Category: Renovations
Progress..
The building work is moving up a gear now, particularly in the cellar. The digging is finished, insulation and underfloor heating is laid and it was all screeded and left to dry over the festivities. Now we’re onto the first fix and finalising plans for the second fix.
It’s an interesting space in terms of design – it’s predominantly a cinema/games room that needs to swallow a lot of ugly storage. But what doesn’t help is that I have a fundamental problem with the general concept of cinema rooms: It seems that the moment the word ‘technology’ is associated with a space it becomes infused with this need for everything cold, chrome, clean and clinical – like the ‘cutting edge technology’ needs to be supported and highlighted by it’s super-duper space-ship-like surroundings..which will probably be out of date in a year. The truth is I’ve yet to find a cinema room on Pinterest I like or want to lounge, Roman-senator-style in.
So it was back to the drawing board and writing a list from all these pictures of the things that actually make a room cosy: A fire, books, rugs, lamplight, dark colours..fluffy dog.
And that’s when the inspiration struck – why not create a false chimney breast for the TV to go on, with a fireplace where the DVD player/set top box/general crap/ can be hidden in the cleverly made fireplace surround? We can’t have a proper fire..
But there are some amazing electric cast iron stoves around..and in the summer it means you can have the glow without the heat!
It’s a work in progress, but the plan is to have significant 75 cm depth mega cupboards with sliding doors across the back with the boiler and water tank under the stairs. As you come down the stairs, the first cupboard you see will be low level holding games and a vintage dollshouse. Then there will be full height open bookcases either side of the chimney breast and all the way to the end of the wall. The chimney breast will come out 40 cm and hide all the cabling from the TV. The fireplace will be slightly lower than normal to help with eyelines to the screen, and the DVD etc will be housed in the central section of the surround under a fretwork door – which should mean we can use the remote without having to have the door always open (fingers crossed) . The stove will be quietly tucked inside to add ambience, all topped off with a tiled hearth.
May the magic begin!
Laters, Kate x
The Cellar x
Sigh. This is part of the inspiration for our cellar renovation..a warm, inviting room from epic the Hotel Provinence in Paris.
But before we get to the fun bits (we’re still shovelling soil), the room layout has to be nailed (literally). It’s not the easiest room – there’s got to be lots of multi-functionality but I’ve found a brilliant site – The Make Room – which is the easiest, most practical room planner I’ve ever played with.
You can pull in furniture..and alter their sizes to represent yours..or what’s on the dream list.
Save different layouts. Add in measurements to ensure there’s enough walk space..(Top tip: As a base line the site uses feet and inches, to change – look to the right and click on ‘add all buttons’ then, look to the left, find ‘view’ click and change to centimetres)
You can choose plugs..lights..even slippers.
At the end – oh the joy! – it gives you a list of the sizes of all the furniture you’ve used..is that not heaven on a page?
Then just print off..and hand to nearest Bank Manager…
Laters, Kate x
Turning to the Dark side..
Now to decide on the colourways for the hall. This isn’t my hall, just a picture for inspiration, but I know I want the woodwork to be dark, virtually black, except how far do you go? The newel post in this picture is epic, but I can’t help feel they missed a trick not painting everything that dramatic thundercloud grey up to and including the dado. Does that mean below the dado has to be dark as well? The radiator cabinet? It’s a dilemma..
Although having it dark certainly makes wallpaper pop.
And wallpaper is a cert. William Morris if I have my way, but not this one, though the black wood looks magnificent against it.
A dark top half which directs the eye beautifully to the bamboo paper at the back. But it’s not what I want.
Dark all the way..tempting, except it’s leading into a dark room..
This is the closest picture to reality…and it’s got to be black all the way, up to and including the dado.
Decision made. Now to choose the wallpaper..
Laters, Kate x
Skirts and Trims x
The latest obsessions on our renovation are skirting and architrave…and the difference it can make to the personality of a room.
Particularly if it’s picked out in a darker colour.
Oh! The height! The scale!
And ours is going on! Only the top layer mind, as the floor has yet to go down..but it’s a bright, burning light at the end of a long dark tunnel.
Laters, Kate x
They’re Here!
The kitchen lights in all their milk churn glory have arrived! Including their beautiful wording…
On the flip side are painted typical canal art scenes of castles and mountains.
I’m suspecting they’ll be hung in a row like this..so the cook on the far side has the last laugh..
My cup, it floweth over…
Laters, Kate x
Fur coat..
There comes a point in every house renovation when Ikea becomes a must not a want. It’s that line in the concrete dust between Pinterest dreams and harsh reality. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Ikea – a huge percentage of what they do verges on the genius. It’s just that, chances are, everything you like will be replicated a hundred times over in millions of homes around the globe, even in your next door neighbours, which as an individual, never sits comfortably. But that’s where Ikea hacks kick in – the idea of taking the basic Ikea form and transforming it into something with Icarus-like wings. A concept the company Superfront has taken a whole leap further..
They design and manufacture fronts, handles, legs, sides and tops that fit Ikea’s most common cabinets.
And they do it with style and panache.
What’s not to love?
Except there’s a mental leap to get over..you’re buying Ikea because it’s cheap..and then you’re going to spend lots of money on it to make it special? Why not cut the middle man out and buy something expensive in the first place?
Or let these designs stand on their own two feet and cut out the Ikea bit? Except then they’d be unhitching from the global gravy train…
Hey ho. At least what they do opens up the opportunity to follow suit and nick pay homage to all their ideas too..and so the dog eat dog world of design continues…
Laters, Kate x
Kitchen heaven!
The kitchen light’s are coming! The kitchen light’s are coming!…and I have no real idea what they will look like or whether they will actually work, except that in my head they are totally brilliant.
I needed three pendants to hang over the new island unit but didn’t want to go down the industrial look, not because I don’t like it..I just wanted something very different.
Also, I’ve realised over the years that I have a passion for folk art..an art form we don’t take seriously enough here in the UK. All the images here are typical examples of British canal art – the traditional means of decorating canal boats and barges. I think it is stunning, ingenious and totally covetable.
So I’ve commissioned three milk churns to be painted just for me by my favourite canal art painter…and they’re finished!!
Seriously. Can’t. Wait. More details when they’re here.
Laters, Kate x
Building Update x
We’re still fairly chaotic in the back sitting room with now 4 sofas, three tables, a piano, footstool, fridge, freezer and 10 chairs (including one just visible on top of the two sofas..) which lists like a modern day carol.
My kitchen is still a cunning arrangement of two bookcases salvaged from the cellar on a console table. The ‘oven’ (on the table to the left of the chairs) is a one ring hob..that only works with a le creuset pan. How middle class? The sink is in the shed..the washing up is the bathroom upstairs. Oh joy.
But no pain, no gain and the huge steels are in and walls are down.
All two storey of them..from the cellar to the ground floor..to the ceiling above.
The middle has changed from this..
To this, with the pocket sliding doors elegantly in place.
The floor has been levelled, electrics changed, gas, water all re-routed.
And secret storage added.
Extra jobs like a leak in the roof have been fixed, plasterboard is going up..it is happening..and I am LOVING the space..
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 