattern of light onto my natural brickwork and sticking to my Tom Dixon copper theme, I decided to get these geodesic etch shades. This pendant light has a detailed pattern which casts a mass of intricate shadows when lit. A quick paint with the same light grey tonal colour as I used in my bedroom and carpet laid, now all that is left is to move in some furniture.
The signature piece of furniture for my hallway was this reclaimed wine rack by Little Tree Furniture. I used another one of the Tom Dixon vases and a Tom Dixon copper table lamp to showcase on top of the wine rack. My final touches for the hallway are copper polished light switches and again another white radiator cover from screwfix. A mirror placed on the wall above the radiator gives the narrow hallway a larger feel.
SHOP THIS INTERIOR DESIGN
Special thanks to Tom Dixon.
Founder of this eponymous blog, focusing on men's fashion & lifestyle.
