STUDY MAKEOVER

Over the last while, Shane and I have been transforming our newly acquired upstairs area into a second living room, as well as a new office. So I thought I’d show you guys our study makeover and give you a couple of tips on how you can makeover a room in no time at all.

Before we started on this new space it was literally a giant, old dusty storeroom above us, whose only inhabitants were about 32 odd pigeons. No one had used the room in years and so we thought, why not give it a major dust off and turn it into a bright happy space that we can enjoy. 

We gave the room a serious clean-up, relocated the pigeons, added a staircase, so we could access it easily from within our flat and turned the abandoned grey storeroom you see below into now one of our favourite  spaces in the house! 

Below are some quick and easy fixes you can use to makeover a small room (like we did) in no time at all.

TIPS ON HOW TO SPRUCE UP A SMALL ROOM IN A FEW EASY STEPS: 

1. Be selective with your furniture choices and make it even easier for yourself by buying furniture online. If the room is small, fill it with pieces that add purpose to the room. In ours, we needed a desk that was big enough for the two of us, some comfy office chairs (these are off Superbalist), as well as a cool cabinet that could act as storage as well as a place to house some decorative bits and bobs. Accessorising a room with smaller, more decorative pieces brings in your personality and can really turn an ordinary space into one that makes you happy to walk into every day.

We found a great steel cabinet from Popstrukt who are a local company that make all sorts of very awesome flatpack pieces for all areas of your home. It’s actually pretty impressive how it comes packaged, it arrives completely flat and snug in its box and it’s so easy to build yourself in absolutely no time at all!

2. Hang up some art, perhaps a couple of paintings or prints. What I would suggest in a smaller room is one big piece for the wall, which will create a great visual punch when you enter it. 

3. Never underestimate a fresh coat of paint! If the room is on the smaller side of life, then stick to lighter colours on the wall. But that doesn’t mean you have to be boring with your colour choice, colour in a room, even if it’s just on one feature wall makes a huge difference to any space. It’s a great way to introduce warmth, light, a point of interest and a bit of fun. 

4. Let the light in. If the room has windows then put them on display, get rid of any sort of heavy drapery and instead highlight the frame with a good set of blinds! Decorland has a beautiful range of window décor, complete with affordable options for any budget. We breathed some extra life into our new study with some white Decorland fauxwood blinds, which were really easy to install (I pretty much did it by myself) and have been a game-changer in terms of helping control mid-morning glare on our computer screens.

5. Bring the outside in. Buy yourself a couple of plants, a room always looks happier with some of these guys in it! Always, always, always 🙂 Plantify is a cool local company that delivers beautiful plants straight to your doorstep!

6. A new rug also goes a long way to brighten up a room and make it feel fresh and new. It’s also a great piece to help demarcate certain areas or create little nooks. Found some very well priced one on Superbalist, the black and white stripy piece below is from there.

And that’s that! My super-quick guide on how to spruce up a small room in just a few easy steps. I really hope you found it helpful and I really hope you like what we’ve done with our upstairs space because I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you guys. Thanks again to the folk at Decorland for helping me fancy up my new office window! If you guys are looking for a great blinds selection that you can literally order online, have delivered and hang yourself, then do yourselves a favour and check Decorland’s great selection out.