ROSE DES VENTS TILES - UPDATE

I've been asked about the Rose des Vents tiles and how they're working so thought I'd just do a quick post on them.  They're barely in as our decorator cocked up laying them so I can't really account for their stickability at this point. He also didn't line them up properly for other reasons.  But here's what he did do.  From a distance.

I'm getting them properly fitted by our flooring man on Thursday so more of an update then, but for now: in my little opinion, I think they look good so far.

LIVING ROOM

This poor room has gone slightly neglected in my posts. We spend a lot of time in here - natch - sitting on our really quite gross inherited pink sofa which has got such a big arse dent that I need to be bounced out of it each night.

We have a lovely grey velvet sofa from M&S that we got at the beginning of the year, but you're only allowed to sit on that on special occasions and if you've been deloused, bleached and are wearing white.  It's a nice sofa.

Our other chair was found at the dump and is the most comfortable buttoned velvet armchair you could ever find. It is, unfortunately, a bizarre off green/yellow colour which is kind of blandly inoffensive but also, when you look at it, is ... green. Or yellow. But we love it and one day I'll reupholster and it will be the chair to end all chairs.

Originally this room was the least annoying: the colour was a cream, the carpet a pale green and we could take down the curtains.  It also had a super classy gas faux-fire with brass fittings with ultra sophisticated marble hearth. Always got a comment.

The plan in here is to make it calming and light. It has the double aspect with amazing views over the garden which make it a really lovely room.

So far, we've put up shelves and pulled out the fire. As we near the end of the renovation, this is where we are with the heart of the house.

We painted this room Flake White by Fired Earth, bagging the last tin in the Universe if my desperate tracking down of it was anything to go by.

Only the base of the glass boob light's left. I feel a slight nostalgia looking at this photo now...

 Note the carpet combo. Oh! How I'll miss that ...

GARDEN DEVELOPMENTS

So the garden. Once home to a thousand bulbous bushes, elderly rose sprawls, things that were plants but were now suspiciously tree-like and other Nan favourites, is looking very different.  RB has been fixated on the idea of creating a sloping lawn up to a reduced patio with narrow borders.  This will maximise the lawn space. I have to say, I'm still slightly on the fence about the slope - it does, as he said, bring the lawn - and some much needed colour - up to the house, but it feels a bit ... weird. In my opinion (which is not humble). 

Anyway. He's pleased with it and the garden's his bag so who am I to argue. There're no rhodendrums and the patio isn't like a concrete expanse of desolate depression so I'm happy.

So. Here's how it looked when we moved in.

Aside from those bushes, it's a good garden. We had nothing against the garden apart from ...

See that patio. What were they THINKING when they put a patio that size in?  That home street-hockey was going to come into vogue?

So we lived with it, stripping bits here and there, moving sheds, taking down trees, smashing the bejeezus out of the patio.

Then we got one of these.

I know. Our builder was BEYOND excited when it turned up. I came back from shopping and he was out there in the driving rain, all 'yeah, I'm driving a JCB, whatever' with a fag hanging from his mouth while his dad (they're a team) ran around banging the mud out of the digger with  a plastic bag on his head.  It was a sight to behold.

Anyway. That's sitting on last summer's addition to the garden - we moved the shed across the garden, took out the trees and rose/rockery and created a patio. I think we had a drink on it last September.

So this is what our builder did in those first few days.  You can see the slope being built up.

And the patio being smashed down :).

Then they tidied up the patio and built some steps.

How neat is that!  I mean, have you ever seen a slope so smoothly done?  Note the positive appraising going on from RB.

We also had a gardener in to unturf and level. It's like a beardy man suddenly shaved, isn't it. For some reason, though, this feels quite sophisticated to me.

Anyway. Tonight, we came home to this:

I mean, LOOK at that patio and the steps!

Turf should be finished tomorrow and then it's just tidying up the remaining bulbous bushes and sorting out the front path. Piece. Of. Cake. (because we're getting someonelse to do it)

THE COLOUR FLOORING COMPANY

My wonderful now sister-in-law introduced me to this company.  She has impecable design taste being an Architectural Technician so if it's good enough for her ...

The Colour Flooring Company sell sheet vinyl flooring in an array of beautiful and contemporary colours which are the perfect alternative to wood, tile or - perish the thought - LINO in the kitchen.  And when I say LINO like that, I'm in no way referring to the French vinyl tiles I'm installing in the lavvie which are VINYL TILES. And pretty.  I am, of course, referring to the LINO we currently have which is just blandly offensive.

Anyway, enough shouting and more talk about the Colour Flooring Company.  The 'boutique' company was set up by two former design journalists, Bill and Lena, in response to finding it impossible to find a simple vinyl flooring that wasn't - and I'm paraphrasing here - gross. When they eventually found it, they decided to bring it to the the chic masses of GB.

The quality is good. The price is good (c£26 p/m2). And the colours are LUSH.

My S-I-L went for the Apple in her contemporary white kitchen which I initially thought was a brave choice but now it's in and fitted, it completely works.  I love it with the warm wood of her worktops. (the photo's not of her kitchen, btw - it's someone else's special pad)

Unfortunately, RB's decorating language largely hinges on the words 'subtle' and 'classy' which can be loosely translated as Grey. Or White.  Or Grey.  So we were limited in choice for our kitchen to the greys. And the white.

Which meant we couldn't consider this:

Lemon.  Imagine how sunny you'd feel walking into a white kitchen with that beaming up at you. And by THAT I mean the floor rather than the child who is super cute but is, I would imagine, a bit noisier than flooring.

Or this:

Powder Blue.  Again, against white kitchen units, this could be really clean and crisp.

Or this:

Tangerine.  Oh how I love this.  It's so warm.

But it's not like the greys aren't lovely too. In fact, if you like grey, you're really quite spoilt - they have four: Pebble, Antelope, Dove and Parlour.  We went for Antelope which is a warm neutral grey - it looks very grey until you put it beside the others when it looks more taupey. Or Antelope.

The units are now painted white and the oak worktops go in next Friday.  In terms of colours, it will basically look like this.  Having been swayed initially by the refreshing pattern of the Red Stars vinyl tiles, it took a moment to come back to plain, but now that I have, I am WELL excited about it going down.  The fitter's coming in for Thursday/Friday so we should have a finished kitchen by next weekend!

Next: the garden...

SURFACE VIEW - OBSCURING BEAUTIFULY

We can’t use this in our house AT THE MOMENT, but I LOVE this film for a bathroom window.  

Not only is it tres cool, but it’s a MAP – one of my favourite things to look at.  I love a good map. Maps look beautiful and read like books.  You are never alone with a map. Maps lift us up where we belong. All you need is map ...

But windowfilm ...

The plain kind makes me feel like I’ve gone blind and don’t get me started on the ‘simple’ styles featuring, for examples, little squares cut out to give it – one can only assume – a ‘contemporary’ feel (which I’m sure fits in beautifully amongst the Ikea prints and the photocanvas of the dog).   I have a long standing physical reaction to any kind of decorative element that includes a lone gerberer or lily which seems to be as quirky as window film gets. 

Put a map on it, however, and windowfilm shows that old horror-show dappled glass the door, giving it a hefty kick up the rump for good measure.

And its piece d’resistance (I’ve used that twice and still don’t know how to spell it) is that not only does it look fabulous, but it’s educational!

It’s called Chart of London City, comes in white and grey and is £60per sq/m (bargain!) from www.surfaceview.co.uk  - which btw, is pretty stonking for all kinds of  surface coverings and I’m not allowed to look at in full until I’m a millionaire.  I mean HOLY COW have you seen what they can do on Formica??

Oh to be minted/not worry about credit-card bills...

A TILE DISASTER (sort of ...)

After a run of fabulous decisions where it was like I could do no wrong and I ran with my hair flowing in the breeze upon the silvery joy of Being Right, I’ve hit a bit of a wall.

The Red Star floor tiles didn’t work.  And I ordered £200 worth of them.

 Now, don’t get me wrong, I really like them and the colour's perfect.  But I got them for the kitchen and this is where I fell down: the pattern is small and the floor space is large.  And while I loved the way the colours merged to give a fresh grey/white/red feel, I didn’t enjoy the way that the pattern did the same to my eyes.

I tried them in the downstairs lavvie and it was a completely different story: the tiles looked completely at home and the size of the pattern wasn’t so noticeable.  Instead, they gave a really cool, retro feel to the space. Unfortunately, I’ve already got my heart set on the really fresh red and white of the Rose des Vents which means – urgh – the Red Stars have got to go back.

I’m genuinely gutted because I do like them and also, I hate breaking my golden streak. That sounds gross, but you know what I mean.

In their place, we’re going for the back up which I like but also feel is a little bit ... safe.  I liked the idea of having a funky pattern on the floor in the kitchen which is dated and only getting a new worktop and a lick of paint (lick, lick, lick – HATE that word).  And I hate being wrong.  As I said. Anyhoo.

This is our back up.   It’s from the Colour Flooring Company and is a vinyl floor covering that comes in a roll.  The colour is Antelope.  Will blog more about this company later as was introduced by my lovely sister-in-law who have this in Apple in their kitchen.

To be honest, we’ve had our eye on this for a while and I have absolutely no doubt that it will look lovely.  And the colour was my decision so in some ways, I know I will be returning to the Right.  But I will miss what the Red Stars could have been.

Zazous' French Vinyl Tiles

The tiles from Zazous arrived and I LOVED them.  I'm going to hold on photographing them until the lavvie floor's not still covered in green carpet but just wait because they are MAGNIFICENT (I may be over selling them here but, hey ho). Little reminder below.

Anyway.  Since I got those tiles, I seem to have developed a really quite worrying crush on their mate.  Showing here ...

This is Red Stars.  What I love about this pattern is that it gives an overall impression of colour while having a really pretty dinky little pattern. And ... they're PRETTY. I went bonkers and ordered the whole entire bunch to cover the kitchen floor. I'm a leeeeetle bit nervous because RB's not totally sold being a boy and liking things that are 'Subtle'. And also, they may be a bit boggly, like the wallpaper we used to hate.

Oh pleeeeease be as lovely as Rose des Vents!

FEATHER & BLACK YUMMINESS

We've decided to get a bigger bed seeing as we have to share it with two fat cats, and RB and I seem to have really big elbows that get in the wrong places at the wrong times.  I'd heard about Feather & Black and loved their website - http://www.featherandblack.com/ - and was dead excited to see that they had an Outlet store in Chichester which isn't far from here.

My GOD that store is AMAZING!  If you love beautiful things and incredible bargains, you really cannot - and I'm saying this with so much enthusiasm there is neitehr font nor special effect that can convey it - CANNOT (best I can do) do better than a trip.  The discounts in the outlet are outstanding and the lovely manager, Donna, was really helpful and didn't make us feel like lepers for not wanting to pay £1.5k for a divan.

We came away with (or at least, we will when we've finalised the van-hire) a king divan and a mattress, two of these gorgeous chests of drawers and beside tables.

 And the piece de resistance, or however you say it - this headboard. This headboard was an AMAZEBALLS bargain: instead of £499, we got it for £275.

The fabric is Pebble and is a really lovely warm grey.  I am SO excited about this lot arriving.  At the moment, our room is so patchy with half painted walls, sanded filler, unpainted woodwork ---  it'll be so relaxing to get into bed and not be constantly aware of all the work that needs doing.  

Anyway, Feather and Black rule.  Yeah. 

COMMITTING TO COLOURS....

It turns out that White Mist is the colour equivalent of Michael Gove: cold and utterly cheerless. (ho ho). And Grey Steel is actually BLUE. We haaaaaaa-aaa-te it.  So have spent all today driving ourselves mental about what colour to repaint it in.

I think we're settled - THINK - on Crown Petit Palais in Lait for the bulk of the hallway.  It's a warm, pale grey.  I guess you could call it beige ... BUT NOT TO MY FACE.

And then --- bold move --- F&B Cornforth White downstairs by the kitchen and upstairs on the landing.  We really like Cornforth White.  It's a good grey - strong in the shadown and light in the ... light.  It's also not too cold. 

We're sticking to Flake White in the living room, but we're going to go for --- another bold move as we've not got testers, we're just going for it.  We did the colour check thing in B&Q and the machine told us it would work with the headboard fabric so ...  Dulux Chalk Blush 2 & 4

I'm still not sure about the dining room but as it's full of crap at the moment, I don't think it's a pressing issue.  It might be on the grey scale, though ...

STRIPPED!

So now the bastard wallpaper's gone and we're ready for painting!

Look! Look!

The one above gives a little sneaky peek of the shelves that we put up in the living room - I'm not going to show you them now as they're a state.  Showing my bookshelves in disarray is like running down the street naked in my world - you only do it when you're really drunk.  And I'm not as it's a Sunday.

No. We don't know why those steps into the lounge are so big either. There are some upstairs too.

Anyway.  Here's the entrance hal.

As posted before, we're looking at White Mist downstairs and the stairs and Grey Steel 3 on the landing.  I had grey up there before and it looked uber cool. 

And here's the downstair's lavvie, stripped and BASECOATED :).  This will have a whole new white lavvie suite in it annnnnd ... the Zazous tiles because they arrived and I fricking LOVE them!

God, I really need to get better at taking photos ...

THE BATHROOM

The other thing we've done so far is the bathroom.

Remember how the bathroom was a delightful mushroom with mushroom taps and a mushroom bath with a baggy panel that never quite fitted back and always gaped open a little.  The taps had had some kind of hardcore cleaning product on them at some point and so always looked tarnished.

There was also that utterly pointless shelf on which we had balanced the beige plastic cabinet which had fallen off the wall about a year before.  That cabinet was an organisers wet dream: I have never seen so many different sized shelves and compartments - all of which were moveable so you could Create Your Own interior depending on how you felt that day. All in dark brown plastic.

Sadly, I never thought to take a photo.

The loo roll holder matched with a pointless brown plastic flap over the toilet roll (because no-one wants a dusty roll?).  The flap broke just after we moved in and always sat on a squiff and made roll changing awkward.  

It was also dotted with mirrors and an overwhelming number of towel rails.  If you think too hard about that it hurts.

And it was entirely ENTIRELY tiled in beige with pink flowers.  And a wood-effect lino with careless paint splatters from the previous owners.

How did we last so long with that bathroom?!

So, this is before (avec the Lovely RB):

And this is how the landing looked.  Oh GOD I remember this ...

With the renovation, we did the following:

1. Removed that pointless shelf

2. Gave a foot on the left to the built-in cupboards in our bedroom.

3. Replaced the entire suite, installed a roll-top and moved the shower to the other end

4. Installed solid-wood flooring

5. Installed a heated towel rail and removed the radiator.
6. Rehung the door.

7. Painted it.

And this is it now ...  I'm sorry the pictures are a bit shit. I really don't know why they are.  I blame the tools. (Note the lovely grey wall of the hallway - I LOVED that.  It's gone now as I did it over the wallpaper, but it WILL be replaced. Note too the amount of orange-brown wood that remains and and that LOVELY pink carpet. It's still there ...)

Anyway:

Paint is Cornforth White (F&B) - it looks really dark in this one, but it's a gorgeous mid-grey.  Mirror runs full length of the wall and was a bargain from Ikea.  See my lovely Homebase drama queen lights?  This time it's a FOURSOME :)

White heated towel rail.  I would've preferred chrome but white gives out more heat apparently.  Oh, and that towel rail above it? Most expensive thing in the world.

Same shower as in our ensuite - I think we got the last at the bargain price. Tiles are matt white metro tiles from Tons of Tiles with a mid-grey grout.  We spent days agonising over that grout but we made the right choice. We're really pleased with them.

In short, you come into our house, see something stuck in some kind of weird time limbo, go to the loo and are like --- have I gone through a rabbit hole to 2012?  Which is EXACTLY the aim, especially when my mum comes to visit. Confusing my mum's fun.

MEET THE WALLPAPERS

Okay, so technically, after 2.5 years, they've gone, but this is what we moved into all those years ago. 

Here is detail of the Hallway Wallpaper.  I had painted over it with Antique Cream about a year ago so I didn't start fitting if I went past that print fast. This was revealed after we removed one of the many panic buttons the previous owners had installed around the house and that I have been SO tempted to press but didn't because I was terrified that within seconds there'd be a helicopter circling and our doors would be kicked in by SAS paratroopers ... oh, that was an opportunity missed really.

So right, the wallpaper.  See it's not gross but it's not ironic.  It's evil.

And this is the wallpaper in the downstairs lavvie.  This is mid-removal - it was perfectly done for the time we were here.  We didn't live like animals.

Now, they've both gone :)