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.

Painting Part 1

I think the first thing most home owners think about on moving in is 'when can we get rid of that paint'. Colour is a personal thing, and one person's avant-garde chill-out zone is someone else's Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen-fuelled nightmare.

This was particularly pressing for us as we'd decided to set up our main room in what was a child's bedroom, and had been decorated accordingly. It was instantly christened the Luuuurve Room by friends who should really know better, and I as instantly resolved to paint over the whole damn lot. 

So resolved, in fact, that I cracked open the paint just two days after we moved in... Valentines Day.

I used the cheapest B&Q emulsion I could find. I do not recommend doing this, for anyone else who might be considering removing large gloss paint hearts from their sleeping area.

The hearts took about 8 coats to cover. But it was totally worth it to stop the jokes.

What have we done?

Give or take the odd swearword, that was exactly what I said when we unlocked the back door on moving day and stepped inside.

So what had we actually done? Well, we'd planned to upgrade from the world's ugliest council house to somewhere that could just be moved into with no effort required. Bit of garden. Out of town a bit. Space for a family. Absolutely no DIY required.

That was what we planned. What we bought is a 250 year old cottage that needs new floors, new windows, new doors, new chimney, new bathroom... you get the gist. In a village, yes, space for a family, also yes (assuming our children don't grow beyond 5 foot even). Bit of garden? Well, not all of it is given over to chicken runs. Just most of it.

That sign says fresh eggs. The only eggs we have are Easter ones and I'm not sharing. 

It's just a month since we moved into Hazel Tree Cottage. Since then I have lost count of how many times I have said the same thing, with or without expletives. Would I change it? Not for the world!