Our Scandi Boho Bedroom Makeover

Our renovations are well underway and whilst out bodies may be suffering, we are very happy so far with the results! You know that good tired? Where every muscle aches but you feel a sense of satisfaction? That is pretty much the mood here! We have still got workmen around the house installing some new boards in the hallways, and will have some bathroom renovations later which I am sure will be a bit stressful, but the happiness of completing a room yourself is worth it.

Our bedroom renovation sparked me to call our new style in the house as being “scandi boho” – with the grey painted floors, subtle calm colours of blue, green and grey; and the pops of boho colour and style that I love. Using a similar tone or base colour theme in your home helps to create a harmonious feel, and you can then use decor pieces and art in each room for pops of colour, and add natural fibres and textures in things like rugs and soft furnishings. I have opted for 3 main paint colours – Herbalist – a beautiful green, Ruski -a blue/green grey; and Seaglass – a peaceful blue. We are using silver grey for the floors and white trims throughout. I am aiming for that rustic french country house feel.

Here is what we did in our scandi boho bedroom makeover!

Before we started the renovations the walls were painted in a beautiful light grey lime paint, but it had seen better days and was marked and not looking great at all. I had wallpapered the wall by the windows but this was my first attempt some years ago now, and it was starting to peel. As well, there were some pretty dodgy bits, so we decided to pull it down and paint. I have left the paper in our sitting room however. The good news is that the removable wallpaper I used was so easy to remove – literally just pull it off! The floors were the original orange pine that has always been here.

We bought the house in 1998 and it was built in 1948. There was foul carpet on the bedroom floor when we moved in, which we lifted and then polished the boards ourselves. The floors through the house are different colours currently and many are knocked about. The hallways had slate on when we moved in, and removing this left them very thin and many of them ended up damaged. Hence why we are replacing the entry way and hallway floors. Some are Tasmanian Oak boards and others are Pine. To renew all of the boards would be out of our budget and some of them are really too thin to sand back again to polish. So we opted for the painted look, which we love anyway. Here is the first room we did, our sitting room.
We are only the 3rd owners of our house since 1948, and whilst it is in need of some facelifts at the moment, it has very solid bones. I have witnessed this with the new floors in the hallways – seeing how deep and strong our foundations are was very reassuring! I have a lot of vintage furniture and collected items. One of the goals of the current renovations is to declutter and deep clean along the way. I am also trying to create a more cohesive feel, with the flooring being the same colour and the same tones through the various rooms.

We are doing a lot of the indoor painting ourselves, but in the interest of time and exhaustion, have brought painters in to do the bedroom, hallways, kitchen and outside of the house. I selected Dulux Ruski for the bedroom walls, and Seaglass for the hallways. We are using Dulux Lexicon quarter for the trims. We are using the Dulux Enviro2 paint which is low odour and low VOC.

For the floors, we chose Berger Jetdry Aquatread in Silver Light, after hearing great things about this from other bloggers and people in our community who have used it. They told me that it is durable and easy to clean, and as long as you follow the instructions, you should find it lasts well. It is not the same as whacking a coat of any old paint on the floor. This is self priming and requires no other sealers or products. It is water based and low VOC. We used a quality lambs wool roller on a roller pole, to paint. We were painting the skirting so we didn’t worry about masking that, as we painted those last. However if you are not painting your trims you may want to tape them up to protect them from the floor paint.

The main steps in painting a wooden floor with the Berger Aquatread are :

• Ensure the floor is sanded and clean. We used a small electric orbital sander and John popped on his knee pads and went for it. As there was not much varnish on the boards, this was sufficient. We did not want to make the boards any thinner with an industrial sander.
• In between coats, a light sand is all that is needed.
• Use a good quality roller and a roller pole to apply.
• It is touch dry in 30 minutes and you can recoat in 2 hours. It is recommended to do at least 2 coats – 3 in high traffic areas.

We would usually do the floors after the walls, but in this case working in with the painters meant the floors were first. They just properly drop sheeted the floors and all was well. The Ruski is an amazing charcol grey colour with both green and blue/purple undertones. In different lights it can reflect either of these. In our rooms it is more of the blue purple grey but you will notice in some of the pictures, it shows a green undertone.

In terms of the decor in the room I used things we already had, including the art (some original and the rest vintage). I did buy some new cushion covers from The Coastal Cushion Company and placed on existing cushions. I also bought some divine linen bedding and new pillows from I Love Linen which is well worth the investment. I used their 20% off sale and the Zippay option. I chose the soft grey linen stripe. Currently it is warm still in Adelaide so we just have a light kantha on the bed, but am looking forward to adding my quilt I got at Freedom last year soon as it will also work well in the room.

The bedhead we had was an old vintage iron one, which was literally falling apart. We had tried to fix it numerous times. It is also a double on a queen bed. I decided a new one was needed. I looked at upholstered ones and upcycling various items, but settled on this beautiful palm fronds bed head from the family Love Tree – and I am in love! I considered a colour, but really loved the natural look in the room. All the other items were existing. We have created a gallery wall on one wall, which we will build on over time. Pity about the air conditioner but we are unable to have ducted in our roof, so it is an issue in all rooms. At least we are cool and our Aeratron fan is pretty! The built in wardrobe I painted years ago in chalk paint – I decided to leave it as I wanted a French Country style look to the room and it works with the other finishes. We may change that one day.

We are excited to crack on with the rest of the house. We have completed the sitting room, bedroom and dining room. Next is the finishing touches in the dining room (I will share that soon), and then the lounge. This is a much bigger room and we will be taking a couple of weekends to complete this.
If you are also renovating or decorating at the moment, have fun!
Helen