How (not) to build a house – part 4
To catch up with our house build so far, see parts 1, 2 and 3…
It is getting to crunch time now with decisions about colours and finishes on the new house I am building, and I can put them off no longer… I am hoping that writing this mailer will help, as I have ‘analysis paralysis’ as we call it in my family!
But first an update on where we have got to with the build. (Read part 1, 2 and 3 if you’d like to catch up with the story so far.
The walls have been plastered and they are now ready for painting. All the windows and doors are in, and we are waiting for the flooring to be laid next week, woohoo! We have decided on a simple mid-toned wooden oak floor in the kitchen dining room with the classy name of ‘Champagney’. We couldn’t quite let the End Grain wood go, so we have got it in the bedroom and a corridor. One rule of decorating is that you need to let your show-stopping pieces breathe in a room – which is hard when you are a maximalist!
I designed this Willowherb wallpaper for my new collection with my bedroom wall in mind (it will be launching in February). I just LOVE IT! I will be picking up on the neutral yellows on the walls in the rest of the room. This is a ‘sneak peak’ as I am not really meant to be revealing the collection just yet – but I just cannot contain myself.
My other great excitement is my bathroom tiles. I have been truly agonising about them as my second greatest love after textiles (and cats) is ceramics. I just adore the intense colours that can be achieved with glazes, and any opportunity for colour and pattern in a room is to be embraced. There are just so many beautiful tiles out there, but when I stumbled across these ‘Kyoto’ tiles by Johnson Tiles I knew they were the ones. Of course instead of just picking one tile, I have gone for ALL the tiles in the range mixed up so the possibilities are endless. As a result, I am currently spending my evenings fiddling around with different tile pattern arrangements.
But this mailer series wouldn’t be called ‘How (not) to build a house’ if it was all plain sailing. I had thought we had paid our dues with our planning debacle. And until now, the build had gone relatively smoothly – but no. Those of you who have been following closely will remember that we are having a multi-coloured zinc shingle roof. The zinc guys were meant to start in April, then June, but in the end didn’t turn up until August. They stayed for only a week and have been AWOL since… This of course has many consequences. The roof is not 100% watertight in all this rain, and we can’t take down the scaffolding. So that is adding lots of expense and means the builders can’t do any of the exterior work yet while they wait. The part they have done is looking amazing though!
The colour decision I am really stuck on though is the kitchen cupboards. We are going for a spray-painted finish – but what colour? I am thinking of a dark sagey green to complement the plaster pink – it needs to go with my fabulous worktop and copper splashback by the hob.
Thank you to all of you who have shared your housebuilding and renovating journeys with me – I do love to hear from you so please keep the messages coming!
