It is important to take stock and remember to say thank you to the important people in your life!
It is easy to get caught up in the day to day. I frequently get swept up in the craziness of work and forget about what matters most to me, which is people.
Without the love, support and distraction of friends and family, my life could quickly become a series of never ending work days! But my workaholic tendencies are my own doing!
However, we recently decided to pull together as a team and to give back and say thanks to my most important person… my mum. My mum, Patricia, is pretty much the biggest legend of all time, and yes I am slightly biased! I grew up with my mum, brother and grandad and my little family have been my rock throughout everything I have faced so far. One of the most selfless people I know, mum has always put my brother and I first, spoiled us with kindness and general mumminess! She continues to provide that sense of safety and comfort even in my adult years. Hers is truly the job that never ends! And for this, I felt the need to show my thanks.
A very glamorous lady, she takes care of herself personally but had never created her own space to enjoy. The busy household was always more important than spending the time and money on her own room. Her bedroom had been the same for as long as I could remember. Think yellow walls, wine carpet, mis-matched furniture and lots of busy clutter and brick a brack. It became the space odd bits and bobs ended up and it has continued to build up over the years.
I got into my head that it would be the best surprise to give the room a makeover secretly for her. I started making a plan with the team about how we could do it and when it would be possible. We got very excited, moreso about surprising her. So when she booked her holidays, we started getting the plan into action. Complete overhaul was in order.
The main issue we faced was making sure not to throw too many things out. Mum holds a lot of emotional attachment to things, especially gifts and memories from loved ones. In order for the design to work, we needed to give the appearance of a streamlined space but still provide enough storage to house everything important to her.
BEFORE:
The room was anything but calming. I wanted to provide her with a calming, serene environment to unwind in and shut off from the world.
Because the room was so full, it was difficult to appreciate some of the lovely antique furniture pieces.
The guys seemed to enjoy the destructive part of the work!
Goodbye to the old carpets, wardrobes, book cases, curtains….
The joinery design was as seamless as possible to maximise the feeling of space. We designed handle-less doors with push to open mechanism and selected a calming but deep colour tone from Dulux for a spray finish. We disguised the media and TV unit behind retractable doors.
We opted to keep the antique furniture and add some character and history to the space. We got the wing backed chair re-upholstered with studding details.
We wanted to add comfort and a hint of luxury to the space so designed this studded, button back headboard to work with the existing bed.
We had a full height mirror panel fitted opposite the window to bounce around natural light, and increase the feeling of size.
A big thanks to all that helped including the expanding KLD team, Dulux for kindly supplying the paint, East Coast Upholstery, Brendan Farrell, Moore O’Gorman Joinery and TC Matthews.
We managed to get it all done in one very busy week without letting the cat out of the bag! See the video to see her reaction! A big thanks to Evoke.ie for featuring recently!