Zhakila Decorating

People, more worthwhile than I, have sleepless nights worrying about important things like the refugee crisis in Europe or, closer to home, certain presidential numerical inadequacies. I do have sleepless nights, but the kind of thing I worry about is whether the duvet cover I have bought for my son's room is just the right shade of grey. And believe me when I say this, there are more than fifty shades of grey! After many of these nocturnal deliberations, I finally settled on a stone coloured duvet cover and Matt's room is finally done!

You might remember my post here about transforming my guest room into a bedroom for my oldest son.

This is what the room looked like BEFORE....

...and AFTER.

I found this project quite difficult because it is somewhat of a departure from my usual style, but I have realised that my teenage sons are not enamoured of my French country look and have tastes that are more masculine and contemporary.

We had to re-position the double bed to make room for the large L-shaped desk.

The colour scheme started with this wingback chair I bought on Gumtree. My intention was to have it reupholstered, but Matt thought the fabric was quite cool so I decided to go with it and save some money in the process. With such a busy fabric, I decided to keep the rest of the room quite plain.

The eyelet curtains are a neutral colour and were bought on sale from @ Home. The ottoman was an old hand me down from my mom which I covered with a simple slip cover. The side table was bought on Gumtree. My whole plan was to keep costs down since Matt will already have one foot out the door next year when he goes to varsity residence.

I recovered the headboard in an inexpensive black denim and used the same fabric for the night frill and ottoman.

The denim and newsprint fabric for the pillow came from Fabric World in Wynberg. They have a well priced selection if you are looking for fabrics. The New York pillow and bedlinen come from MRP Home.

Matt is a big soccer fan so I thought I would do a soccer painting for above his bed.

The L-shaped desk is second hand and comes from Office Mad in Montague Gardens. They have a great selection at good prices. The desk chair was bought on Gumtree,

The glass fronted cupboard was in his previous room and got a coat of black paint outside and off- white inside. The "Heavy Goods" bag was on sale from The Space in Cavendish and will be useful for storing something or other, although I only bought it because I liked the look of it. The cupboard is still empty as I decided to take these pictures before Matt ~~fills it with his clutter~~ puts his personal stamp on it.

The bedside table is from the previous guest room and got a coat of black paint. I'm not sure if this was the wisest move because it shows every spec of dust!

These pictures illustrate a few of Matt's favourite things. New York city, Chelsea soccer team, and cheetahs.

He actually got to pet a cheetah cub recently. So sweet!

There is room to add photos and pictures of whatever he chooses.

The pin board is a actually a sheet of galvanized metal with hessian glued to the front and the frame was made by my husband out of skirting board. The bonus is that it is magnetic which is so much easier than drawing pins. The clock comes from MRP Home.

The ceiling fan was hideous with brown cane panels and a colour that used to be white but got yellow with age. I painted the whole thing black which lends it a bit of industrial cool. (Perhaps I'm kidding myself - is it still hideous?)

A few close up's. The armillary sphere comes from MRP Home and the blanket was bought at the recent Home Expo at CTICC. The desk lamp comes from Superbalist. It is the second time I have used them and would highly recommend them. Highly efficient and such friendly service. The bedside lamp is from Woolworths.

I didn't do anything much to the dressing room except add a chair and cushion. I thought about changing the handles to something more contemporary, but there are just so many of them, and I didn't think Matt would really notice one way or another.

The bathroom was a bit easier to transform . I wanted to make it a bit more masculine and give it a warmer feel.

This is what it looked like BEFORE...

I removed the white muslin curtains and made some tab top curtains out of the old bedroom curtains. I painted the curtains rods and trim on the vanity unit a shade of greige (my own recipe.)

I added grey towels, some new hooks and an antique bentwood chair that was elsewhere in the house.

I did another painting for the bathroom of the boys playing soccer on the beach. It's so much cheaper to paint your own paintings!

I added some grey bathroom accessories and a wooden box to contain the bathroom stuff. The candle is in case of load shedding. (For non South Africans - see here)

The Einstein quote is a strategic move on my part because Matt hates shaving and although he has to shave for school at the moment, I think the end of school might mean the end of shaving?