Welcome, apologies that several weeks – and more time than I would have hoped – have yet again past since my last post……they have passed by in a haze of learning a new job, getting to know our new puppy, Christmas and… decorating!  Yes, I have finished painting my ‘snug’ room and am pretty pleased with the result!

 

Before I go any further, here are some before pictures:

 

In the past I have been an advocate for painting my rooms in light colours – in fact at one time I wanted to paint the whole house white!  But more recently I have been embracing the dark side – maybe it is the time of year but there seems to be a whole movement on the pros of decorating our rooms dark, comforting colours.

The main advocate for this school of thought is Abigail Ahern – she is a stylist and designer who runs her own shop, website and blog.  During the summer when I was in London I went to visit her shop in Islington and although not huge it was stuffed with sumptuous rugs, cushions, furnishings that had plenty of colour and texture and I was smitten.  She also has her own paint range and as well as advising on painting rooms in these bold, dark colours, she recommends that you paint the ceiling the same colour to really immerse yourself and make the room one whole.  I was tempted to try this but was a little worried that the room would look out of place as all the other ceilings in my house are white and I knew from the start that hubby would find this idea one step too far, but can see her wisdom behind her thinking – her shop is painted dark grey with the colour being taken onto the ceiling and I think it looked fab!  A link to here website is here Abigail Ahern.  She also sells a range into Debenhams if you so happen to like quirky velvet covered animal lamps and cushions.

I had been tempted to cover one wall in wallpaper as a nod to a feature wall, but after many hours of looking could just not find one that I liked in my price point.  Another blog that I follow, Swoonworthy where the writer Kimberley has decorated her dining room this year has a feature wall of mesmerising wallpaper,but when I researched this and found it was nearly £100 per roll it was just out of my budget.  I figured that as there is a brick wall in the room (that is painted) I didn’t want too many styles and features as it is quite a small room.

As for colour – I have gone with Farrow and Ball paints – my little bit of luxury – all made in Dorset and a lovely texture.  After going through several tester pots I settled for Plummet – a lovely dark grey – this room has undergone several transformations since living in the house – from children’s play room, to teenage hangout den to office – and most lately it had been painted white – when I first painted the above mentioned brick wall I was a little nervous – but I knew painting it white was fairly safe – but now painting it dark grey I was unsure, but am so pleased I bit the bullet.  The room is definitely feeling much cosier.  I also had a grey wooden desk in the room but it was the wrong shade of grey – too insipid, and so I decided to paint it in a dark aubergine gloss which looks amazing alongside the dark grey.

So now the hard work was done, it was time to add the fanciful pieces.  For the most part I have repurposed the pieces that I already had – just a change of position here and there – it has made all the difference.  I have purchased a couple of side tables from Next that fit the room perfectly and have also gone to Next for some curtains and curtain pole.  My idea was for the curtains to ‘pool’ onto the floor but they are a bit long even for that and so will have them taken up a touch in the new year.

I am using a copper colour as my accent and hope to gather a few bits over the coming weeks.

The old rug has gone back down for the moment, I quite fancy a cow hide in the room but again am mindful that it might just look too much in the space so I shall wait and see.  The item I am stuck on at the moment is a bookcase.  As our house was built at the beginning of the 1960s I thought that I should aim to obtain a piece from the era to add a bit of nostalgia to the room – recently I went to a large antique centre but there was little to choose from and after ploughing through e-bay and the internet for hours I still have not found a piece to suit.  I don’t really know what I am looking for but it is one of things that I will know it when I see it.  I am now of the mind that I may have to buy something new that is styled in the modernist way.  So watch this space…….

Just prior to Christmas I also decorated the small room that leads into my new snug, this leads out from the kitchen and it has always just been a walkthrough, or somewhere that the dogs hang out!  Again this was painted white and I have gone for ‘Brassica’ – another Farrow and Ball colour which I think looks perfect when looking through into my snug room – I will just give you a sneak peak of the colour as it looks on the wall, as I have yet to style this room – again I am looking for some nice mid-century (if possible) furniture – a display cabinet is what I have in mind – I may also add curtains and a large picture – so I don’t want to reveal the whole room just at the moment – I think it could take me a couple of months to save up and source the pieces – so hope to bring this to you in the Spring.  Notice how the colour looks different in the photos below dependant on the light and shade:)

To finish up for today, I would just like to say that although my blog tailed off towards the end of last year, I am hoping to be more prolific in the weeks to come and to get back on track once again.  So, until next time…………