Project: the boudoir

Dusty Pink. Who knew it was such a popular colour? A wondrous shade of eighties glam that has yet to make a comeback.

I understand that built in wardrobes offer storage but the rails are too low to hang anything longer than a shirt. Lying in bed feels somewhat claustrophobic.

Made out of some kind of melamine, the gold handles and beading on the doors add another level of fussiness.

Uh oh moment

The built in wardrobes are drilled into the ceiling.  There are some strange electric flickering lights that need taking out.

Cork: but not in a bathroom?

Siesta Cork Tile

Much as I like a cosy carpet, my eldest has multiple allergies that include household dust so I wanted to find a hard floor that didn't break the bank.

We had the budget for laminate but I've found it a bit slippy underfoot. I then came across Siesta Cork Tiles. Warm and slightly springy underfoot they come in a range of colours.

We plan to use it in all the bedrooms and the hall.

Top tips

• Rather than buying the tiles direct, ask your fitter if you then can get them cheaper.
• The joins between tiles aren't very obvious once it's laid but it's worth talking through with your fitter how they're going to cut it into the door way or other noticeable areas. Our walls are completely off so the job definitely required some skill
• You need a few hours for the sealant to dry before you can walk on them. 

Uh oh moment

•  Our fitter slightly under ordered the tiles for one of the rooms. He had to come back to fit them. I was a bit worried that they would look different to the rest but they matched perfectly. 

Did you know? 

• Cork is the outer bark from an evergreen oak found in southwest Europe and northwest Africa. It's harvested during the winter time when the tree is dormant.
• Naturally fire retardant, it's also sound and heat absorbing.
• You can view a good video of the harvesting process here.

Can we do fake?

What type of fire?

I started to look for inspiration for fireplace surrounds before I looked at actual fires. My favourite image I came across was this one on Pinterest. I liked the simplicity of it and the pop of colour.

Our room is a fairly warm room as it fronts on to the conservatory, has only one external wall and a large radiator under the window. So a wood burning fire or stove seemed a bit daft. If we wanted gas, we would have to re-route the pipe and pay for yearly checks. An electric stove seemed the best option.

Top tips

• Before selecting the type of fire you should get (wood burner, gas or electric) you need to work out how much energy you need to heat your room  (you can find output calculators on many stove websites). 
• You also need to research the costs associated with each option. Using an existing chimney is probably the cheapest option but you'll still need to get it checked, cleaned and maybe lined.
• Many fire shops can offer a complete service where they will manage the whole installation. 
• If going for a gas fire, make sure that you use a Gas Safe registered engineer. 

Uh oh moment

Our walls are completely squiffy. Getting a false chimney breast to sit squarely with a fire surround will be tricky.

Did you know?

There are health concerns associated with wood-burning stoves.
There is now a good choice both in design and price of electric stoves.

Project: the sitting room

Can I move a fireplace?

The original chimney breast and fireplace is on a middle rather than back wall.
But you can't sit facing the fireplace because that would mean sitting under the window (which looks into the conservatory) against a radiator.

Ultimately, the fireplace is on the wrong wall. It should be on the back wall where we have our sideboard.

Our current gas fireplace

The plan is to take off the old fireplace, block up the hole and build a new chimney breast on the back wall.


This should be easy....right?

Project: the messy room

So we're lucky enough to have three bedrooms in our house. Not massive, but big enough. The second largest is dominated by an eighties over-the-bed-wardrobe-cupboard-thingy, that takes up most of the room.

Our plan is to take it out and use the space to store toys, hang creations and some kind of desk/making space.

As the room is at the front of the house I also need to think about what we do at the window to allow both privacy and light.



 

What we want

• Room to store all the toys
• An easy to keep clean floor with space to play
• A desk for writing and crafting
• Somewhere to display artwork
• Some way of storing their Lego and cars
• Space to put down a blow up guest bed

Blind benefits

It turns out investing in some decent blinds not only makes the room less hot during Summer, it makes the room feel less cluttered.

Rather than having individual window blinds, I decided to go with wider ones and run them across several windows.

I picked out the dark green in the sofa fabric and found some made to measure black out blinds (Banlight Duo from Direct Blinds).

The door is fitted with some Fired Oak Fauxwood slatted blinds from Web-Blinds. Faux because the kids like to run their cars along them.




The ceiling shades (Mandy Bamboo from BBQ) tie in with the door blinds.

I've left one of the sail shades up over the settee area as it does reduce the glare from the ceiling.

Sunny room project: ta da!

So it's been a while since I posted. My excuse is that everything is progressing but we don't have any room completely finished.

I've done a lot in the sun room since I last shared, so here are some pics.

The floor is a great success - practical and bouncy underfoot.

I'm really pleased with the cushion covers. They took forever as I'm just learning how to sew. With a bit of detective work I found that my mum's curtain fabric is called 'Flower Waltz' by Pat Albeck. It turns out her designs were best sellers in John Lewis in the Sixties and Seventies. There's a rather nice interview with her in The Guardian. Turns out her daughter-in-law is pottery designer Emma Bridgewater.
I had just enough material to make tops and sides to the seat cushions. I couldn't find enough fabric to make the scatter cushions but I found ready-made cushions on Etsy from FabricPaperScissors that make items from vintage fabric.

I've still got to figure out how to replace the blinds. Most of them are now broken. Rather than buying individual ones I think I'm going to source a few large ones that would come down over several of the windows. I may go with a green to match the cushions.

I ended up doing a bit of an IKEA hack and splitting up the IKEA Applaro bench and shelving into a coffee table and wall shelft. The latter now houses my collection of cacti. There are so many creative ways people are modifying and repurposing IKEA furniture. IKEA Hackers is a good site for inspiration.