Master bedroom revamp plans: creating baby-ready bedroom calm with Tielle Love Luxury
/
AD | This post is part of a paid partnership with Tielle Love Luxury. As always, all opinions are my own.
I’ve always been a light sleeper at the best of times and a solid night’s sleep is the first thing to go out the proverbial bedroom window when life gets a little stressful. So with the recent addition of a rather round belly protrusion, the aches and pains that come along with it and the impending arrival of a tiny new human, most of my thoughts have moved into the ‘will I ever sleep again?’ realm. Fortunately I’ve already put in my request for a very well behaved bundle of joy who enjoys sleeping as much as I do…let’s just hope they get my order right.
To make space for mini Miss Lansdowne, we’ll be converting my dressing room into a nursery and I’m facing up to the task of trying to fit all my stuff into our master bedroom. No easy feat and one that even a seriously thorough Marie Kondo-style de-cluttering isn’t going to achieve. So it’s all hands on deck for a room revamp and I’m spending my spare seconds working out how to make the most of the available space and create the oasis of calm that I’m really going to need in the months ahead.
Perfect timing then to be teaming up with premium bed linen aficionados Tielle Love Luxury who are celebrating their 5th birthday this month. Tielle was launched in 2014 by renowned linen company Tradelinens, which has been supplying premium linen in 5,000 of the world’s most iconic hotel bedrooms for over thirty years. After receiving an increasing number of retail enquiries from hotel guests who had experienced their products, Tielle Love Luxury was born.
I’ll be reviewing a set of their beautiful luxe bedding, sharing my plans for creating the ultimate haven of baby-ready bedroom calm, and getting the inside scoop from Tielle founder Joe Molloy on what the world’s best hotels look for in bed linen…and what to do if you’re ever stuck with a pineapple instead of a pillow.
Colour
It’s time for a change and the grey is going, but will be replaced with another dark and smoky shade. I’ll be keeping the palette (and patterns) to a minimum again this time around because the less there is to look at, the better chance I have of getting my whirling mind in the right mood for a snooze. Or a bleary-eyed marathon of baby feeding all-nighters. Whichever.
Layout
As much as I love the easy-going look of the two vintage freestanding wardrobes in here, space is now at a premium and we’ve bit the bullet and hired a carpenter to build some bespoke wardrobes at either side of the room. He’ll also be crafting a mini dressing table for me in the alcove nearest the bed, which would leave me a little crammed in with the old bedside table there…so those are going too. Something slimmer, possibly wall-mounted, will take their place.
Bedding
Now I have a confession to make…I’m a total bed linen snob. When I first landed in the UK fresh out of art school, I spent a few clammy years under a cheapo Woolworths synthetic duvet and it put me off polyester bedding for good. I’m a bonafide window-open-year-round, feet-out-the-duvet, fresh-air-even-when-it’s-frigid sleeper, which means I need bed linen that’s warm but breatheable, lest I wake up in the night feeling like I’m having a kip in a steam room.
High quality feather and down bedding is the closest thing you’re going to get to sleeping on a cloud, and it regulates your body temperature so much better than synthetics. So it goes without saying (although I am going to say it) that having tested them out for a few nights, these Tielle Savoy pillows are my head-resting dream come true.
Used at Claridge’s and lots of other super swish hotels, they’re Tielle’s most requested product and it’s easy to see why. Made with 70% duck feather and 30% duck down, they’re the perfect combo of support and softness. They’re also a size upgrade for me – when we bought our superking bed a few years back we never supersized our pillows – so bonus points for having perfect Instagrammable bed-styling proportions too.
When it comes to sheets, I’ve been a 100% cotton convert for years. High quality cotton linens are softer and more durable than polyester or polycotton blends and you don’t get that annoying bobbling thing happening over time. But I’ve never had a set quite like this before.
I opted for a fitted and flat sheet with two Oxford pillowcases from Tielle’s Smooth and Silky 600 thread count range, and let me just say, they don’t call them smooth and silky for nothing. They really do ooze luxury, so much so that I broke my own long-standing rule and actually, ahem, ironed them! Ask my husband how many times that’s ever happened and you’ll be hard pressed to hear an answer over all his maniacal laughter.
Yes high quality bedding is an investment, but if you think we spend a third of our life in bed (or 98.5% if you’re one of my cats), the old adage of buying the best you can afford certainly stands true here. Even the stitching on the sheets and the piping on the pillowcases sets this bed linen apart.
Lighting (and Darkness)
With the bedside tables so too will go the table lamps. Linen drum shades like these create such a lovely soft, diffused glow - perfect for bedside lamps and, well, anywhere you need mood lighting come to think of it. But needs must and these must be downsized, so I’m planning on putting wall lights in their place.
And as city dweller subject to plenty of night time noise pollution (lookin’ at you, neighbours across the road with the overly-sensitive motion sensor porch lighting that I’m pretty sure can be seen from outer space…), blackout blinds/curtains of some variety are definitely on the cards. I’ve considered plantation shutters a lot over the years, but there’s something about the extra softness and noise-absorbing qualities of all that fabric I can’t seem to part with, especially in a bedroom.
Scent
I’m definitely a less-is-more sort of person when it comes to scent at home but there are three things I always like to have in my bedroom:
Plants - because even a small one can have a big impact on the air quality in a space. I can’t single-handedly solve London’s air pollution problems, but I can use nature’s own air purifiers to soak up any fumes from the street or lingering post-decorating VOCs.
Fresh flowers - freesia, roses, eucalyptus or just a few blooms of whatever I can pick up for a couple of quid at the supermarket.
A great candle - in a cozy, sleep-inducing scent like lavender, bergamot or ylang ylang, burned for a few minutes while I faff around on Instagram before bed against the wise advice of sleep specialists everywhere.
So, that’s my plan for a refreshed master bedroom because I’m not going to lie - the idea that I’ll soon be a parent feels pretty daunting at times. There will no doubt be a million and one aspects of this new adventure that will be completely and totally outside my control. But at least I can create a space that helps me channel my inner zen-momma, and, until she’s ready for her own room, maybe baby’s inner zen-daughter too. I can’t wait to share the new space when it’s ready.
But before I go, I also took the opportunity to ask Joe Molloy, founder of Tielle Love Luxury, a few burning questions about his brand:
If you were stranded on a desert island with only one Tielle product, what would it be?
This is an easy one to answer! I would take one of our Tielle Love Luxury Travel Pillows to make sure I don’t need to rest my head on an uncomfortable coconut or spikey pineapple! Our Travel Pillow is small, compact and it’s nice to have the comfort and luxury of your own pillow wherever you go.
Tielle's parent company provides bed linen to some of the world's most Instagrammable hotels. What do 5* hotels look for in bedding and linens when kitting out their rooms?
Five star hotels are looking to find the ideal combination of luxury that properly reflects their branding and commercial practicality - the need for bed linen that can be washed and ironed many, many times more than in a normal domestic environment. Bed linen that is not only good to look at but made of the highest quality to provide the best possible – and most memorable – sleeping experience for guests.
What is the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and why should consumers look out for the BCI logo when buying cotton products?
We are very excited to be working with Better Cotton Initiative, which is a non-profit organisation that trains cotton farmers in water efficiency, caring for natural habitats, reducing the use of harmful chemicals and respecting workers’ rights. The BCI initiative works with two million licensed farmers in 21 countries who produced one million metric tonnes of Better Cotton in 2018. By sourcing cotton through the BCI, Tielle is supporting this global cotton sustainability programme and so are our customers when buying Tielle products!
Visit www.tielleloveluxury.co.uk to see the full range and get 20% off all Tielle Love Luxury products until 9am on 31st October 2019 with code Restoringlansdowne20.