Themes for the bedroom
This room is used by the inhabitant as an extension to his study with which is shares a doorway, so it’s going to need some of floor space to in which to throw in a comfy chair or two and some sort of table surface, while leaving space to trot through to the bathroom amenities sited at the other end of the room.
Layout at this end of the bungalow
Box and its contents
Need to decide which way to lean between the Neo-Gothic and Art and Crafts Movement in this bedroom box. Or do I? Mix and not quite match may be the way.
Of the various items to hand, there’s the bed which could have been guided to one style or the other and I have chosen to lean more to the A&C styling, and then there’s a sort-of-wardrobe that I’ve thrown together, giving it a little of the Gothic with heavy black hinges but with some A&C adornment too. The wallpaper choice can vaguely fill either.
What I don’t have at this end of the box is a bedside surface that will fit in between the bed and doorway. Yes, I’ve tried the bed elsewhere but, because of it’s size and general block-iness, the space looks unbalanced when it’s placed elsewhere.
I’ve a plastic Victorian-looking bath and high-level toilet, but no wash-hand basin that I much care for, and in store there’s a number of different washstands, one of which could fit in a space that is long and very narrow, which makes it look extra high. It’s visible at the same time as the bedroom so some harmony between the two spaces would be good if possible. Do I want a Gothic bathroom with all mod cons but with church like windows over the lavatory? Probably not. I’ve tried a round window, a homemade window and now I’ve turned to a Georgian paned item set sideways on.
Although a washstand can be fitted in I’ve decided to use some shelves which I bought last autumn. They have a Gothic look to them and, to the larger one, I’ve added a deeper surface to the top shelf on which to put the bowl, ewer and shaving gear, while above should be a mirror and a smaller set of the same shelves for other bathroom bits.
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Not the window to use
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Washstand area open to the bedroom space will have a screen around it
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The jug and bowl bought for other jobs some time ago
To cut down with the faffing around, I chose five photos which I felt would be suitable bedrooms and set about picking bits out from each of them, aiming for a ‘meld’ between the choices somewhere along the way.
1) I rather like the sleeping amongst the books look of the Wm Morris Kelmscott House, London bedroom – though I do think the chained books on the table are pushing the image a bit far, even for a publisher running Kelmscott Press.
2) The Lakeland Arts website have a bedroom where the bed has a sort of modern canopy look, though the style of the room is not entirely my cuppa. I think it’s the colour scheme that makes me uneasy,
and
3) a Pinterest posting of a Wm Morris style one where the fireplace and over mantle will be useful.
4) The whole page but more particularly a bedroom at Kelmscott Manor shows a Tudor theme where the hangings and coverlet caught my eye.
and
5) is a bedroom at Wightwick Manor where there’s a mix of the religious – bedstead applied painting at foot seem to be Adam and Eve – where the original Morris wallpaper and the coving over the bed and tapestry on the far wall caught my interest.
What has that got me
At the moment am working on a wrap-around book shelf assembly a little like that seen in pic #1. The way the shelves sit also gives a taste of the non-canopy canopy look in pic #2 and may give me a bedside surface for a glass and clock when in place.
I will be trying out some of the tapestry elements of both #4 and 5, I think, both as a counterpane and a hanging, and am planning a fireplace set-up probably a little similar to pic #3.
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Wrap around shelving in progress, still quite a bit to do
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Two walls papered and fireplace basic shaping needs the overmantel and hearth