I know, it’s been a month, but at least that means we’ve been busy doing absolutely loads at the house, doesn’t it?! Plus it hasn’t been a post free month or anything, I have been pretty good at writing up some of the cool things seen at Spring Fair and emerging 2018 interior trends. There’s lots of talk online about trends at the moment, the very word is getting a bit of a bum rap. For my part, I don’t think any of us actually hate them per se, we just don’t like to feel that we’re sheep, dumbly following others instead of making up our own minds about what we like.
Interiors magazines are heralding earthy shades as the ones to watch, which prompted at least five pink lovers I know to defend their beloved hue. Homesharers mull over design decisions and explain what they’re doing to their rooms/walls/shelves and why. When Kate (Mad About) painted her living room plum the other week and declared grey over, I literally heard the collective sharp intake of breath across the ‘Gram. Never before have people felt the need to defend their decor choices and changes, their style passions, and honestly, it’s happening all over social media. It’s really interesting. And really weird. I guess because we put our home choices out there so bravely now, we feel the need to explain them? Or something like that.
My dining room floor is quite safe from any passing fads which come knocking at the door. I’ve only just finished top coating this giant parquet and it’s never, ever being changed. Never, ever. Those floorboards were down over a hundred years before I got my hands on them and with the amount of glue holding them onto the new underfloor heating, they’re staying down for another hundred.
As is also patently obvious, I did re-paint the seating backs in Pitch Black. I’d say it was 70:30 with white in the minority. That figure would have been less if my lovely voters had seen the actual seating up close and been able to judge the difference in shades between the ivory cabinets and the white seats. It just didn’t work but there was no way I was painting all the cabinet doors white. The original plan had been to go black with the cabinets, but once the room started taking shape in the central core of the house, it felt like it needed some light. The new black band feels quite fresh and ties the two side book shelves together nicely.
Now all we need are the cushions…..
Team Moregeous have battled the dire weather on a few occasions this month but luckily got up to North Manchester before the snow hit. Ooooh, don’t they look serious, intently discussing whether the hexagons should be the fat way or the skinny way, and whether, in fact, I’d ordered enough material. Skin of my teeth. If I’m honest, there was only a couple of inches to spare. I should be better at measuring things like that after 20yrs practice, but material always befuddles me. Material and door locks, I’m rubbish with those too. Luckily Fiona (above) from Rose & Lee is masterminding the living room upholstery with me and her brain works way better than mine on all things cloth. 
Thanks to the Beast, we had a smattering of prettiness in Manchester, sprinkling Moregeous Mansions with just enough white magic to give us this lovely shot of Mr M’s log store. On days like this I don’t regret one single inch of Kingspan packed between every floor joist and roof rafter during our build, though it was a long, dusty and expensive process at the time. I look back at posts like this and remember when it was actually snowing through open holes in the roof, when I never thought we’d be warm again. If you’re renovating an old house, make insulation one of your primary goals, and I promise that you’ll never regret it.
One mini-trip out which scored high on the Glad I Did That scale was an event held in the Manchester We Work space. I’m currently mulling over a business idea, and new funding platform All Bright has been set up to invest and support female run business ideas. Their stats show that only 10% of global venture dollars – that’s around $31.5bn – funded startups with female founders, while globally only 7% of investors are female. And they’re looking to help change that. I was not only inspired and engaged by the fantastic women pitching their ideas to funders at the event itself, but also met a women with exactly the skills I needed to help me get going with my idea – bonus!
The We Work space was just fabulous as well. Crikey, I remember my first office space at £50 a week. There was a single bulb, a dodgy electric radiator hanging off the wall and most definitely several furry little four-legged friends. The current raft of new co-working spaces are cool, well designed and have chairs to die for. I want those chairs.
There’s a smashing article on All Bright and their aims on the M-E-N, read it HERE.
Back home, work gear on and up a ladder to start tackling the hall, stairs and landing, so scruffy for so long. I’m pretty nifty at repairing cornice now, though one of the larger chunks missing will still need to be expertly managed by Leo. The plasterers still haven’t arrived, stuck in Liverpool on a big commercial job, so we’re just pootling through, doing what we can around the unskimmed walls. Mr M’s had the hideous job of burning and sanding all the old paint from the stairs, I’ll show it you next week. Looks massively different already.
I started cleaning up and painting the huge wooden corbels founds yonks ago at a salvage yard in Macclesfield. I had no idea what I was going to do with them at the time but that’s often the way with salvage isn’t it. You just kind of fall in love with something without actually knowing where it’s going to go or what it’s going to be.
They look miles better black than timber, plus the paint hides a multitude of cracks and fissures caused by the damp of the salvage yard. They’ll form the basis of the new TV console-shelfie-thingie, as we interior designers call it.
That’s yer lot. I’m off to Kitchens, Bedrooms and Bathrooms this week so expect some KBB inspo and trends coming your way in the coming weeks. Hopefully this will be the year we do our kitchen so the show might prove especially useful for me in 2018!
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