Feeling Hot Hot Hot! The Tropical Room Part 1

It’s a dreary wet Sunday here today so how about we shake off the blues and I take you on a journey to the tropics? Great, you are up for it! Then let’s turn up the temperature as I take you on this super-hot transformation of my clients guest bedroom which as you can see from the photo had become an unloved dumping ground. Even the gorilla was ready to move out!!

The design brief from my client was quite minimal. They were adamant that the palm tree wall mural had to stay! They wanted to keep the chest of drawers, the wardrobe and the bed but were happy for me to do one of my fabulous Feral Furniture Designs furniture upcycling painting jobs on them. Fab! As you know designing and painting statement furniture for clients is my ultimate favourite part of my job. Anyone that wants to upcycle their furniture and keep it from going to land fill certainly ranks highly in my estimation. Now I’m excited. The woodwork on the skirting boards and doors they wished to remain untouched. Everything else they entrusted to me to work my magic on.

Given that the mural was staying my overwhelming thoughts were to totally embrace it and go all out on the tropical vibes. I set to work on some design boards for inspiration. Working on design boards is such a fun thing to do as nothing is set in stone. It gives you the opportunity to let your creativity and ideas run riot. Nothing is right or wrong and you can play around until you hit on a theme, colours, patterns, products, styles etc that you would like to incorporate into your whole design, the world is your oyster. For me my starting point for a design, especially a full room makeover is more often than not driven by my choice of a main print, be it the wallpaper or fabric. In this instance, I started searching tropical bedding designs of which there are many stunning tropical prints and decided to go with the bold print on the dark midnight blue background which was from Dunhelm Mill (Just want to add in here that I ordered and extra king size set from which I made curtains out of as well). If you are going to go bold you have to really commit and go all in as they say in the poke world. The bold bright colours of the plant designs then set the tone and inspired the paint colours I chose for the walls, furniture and fireplace. I’m such a fan of #maximalistinteriors so you can imagine I was totally in my element creating this room.

So what now? Once you have your ideas down and a clear plan of what you want to achieve it’s time to roll your sleeves up and crack on. Obviously the room had to be cleared and prepared so painting could begin. For the walls I chose to go with an aptly named colour #flamingo by #andrewmartin. It’s a vibrant zingy almost neon pink with hints of orange and coral which give this colour depth and energy. Perfect for this north facing room which is always feels quite a cold and dull room even on a sunny day. Not any longer eh! The fireplace is painted in another Andrew Marin colour called #persianlime another vibrant colour with yellow undertones to add warmth to the room and match in with the greens of the mural. This was also the colour I chose to paint the background of the wardrobe.

Painting done! Time to think about upcycling those pieces of furniture.

As I have already mentioned I was going to upcycle and paint the wardrobe and chest of drawers that my client already had. They also asked me to source some bedside cabinets and a chair for the room. In keeping with our totally tropical boho vibe I found some fantastic glass top rattan and bamboo side tables. All they needed was a dam good clean up with soap and water, I decided to keep them in their natural colour. Once again we were giving this perfectly good furniture a new place to live, upcycling bonus points all round I reckon! I also found two gorgeous bamboo rattan chairs both of which I decided to spray paint. Now I have a confession to make…..one of them didn’t make it into the tropical room as I snaffled it away and it now lives happily ever after painted a beautiful #coalblack in my living room. However the other one did end up getting the Feral Furniture Designs furniture painting treatment. In this instance I decided to spray paint it in one of my all-time favourite colours #azure by #fusionmineralpaint #paintitbeautiful. Such a vibrant fun colour and just perfect for this cute chair. I have to say Fusion is one of my go to brands for painting furniture for many reasons (now there must be another blog post in that topic alone lol) so if you fancy giving it a try just click on the link which will take you to one of the best stockist to buy it from. https://shabbynook.co.uk/?ref=bAg847Zi-HrSh #shabbynook

I hope this blog post has taken the chill off and warmed up your day. In part 2 I will talk about the process involved in designing the hand painted statement wardrobe that I upcycled for this room as well as talking you through the final styling and staging of the room.

If you are wanting to commission me to paint your furniture or create you a fabulous statement item please don’t be shy. I’m always here and happy to chat. I offer a sourcing, design, painting and delivery service to all of the UK and Europe so no matter where you are we can get you that fabulous piece of furniture designed to your specifications.

If you would like to buy one of my hand painted statement pieces check out my shop here > https://www.feralfurnituredesigns.com/paintedfurnitureforsale-bespokefurniture-bohofurniture

SALE - I am also having a clearance sale of my Autentico stock so now is your chance to pick up an amazing bargain as I have 50% off! Click the link to buy and add code SALE50% at the check out.

Until next time keep well.

All the best,

Sandy Campbell

Feral Furniture Designs

xxx