The Parlour: Before and After

Once upon a time, The Parlour was just a little wooden shell. Weeks of hard work and the contents of my piggy bank went into making it the vintage dream that it is now, and I thought I'd share the journey with you.

We had originally planned to use an existing shed but after some work we found that the wood was rotten so we decided to get a new one.

The timbe frame went up. Now the hard work was about to start!

We fully insulated the shed with insulation foil and foam. We then plasterboarded the whole thing to provide more insulation and laid a hardwood floor.

This should keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

After all the insulating and plasterboarding was complete, we painted everything with a waterproof silicone membrane to protect it from damp and water damage.

Then it was time for the fun parts!

We wallpapered half of the parlour in a gorgeous flamingo print wallpaper. This was my first time ever wallpapering and I can honestly say I will never do it again. It's so hard and fiddly! The rest was painted in a 1950's lemon yellow.

We then started to lay the vinyl flooring. I was determined to have an authentic 1950's look so I hand painted each of the vinyl floor tiles to create the classic checkered look that was popular in so many homes at the time. This took ages and became very annoying!

I purchased a second hand kitchen from eBay and set about restyling it to create my work units and worktops. We painted them all and cut a hole in the top to sink the groomjng bath into. I also attached grooming table matting and a grooming arm to create a built in grooming table.

I reused the wine rack as a towel rack. It works brilliantly and now I have a nice place to keep all my towels hair free and looking pretty.

The electrics were reinstalled and everything has been placed inside the units to keep everything nice and tidy and minimise the risk of wires and plugs etc.

The space between the units has been turned into a nice little bed and waiting area or the dogs. They can snuggle into the fluffy bed whilst waiting to be collected after their appointment.

I'm so pleased with how it's turned out and so many people have told me that they can't believe the transformation.

I love to design things and make things homely and I planned very inch of this to be exactly how I wanted. It took a lot of hard work but I'm so pleased I did it.

What do you think of The Parlour? Have you transformed your shed into something special before? Let me know in the comments below.

Hayley x