PORTFOLIO

I think the blog is in need of a renovation update and this one includes some creativity, new skills and lots of mess. Some rooms are now really close to finishing and it feels good to see this house looking this close to completion. I’m aware that the pictures aren’t going to show it looking close to being done, but we are close. This post is going to show most of the rooms in the house but I have left out the extension as you can’t see much past the mess, and we have made some improvements to the outside of the property but it just looks like lots of piles of mud. So I’ll get on to showing the house now.

I think the first thing to mention is that we have doors, nice doors that close, with shiny new handles! I never thought I could be so excited about doors but they have really changed the house. We went for cottage doors upstairs as they do look more modern and sleek, we wanted to have them all over the house but we couldn’t get the bigger sized ones for downstairs so unfortunately they are different. All of the doors and woodwork is white giving a clean, crisp finish to the rooms. Originally we said we weren’t going to do any rooms grey and white as it can make a room feel bare and cold but they are trendy right now, and easy to do. I also wanted some cohesiveness to the house so the rooms would flow better without bright and crazy colours and patterns distracting from the house and as the bathroom is grey I thought a grey bedroom would be a safe option. The main bedroom is now very light and airy, the main feature here is the huge window, but the texture of the wallpaper and mix of greys add some interest and sophistication. I am going to add some styling pieces in here such as a window bench, vase with flowers and a chair, perhaps with a blanket placed on to add softness with fabric and some vibrancy with a little bit of colour, possibly yellow.

In contrast to the main bedroom, I had some fun in the second bedroom. I stayed with calm, muted colours, because as I said I don’t want too much distracting potential buyers from the house but I did want to show the potential of this property. I have spoken about my love for Mizzle before but pairing it with Setting Plaster, also from Farrow & Ball, has created what I think is a very universal space that could work for pretty much anyone. I know that pairing it with black and white paint splattered wallpaper isn’t going to be to everyones taste, I have already had some constructive criticism from my sister about it, but it really lifts this room and allows black accents to be used to modernise the room and it’s just fun. This is quite a large room and would work well for children, either sharing a room or to grow up in but it could just as easy be a great spare bedroom as the colours are calming. I am going to add a black curtain pole to hang voile curtains from to keep this room feeling spacious, as well as accentuate the size of the window, I’m also thinking of adding some succulents and terrariums in here. I think this bedroom might be my favourite room but that could all change once the kitchen-diner extension is finished.

One of the biggest transformations for me is actually the third bedroom. This room was bright green with a very bold carpet and a rather old window. We haven’t actually done much building work in this room apart from re-plastering, adding a plug and getting a new window but getting rid of the textured wallpaper and changing the colour has made such a huge difference. This room now feels as though it could actually be used as a small bedroom with warm colours on the wall and nothing to dark it has become inviting. This room could also be used as a good sized home office space which is how I’ll probably style this space for selling.

My first go at tiling a whole room went better than I thought it would and so much more stressful than I would have liked. I m constantly learning new skills during this renovation and this is one of them. I have done a little bit of tiling on a shelf before but this was a completely different kind of tiling. I am quite particular in my designs and will go for the way it will look best rather than what’s easier and for me this is how I wanted the bathroom to look. This room is big and very tall, so to bring it down a bit I didn’t take the tiles to the ceiling, this also cut costs slightly, and arranged the tiles to accentuate the width of the space. I am so glad we went for these tiles as they are a nice mix of grey and their large size makes them look more expensive than they actually are. We still have to put the toilet in here, fit the radiator and clean everything up then this room will be finished as well. The countertop and radiator is black in here which will match the second bedroom and I might add yellow towels in here to match with the main bedroom. I am overall very proud of the tiling and it was almost worth the stress of doing them myself.

The hall, stairs and landing have all been plastered now and painting has started. Like I said previously, all the woodwork is white to match the rest of the house and I have tried to pick colours for the walls that will also fit with the other rooms. The front door is obviously yellow and that was something I wanted from pretty much the beginning of the renovation so this will flow through to the bathroom and main bedroom and I originally wanted to pair this with navy blue to match the stained glass in the door but because of the use of green in the second bedroom and possibly the dining room I changed it to a green that has quite a lot of grey in it. This is possibly my boldest space in the house and I am really hoping I don’t regret doing it. My main concern is that it is going to be too yellow and green, which sounds ridiculous because those are the two colours I am using, but I always try to use colour with plenty of depth in that shift with light and more often than not that is only achieved with more expensive paints, it’s what you’re paying for. I haven’t got paint that is that expensive for the hallway and I’m creating a two tone feature here, meaning the bottom of the wall is going to be green and the top is going to be a yellow hued white. I’m nervous but hopeful, it’s not often that what I see in my head doesn’t turn out at least okay but it might be a bit too bold to walk into. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

The living room is the last for me to update you on, I skipped a couple of stages here but it progressed pretty quickly. The colour on the walls is Elephant’s Breath by Farrow & Ball, its the same colour as the third bedroom and new downstairs toilet. It is sort of grey so fits with the palette that we have going on in other rooms but it has an almost purple undertone so its really warm and when paired with Setting Stone, a cream colour, its really calming and sort of natural looking. I really wanted to open the fireplace and have it a big feature in the room and I think that’s been achieved, I would love to add a fireplace surround in here to bring even more attention to the huge fireplace but we will have to look at costs before that decision is made. I am still in shock that I took off so much textured wallpaper from this house and we have put up anaglypta paper in the living room. However, this paper has been seriously updated and this pattern is so nice and even though its painted the same colour as the other walls it adds some sophistication to this room and adding textures to a space always makes it look more homely and cosy. I want to add a chair and side table in here with some plants and wooden decorations to enhance the light and natural feel of this room.

So that’s the newest update, the weather has taken a turn for the worst here and halted the renovations to the outside of the property but we are still continuing inside and hopefully we will be finished really really soon. I hope you have enjoyed this update and I will try to add some different content soon, possibly my bedroom refresh or our own kitchen extension plans. I have two instagrams which I try to use frequently if you want to see more interior stuff or see who runs the blog, they are here somewhere on the site. I’m now going to make some cinnamon buns I think as I welcome in the New Year in Tier 4 and hope that my other place of work opens up soon so I can show you the amazing interiors there. Thank you for taking the time to read this and the other work on my blog.