EPISODE 3 | INSIDE MY PLANS FOR OUR DREAM MASTER SUITE transcript

Feels more real now that things are starting on site. Budget's kicking in, but I don't love this staircase. Pray for my husband cuz he's got borderline OCD, so I don't know how he's going to cope. And it feels real, and I just feel like I'm having this moment where I'm walking around and being like, "I'm actually going to live here." Affecting the beautiful architectural details like the chimney breast. This should You should be able to see the side return of this. 100-in TV, which my husband's obviously won that discussion.

So, we are on the first floor, and I thought I would take you around all the bedrooms so you can see what the plans are. We're starting off in this amazing landing, which is almost double height, >> [music] >> and we're continuing the same paneling that we did in the downstairs hall. So, we've got the MDF panels. We've taken off all the existing wall lights. I need to find some new ones. I'm thinking about doing double arms with a fabric shade, something that just adds a bit of softness.

But, let's go into the primary bedroom. So, this bedroom's had multiple revisions of plans. At one point, we were going to block off this wall here and do a dressing room for Kevin behind. That budget went out the window because we had to do something for the dog and just all these other ideas. So, sorry Kevin, your dressing >> Sorry, hang on a minute. Do I just lose my dressing room so the dog can have [laughter] a room?

Is that what you told me? >> You know this. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Okay. Um but, also it kind of felt like this is a massive room, but it did feel like we were shrinking the primary bedroom quite a lot. And what I didn't like about it was whenever we're designing a primary bedroom for clients, I never like to walk straight into the bed. You want to kind of have like a sense of arrival. So, having this little nook for the bed to sort of tuck back into it does feel a lot more comfortable, albeit [music] poor Kev doesn't get his own dressing room. >> I think as well, when you were talking about there these double doors, at one point you were like, "Turn this into single door." >> Yeah. >> Which seemed like quite a lot of work to go through. >> It was a lot of work, so we would have had to change all the outdoor wall lights.

I never liked double doors cuz it sounds like a good idea, but then you get like cracks of light through. It's not so good for soundproofing. They make a lot of noise when you open and close them. So, for bedrooms, I prefer to avoid them. >> And I think that moving the bed back meant that wasn't such an issue for you as well. >> And then what we're going to do is so we're going to have a massive We've got a emperor-sized bed right now, and then we've got loads of space.

So, if we did do a dressing room here, it meant that we're going to have a door for access there, which would have made it slightly narrower for bedside tables. Whereas now, we can have the emperor-sized bed and like really oversized, like over a meter wide, bedside tables, which will feel really nice. >> I like the idea when we were looking at maybe like antique commodes or something for the bedside table. It'd be really nice. >> Actually, I will show you We've designed some amazing chest of drawer bedside tables that look like antiques and like a nice burr walnut, which I think you'll love. >> Nice.

I think I might have seen that over your shoulder. Uh yeah. >> Um and then we're going very different in here. Like it's pained me actually, hasn't it, to not go down my usual route of silk wallpaper. >> Yeah, well, you you kind of you went there at first, but then you adapted really quickly. And I think you actually really got into what you're going to create. >> So, I had to stick with the original vision, which is I'm going to do lime wash plaster on the walls.

The carpet's changing. It's like a wool loop, much more sort of organic and less shiny. Um and then we're going to layer lots of materials. So, there'll be like velvet upholstery. We're going to have a four-poster bed. Um it's going to feel slightly more contemporary than some of the bedrooms that you've seen in our current house. So, there's the four-poster bed here. Then we've got power ready. And we do love to watch TV in bed.

So, we're going to have the rise and fall TV [music] unit at the end of the bed, which is definitely like one of those areas that I see as a design challenge cuz I've never really like We've designed a few for clients, but I always feel like they feel quite clunky, quite chunky. So, we're going to try and do a very slim, very simple rise and fall unit for the TV. And then in front of it sit a nice sort of antique-looking sofa.

Then you'll have a little coffee table. And then finally, you'll have two armchairs that are facing the sofa. So, you've got like a nice sort of sitting area as you walk in. >> So, I'm I'm laughing cuz you got the rising pole TV that you struggled to turn the TV on, never mind get it out of a thing. >> I know, that's what you're for. [laughter] I literally can't watch TV at home unless he's there. Um and then here, because he has not got his own dressing room, we're doing two big wardrobes on either side of flanking the double doors.

These will look like freestanding wardrobes. >> [music] >> Um because I don't want to make it feel too built-in. And they're going to be in a beautiful um burr wood, maybe like a maple, something that's got a bit of warmth. And then over here, on either side of the doors, we're going to build in fitted wardrobes that will look like fitted wardrobes. Um and actually we need to think about, oh yeah, we're going to do the suede or the linen wall covering for these, won't we? >> Yeah. >> So, these are going to be built in to the ceiling, and it will kind of create like almost this tunnel that you walk through.

So, again, it's separating it from the hallway that you kind of feel like you walk through this walk-through. Um and then you've got built-in wardrobes there, and that actually gives you quite a lot of storage. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I don't know if I've got I've got enough storage. I think it'll be it'll be different, you know, >> to having your own dressing room. >> you know, getting my stuff ready or pulling out or at night when it's in the bedroom, it's a bit of a change. >> Yeah. >> Seems crazy to move to a bigger house and end up with that, but it'll be um it'll be fine. >> You'll survive. >> I'll survive. >> Anyway, on that note, come and look at my dressing room. >> [laughter] >> Cuz I do still have one.

Um this is changing quite a lot. So, we're going to keep the carcasses. I don't love the doors. Um so, at one point we were looking at moving all the carcasses. The layout's not exactly what I'd want, so I'm going to change it slightly. Um but it just seemed wasteful to rip out completely, so we're getting new doors made. They're going to have an antique brass trim, which will match the doors that we do on the built-in wardrobes for Calvin.

And here I'm going to do probably a chinoiserie silk wall covering um cuz I do still want something like that. It feels very sort of feminine and a bit more classical than the bedroom. But I'll make the colors still work. So it'll be like a similar color palette. Here we're going to do a built-in dressing table um with a little stool and a mirror. And we're going to do some wall lights on either side just so you've got good illumination.

I think we're going to put a spotlight there as well. This island is changing. I never love integrated benches with the with the island. It just feels a bit clunky. Also don't love this glass top where you want to display your jewelry. I mean, it's like, "Please come and rob me. Here's all my jewelry." Um so that's going. Um so there was discussion of doing a marble top at one point, but I'm not sure if that got vetoed for the um budget. >> I think we were talking about using there would maybe be some cuttings as well left over from >> Offcuts, yeah.

If there is offcuts, that would be great. >> Yeah. >> Here I'm going to um block this off. I think there's a door going here cuz I I never really like to have open display shelving for bags. Doors changing there. In this corner, so this was a real challenge. And this is something people never think about when they're doing built-in whatnot. Never, but often I see people not think about this. So the wardrobe goes all the way to the wall.

These doors open inwards, so it means there's no way of putting either a Roman blind or a pair of curtains because if you had a pair of curtains, it would clash with this or if you had a Roman blind, so you wouldn't be able to open this door. I do want to be able to open these doors. It's a fire exit, also it's just nice the air. So what we're going to do is do a cafe curtain style. So you have a bronze an antique brass pole here, antique brass pole at the top, and it's going to have those sort of gathered um blinds that you see in cafes quite often.

And that will be like the same fabric that we do downstairs in the guest powder room. >> So there is that mean you lose the view? That's gone now. >> Basically. >> How do you feel about that? >> I I either the neighbors get to see me naked or I lose the view, so >> [laughter] >> it's one or the other. It's not ideal. It's a shame cuz it is a really nice view, but I don't know what else we could do. We've thought about this so much.

I mean, you can always have them so that they move to the side, but they do look a bit awkward when they move to the side. Or if I really want to see it, I can just open the doors. But I am going to put a little um I'd like to put a little armchair with a footstool here cuz I think this would be a really nice spot to sit and read. Or if like I'm getting ready and you want to chat to me, this could be a nice spot for you to sit. >> So you can open your doors, you can sit, you can read, you can look at your nice and watery while I open my wardrobe, yeah? >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Happy wife, happy life.

And then this is our primary bathroom. Now we don't currently share a bathroom, so I'm going to wait and see how this works out, but Kevin's going to also use one of the guest bathrooms unless we've got guests. So it's been fully stripped out. We're going to change the floor. It's going to become a checkerboard with like a very light sort of creamy color stone and a blue Moliana, which is a slightly sort of darker cappuccino color.

Really excited about that. On the walls, we're doing a Calacatta Oro book match in the shower. Oh no, we're going to do zellige tiles in the shower. We're doing a Calacatta Oro architrave around the shower door. The shower door is going to look a bit like a crystal, but like in a cream rail color, so I'm really, really excited about that. >> So that'll be on the both sides. >> Both sides. Yeah. Cuz I hate open showers.

I just feel like you would end up drowning in there. Bathroom. I think this is going to have a niche with Calacatta Oro as well, but there'll be zellige tiles here. The existing radiators are going to go back in there, but I think they're going to just it's going to have like a tadelakt or like a polished plaster finish on the walls. Going to do double shower heads, double showers, like handheld showers as well. This door was glass, but it's going to change to solid to match all the other um white timber ones.

That's just a separate cubicle for the loo. And then we're going to do two vanities. So, we're going to have the Parker Howley vanity. And then we're doing a double bullnose detail. It's like the worktop that Not the worktop, but the vanity top that we've got in the office toilets. So, that same detail is going to be in Calacatta Oro. And then here I'm going to do relaxed Roman blinds. And then also like a I think these are automated blinds as well, so you don't have to manually turn them down every day.

And then there'll be a pair of armchairs that sit here and here, kind of curved into the room with a coffee table with a little side table. And then we've got quite a traditional-looking bath that sits here. >> Did you manage to go and try the bath? >> I did. I did. It's comfortable. Yeah, it's nice. And it's quite different from what we've got cuz it was really hard to find a freestanding bath that doesn't mark over time.

So, a lot of them are made from a material that can go more yellow over time, especially with limescale if you use like bath salts. Or other ones that we looked at were quite sort of shiny. Um what was the other issue? A lot of them just weren't that comfortable. Like it's really important to sit in a bath when you try it. Don't just base it on what it looks like cuz everyone's different, but like I didn't like the bath to be too shallow.

I like the water to come up to quite high. But the thing the traditional one will look quite nice in there cuz it's kind of a blend of classic and contemporary. >> [music] >> So, this is the room that I lost my dressing room to. >> Yeah, so at one point we were going to incorporate this um cupboard into the area that was going to become Kevin's dressing room, but now it's going to be Pip's bedroom. And we're going to do the doggy wallpaper that I've like hand-painted with Andrew Martin that's launching this year in there.

So, he'll have his crate, which is perfect cuz it's near our bedroom. He likes to sleep upstairs. >> So, just if you were wondering where I was in the pecking order. >> [laughter] >> You're very low. But you're not a sausage dog. [laughter] So, this is the wing that goes down towards the where the kids' bedrooms are, which is really nice that they've got their own sort of little area. >> [music] >> So, this is Oscar's bedroom.

In here, the plan is I'm going to do like this beautiful It looks like a plaid wall covering like a tote with like a white thread through it. Um it feels very sort of preppy. Oscar's been doing his own Pinterest boards. I'll share with you what his Pinterest board looks like. And genuinely, when you look at it, you're going to think I've done it, but he's got really good taste. >> He's done really well. It's really nice. >> preppy Ralph Lauren, and I couldn't be happier about it.

So, he's going to have that. And then we found a really nice um chevron It's by Philip Jeffries. It's the same very similar to what he's got in his current bedroom, but it It's like a wool. And I'm going to put that on the wardrobes, and I'm going to paint these possibly the same color as the skirting. And put that wall covering in there, and then just change the handles. Probably to something that's got a bit of tan leather, so again it goes with that whole preppy vibe.

And then the kids, we managed to convince them to switch bedrooms cuz originally this was going to be Ava's bedroom, and her bathroom wasn't as nice as Oscar's, but we'd already kind of agreed to do Oscar's bathroom. And the way we managed to convince them was we had to give them bunk beds, which I never wanted to do cuz I always feel like longevity with kids' bedrooms is so important. I feel like they will grow out of that.

But they really want bunk beds. They've always wanted bunk beds, so we're going to do it. And we're going to do a big double at the bottom, and then like a a single that goes across. And it will have um a ladder on one side of the side of the single, and built-in dressing uh built-in bedside tables. And he's very excited about that. And I think we're going to paint that in like a kind of like burgundy red that matches all the wall covering. >> [music] >> And he kind of wants curtains, so that's all ongoing.

And then here, his bathroom's completely ripped out. Talking about pecking order, you would think that he might be the favorite. >> Well, I know he's the favorite. [laughter] I don't know. >> No, we were going to do his bathroom up in our current house, and then luckily the timing was that we didn't actually, through lack of organization, manage to do it there. It was just too much going on at work. I couldn't prioritize it.

So, we've managed to reuse all the stuff that was on hold for that and put it in here. So, it just made sense to do it. Um so, his bathroom's going to be completely different, different flooring. It's all Cosentino, Dekton. [music] Really nice finishes, really like hard-wearing. So, I'm excited about that. And then we've got a Parker Howley vanity unit that's currently sitting in our garage waiting to be installed. So, this is going to be a complete change.

And before it was always kind of I hate these sort of porcelain tiles where they look they kind of want to be a marble, but they never look like a marble. >> Do you know why they've left the flooring in? >> I don't know. No. But, it's definitely changing. >> Right. >> And then Ava's bedroom, sh- I don't have any input. I'm not allowed. I've been kicked off the job. She's doing it all herself. And again, she's got her own Pinterest board, so I have to ask her if I'm allowed to share it cuz she likes to be private.

Um but, she's keeping all the walls neutral. She wants them painted white. And then she likes nice bright pops of color. Her like inspiration is from like the Assouline books, you know, the like the Ibiza, the Palm Beach ones, like really bright colors. Um she also wants the bunk bed, so her bunk bed will go there. Um we'll see what she does with the rest of it. I've no idea. But, her bathroom, actually this bathroom is quite nice.

Um so, we That's what we wanted them to swap because I much prefer these tiles, even though they're porcelain, they just look more authentic, like real stone. And this vanity unit was in the primary bathroom, and it tones so well. So, we um just moved that one here. Before it was just like a white black one. It looked much cheaper. These taps are from the primary. The shower, the mixer, all of that was in the primary bathroom, and we're just going to change the flush plate.

You can see we've got the one from the primary bathroom here. That's going to go on there to replace this one. And then we're going to keep this heated towel rail. It's not a perfect match, but it's close enough. But it looks quite nice, isn't it? >> I think it looks much better. It makes a huge difference in terms of the balance. >> Yeah. >> This is one of the guest bedrooms, which is where the bathroom that Kevin will use um when he doesn't want to use the shared one.

So, in [music] here we've got a beautiful herringbone sort of creamy-colored wall covering that's got like a sort of wall texture. That is what I want to put in, but we'll see if we can fit it into the budget. Um I think we'll reuse quite a lot of our existing furniture, like the one the bed from the guest bedroom. The antique chest of drawers could go there. Ava's antique desk she doesn't want, so I thought that could go really nicely here. >> Mhm. >> Um and then maybe just reuse the existing bedside tables.

I think it'd look quite nice. Just go very sort of light, quite creamy, >> [music] >> um quite a sort of feminine room. >> What are you going to do with our bed? >> I want to reuse our bed. >> I thought you were doing a four-poster there. >> But I'm going to build the four-poster around it. >> Ah, makes sense. >> I'm quite figuring it out yet, but that was the plan. >> Okay. >> But yeah, our bed is so comfortable and it's quite new, so I want to keep it.

And then in here we're reusing the other [clears throat] vanity unit from the primary bathroom. It's not a perfect match with the tiles, but I think it's good enough. Um and then again we've changed the taps and the shower. The shower screen is changing as well, so that this metal all matches the antique brass by Jesse. Then we'll put some nice wall covering on here, a nice blind. Babe, do you want to do a full sheer Roman blind or do you want to do a half-height cafe curtain?

What would you feel more comfortable with? >> [snorts] >> I mean I don't mind either way. I mean obviously you've got lots of screening on that side, and then obviously people will could see the uh cafe curtain. I don't know. >> Yeah, I'll have a look outside, see what feels better. >> Yeah, I think so. >> Cuz in our current house we've got sheer blinds everywhere, whereas I'm not going sheer blinds in this house. >> Yeah, I know.

I think it's nice to let the the light in as well if we can. >> We can cuz and all the curtains are going to be on a pole, so if you've got um the curtains that go into a pocket, it doesn't look so bad, but I feel like or if you've got a Roman blind, it doesn't look so bad, but I didn't want to see all the blinds as well as the curtains. And then there's one more guest bedroom. Not much has happened in here, but it's got some of the old light fixtures. >> [clears throat] >> So this is the carpet that we want to use.

This isn't the exact color that I'm going to do a custom color for us, but I really love this texture. So I wanted to have something that looked like sisal. Um and I feel like this is the direction that carpet's going in away from this kind of shiny finish towards more natural wools and a short pile. Um and in here we'll have a super king or emperor-size bed here. We're going to have a TV with a chest of drawers or a desk over here. >> [music] >> And a curved sofa in this area, so it's got like kind of a seating area.

And then I've seen a really nice um again, Phillip Jeffries wall covering that I want to do. It's got like a sort of blue and white stripe. But I quite like the sort of organic, very sort of thin blue stripes. You weren't sure about it though, were you? >> No, I I did I did quite like it. I would have It was a bit of orange in it or something almost. >> No, it's just blue and white. >> No. >> But we need to get bigger samples and see what it looks like if it's too busy. >> [music] >> But I think that could look nice. >> It'd be nice having couple more guest bedrooms for when we've got people staying and we'll probably need it. >> Might regret that >> [laughter] >> when when all our family's come and stay for like the whole month. >> Yeah.

Oh yeah, I think this is as well. This is going to make a big difference. I could have you noticed it straight away, but there was there's no paneling on the wall here. Not quite sure why they didn't finish it off. But I'm looking forward to seeing this. I think it'll it'll just help connect the downstairs to upstairs much, much better. >> Definitely. I would say this is probably the weakest part of the house is the staircase cuz we've got such a nice staircase right now. >> is probably the strongest part of our house now, I think, so. >> So, there is a potential that we might be changing the balustrade cuz something I don't like about this is how close all the spindles are.

There's three spindles on every stair. I'd rather have two, which still complies with health and safety. Um so, we're talking to a manufacturer right now, uh but it will just come down to budget. If we can make it work. >> It's It's funny how you talk. You're You talk about budget. You're like, "I might not be able to get that little bit of morel before my island in my dressing room." But, yeah, if I just change the stairs, then >> No, but I yeah, like it depends.

Like, we'd need to have a really good price to make it doable. But, I think this is probably like cuz it's the weakest part of the house and it's one of the main things you see. I feel like it warrants a bit more. >> Yeah. >> [music] >> I'm being selfless. >> I know, as always. >> What are you most excited about upstairs? >> I think either Oscar's room just because I've got like a really clear vision like how preppy that's going to be or our primary bedroom cuz it's going to be so different.

So, stay tuned to see the transformation and I'll show you all the samples that we're looking at for the bedroom and Oscar's bedroom and all the guest bedrooms, too. And then on this side, we might put one of our little loom stools. I haven't told you this yet, by the way. >> Okay. >> Come in. I really like that smell. I don't know why I like the smell so much. It makes me happy. It used to That was like a paint tin.

So, [music] we were a little bit worried whether the timber floor would go underneath. If it didn't, it was going to eat into our budget more. Um so, I think that's really paid off because this is perfect. This is basically what I want. >> Skirting's chunky, isn't it? >> Okay, I'm going to see which one's your favorite. >> [laughter] >> You've already chosen yours, right? >> you've got good taste.