The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 9W & BALL MAKEOVER YET?
BEFORE AFTER
feel very me. I just thought,
I might as well go all out with
the colours.
“I have a pink cushion and
yellow cushion on my bed and
I always look at them and
think, I really like those two
colours together. I said to Joa
that I did like pink and yellow
together, but I wasn’t so sure
how it would work.”
Studholme says: “I felt
strongly that you couldn’t put
in a bright, clean yellow in
there. The colour I chose, Hay,
is absolutely packed with
green, because there were so
many trees outside Song’s
window that I wanted to bring
the exterior in. Hay has a
slightly historic feel and felt
like a natural choice for that
building. Painting the floor is
something I quite often do in
teenagers’ rooms, because it
brings in some extra colour
and feels quite joyful. When
you paint things very low
they’re not at all scary. You
don’t notice them to start with
— you go into the room and are
greeted by the warm walls,
then you see the pink floor.
It is quite an unusualcombination, which really
adds a younger spirit.” It also
echoes Song’s brighter
pink bathroom, painted in
Nancy’s Blushes.
Willcock wasn’t
immediately convinced by
Hay. “When Joa held up [a
paint sample of ] Hay, it looked
like quite a dirty yellow, but in
fact when you see it en masse
in the room, especially then
contrasting with that amazing
pink, it just works. It has a
lovely warmth to it,” he says.
Studholme describes
decorating teens’ rooms as a
“dodgy” subject. “Teenagers
often have very strong
opinions, which they change
quickly. Sometimes I’ll be
looking around with a mother
or father and their teenager
wants to paint their room
black. It’s not always about
floor-to-ceiling colour — we
could paint the cupboards
black, or the woodwork, and
incorporate that feeling into
something smaller.”
Other teen tips include
tidelines: “a much stronger
colour on the bottom half,
the lighter colour is above,so bouncy and soft, they are
amazing” — and some rugs
from the brand. Willcock also
went through the family’s
digital archives on their
phones and computers and
found some “really lovely
photos, family moments, and
had them blown up and
framed. It’s one of those things
you never get around to doing.
It gives the room so much
energy. Felix also designed
the light that’s now in Song’s
room. It was named after his
dog, Apollo.”
What’s the verdict? Song
loves how “happy and
welcoming it is. People can go
in and feel it’s someone’s
room. It’s really personalised.”
Willcock notes: “That room
has gone through the most
extraordinary transformation.
Song’s youngest brother was
born in that room. There’s
something nice about all the
different lives that room has
had. I think that it is now the
nicest bedroom in the house,
by a long way. Song’s room
was a room that hadn’t had
love. You go in now and it feels
like it’s filled with it.”Painting the floor is
something I often
do in teenagers’
rooms — it brings in
extra colour and
feels quite joyfulso it doesn’t overpower at
all”. However, she does have
a caveat: “You’ve got to have
very flat walls for that.” It’s
something that wouldn’t
have worked on the wobbly,
beamed walls at Kemps
House.
Song had not been allowed
to see her room while the two-
month makeover was
happening, so the reveal was a
big surprise. “It was really
amazing to walk in. Seeing
everyone’s hard work, so I
could have that surprise, was
really sweet.” She now has a
new Maker & Son bed and
armchair, and one of its new
mattress toppers — “It’s just