A Little Boy's First Room - Part 2

It was a good few weeks ago that I posted part one of this little tale, A Little Boy's First Room .  I thought I should finish it.  And I wanted to prove that I have been doing things on the house, not just the garden.

So the hideous purple gloss ceiling took 4 coats of paint to conceal; ceiling painted white and walls pale blue.  The far wall was painted black - so we wallpapered over that with a Cath Kidston wallpaper of London landmarks, buses and taxis.

Print from www.rukaruka.co.uk

Louis loves cars (buses and taxis in particular) and he loves animals, so I had said we would go for one or the other as a theme.  In the end we sort of went for both, with my love of London thrown in for good measure.

A Little Boy's First Room

So, how many coats do you think it will take to remove that bright purple gloss ceiling paint from sight?

Louis' room is the first to be tackled.  It's the smallest room in the house and so we hope to get it finished quickly.  The plan is to repaint in white and palest blue, with a feature wall at one end - probably wallpaper - that he will get to pick himself.

Louis loves cars - buses and taxis in particular and animals - dogs in particular.  So we are going with one of those as a theme.  I've still got an old desk and little wooden stool from my childhood that I think I will try and use.  And I've come across a couple of sets of old wooden shelves in the garage that I am going to repaint, one for him and one for Una.

However, first there is the purple peril to tackle.  Everything in this room, from radiator to window frame is painted vivid purple, except one black wall at you can just see in this picture.  It makes the room feel small and frankly sickly.  The old wooden floorboards, that you can't see in the picture, have been stained a darker colour than I would choose but are in pretty good condition for their age.  

An idea for the feature wall is to use fabric over insulation board on the wall, giving some additional insulation to the outside wall at the same time.  I've seen some lovely dog prints on Emily Bond's website.  The one that I love is below, the one that Louis really likes is only available in a linen fabric not wallpaper.

Emily Bond - Wied haired Jack Russel fabric                     emilybond.co.uk

I've found a video on Youtube that makes the upholstering look simple enough:

The room is the perfect size for a little boy's first bedroom and looks out over the garden.  And I'm looking forward to finishing it.  I've been planning and adding ideas to a pinterest board for weeks now, so, I'd better stop gabbing and get back to the painting.

Follow Mrs Fox's's board Louis' Bedroom on Pinterest.