The sky is falling in....

Well ok, not the sky, but the kitchen ceiling....

On the day I said a final goodbye to my friend at the hospice, Friday November the 18th, I drove home to find my kitchen ceiling had collapsed.

Now this isnt actually as melodramatic as it sounds. Dave had called me on the way home, something he NEVER does, so I knew something wasn't quite right. Dave was in the kitchen and he said he heard what he described as ripping paper, then a creak and a big chunk of plasterboard swung down narrowly missing his head!

There were huge chunks of ceiling resting on my newly made pickled onions in their Kilner jars and the Kenwood blender. At this point I would just like to advocate the quality of the afore mentioned items as they all survived...as did Dave!

So, I walked in to the left over parts of the ceiling propped up by a broom and the cooker covered with a towel (one of my new cream towels...horrors...) so it didn't get wrecked either. All I could do was laugh very hard. I may have been a tad hysterical at this point, as it was the end of what was to be one of the saddest weeks of my life to date. Dave was covered in dust, there was bits of rubble everywhere and the light was swinging precariously. The ceiling had consisted of layers of plaster and plasterboard, and under that was another one, equally knackered but with patches of black mould...you know, that really bad mould. I couldn't help but wonder if my dear departed friend was sending one final message to get on with this renovation. He loved what we were doing with the house and enjoyed my daft tales about what we had found or done next. He would have belly laughed at this timely calamity!

Dave and I decided to leave the ceiling as it was for the night. the children were safely tucked up at their Dad's and the cats kept out of the way, so no more harm could be done. We talked about the day, warmed the house up (as far as we can at the moment -  refer to previous post) and drank wine until we giggled, which was a welcome relief.

My darling friend died later that evening. The following day Dave found a crowbar and ripped the rest of ceiling one down. Ceiling two is bulging badly but still up for the moment. It's only a matter of time though. I suspect 2017 will be the year we have to build a kitchen!

Collapsed ceiling & black mould!

The ceiling on the floor - note the cream towel!!! 

Triggers broom giving the ceiling some support

Warming yer cockles

According to Wikipedia:

Etymology

17th century, Unknown, possibly due to resemblance of cockles to hearts. Alternatively, may be corruption of Latin cochleae in cochleae cordis ‎(“ventricles of heart”),^[1] or of Irish Gaelic origin. Possibly also inspired by mollusks opening when exposed to warmth, notably cooking.

Verb

to warm the cockles of someone's heart

1. (idiomatic) To provide happiness, to bring a deeply-felt contentment  

According to me:

21st century, Finding a way around freezing your arse off in an old Forest stone cottage.

There is nothing to motivate you more to get the stone fireplaces working than being cold to your bones. It makes me cross and crotchety. My knees are like that of a 60 year olds, so when they get cold, warming them up takes ages, makes me stink of deep heat and hurts! 

We have three fireplaces, one in the dining room which has a botched burner that needs repairs, but works well, one in the room of doom, which I wasn't going to initially use, but turns out this is easier to fix up than I first thought, the last one in the sitting room, this was lovely, but partially bricked up and the chimney was battered (you may remember this one was the chimney that had no pointing left between the bricks, so the rafters were getting scorched...bloody hell)!! I felt getting these last two up and running would be a hideous job, but the house is cold and my heating bills have the potential to be massive as two of the rooms are over a drafty cellar, so I looked into it.

I picked up a Rosieres enamel burner in France for 50 Euros and Dave picked up an old Broomside Foundry 1922 burner for £80 locally. We didn't really know what we'd do with them, but they looked handy. As always we chatted to Clive about this, he quoted us, we deliberated and decided bugger it, lets save up and get it done. One of the best things about living in the Forest (amongst the billion other great things) is that for £30 a year you can forage as much wood as you like. we don't need to do this just yet as we have loads left from clearing stuff up, but in the future that will be a life saver for skint times! 

Last week Clive came over and put the liners down the two chimneys (room of doom & sitting room). Dave drilled the bricks out of the fireplace (knackering himself in the process). We just need to tidy up the fireplaces, get the burners in situ then Clive will hook them up (I hope that's a simple as it sounds - I'll let you know). We also have a hole that needs bricking up in the wall of the room of doom....it's on the list! 

I keep getting told this winter will get a lot worse, so fingers crossed we'll get this completed before then and all be toasty and warm. I also love a bit of controlled arson and lets face it, who can resist the primitive beauty of a proper fire keeping you cosy on a cold,dark winter evening? 

Partially bricked up fireplace in sitting room

Bricks drilled out in sitting room

Broomside burner, ready to be put into sitting room

Rosieres burner in room of doom - not installed yet. Note the top hole in the wall that needs bricking up.

Burner in the dining room...toasty!

The Loovre - Arting up the bathroom and last chores

Bathroom progress is still slow, but not so steady. Due to a number of things, one being the death of a very dear friend, this has rocked those of us close to him to the very core and broken our hearts. When something like that happens, everything else takes a back seat. The minutiae of daily life becomes unimportant, and as I'm finding, is remaining so for the moment. Merely having a bath or shower became a task, let alone finishing the renovation.

My friend was a do-er, partly why we got on so well, we both preferred to get on with something (after a little procrastination on my part) rather than sit around being apathetic. He'd often be busy rushing about completing tasks, stopping for a cuppa and chinwag, then saying 'right...gotta keep moving' off to his next set of chores...such is the life of a single parent, which again, we both understood so well.

So....the goal was to complete the bathroom, initially by last Easter, however as always seems to happen, we missed that by miles. In old houses, you often uncover botches that have been kept secret for decades, or that something you thought would work, so was finished, doesn't, so it isn't! Our new goal is Christmas, but with only a week to go and feeling pretty bloody fragile, this may be missed also!

As a result we've only done smaller tasks in the bathroom. Builder and friend Clive redirected the soil pipe as that was proving to be problematic. Dad has built the shells for the cupboards, put the lights and radiator in, I have framed some pictures and Dave has put them up.

I am a clutter freak, if there is a bare surface or wall I WILL put something on it. I just cant do minimalist. I want the bathroom to be a calm place, where you can wash away your cares and shut the world out for a while, but I also need things to stimulate the senses. Interesting things to look at. Ive collected bits and pieces for years, knowing one day they'd all have a place. So here is a snapshot of some of those pictures and curios (believe me there are many other bits and bobs such as a gold monkey holding a tray, a vintage vets horses piss collection jar and black opium soap).

• PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER I, 1907 BY GUSTAV KLIMT

 -  beautiful print from a friend who played in an orchestra in Vienna

Technically this isn't in the bathroom, it's just outside the door, but I love this!

Vintage French chocolate cards and 1920's postcard

Artisan metal angel wings (god I sound pretentious, but they are massive and sexy)

Found these two in craft markets, and the letter stamps I've had for years from Baileys in Ross-on-Wye

The light, this was the most expensive thing I've ever bought. Cut glass from Scandinavia, but it's safe and pretty - check out the fairies it leaves on the ceiling!

Vintage tins and shit!

There really isn't much left to do now:

• Patch plastering and painting
• Skirting boards on
• Boxing in pipes  
• Architrave around door
• Fixing down window shelves
• Tiling behind the sink
• Sand floor
• Make cupboard doors
• Mount shaver point.
• Final snagging

There you have it. In an ideal world I will blog next week about the finished bathroom, but I very much doubt it. Grief makes you extremely tired and I think I've hit the wall! xx

Gettin' plastered. Then and now.

Many years ago (well in the early 90's) when I did my 3D design degree course I learnt to make plaster moulds for ceramics. We mixed the plaster by hand, and poured it over the object we were making a mould from. I hated the dry dust under my nails, it made me shudder, but I loved the heat and creamy texture of casting plaster just before it 'went off'. Multi and bonding thistle plaster is nowhere near as nice, it gets on your hands, face and hair and leeches out any moisture you had like a blood sucking vampire!

I also learnt how to get pretty plastered at university, everything they say about art college is true...it's bloody wonderful, hedonistic and even if it may not always give you a career path (well not for some years in my case), it gives you life skills. The sort you may not want to pass on to your kids, but skills all the same!! I met some of the most fabulous people over that time, some I'm still in contact with, some the best friends for one night only. We learnt, drank and partied in pubs and fields together, sometimes to the sound of punk rock, sometimes to Spiral Tribe, always pretty much all night!

Anyway...back to getting plastered in 2015 onwards...as you'll have gathered, the walls in my house are an ongoing task. They could potentially cost me thousands to repair, unless that is, I learn how to Do It Myself. 

Now, sometimes I'm very like my Mum, other times I'm very like my Dad. My practical side I definitely inherited from Dad. I grew up in an old Forest house, that Dad has been renovating for the last 40 years. He has taught himself many practical skills which luckily he is now passing on to me in my house. I was nervous about messing things up, but Dad said that with my artistic skills he was sure I could do it. It also helps that I couldn't really make the house much worse! Besides, he gave me little opportunity to chicken out. When we started plastering the bathroom, he gave me a bucket of plaster and a trowel then told me the trick with plastering is to get it on and work quickly.... Ahhhhrrrgh!!!! So that was it, I copied what he did and it was actually ok. 

I practised on the walls in the shed after that and it's kind of improved from there really. I'm not sure I would go as far as to say that this type of getting plastered is quite so enjoyable, but it's cheaper than a night out, and the results make me stupidly happy even if they are a touch rough 'n' ready. I'm quite proud of what I've learnt, and that I will just get on and try things. It means that in the last 15 months since the boys and I moved in, we have been able to crack on with getting rid of the unhealthy and quite frankly, hideous damp, depressing and decaying walls, without having to spend a fortune on plasterers, painters and decorators...Once upon a time I'd have spent the money I saved by plastering walls myself, on getting plastered myself. How times have changed.....although I did write this with a glass of decent red listening to this: Spiral Tribe Breach the Peace

Shed practise wall 1

Shed practise wall, round window

Shed practise wall 2

Plastering in the bathroom

My first ever attempt at plastering - Dad's right hand woman!

The Room of Doom

I've been really busy lately doing things around the house in the run up to Christmas. This will be our first year here as a family. The boys go to their Dad's every two years and it so happened that Christmas 2015 was a Daddy year. Needless to say, I'm blooming excited! Last year we put the tree up in the worst room in the house, affectionately known as the room of doom. One day I hope to refer to it as the Withdrawing Room. Kind of a grown up hang out snug.

This room was absolutely drenched when we moved in. The fascias were trapping the rain in, where the outside render was taken right up to their edge. Rather than protecting the house, the result meant the water had nowhere to go but inside. When it rained the wall inside wept (at least that's how it felt)! Water would also pour down the chimney, pooling in the fireplace. The plaster and interior render had mostly blown and the room smelled very damp and musty. It had a kids dragon lamp hanging up as a makeshift light and the paint had flaked off and continued to do so. Meaning I'd have to hoover the walls to stop it continuously being all over the floors looking like a bloody snowstorm!.

I decided last week to give this room a patch plastering and pre Christmas lick of paint, it couldn't make it any worse Well, that turned into a slightly larger chore. This seems to happen every time I bloody touch anything!!! Dave said he just knew this was going to happen! Whilst knocking off the blown plaster I made the mistake of just investigating what was underneath it. I mean, I knew I'd have to replaster them anyway, so taking a little bit more off for a peek surely couldn't hurt, could it?

I knocked a wee bit of the plaster off, then a little of the render, oooh I found stone. I chipped away a little more...partly thinking what the hell have I started, as I had no plan and was, to be honest, just making a massive mess! As tends to happen, Dave came and started pulling bits off too. Then he went and found bolsters and chisels. We set to work. This was really hard going and I was regretting starting it after about 2 hours. I am however, VERY stubborn and wont be beaten by things. I called Dad and he bought over his hammer chisel drill. Now, this is possibly one of my favourite bits of kit for wrecking shit...IT ROCKS! Dave and I then took turns for as long as we could tolerate it ripping the concrete render off the walls! With ringing ears, throbbing elbows, new bruises and shredded hands, around 8 hours later we had exposed a beautiful Forest stone wall surrounding the old fireplace. It clearly had been damp for some time, needed some attention, but was a sight to behold. Jesus, we were knackered! I also had the small matter of patch plastering the other two walls still to do. Mind you, plastering small areas is nothing to me these days, so it was more fatigue than reluctance regarding that task! Even so, I had to finish the job, otherwise it would set me back another couple of weeks. Dave made up the plaster and I put it on the walls. Thankfully, its all rough plaster in this house, as my blistered hands had virtually given up the ghost by then.

This weekend I have painted the plastered walls, one a warm grey as I thought it would compliment the Forest stone, I will add some subtle stencil on this at some point (mixed from three odd chalk paint tins I had -, so I could never recreate that colour), the other white. The stone wall needs cleaning up, a hole rebricking and repointing, which may take some time. The edges of the ceiling on the stone wall need fixing and replastering, but I'm allowing the damp to dry out for another couple of weeks first. The floor has gaps going down into the cellar so it's a bit drafty, they will need filling. I'm actually debating using that vile expanding foam stuff as it will do the job quickly for winter. In the future I will look at getting a liner put down the chimney so we can use the wood burner, and maybe put some rattan carpet down, but finances wont permit that just yet.

The room is looking really cosy (even if it's bloody freezing)! I've put up new curtains, we moved the red Chesterfields (thanks again to Clive & Jess for the 2 seater) into the room and put an old trunk in as a coffee table. As usual I'll fill it with my hoarded vintage stuff, that's a given - I cant actually help myself! So even if we don't get it all done before December the 25th, it is liveable and the Christmas tree will look far cuter than it did last year not being covered in paint (snow)flakes!

*I'm writing this with gloves on and a glowing fire from the old rotten red shed beams on the wood burner. Free fuel!

Extremely damp walls and kids dragon lamp

Makeshift room, but the walls were still diabolical

Chipping off plaster but having a little excavation

Close up

Oooops it's started!

That was bloody hard work (the top hole needs bricking up)

Plaster patched and back together for the night. 

Grey wall and cosy curtains!

Vital statistics - floor plans

I thought I should do a post about the basic statistics and floor plan of the house.

It was originally on the market for £185,000 over a year before I bought it. It had a buyer, however it fell through as the mortgage couldn't be arranged. It then went to auction but didn't make the asking price. Amazing only by a really small amount, however the vendor wasn't happy to sell. I suspect by the time I came along everyone had given up on the place, so my offer was accepted - £30,000 less. I didn't push my luck by asking them to clear it, he wanted a quick easy sale, I wanted a quick easy buy.  So the following is the description and floor plan as it was in the advert when it was on the market. As you will see, true to most older houses the rooms are a good size in comparison to the boxes they build nowadays. 

Pilgrim Cottage

Key features

·         THREE BEDROOMS

·         THREE RECEPTION ROOMS

·         KITCHEN

·         BATHROOM

·         GAS CENTRAL HEATING

·         GOOD SIZED GARDENS

·         OUTBUILDINGS

·         POTENTIAL

Tenure: Freehold

ACCOMMODATION (Measurements approx)

Front door to –

DINING ROOM – 12’ x 11’2. Wood burning stove in stone fireplace with feature exposed stone wall, window with window seat, radiator.  Open plan to –

KITCHEN – 10’11 x 10’3. Fitted at wall and base level providing worktop and storage space, fitted oven, hob and hood, gas boiler for central heating and domestic hot water with feature stone mantle, window.

LIVING ROOM – 13’ x 12’. Window, radiator, arched alcove.

LOUNGE – 11’10 x 7’5. Radiator, fireplace.

First Floor:

STAIRS TO LANDING –Loft access.

BEDROOM ONE – 12’2 x 12’. Wall to wall wardrobes, window, radiator.

BEDROOM TWO – 12’ x 7’6. Window, built-in wardrobes, radiator.

BEDROOM THREE – 12’ x 11’. Two windows, radiator.

BATHROOM –Three piece suite in white, radiator, tiling to walls, over-bath shower.

WALK IN AIRING CUPBOARD- Window, hot water cylinder.

OUTSIDE –Side pedestrian access to rear gardens with large outhouse and outbuildings.

Floor plan for 3 bedroom detached house - Pilgrim Cottage

More bathroom progress...

The last two weekends have mostly been spent doing smaller but necessary chores and a couple of social things. Dave and I managed to ruin ourselves on Rum and sit up playing loud punk/metal/80's pop music till 2.30am wearing macabre top hats - I think we needed some escapism. Then I went to Hogging the Bridge (a charity bikers run) with my old mate Jenks & the kids.

The latest bathroom progress is as follows:
The loo cistern has been a condensation magnet so I'm trying a YouTube fix whereby you line the cistern with a yoga mat and industrial strength glue, this acts as a sort of insulation (and could be considered a cowboy version of cistern lining), so MAY stop the condensation. Dad was helping and he was convinced the glue wasn't sticking. We couldn't find and gaffer tape to hold it in place, so the cistern is currently filled with an array of heavy objects to hold it in place whilst it dries! Fingers crossed this will work. The knock on effect of the damp cistern, was that it blew the plaster behind it. So Dad has just chipped the shot stuff off, and we re-plastered that section along with the final wall to be done and above the door. The plastering was by no means quality this time, due to us being plastered the night before (is it ever??), but I'm embracing the rustic finish for my rustic house!

The toilet soil pipe didn't have enough of a gradient on it, so we are lifting it slightly to allow gravity to work it's magic in harmony with the flush.

Dad extended the flex pipes to both the sink taps and the loo, just to be on the safe side.

The radiator is now in and working a treat. It looks very lovely, again slightly raising the overall temperature of the bathroom.

I have pulled the old nails out of the window frame and Dave and I put some decent architrave around it.

We cut the wood for the larger window sill and screwed the toilet down. It's a bloody novelty to sit on a toilet that doesn't wobble, none of this gingerly lowering yourself down business anymore!! Yippee, I can safely wait until I'm really desperate again!

Last week we painted 3 of the walls and the ceiling.

This weekend I painted all of the final wall areas and around the windows. It took 8 bloody hours!!!! Although it does look gorgeous. I was very good and unscrewed the toilet cistern so I could paint behind it, then spent blooming ages trying to get the rubber washers back in place to screw it back down. Jenks came over and we drank tea and talked shit as I painted, which was a very welcome distraction. He also showed me how to adjust the flush handle, as the angle it was at was just all wrong (pointing downwards, meaning you had to shut the loo seat down before you could flush it), especially for splashy, messy little boys! I also tightened bits on the flush system and it's stopped dripping, mind you not before pulling the waste pipe off and splashing water all over the floor (at least I hope it was 'water'). The drip has moved, so I still need to address that at some point, for now it is addressed with a good old Tupperware box fix!

So there you have it, we are on the home straight with the bathroom. All that is left to do is:

• Buy and fix up skirting boards
• Fasten down the floorboards & fill the gap by the door
• Box in the sink and mount the shaver point
• Box in the soil pipe
• Build all shelving/cupboards and box in the boiler
• Fit new light & spot light
• Tile behind the sink
• Put architrave around the door
• Replace broken glass in the door
• Put shelf basket up in shower
• Put mirror and pictures up
• Sort the drip!

The carpentry may be fun, I have no idea how to do things like that, so will be my Dad & Dave's apprentice. I'm so looking forward to it being finished, it's been a massive task, but is starting to look beautiful and somewhat mature...Jenks thinks I've grown up finally! xx

Lining the loo cistern, using the every tool in the box method

Curtain pole up and painted

Removal of loo so that the blown plaster could be stripped back

Re-plastered  and other areas plastered

Painted and loo fixed back down

Sink is now screwed in place and back wall painted

Radiator in and wall painted.

Bathroom...sloooooooooow but ongoing progress

The bathroom left a lot to be desired, uninviting would be an understatement. It was the sort of room that left you feeling tainted, used and grubby even after a bath!

The entire room was tiled with white tiles and some sort of revolting 60's green patterned tile as 'accents'. The radiator was painted matt black, the loo seat was broken, flimsy plastic, but amusingly seemed to be a soft closing one, the pan repulsively stained, like the 'worst toilet in Scotland' from Trainspotting. The over the bath shower didn't work and was an electrical death trap, the bath was scrawled upon by a child with indelible ink. The sink was filthy, nesting in a built in corner monstrosity. Under closer inspection removing the panels from this built in carbuncle, revealed an abundance of cat shit. The whole room was so grimy no amount of cleaning could shift the dirt. The taps barely worked, we had one scalding hot water tap into the bath, and one very battered cold tap into the sink. Finally, the poor floorboards had sagged irretrievably south. The estate agent pictures were cleverly over exposed so it didn't look so bad on the advert!!

The first task was to smash out remove the old horrors. Dave demolished the tiles and managed to lacerate himself spraying blood up the wall! However, between us we cleared the room pretty quickly, with my steadfast Dave doing numerous tip runs.

Having delusions of grandeur, meant that I decided I wanted a roll top Victorian bath to luxuriate in whilst eating Cadbury's Flake and flooding the bathroom. We found one on ebay, complete with resplendent gold claw feet, for £100 collection only down in Wales. Dad and Dave nearly crippled themselves collecting it. It then took four men (Dad, Dave, Kev - the man mountain and Roger xxx), to get the thing upstairs, apparently Kev using ropes tied around his waist to haul it up was a sight to behold!

I was given an old porcelain French sink as a new wash basin, a second hand, but good quality porcelain toilet and a re-purposed shower cubicle. I bought and found various fixtures and fittings to tart them up, then Dave & Dad set to work. They made a new doorway, attached new joists, lay new straight floorboards down, drilled holes in external walls for waste pipes and plumbed things in. It meant showering at my parents and crossing our legs for a few weeks, but we got there....a functioning bathroom, with only minimal hitches.....of sorts (the toilet needs some tlc).

Progress then slowed over the summer. I learnt to plaster, so between my always amazing Daddy-o and I, we repaired and plastered three walls and a ceiling. We also tiled the shower, a task I'd learnt the previous year. This weekend the posh new radiator went in, as did the shaving/toothbrush charging point.

We are on the home straight with the bathroom, despite it taking seven months (and counting), longer than anticipated. I have all the bits and pieces for it now. the biggest expense was the light. I did have a vintage glass chandelier I hoped to use, but after the fifth person (Clive, my buddy and builder), warned me that it was unsafe, I relented. I have now ordered a beautiful cut glass Scandinavian flush light. It is zone 2 safe and has an IP rating of 44. It was my one indulgence,  I can safely say I will NEVER spend that much on a light again, even if I managed to pay less than half price by the time I used vouchers and so on. We also wont be eating for the next month! I justified this by levying it against a gorgeous pair of full length ivory textured drapes I found in a charity shop for £4.99, and a bargain sheepskin rug...well that's my purchase conscience nonsense anyway!!

We still have a wall to plaster, cupboards to build, boxing in to do, skirting boards to add, and lots of smaller jobs but the ETA is Christmas, so with a few more busy weekends we can get there I'm sure.

True to his beautiful self (spot the Sex Pistols reference) , Dave even found a vintage Flake tin and filled it with Flakes. All in preparation for the most beautifully ostentatious powder room I've ever immersed myself in!

I'll let you know how we get on.......xx

Obligatory over exposed estate agent shot of bathroom

Reality of hideous bathroom

Dad and Dave with bacon butties ready to continue demolishing things

Beautiful roll top bath, with Flake tin!

Wall exposed ready for plumbing shower in

Corner sink and bath pulled out, ready to move the toilet over

New sink and loo in place. With new floorboards also.

Shower cubicle in and plastered walls

Tiling being done in shower

Shower in place and ready to use

Pretty in Pink

My bedchamber, the boudoir, my sleeping quarters, the master bedroom...this room is my escape. Its the place that is just mine, where I can escape. Therefore, I wanted it to be calming, peaceful and a soothing place to be in.

Now a colour I would NEVER associate with myself is pink. I don't wear it, and don't feel a particular draw to it in general. So the fact that as an adult woman, I have chosen to have a fantastically feminine bedroom in such a flirtatious, captivating, aphrodisiacal, lascivious colour as pink suprised me a little! It all happened when I bought a painting in an auction. Initially I actually bought the picture for the frame. However, the more I looked at the painting in it, the more I fell in love with it, the brushstrokes and colours were exsquisite. So my whole room became designed around a picture I paid less than £10 for, because I initially wanted the frame.

You'll see from the photographs that the picture was a large painting, of what looks to me like, hydrangeas. It is beautiful even if it's slightly damaged.....more to the point, the flora was pink. I figured a white wall wouldn't pick out the different tones enough. I set about finding a dusty pink that I liked enough to do a feature wall in. Good old Annie Sloan's chalk paint in Scandinavian pink was the very tone. Not saccharine, bubble gum pink, and I could tone it down further with a coating of talc (I used imperial leather talcum powder as it was on offer)!...try it, it works a treat! As a side note, my Dad did ask if I had a womb complex, with the pink thing. But I think (despite no longer having a womb), that I am completely comfortable with my prenatal existence and have no desire to replicate my fetal existence..please don't take this musing seriously!!!

When I was a teenage girl my bedroom was messy...I mean REALLY messy. I always dreamt of having a pretty room, with a dressing table and a matching vanity set. In reality it was covered in Motorhead posters (partly to hide the vile 70's wallpaper), the bed was propped up with an old Tonka truck, I collected animal bones, had pet rodents and there were clothes and records everywhere. My best friends also used to come and hang out and we'd flick jelly and marshmallows onto the ceiling, then date them to see who's stayed up the longest. Mum said it made her despair, and pretty much ignored the state of it. So even if I had a pretty bedroom, chances are I'd have trashed it in due course!

The bedroom,had built in wardrobes when I moved in, they were discoloured yellow pine & pretty gross. Yet they had the look of shutters, which I thought if I could make more 'vintage' would look fine. I set about sanding and painting in a haphazard way to get an aged look, added new ceramic door handles & Dave added some structure inside.

I ripped up the carpets and found beautiful floorboards underneath, these needed a woodworm treatment, sanding and varnish, but they came up a treat. Parts of the room had black streaks running down. We were told there was a fire in that part of the house as the ceilings have been rehung (badly, that's a job for another year). Meaning all woodwork and walls needed a repaint. I kept all of the rest neutral as I wanted my other pictures and bits and pieces to do the talking.

We slept on an air mattress on the floor for around a month (which used to deflate during the night, resulting waking up on a hard floor), then used the kids mattresses, finally upgrading to a sofa bed. The curtains were an old pentagram scarf pinned up to preserve modesty! Eventually, after six months of this camping, I got my old bed assembled and put some curtains up....it was beyond bliss!

This weekend we put the final pictures up and got the dressing table in place. The room looks beautiful. I actually have an alluring, and relatively sophisticated boudoir, for the first time in my life and that makes me very happy!

Some of my favourite pictures

Hideous, yellowed pine wardrobes

Vintage shutter style paint job on wardrobe doors

My bed, and the painting the room was designed around (spot Behemoth lounging around).

Gold Lloyd loom chair, Lebus dressing table and wardrobes

Ostrich Egg, orchid and vintage mirror in window sill