Moregeous Monday Moments

Everyone knows metallics are super hot right now and yes, yes, it is all about brass/copper/gold but my life has been made infinitely better by a whole tin of the silver stuff this week. Nope, I’m not desperately trying to get ahead of the design curve but simply determined that not one teeny inch, not one microscopic millimetre of paint is going to peel off my new windows.

After ten years of saving up, the double height, timber framed monsters have landed here on site. Ok, strictly speaking, one has landed and one is still being completed at the joinery workshop, but just the one still took up half the kitchen! And it’s bright silver, literally glistening.The reason – and here’s a great tip for you – is that I’ve had them coated with an Aluminium Primer, which I bought from Dulux Trade. Last year we had some much smaller softwood windows made which were primed with ‘normal’ water based paint. So far so good, still looking great. However the cills, which are made from a hardwood called sapele, have peeled right down to the wood after only a year exposed to the elements. Not good. After some research and advice seeking, I was pointed in the direction of this aluminium based primer. Apparently regular primers don’t take to some hardwoods which are more resinous than others, causing peeling to occur. Ali Primer is old school, it’s solvent based which takes longer to dry and isn’t as easy to use as water based…. but apparently it sticks and it lasts. Let’s wait and see.

So this where they’re going. The scaffolding went up, the sun shone (for part of the day anyway) and old rotten windows were removed. Being Nov 5th it seemed rude not to do the obvious and have an official cremation. I said a little prayer for them. Actually I just muttered thank heavens they’re finally out 😉

More big steps this week on the interior design front as I started looking at the fun stuff. We actually now have hot water! From a tap instead of a kettle. Just like you normal folk. The heat feels like an absolute luxury, if a little weird after all this time. Anyway, back to the fun stuff. Before we start on the kitchen I’m going to nail the utility room and I rather like these grey units we saw on Friday and the way the inset section of door opens but the framing round it remains. A great mix of the contemporary with a more trad vibe, which pretty much sums up my home.

Talking of hot water, I’m trying to work out how to have a whole lot more of it. To be frank, if I never have to boil another kettle again, I’ll be a very happy woman. Both he and I want a tap which provides boiling water, but do we also want filtered? Sparkling? Should it be in chrome, black, nickel or brass? In the utility or the main kitchen? OMG, sometimes I feel like my head’s going to explode trying make the decisions, do the designing and physically work on the practical stuff too. I almost feel like I should leave some of the decision making ’til after we have a bath fitted, just so I can dive in to soak away my stresses and mull over a few final choices!Even more fun stuff is happening on the bathroom front. I know I always take care of my samples but strapping this one in is surely a sign of a committed interior obsessive. This baby needed to be well looked after en route to be tested at Moregeous Mansions. Happy to report he made it here in one piece safe and sound to be assessed. Now I just need to replace him with his 8ft brother….This last snap I took was an odd moment and made me question what I like and whether other circumstances affect my judgment. I love the Greypants cardboard pendants made from 100% recycled scrap paper and have specified them in the past on interior projects. Earlier this year I saw the new white ones at Clerkenwell and have been deliberating using them in one of the bedrooms here. Then I saw these. In McDonalds. On that awful suspended ceiling.
Should that affect how I feel about them, the fact that they’re in a burger joint? Does it cheapen them, or is is fabulous that so many more people are seeing such cool work. That is, obviously, if they are Greypants lights at all and not copies. Is it similar to when certain celebs started wearing Burberry and Burberry didn’t like it, as they felt it cheapened the brand? Or should it be commended as smart world wide marketing by a design company aiming to raise their profile?

So many questions but the truth is it did make me question whether I’d have one of these lights in my home, which probably wouldn’t have been the case if I’d been in some cool coffee bar not grabbing a hangover bustin’ box of chicken nuggets. Am I a design snob? Maybe no more so than when a trend hits full speed and I want to move on and find something new. What about you, would you still spec it?

Until next week…. wish me luck painting those windows!!