After getting married, buying a home and having two little daughters in the space of a few years, comedian Josh Hawkins – of HiJosh fame – and his wife Catherine were ready to give their girls a beautiful bedroom.

“We pretty much just wanted to create a ‘Cuties Palace’,” Josh laughs. 

“We bought the house last year. And slowly, slowly we've been making each room ours so that it's more like ‘our home’.” 

The girls’ bedroom was definitely in need of some attention. Photo: Supplied

Daughters Billie, two, and Bobby, 10 months will be sharing a room – but the space was looking a little bare and unloved, so Catherine and Josh drew up plans to spruce it up.

“For us it's kind of a special moment of getting our first home and then creating something for the girls while they grow up,” Josh says.

“Creating a personalised space for them to enjoy, so they can go off and read and play with their toys and all that kind of stuff.”

 

The bare walls did nothing to create a personalised atmosphere. Photo: Supplied

The plan involved adding a set of bunks, painting the wardrobes a pretty colour, adding feature wall, and generally giving it more personality and character. 

 

While there was nothing wrong with the built-in wardrobe, it didn’t add any character to the room. Photo: Supplied

One of the Hawkins’ favourite things about remodelling a nursery is the fact it’s an opportunity to play with colour. 

“The rest of the house is pretty much all white,” Josh explains.  

“It’s been really nice having something different and cute – it's probably easier to do that in the kids’ room where you can take some risks, rather than doing a feature wall somewhere really prominent in the house!”

And so, a feature was created for the girls: a waist-high grey wrapping around two walls in British Paints’ Paint & Prime interior paint in the colour Metro Style. 

Bunks in; accent wall up – what a difference already! Photo: Supplied

The grey wrapping around two walls gives the room a much-needed point of contrast, breaking up plain white walls to add visual interest. Photo: Supplied

The wardrobe was the next item to get some love, with Catherine and Josh admitting it took a couple of goes to get it right.

BEFORE: The plain white built-ins were definitely ready for a change. Photo: Supplied

After a false start at trying the wardrobe doors in British Paints’ Sheer Gown colour – a soft ballet pink – the couple realised they needed to go with something bolder.

“We chose the wrong colour – twice!” Josh explains.

“I painted it mint green, and then it looked… not good. So then we did a really light baby pink. And that just wasn't really bold enough.”

So, after another trip to Bunnings, they opted for Bed of Roses – a deep, dusty pink that instantly popped and coordinated back perfectly with the rest of the décor. For this surface they used our H2O Enamel Semi-Gloss, which is perfect for fending off tiny fingerprints!

 

AFTER: Pink perfection! Photo: Supplied

The ultimate benchmark of success, of course, is whether the littlies like it.

“Sometimes I'll go in to see if Billie’s still asleep,” Josh says, “and she'll be sitting in there in the bean bag, just reading.”

We reckon this nursery-to-kids’ room makeover is a hit, then!