Tagged: house

November 22, 2017

The builders are here..

We’re in a little bit of chaos. Our lovely builders who did our kitchen texted on Monday to say ‘we have a slot free starting tomorrow, so would you like us to do all those other little jobs you’ve made a list of?’ Which is great in one way, because we were just about to decorate the study (although we were in that phwoo phwee stage of ‘should we do this just before a Christmas that we’re hosting? It’s going to be tight and I’m not sure if we should lose the present cupboard just yet’)…Except they will help make the study really special by fitting the fireplace, making new shelves and giving us the kick up the backside to get started. It was panic stations yesterday.

It’s all cleared now. And the spare room looks like a reclamation yard again. Which is a shame…

Because that’s where we’ll be sleeping for a while as the family bathroom suite is now in our bedroom…another one of those ‘little’ jobs on the list is to replace the bathroom floor. We converted the bathroom from a bedroom eleven years ago and whilst most of it has stood the test of time – I still love the Cole & Son wallpaper – the floor hasn’t. It looks tired and because the house is old, tiles have cracked so it’s farewell horrible floor, you’ll not be missed. And hello wooden floor when you come! Yup, as a huge fan of my wooden floor in the kitchen – best decision EVER. We’ve made the potentially impractical decision of having similar herringbone parquet but on a smaller scale in the bathroom. Except the kids are now older and to be honest…and boats are made of wood…..and the joy of wood is a) it doesn’t show the dirt and b) it’s flexible. Win bloody win.

We also made the mistake of scrimping on the taps and shower and ordering from Bathstore. Never again. They need to be replaced as well. Sigh. Most of the tiles will remain, although the ones around the bath will go.

I’m hoping to keep the Victorian style tiles to the left of the bath, whilst the rest will be replaced with white/grey marble.

The final job on the list is to plaster and skim the backdoors into place that were retrofitted on the ground floor.

There’s not a space untouched..

Laters, Kate x

November 13, 2017

One, two, three, floor..

The study is need of a serious makeover and has been for some time – it’s been a kitchen, a nursery and now a dumping room, though not in the Australian sense. But there’s only a limited budget in the pot, which challenges the learnt mantra of do it once, do it well.

But it’s an interesting dilemma – does cheap cheapen? Or does it actually require greater planning, imagination and inventiveness? I would plump for the latter everytime.

Except the carpet in the room desperately needs replacing. Natural sissal would my covering of choice, topped with a vintage rug like in the first picture. Sigh. Just not possible.

So it has to be painted floorboards – black? white? or maybe like this – painted the same colour as the walls..

(All pics Pinterest)

As for the rug…the one at present is a rather sad generic black and white number from Ikea. But what if one could dye it? Now that could be fun…watch this space…

Laters, Kate x

March 28, 2017

Brickwork x

So I’ve found this App called ‘Paint my place’ – it’s not the most intuitive app and there’s no point in going for the free version, it’s £2.99 or nothing. But it has allowed me to take a picture of the front of our house and play around with different colours on the brick work.

This is off-black from Farrow and Ball. Probably a bit too gothic..

Pic no.2 – I was curious to see what a really dark blue would look like as an exterior paint. Not my favourite. What I learnt is not to go for the colours you know, but choose via the sample square on the app, that way you can see if you like the potential colour rather than the specific colour.

The version using Farrow and Ball downpipe. The softer dark is better.

Neutrals – this is Skimming Stone by Farrow and Ball – which probably proves the point of colour distortion: Don’t rely on what it says if you’re going to buy paint based on this app.

And finally – Elephant’s breath, Farrow and Ball.

It’s been interesting and fun to to have a genuine chance to experiment. I think it has proved previous posts conclusions: Downpipe is an easy choice because it will work. To find the right neutral will be much harder, but I’m surprised how much I like the neutrals.

My admiration for Hockney and his skill with ipad art has now shot sky high.

Laters, Kate x

June 14, 2016

Exteriors..

As the internal painting on the house starts coming to an end (just the downstairs toilet and some radiator cabinets to go) all thoughts are turning to the outside. It’s a big decision and needs time to mull.