Recently, Mumsnet was looking for 20 MNers to revamp an unloved room in their home. I was one of the lucky ones to have been chosen by B&Q. I was sent a B&Q gift card to spend on a makeover for the unloved room.
The unloved room used to be the nursery room for our children when they were babies. They have long since moved into their own rooms and it has gradually been a dumping ground for toys and books. I wanted to use this fantastic opportunity to turn it into a study room for my children who is in primary school.
We decided to try wallpapering one of the walls. Before we went to down to B&Q, I used their app to check the quantity we required. It is very simple and easy to navigate. I just needed to type in the measurements and they calculated it.
I did have an idea of the colours and styles for the reading room but after visiting B&Q I went with a more child friendly theme with brighter and funkier colours. Mr K was not very pleased as he said it was was too pink and he wanted the room to be more blue. Anyway, these are the materials we bought for our revamp!
Before we painted the room, I had the children help by peeling off the wall stickers and getting rid of their toys. Next I laid down newspapers and plastic sheets to protect the carpets. It took us an hour just to get the room ready.
Once the children went to bed, I started to paint which took me over 2 hours to paint the whole room.
The next day after lunch time, we watched the B&Q wallpapering tutorial before starting ours! I have never applied wallpaper before and so we were learning as were going along. This was the most daunting and challenging part of the project. We did make a couple of mistakes and had to patch up some parts. Overall, it was quite straightforward. We picked up tips from the tutorial which is draw a line 50 cm away from the wall and paste the wallpaper from there. This is because some old buildings’ wall might not be vertically straight. Our wall is just over 2 metres long and it took us 3 hours to wallpaper around the windows and radiators. It looks quite simple but it takes a lot of planning, cutting and trimming.
Last Tuesday, I went to B&Q again to choose furniture for the reading room. In the end, I went for a lounger and picnic chair. I know it does sound crazy to get outdoor furniture to use for indoor, but the chairs are really comfortable and I love the vibrant colours and they match my cushions!
This is our end product. We absolutely love the transformation of our reading room. It is so gorgeous and colourful!
This DIY project has been fun and rewarding and I wouldn’t hesitate to begin another project. It makes my house so nice and homely! I would like to thank B&Q and Mumsnet for giving me this opportunity to do up my unloved room.
Disclosure: We were given a B&Q gift card to carry out this DIY project.
