Sunday 9 February 2014

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From the bottom of the stairs at about 10.30am today looking through to the study, sun shining in, just lovely

Today’s been a day for trying out some furniture in different places.  The hall is so spacious and airy I am determined to find the right thing on the wall that faces you when you first come in.  This little desk is far too small and the cupboard below is far too brown and solid.

Tried this piece in the hall, too brown.
Tried this piece in the hall, too brown.

The love seat by Ercol is what I have fancied for ages, I saw the blue graded version on the South Bank in London a while back and since then I have been smitten.  Sometimes I think the white would look amazing and other times it’s the natural one though John Lewis have a slightly different version that is also on the list which is pretty handsome too.

Ercol love seat
John Lewis Chiltern Bench

The only thing with these seats is I’d not be able to put flowers on it but I suppose there will always be a table or suchlike in the hall somewhere.  I needn’t worry too much, the benches don’t come cheap so it’s unlikely there will be one there for a while.  I’ll keep on trying random items that I already have for now.

Another part of the house that needs a bit of love is the front room.  The Morris & Co wallpaper is a bit tired and the matching, more colourful curtains have seen better days too.  There is a bit of a gold/beige/brown thing going on which would not be my choice.  So, the next major step is changing the walls, the curtains and hopefully changing the marble fire surround and gas fire to a wood burning stove.  The mantlepiece is original so it would probably stay though it is, of course, brown.  Lots of ideas are buzzing about what to go for on the walls, there’s the usual white, navy blue or maybe even a dark grey.  The dark colours would help zone in the brown furniture in there and make it really cosy, it gets plenty of light so I doubt it would be gloomy.  I have developed a bit of a Pinterest habit lately, you can see some of my ideas there.  I like the idea of the front room being a bit different to the rest of the house, more traditional and definitely cosy.  There is a bit of me that likes that it has not been done, whenever I go in there it feels like I am ‘going home’ that way you feel when you visit your parents’ house and it is reassuringly the same as ever.

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Corner in the front room, I moved the desk from the hall, not a big fan of the jug and bowl but it will be fine there for a while
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above the fireplace this caught my eye when I was taking the previous shot, the clock is staying in the front room for now

Sunday night, doing this post has helped alleviate the blues actually, thanks for reading, I’m glad you keep on popping in, have a good week, x

Think I’m going to change the theme again, watch this space…

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Getting Christmassy

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We are happy to be getting a bit festive here, at last.  The tree has been up for a wee while but the rest of the house has not had much attention yet.  The holidays are here and somehow  I managed to coax all three children to come and make some decorations using cranberries, star shaped oranges, tufts from the offcuts of the christmas tree and some green wire thread.  There is a most unusual additional item on one of the decorations, teen boy’s idea of a joke.

The component parts
The component parts

Yes, that is a jaffa cake on the closest one.
Yes, that is a jaffa cake on the closest one.
there they are on the wall in the hall, using hooks that are waiting to get their old pictures back.  like the radiator?
there they are on the wall in the hall, using hooks that are waiting to get their old pictures back. like the radiator?

This weekend we’ll be shopping, making the back room festive and relaxing with friends.  All of us here really need some slow time to recharge and get ready for Christmas.  It feels like I have been in a whirlwind this week.  F was in a play, his main part was Dopey the dwarf and he was brilliant.  What a laugh (it was meant to be funny), he got the rather serious audience smiling.  Now he’s absolutely shattered, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did not see the morning tomorrow.  That’s what holidays are for though, isn’t it.

Wishing you a happy and fun weekend, good to know we can have a bit of a breather before the big day.xx