New Study/Den

RedMogg

RedMogg

RedMogg

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2011
Posts
2,774
Location
Portsmouth
We moved in just over 2 years ago and this downstairs bedroom with ensuite wetroom has been our store room/dumping ground whilst we finish the rest of the house.

Now we've pretty much got the rest of the place to a state we can pause and start on this room (albeit a complete rip-out & refit of upstairs bathroom & kitchen/diner in the next few weeks), I thought I'd share some pics.

I'm a wheelchair user, so this room is specced with that in mind - doors are 1000mm wide and ensuite is a fully tanked & tiled wet room (which is mainly used for washing the dog).

I also suffer from cluster headaches, so having a quieter space away from the open-plan lounge/kitchen/diner that can also be light controlled will be really helpful. My 10 year old daughter also suffers due to a brain malformation, so she'll be sharing use of the room, too.

Photo Dump:
























We decided to paint the ceiling the same Denim Drift, as it helps reduce the amount of light in the room. We'll be putting in an IKEA Hemnes daybed, instead of a sofa, as it's more comfortable to sleep on and gives us the option to pull out into a king-size when family visit from Canada.

My desk will go on the wall next to the ensuite door and a 65" TV on the same wall, opposite the day bed.

I've consolidated the network cables and shortened the excess lengths - the POE switch for our security cameras will be hidden in a wall mounted cabinet, along with a PS4 for media duties (I'll run an HDMI cable from my PC for when I want to play on the bigger screen).

Will grab more photos when I've cleaned up, since the Scotia is now in.
 
"SiMuLtAnEouUsLy iMpReSs tHe wiFe WiTh yOuR DiY sKiLLs aNd iNdUcE a pAniC aTTaCk bY dRiLLiNg tHrOuGh tHe mAiNs aT 2:45pM oN a fRiDaY..."
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Flooring in, scotia sealed & temporary door transfer bars installed (waiting on some special order 1000 wide aluminium Z bars to cope with my chair).

Slight change of plan as my service dog Poppy is about to have her first litter, so we've got some cheap lino to throw under the whelping pen (thankfully a similar colour/pattern to the new flooring).





Picking the Daybed up from my folks now, so The Boss has somewhere to sleep when she's on Midwife duty.
 
Ooof. Very late advice, but, Never drill directly above, below or to the sides of electrical outlets including lighting. "Prescribed cabling zones" ;). I'm guessing you hit the wires up by where the shelf is, as there are two sets of brackets kind of in line with the socket. Have you had a electrician come and check its all safe?

Looking good still though.
 
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SuBo said:
Ooof. Very late advice, but, Never drill directly above, below or to the sides of electrical outlets including lighting. "Prescribed cabling zones" ;). I'm guessing you hit the wires up by where the shelf is, as there are two sets of brackets kind of in line with the socket. Have you had a electrician come and check its all safe?

Looking good still though.
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Yeah, it was a complete brainfart on my part - out of the 5 double gang sockets around the room, guess which is the only one that has a fused spur running vertically from it..?

Sod's Law, but thankfully the Old Man had finished early, so he was straight round with his kit (he's a Comms Engineer, but has his 18th Edition cert).
It took longer to fill and blend than it did to repair.

Currently scrubbing the "barely used" daybed from my folk's house - it might not have been slept in by humans, but the cat's had a really good go on it :rolleyes: . Nothing a bit of elbow grease & Dettol/StarDrops won't shift.
 
Deibu said:
The colour choice for that room is amazing. Love the ceiling painted in the same colour too. Congrats on a great job.

Your dog is so beautiful too, proper teddy bear looks! :D
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Appreciate the kind words. It's been a long, slow process - I've done everything bar lay the flooring and fit the light, so I've spent the last 6 months resurfacing the walls, digging up the manky council floor tiles and pouring self-levelling compound to try and reduce the dips, then painting walls & ceiling, sanding, priming & glossing both doors (1000mm wide, fire rated solid wood - bloody heavy!) then tidying the mess of network cables.

It's taken so long because every day I spend working on the room costs me 3-4 days of recovery (more if I really overdo things). I have to carefully balance how much of my energy/pain tolerance I can spare between getting the study sorted and my other Husband/Dad duties.

Today's been particularly tough, as the Daybed was on the top floor of my parents' 3 storey house, then needed every piece given a really thorough clean before putting back together. Thankfully my brother-in-law offered to do all the heavy lifting, which helped tremendously.

Mattresses arrived tomorrow, but to get an idea:








It takes up a fair bit of space, but we'll rarely need to pull the bed out into a double. I looked at sofabeds, but I've found you always compromise on a supportive, comfortable mattress. We'll see how much use either option gets for a while, then decide if we want a small recliner sofa instead...
 
ImMrChris said:
I'm quite suprised how cool that room looks all grey! i'm moving soon and will have a new man cave now your just giving me ideas :cry: nice job!
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It's Dulux Toughcare "Denim Drift" - much more blue than grey in person - the lighting cancels a lot of the blue out on my phone's camera.

We chose a scrubbable paint as we have 2 Persian/Exotic girls (my Wife's a hobby breeder) and they have a terrible habit of sticking their faces next to the wall and having a sneezing session . I'll be building some cat shelves for climbing as soon as I find a suitable bracket to hold them. Hopefully get them sorted before Kitten Season...

Looking forward to having a few bundles of crazy chasing my mouse pointer across the screen again:






dirtychinchilla said:
I can't imagine how difficult that must have been doing it from a wheelchair. Well done, man!
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Thank you!
It's hard going, mainly because anything you do at full reach from a seated position takes tremendous core strength (try it - sit on an exercise ball or a chair with feet off the floor and hold a 2kg dumbbell with your arms stretched out in front, for more than 3 minutes ;)) - when you use a paint roller on an extension pole, most of the effort comes from leveraging your hips, knees and buttocks, rather than arms...

I've been a full-time chair user for nearly 20 years, so I've built up a different set of muscle groups to compensate - my neck, shoulders and upper back look like I've stolen them off Alan Ritchson (if he'd refused to ever do a sit-up or leg-day, he'd probably look like me :cry:)
 
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Puppies are doing great - 10% weight gain in 24 hours. Kids are enjoying learning about the process (although my autistic son was horrified to learn what Poppy does when they poo & wee :rolleyes:)



I'll put the thread on hold until I've got updates relevant to the room (unless you all want "Pupdates"?)
 
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