Painting Part 2

One thing we learnt early on in our house-moving experience was to set up one room as you like it. That way when the rest of the disaster zone threatens to rise up and overwhelm you, you have a little retreat to go and hide in while you eat chocolate and wonder why you ever left your parents' home.

For us, that's usually the bedroom, and we had already established that, pink hearts aside, our room needed very little doing to it to make it livable.

One thing we differed on was the orange pine wardrobes with celtic decorations stuck on them. Seumas liked them as they were. I ....didn't.

An impasse seemed unavoidable, but then Seumas made the error of disappearing on holiday with my brother for a week, and I seized the initiative and a paintbrush.

I wasn't entirely sure how to tackle this, but the easiest advice I found online appeared to be to lightly sand the original varnish, then paint with a wood paint of your preferred brand and finish. I used B and Q's white eggshell, which needed about 3 coats to fully cover the orange, and held brush marks quite strongly, so I finished it off with the roller.

Seumas was sensible enough to praise it when he got home, but he does think it makes the room look a bit cold. Personally, I like cold bedrooms, and I like the clean, spare feel it gives to the room.

This nook is probably my favourite bit of the room. I love the slope of the chimney, and the way someone has built into that awkward space to make it usable as a wee dressing table.