Our new bedroom... previously the studio

Soooo, our wooden floors are done downstairs (B&Q solid oak floor); our wardrobe is up (IKEA Pax); the wall is papered and the curtains are hung (both Laura Ashley Heligan). Happy days!

Getting the floor done was actually more of an upheaval that we had anticpated. I don't think you realise how much 'stuff' you've accumulated, until you have to move it from one room to another! We basically had to clear everything from under two double beds (which included boxes and boxes of the boy's old singles)as well as the contents of the wardrobe and drawers etc etc. And because we were switching the studio and bedroom around (the new studio/old bedroom being the only room that wasn't getting the wooden floor treatment) we ended up piling all the studio stuff into the back bedroom (see pics on previous post) before moving it in order to enable us to get to the bed etc so we could move that into the new bedroom. Lots of heavy lifting.

Anyway, it's done now - aside from touching up the walls in a few places and re-painting our woodwork (which inexplicably always seems to go yellow even though we paint with good quality white gloss). I love our new bedroom (petite though it is), and I also LOVE having decent wardrobe space for the first time ever. We've kept our old wardrobe and put it in the small bedroom, so guests will have somewhere to hang their things too. Yay.

Hope you like!







Pictures of the new studio (complete with my late Dad's shabby old oak desk that I've always loved, and that we collected from home last weekend) will follow!

Wallpaper and curtains

In a few minutes of rare decisiveness I've just ordered some wallpaper and curtains in the Laura Ashley sale for our new bedroom (the old studio). I've loved the Heligan pattern for ages, and actually thought about using it in the back bedroom (new studio)and brought a sample home. I decided against it, but took it around to a friend's house thinking it would look great in her guest room, and it does! So she has a heligan covered chimney breast and heligan curtains in her guest room, with lovely green walls. I think we're going to keep our walls white and just paper one wall... Hopefully it will look restful and lovely.

Floor laying is going on at a pace downstairs - though still no skirting boards in the bedroom, so we can't start moving stuff back in yet. I'm so impatient, and I HATE mess, so I just can't wait to get it all done! We're away for the next two weekends, so not sure when we're going to be able to order our wardrobes - I might have to bribe a friend to take us to Ikea one week night.

All promising progress though!

Pre-wooden floor chaos!

A few snaps of the chaos! We spent last night clearing out the studio so that wooden floors could be laid today. They're looking great, but the skirting boards still need to be replaced. That will be done tomorrow, and then the work will start on the hallway... The plan is that by about lunchtime tomorrow we should be able to move the bed and wardrobe etc into the old studio / new bedroom. Hopefully we can then sort out the new studio / office. We've already moved the piano and so once the bed is out of the way we'll be able to sort everything else out. In two weeks time we're hiring a van and driving back to Dorset to collect a huge oak desk that belonged to my wonderful Dad. I can't wait to have it in our home, and have told the boy that he has to keep the studio tidy in honour of the desk!!

More soon....

Piles of music equipment...




And you can see the floor in the old studio / new bedroom!

Wooden floor excitement

I'm very excited because on Wednesday our wooden flooring is being delivered!! We've already got dark oak flooring upstairs (in the lounge and hallway - our house is kinda upside down) and we're now doing the hallway and two of the bedrooms downstairs. We got the flooring from B&Q, but it really does look great (we're going for the same one again). I was a bit disappointed that we only saved 15% in the sale this year, 2 years ago we saved a whopping 30%. Still, 15% isn't to be sniffed at I guess.

We're going to move the boys music studio into the large bedroom (currently guest room and dressing room) and he's going to keep the carpet in there as it's better for the sound. Our new guest bedroom, complete with wooden floors, will be the medium sized room AND very excitingly once the floors are down we're going to order 200cm of wardrobe space - 2 double wardrobes worth. As we're getting IKEA Pax ones the rails will be double height so it should quadruble the pitiful wardrobe space we have at the moment.

Realistically I don't expect this all to be completed before the beginning of February, but I CAN'T WAIT! I'm slightly worried about all the stuff I'm going to find under both the double beds when we move them... but I guess January is the perfect time for a clear out!

Photos to follow soon...

A belated Merry Christmas!

How terrible - I haven't written a blog since October. Crazy. I'm not really sure why - work was very busy, we've had quite a few visitors, I had nothing to say or show that was a patch on what fellow bloggers share... ANYWAY - practically new year, and hence the time for resolutions. I resolve to write more blog posts, and to do some of the housey things I'm always talking about!

We've been having a lovely Christmas break and, counting weekends too, I've got 17 days away from the office. Brilliant, eh? We had a London Christmas this year, with my Mum coming up from Dorset to stay with us. On Christmas day itself we went around to some good friends who conveninently live about 2 minutes away, and ate with them. So, Christmas without having to cook - even better!

To ease myself back into the blogging habit I just thought I'd share a few pics of our Christmas decor, our ever growing kitten, and the dining room table around at my friends house...I love decorating our tree each year, bringing out the big box of decorations, many of which my mum and I made together when I was small. We add to it each year too, and I love having a mixture of things on the tree. I'm afraid we don't have themes or colours just a big mixture of Christmas memories and campness (pear necklace wearing festive frogs, anyone?!) The big, slightly scruffy cardboard Santa (or Santy if you're Irish) on top of the tree came from the boy's childhood, so that sits atop each year too!

Our Christmas dining room table -








Lovely Christmas bunting - a present from a friend


Millie the kitten found the tree quite exciting, but to date has been very good and not pulled the whole thing over. She does like to play with the decorations though!


She also loves paper...and ribbons...so wrapping presents took a bit longer than normal


A cute garland with wooden hearts and pegs, that holds some of our cards




Our own table - we had friends to dinner on Christmas Eve