The end of January?! How did that happen already. I’m figuring some of you are cheering the end of Dry January? I attempted it. It didn’t last. Although there was a level of temperance with only the festive booze finished off and no ‘extras’ bought, so there was an element of virtuosity. All extra cash we have – extra? who am I kidding?! – is being deposited firmly in the kitchen fund. It’s official now, I promised you on our House Tour yesterday on Instagram Live that we’d have a kitchen imminently so there’s no going back. Mind you, I’ve been promising family a proper kitchen for three years, but let’s ignore that.
In the dining room, the newly nestled Umbrella tree and gently scented daffodils are thriving in their giant planter. Rocky thought it was an alternative cat tray, very kind of me, and appears a little affronted that this isn’t the case.
I want this space finished soon so this week’s….
…..involve fabrics for the dining room seating.
Ours isn’t really a millennial pink house, a gentle Scandi pastel house or a modern neon house, as much as I love those looks. It’s a big punchy house which can take big punchy patterns and colours. There’s lots of black and white, lots of green and lots of wood so a natural palette choice for me is the earthy, rich shades of orange, sienna, terracotta and russet. Coming through strong for 2018/19 they are, she said, in her best Yoda voice.
Kirby Design and Blackpop are leading the pack at the moment for the banquette seating: bold choices for bold bottoms 😉
Which one would you go for?
Great to see Matt from Real Homes at Moregeous Mansions this week and of course, we got him working. We’re all in footwear entirely appropriate for scorching temperatures.
I write a DIY page for Real Homes each month and we filmed some advice videos in 2017 so we’re looking to add to those this year. First up might be a ‘proper’ House Tour (as opposed to my hand held Insta one yesterday), so we had a New Year pow pow. Only at MM does a pow wow take place over a red hot roofing torch.
We played around with some pine and the ancient art of Shou Sugi Ban. These pieces are being fitted around my indoor tree to contrast with the white panelling. The burning worked a treat, but for the kitchen we’ll use cedar rather than cheap pine. It’s much more stable as it’s a harder wood and gives better ‘gatoring as well. You’ll see what I mean when I blog it, the cracks and fissures just look all round better.
We’ll also fire up on a much less windy day, or set up some kind of wind break. Maybe doing this kind of activity on a blustery January day wasn’t my best idea but it was a lot of fun, especially accompanied by giant marshmallows. I’m unsure if the Japanese do this too.
Always handy to avoid wintery weather…. an indoor shoot. It was time to get lots of gorgeous ‘Afters’ from the Flower Lounge, which we redesigned and re-fitted just before Christmas. I can’t wait to share them with you, once I’ve edited them of course. ‘Cause that only takes five minutes, as every photographer / blogger knows 😉
Being surrounded by lush smelling candles, opulent foliage and lush bouquets was *such* a trauma. It was hard to get a bad shot really, all credit to Siân, Emily and Grace for making the whole shop so pristine for our few hours there. It’s a dirty job, but someone had to do it.
And talking of dirty jobs…..
Hello landlord life. Back to the real job and sorting out a vacated rental flat ready for the new tenants. How to round off the week on a high eh? 7 o’clock on a Friday night we finished, with fingers like soggy walnuts and aching backs.
Life’s eternal questions: Why can’t tenants work vacuum cleaners? Why can’t tenants change lightbulbs? Why can’t tenants get black mould off windows, or better still ventilate flats properly? And why can’t tenants get their own hair out of shower wastes?
It’s a mystery to me. Maybe their mums always did it for them.
Klaxon : I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER
Right, I’m off to sort the Airbnb, finish clearing our storage unit (hurray) and find some lights we seem to have lost. Laters x
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