Master bedroom

‘ The last owners had painted this room a purple-pink colour, but they had only used one coat of paint so you could see the original wallpaper underneath,’ says Temi. ‘I rushed to paint over it and made a bad choice with a dark blue feature wall. It wasn’t right and I hated it so much I had to paint over it again.’ Having painted it white until she was able to decorate properly, Temi has just finished redecorating the space for the third time. Now, it’s officially her new favourite room. ‘One of the first things I did when we bought our bed was buy a devil’s ivy plant to trail across the four-poster,’ says Temi. ‘With a bit of love, she’s made a kind of canopy headboard.’

Style idea

Add a tropical touch by growing a plant around your bedroom headboard

Phoenix's bedroom

‘My son’s room is a work in progress. I don’t want to do much to it, in case the walls need to be moved for a possible loft conversion,’ says Temi. ‘So, at the moment, he just has some IKEA furniture to see him through. Phoenix was only six months old when we moved into the house and I didn’t want to decorate his room in a way that was too much like a nursery, as I knew he’d quickly outgrow it. I got stuck on the idea of having a mural and came up with a monochrome design. A friend is an artist and she hand-painted it for us. Sadly, the builders accidentally put a hole through the wall when they did the upstairs bathroom, which led to cracking through the balloon – now it looks a bit like a graffiti patchworkfl’

Bathroom

The bathroom had some hidden surprises for the couple as they hadn’t noticed a hole in the wall or the exposed soil pipe when they first looked around the house, due to furniture being placed in front of it. The layout is similar, but Temi has transformed it with a stylish monochrome scheme. ‘I bought the bath and sink second-hand on eBay, and then swapped out all the plumbing,’ she says. ‘I’d definitely change a couple of the details in here, mainly to do with the quality of one or two of the fittings, but in reality I can upgrade them later down the line.’

WHAT I LEARNED...

Don’t rush when it comes to decorating your house. It will come together and be more authentic if you take your time.

Don’t be scared of second-hand. Not only will it save you money and be better for the environment, but things were often made much better ‘back in the day’, so you won’t have to compromise on quality. It also adds character to your home, as you will have pieces that other people won’t.

Have fun with it. Part of the joy for me is to scour vintage shops and car boot sales to discover unique pieces.

See yourhomestyle.uk for more great real homes

‘Our birch bed is from IKEA, and I was shocked by how good the quality was. It was one of the first pieces of furniture we bought when we moved in, and I still love it.’ Temi painted the walls in Dulux’s Bright Skies, and she matched the door colour to Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic Balinese Lady poster print, On The Wall Reeded Globe pendant light, H&M Home Barcelona Orange paint, 1L, Annie Sloan Temi had the wardrobe built to fit an alcove in the bedroom. ‘ The handles were a pain,’ she recalls, ‘as I was set on them being circular – I fully admit that details like that bother mefl I struggled to find any for a decent price, but managed to find a discount code for Pushka Home, so was able to justify the extra expense’

‘ The teepee was a gift from Phoenix’s godmother, and it’s been in constant use since he was one. He uses it as a little snug area or as a spot for hide and seek,’ says Temi make TEEPEE p32 ‘ The tiles were a bargain buy from MetroTiles. We even had enough left over to tile the chimney breast in the kitchen’

A raised bed from IKEA allows Temi to store all Phoenix’s toys underneath and frees up space for him to play. ‘It was nearly impossible to find this style of bed in the right dimensions to fit into the alcove,’ says Temi