Before & After: A Pepto-Pink Guest Room Looks So Good Now
Christine’s pepto-pink guest room had a lot of potential but needed a ton of work. Wanting to create a space for out-of-towners that is as interesting as it is welcoming, she set off restoring as many original historic features of the room as she could, while making updates to the space to ensure comfort.
From Christine: Even before moving into our Edwardian house in Manchester we knew that we had a lot of home improvement work ahead of us. It was definitely the worst house on the best street and we knew from the first moment we stepped into it that it could be amazing!
It had high ceilings and lots of period charm but it needed a lot of work, and our guest bedroom was no exception. Out of all the rooms in our home, it was in the best condition but it still required a complete makeover – not least because of the sticky pink walls!
We have lots of friends and family dotted around Europe, so it was important for us to create a welcoming guest bedroom that was both functional and inviting.
It was also a priority to reinstate as many of the missing period features as possible. We ripped out the laminate flooring and sanded the original floorboards and we installed picture rails and architraves. The original paneled door had been boarded up, but we were able to remove the panel covering the beautiful details. After stripping countless layers of old paint and some sanding and waxing the original door it’s now looking as good as it would have over a hundred years ago.
Our neighbors, who were lucky enough to still have the original stained glass windows, were amazing and when we replaced our window they let us take out and borrow one of theirs so that we could have an exact copy of the original stained glass panels made.
Hidden under the laminate flooring we also discovered some gorgeous original hearth tiles which go beautifully with the period fireplace that we installed.
In addition to reinstating as much of the period charm as possible we also had to go back to basics. The electrics, plumbing and radiator we renewed and we stripped the pink and yellow wallpaper before re-plastering all of the walls. Oh, and there was a bit of painting and decorating involved, too. To keep costs down we did almost all of the work ourselves.
We love how this room turned out. It’s so bright, clean and fresh and all of our guests seemed to love it, too!
Christine’s words of wisdom: You can always do more than you think! Just take your time and work through your long list of projects taking it step by step. Even the largest and most daunting project is essentially only a collection of lots of little ones!
Resource List:
- Paint – Dulux Clouded Pearl 3
- This Is Not A Hotel Print – One Must Dash
- Blue bedside table – Frosta IKEA hack
- Curtains – Glansnäva IKEA hack
Thank you, Christine! You can see this project and more on Christine’s blog Little House on the Corner.