Bringing your outdated room into 2018

When you think of modernising your home you may think renovations, months of time and lots of expense. What if I was to tell you it can be the opposite and you can bring your outdated room into 2018 with a simple tin of paint and a roll of wallpaper?

A customer came to us looking for wallpaper for their living room and fell in love with the paper 'Graham&Brown, Oxford Pearl/Taupe 20-848' from their 'Boutique Essence' collection.  The wallpaper was a cream and beige bold patterned paper that would suit a feature wall. It was the lady's intentions simply to add a feature wallpaper and paint the other three walls but when this was completed she felt that it may have been too modern for their fireplace and this made them doubt their decision - even having a feature papered wall was something very new to them. 

Thinking of what they could do to help give the room a joined up look they thought about painting the fireplace to match the wallpaper, so they went for it. When it was all finished it worked perfectly and seeing the outcome completely changed the whole era that the living room was in and brought a modern element too it. What was so amazing about this transformation was that it was easy and didn't cost a bomb. 

From experience in the decorating industry we have found that when people hear the word modern or see something they like that is modern they automatically turn away from it as they feel it will not match the style of their house or that it will be too much work to get it all to tie in. This is an example where the customer didn't get turned off the idea but with a little help we were able to come up with a cost effective way to get around this problem and it proved fantastic results.

The process

1. For the wooden varnished mantelpiece we used Zinsser B.I.N primer because of its ability to adhere to varnish/woodstains providing a good base for the finished coats.

.2 Secondly, we used Zinsser Bullseye 123 primer as this provides the best result for adhering to ceramic tiles  (in both instances no sanding was required but we ensured both surfaces were cleaned using mentholated spirits before we started).

3. We then used a water-based satin to overcoat both the mantelpiece and tile surface with the Crown colour 'East Village' to tone in with the feature wall. The Crown colour 'East Village' was also painted on the other three walls so it toned in perfectly.

Note - In this example the fireplace is mainly used for decorative purposes  - if you are considering using these products on your fireplace and you normally light your fire it is advisable to discuss this with your decorator before proceeding. 

If you are currently wanting a change but feel tied down to a certain style or feel that you are stuck in your comfort zone feel free to get in contact with us and we can help give you some advice. I have included some before and after pictures of the fireplace below showing the amazing transformation. 

                          Before

                                                                                                                                      After