Categories: home
Tags: decorating, home
Date: 22 November 2005 13:24:08
In the absence of anything more worthy to write about, I thought of using Arti's and others' skills in home decor to seek some advice about decorating (about which I know next to nothing). The damp work when I first get into the Stately Pile means that I'm going to have to redo the bedroom and bathroom, and whilst I'm not so fussed about the bathroom (it's white, I like that, though when I retile I'll put a bit of blue in there too) I'm not so sure about bedroom decoration, and I really really really don't know what to do about the kitchen.
At the moment, the hall, living room and bedroom walls are flat-sellable cream (much like my old house in London). Hall and living room have laminate floor, and the bedroom has darker (sort of reddish) stained floorboards which I like a lot. The question is, do I keep the cream walls, which have the advantage of being unoffensive and restful and not in-my-face, and add colour with accessories (rugs, cushions, throws, pictures etc) which I think worked well in the last place, or should I be a bit more adventurous and do something a little different? With reference to the programme in the title, I am absolutely NOT going to have lime green and orange in the same room (even though it worked so well in Tigglet and Wairua's wedding outfits). I think a bit of subtle colour would be quite nice, but I don't want anything overpowering. Just to be awkward, I don't want anything wishy-washy either though.
My main dilemma though is the kitchen. At the moment, the whole place is either cream or white. The whole place, that is, apart from the kitchen which has bright yellow walls (and I mean *bright*) (and as a big room there is a *lot* of wall!) with white cupboards and appliances and bright blue on all the woodwork (skirting boards, large window frame and window sill, pantry and built-in storage doors etc), and although I always did think I'd like to have a yellow and blue kitchen, this one loud room in isolation with the calm rest of the flat does kind of hit you in the face when you go in. Given that the cupboards and surfaces are white and also given that it's such a big room, I don't really want to go for cream as I've less chance to use colours and accessorise in there so it would be really dull, but I think I need to calm it down a bit. I'm inclined to ditch the blue woodwork altogether, but I'm not sure how to go about that without it looking like a botch job, and even if I keep the yellow I think it's a bit bright. What would you do? (oh and the floor if I recall correctly is a darker brown tile effect sort of thing, which I can't afford to replace right now even though I'm not mad on it)
(when I eventually get in there and get my computer back I'll post some pictures so you can see what I'm working with! But for now use your imagination :D )
[Forgot to add: the bedroom and living-room are north-facing and have tall narrow-ish windows so I'm not sure they'll get that much light, and the kitchen is south-facing so probably brighter]