Sharon Lomas
- Oct 4, 2022
- 5 min read

Mindful Makeover

Mindful master bedroom makeover dark green decor uluwatu graham&brown

The room we chose for our master is not the biggest in the house. It has an awkward long thin shape and is home to a large water tank. The bed we have is just too big (but Mr wanted a super king-size, so we shoehorned it in). The room does have an en-suite, a bank of fitted storage (hiding that water tank) and two large windows – one faces east the other south, so it is a room blessed with a lot of natural light.

The agents’ details showed this room as a magnolia box, the previous tenants had painted it pale pink (Calamine by Farrow & Ball I think, nice) and a mauve colour (not a colour to make my heart skip a beat). Thankfully, we knew while viewing this house that we would be able to decorate as the previous tenants had already upped the magnolia paint game seen on the Rightmove photos. I knew when I asked my landlord if we could decorate, they would say yes but was so delighted to hear them utter “make this house your home”. Words I took to heart.

Before ( Rightmove images)

Before - magnolia bedroom in victorian house orginal floorboards

Before magnolia bedroom in victorian house

During

In the interim, while I was busy getting other rooms in the house finished I tried to hold the room together with some pink & green bedding and a throw. We lived with the pink/purple colour blocked room for a year but that was my pushing my mauve limit. The colour really began to bug me, especially as it was the first thing you saw as you walked into the room.

Before revamp - previous tenants painted the room pink & mauve

Using up left-over paint from another bedroom project I did a quick fix paint job and was happy with the result. The purple was gone, replaced with a beautiful soft green (which I love as I chose this for another room). I also painted the white wardrobe doors in the same green. The pale room worked well enough while I was busy with the rest of the house and it was Springtime so it felt seasonally fresh.

pale pink & green bedroom victorian house, plants, botanical artwork biophilic design

Mini makeover - a quick fix paint job to get rid of that mauve wall

pale pink & green bedroom, lost of plants, biophilic design

Long narrow bedroom and that oversized bed

Our room was always going to be the last room I decorated properly, I wanted more time to consider it , and design with more intention. In our last home we had a dark bedroom, I always loved how cosy that room was. It felt like a real retreat, somewhere safe and cocooning to rest and restore. I missed that feeling so I began pulling together ideas for a dark makeover.

The Brief

I always write myself a little brief and create a vision/mood board. Even though I know in my minds eye exactly what I wanted, it's quite easy to get distracted by the amount of choice out there.

I wanted a private retreat from the rest of the house that felt restful, relaxing and cocooning -like getting a big hug when you walked in. I was tempted to go really dark but painting the ceiling to give me a cocooning feel meant I had to be mindful of just how enveloping the colour would be, and how the light affected the colour around the room.

grre decor mood board green velvet curtains, victorian chest of drawers, mid-century armchair, mix match patterns, plants, biophilic design, botanical artwork

Mood board - using what I own to repurpose in the revamp

I knew the success of this room would be all hinge on finding the right colour. I knew it would be dark and had to be green, but thanks to help from Graham & Brown I was able to narrow down my choices using their fantastic peelable paint samples. Choosing a paint colour this way was so easy. It’s the first time I’ve used these, I am so impressed - easy to use, no mess and absolutely no paint waste.

I like Graham & Brown's eco-credentials and stance on waste. They help you calculate how much you need and mix their paint to order meaning no paint is wasted at any stage of the decorating process. Their paint is water based and solvent free and comes to you in 100% recycled packaging from 100% sustainable sources.

The samples: I was tempted at first to go with one of these very dark greens - Colours: Glasshouse ( top ), Uluwatu ( middle), Adeline ( bottom) - all resistance durable matt

How light changes colour : On the east facing wall Uluwatu looks quite mid-tone (above) but on the South West wall it appears much darker (below).

In the end I opted for Uluwatu because of its mid-tone shade – dark enough to feel dark yet light enough and rich enough not to feel too oppressive on all five walls. I wanted the shade of green to feel cocooning not looming.

I have been learning to meditate for the last several months ( something of a major revelation for my non-stop mind) , so I wanted to carve out a little space in the room to practise. I prefer to meditate immediately before sleep and as soon as I wake up, so creating a little nook in the bedroom was essential to my plans. I love that Uluwatu is inspired by the Balinese Hindu sea temple of the same name, a spiritual place with meditation entwined deep in its history.

I wanted this room to help me focus on my future. I'm making plans for a house build in a woodland so being surrounded by imagery of trees, botanical references and green helps me maintain focus and feel connected to this future. We all know that green is a soothing colour so great for a bedroom but visually connecting to nature in this way is also helping keep my menopausal anxiety at bay. I find trees so calming and now they are the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see before I go to sleep.

Painting the ceiling dark green

Budget

As a renter I have to be conscious of budgets, any money I spend is generally on items I will be able to take with me when I move. I was fortunate to have all the components I needed for the room scattered about the house, and having a good swap around of accessories and artwork makes everything feel like new. It's a little trick on the mind, but moving items around from room to room means you just see old pieces in a whole new light. Not only budget friendly but a much more sustainable way to decorate your home.

I worked with Graham & Brown producing content for my Instagram account so they kindly provided the paint which meant this room revamp didn't actually costs me anything. Uluwatu (Resistance Durable Matt) starts from £54, 2.5lts.

The Design