Thursday, January 30, 2014

Stripey

I have been reconsidering the painting for the house (of course I have!) I still want it very similar to how I did before with some very slight changes. The chair rails will still be there and I want grey for all the main areas but I want stripes in the main areas now too. Because I am having such a neutral palette I think this will help create visual interest. I want to use Limed White full strength for the bottom and some of the stripes and 1/4 strength for the others. So the wall is all the same colour just different shades with white chair rails.

I have also decided to do the same for the bedrooms. Just have one colour but different shades. So a full strength for below the chair rail and half the stripes and 1/4 strength for the rest of the stripes. I looked at the Dulux colour wall and have made these colour selections for now (though as you know by now these are likely to change (o・・o)/ ):

Master Mint- Mint Circle (full) and 1/4 for stripes
Sebastian Blue- Shimmer (full) and 1/4 for stripes
Ashley Purple- Lilac Fluff (full) and 1/4 for stripes
Ethan Green- Lime Parfait (full) and 1/4 for stripes
Laundry Coral- Coral Blossom (full) and 1/4 for stripes
Playroom Teal- Spartacus (full) and 1/4 for stripes


Here's some inspirations pics of same colour/different shade stripes to give you an idea of what I am thinking:





Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Another Change of Mind!

You know how I said I was bad with my constant mind changes about how I want the house? Well this is probably my worst yet \(●o○;)ノ I have decided on a different house altogether! I know, I'm so indecisive! However I think this design might work better as it's Federation style like a lot of the houses around my town. It's still one of the Freedom series by Kitome.



I'll draw up another plan for you in paint when I have time to show you how we will divide up the space. If you click on the link though it will take you to the floor plan (which will be much more accurate than mine)!!

This house is single story and also is narrow enough that our front door could actually face the street which would be nice. I've also already found a picture of a Federation house that has a colour scheme I want to use:





This colour scheme should also match our existing shed and fence as they are both a heritage green colour!

So there you go! I'm crazy aren't I?! It will be a miracle if our house even gets built at this rate!



Saturday, January 25, 2014

More Sofas and Armchairs

Why does this have to be so hard haha!

I have had some more ideas for furniture in the Living Room after finding some gorgeous pieces. Some cheap and some not so.

First of all this couch. I think I must have it!! It's the Charlot French Provincial Sofa by Matt Blatt and I am completely and utterly in love with it:


Isn't it beautiful? (♥ω♥ ) ~♪

I have also found some other armchairs I quite like from Ikea:

Ektorp Jennylund in Sagmyra grey check:

The Strandmon in Svanby grey:

TheStorsele in black:
And the Finntorp in white:



As you can see, there's a few different styles here. I am so bad at choosing!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Dining Table (Take 2)

I have been having so much trouble but I think I have finally found something I like that is also really cheap. I started looking at outdoor tables instead of indoor ones as I wanted a fairly solid simple table but they're either too expensive or not long enough. Turns out Ikea had a cheap outdoor table that will suit the look I am going for and also seats 8 people. The Angso Table:




Which I would pair up with these quite Provincial looking Ingolf chairs also from Ikea:

The Ingolf range also includes matching bar stools that I could use for the breakfast bar:




Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Girls Bedroom

My daughter's bedroom will be very similar to the boys' rooms. Same light fitting from Ivory & Deene:




 and the same stripes above the chair rail- except she wants half strength Majestic Purple by British Paints.

She does need a new bed but I'm having trouble deciding on one. I like these few by Fantastic Furniture:
Alice Daybed:
 Elegance:


Heart!

I also like these Sundvik and Minnen beds from Ikea:





Decisions, decisions!

 ヽ(愛´∀`愛)ノ

Monday, January 20, 2014

Ikea

I love Ikea but we don't have one where I live and they never used to deliver to my state... until now apparently. I found out from a friend on the weekend that you can now get furniture delivered and so I have been on the website since I got home adding things to wish lists. Now I have redesigned everything haha but we knew that was going to happen didn't we!

I have decided to get my kitchen from there now as I love the look of their range. I am planning to go with the Faktum Stat off-white cupboards because I love the look with the glass fronted ones on the wall framing the stove top:





I've done you another crappy drawing in paint to explain the layout aren't you glad 
( ´͈ ॢꇴ `͈ॢ)・*♡

This first one is a birds-eye view of the base cabinet layout. The wall is the thick line down the right side. All measurements are cabinet widths. The depth of all the cabinets is 60mm and the breakfast bar will be made by putting a 900mm deep counter top on:


This is a front on view of the wall cabinets on the back wall. The thick black line is the bench top and the cupboards resting on it match up with the 300mm base cabinets:





Sunday, January 19, 2014

Boys Bedrooms

It's hard to know exactly how the bedrooms will be decorated entirely as the kids will have some input too (I imagine the floor will also become storage judging from their current room). However they will have the same stripes on the walls as we will in our Master Bedroom except instead of grey and white they will have grey and a colour of their. My eldest has picked British Paints Hot Pop Blue and my middle son has picked Hot pop Green. I've chosen these light fittings from Ivory & Deene; still provincial looking but simpler:



They will both use their current beds which are bunks but can be separated into single beds. We will separate them and then I am planning on sanding them back and painting the frames white:



I also have two little identical side cupboards that I am planning to sand and paint white with striped doors for the boys bedside tables.

Lastly for now, I've given them some pictures of rugs to look at and this is the one they both wanted which comes in both the blue and green which works nicely. It's from Rugs Direct

:

Friday, January 17, 2014

Retreat

Obviously the walls of the retreat will be the same colour as the Master bedroom given it's really just the same room. For lighting I have decided to use the same type of chandelier as in the Master Bedoom except slightly smaller. So we will go with Ivory&Deene's 3 arm Marie Therese- Grace chandelier:

There are already built in wardrobes which is great. This means that along the other wall I can have something I have always wanted to have in a house- a large bookcase with a ladder to house my thousands of books! I found this one from an eBay seller by the name of dvine-dezign:



It's just lovely (´ ▽`).。o♡ It still probably won't fit all my books but it's stunning and I love it.

There are 3 things I have always really wanted in my house but haven't had room for.. The first two I have now mentioned- a claw foot bath and a bookcase with a ladder. The third one will also go in the retreat- a chaise lounge. I found this absolutely stunning Priscilla chaise lounge on Mint Black and it's actually a very reasonable price too:

I am thinking I will position it with it's back towards the bookcase in the middle of the retreat. I am also thinking I might get another round side/lamp table to sit near it.

In the retreat I think I will also have a rug. I'm not sure which one yet but probably something like one of these:






I also have a display cabinet with my dragon collection in it that will go in this room next to the bookcase.





Thursday, January 16, 2014

Master Bedroom

I'm going to do the master bedroom in two parts, so this half will be the actual bedroom half and tomorrow I'll talk about the retreat half. 

The bedrooms are where the painted walls will change a bit. We will still have the chair rail and darker grey at the bottom but in our room, I'm planning on painting white stripes on the light grey above the chair rail. Here's a pic of grey and white stripes on a wall just in case you don't know what that looks like haha:



I would also like to have a chandelier above the bed though not quite as huge as the Living room one. I decided to go with the 5 arm version of it though from Ivory&Deene:




The bed has given me the most trouble. There are so many gorgeous French Provincial beds I love but the thing I am noticing about my love of French Furniture is how expensive it is (´;Д;`) I have finally found a bed I love though that costs a reasonable amount that I can actually afford. It's the Queen Size Brittany Bed by Early Settler. It's stunning:


I really love the turning on the legs!


For side tables that will complement the legs I think I will go for two of these ones by Mint Black


I think they should go beautifully with the carved bed. I also quite like these bedside lamps from eBay seller sparklez128:



I am also considering having a dressing table against the wall at the foot of the bed. It should fit nicely if I have done my measurements correctly and the one I found also by Mint Black is gorgeous:




It's just so, so beautiful and again very reasonably priced! (‘∀’●)♡

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Bathrooms

We'll have 2 bathrooms in the new house which will be lovely (because 5 people sharing our teeny tiny bathroom can get tricky). They both have room for a shower, toilet and vanity and the en suite also has room for a bath. I am very excited about that as I love reading in the bath and our current bath is really just a shower base that I still squash myself into. I cannot wait to actually have a bath I can stretch my legs out and relax in (^~^)

The toilets, shower bases and glass will just be cheaper Bunnings ones. They look nice and are also nice on our budget. The showers are both corner ones so I'd like to tile the two wall sides of the shower with tiles also from Bunnings. I've even drawn you another bad picture in paint so that you can see the kind of design I had in mind haha:

So mostly white with 3 lines of black tiles. One across the top and 2 across the middle with a white stripe between them.

The shower head I already have one of. I bought it when we were going to renovate and extend our current house. It's an antique bronze look shower head from best-faucet on eBay and I love it, so I'll only need to buy one more of these:


I also have picked toilet roll holders, shampoo/conditioner holders and door towel holders that match. Here is the toilet roll holder from seller letuslohas at Quality Faucets on eBay (I already have one of these too):




For the vanity units I am planning on using Bunnings kitchen cabinets again and like the kitchen getting birdcage black handles and having the tops covered in granite by Granite Transformations. I have one of these and am planning on getting another of these counter top sinks by global.living on eBay:



And then pairing them with either antique bronze taps and faucet like the one for the kitchen or with these gorgeous wall taps from mvmhome also on eBay:




And then my pièce de résistance for the en suite- the bathtub. The bathtub was one of the clinching factors in me deciding to have a French Provincial/Victorian inspired home. The one I want is this gorgeous free-standing claw foot slipper bath with black bath from eBay seller wholesale-superstore:



I love claw foot baths so much (((o(*゚▽゚*)o))) We had one I was a kid and I have been enamoured with them ever since! I am planning on having a freestanding tap set that hangs over the middle of the bath also from best-faucet:


Underneath the bath I thought I'd tile the floor just to make it look interesting and stop puddles forming on the laminate floor if the kids splash in the bath. I have some gorgeous big black and white tiles which I am planning to use in a checkerboard fashion. I think it will look really interesting and match well whilst also being practical!
I was reading a magazine the other day on interior decorating ideas and stumbled across the idea of putting a coat stand in your bathroom to put your clothes on whilst you bathe or shower to stop them getting wet. I thought that was an absolutely brilliant idea so I am also planning to use it for the downstairs bathroom (I don't think there will be room in the en suite unfortunately). I found these pretty white coat stands by alvanh on eBay:





Hopefully the bathrooms should be pretty cheap to do but not look cheap!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Hallways and Staircases (and Windows)

My husband hears this a lot when I talk about the house, and it will probably get written here a fair bit too - I've changed my mind. Originally remember I said I was going to use Roman Blinds on the windows? Well I have since discovered shutters and fallen in love with their simplicity, aesthetic and low maintenance-ness (。’▽’。)♡ I also think they will help with the period feel. I discovered Victory Curtains & Blinds who cover our area and have beautiful plantation shutters like I want:





So, now that we have that cleared up haha, on to the staircase and hallways. There's not a lot I really have to say about the hallway except what lighting I like and the linen cupboard I plan to have. I have decided to use a Bunnings pantry with the provincial doors and antique birdcage handles as a linen cupboard. It will go at the end of the Hall on the ground floor against the wall. That way it's close to the main bathroom and most of the bedrooms.

The lighting I have chosen for the two hallways are these great cage balloon pendant lights that I found on eBay by a seller called duckfat:



There would be 3 in the long hallway on the ground floor and 2 along the upstairs hallway. I love how they mix the old and the new looks to make a funky looking hanging light. They also make a nice contrast to the ornate chandeliers whilst still having a period feel.

As for the staircase I have had a couple of ideas for the balustrades. I love this look:



I really like the black stair treads and black wooden handrail mixed with the white staircase and balustrades.
I also really like this:




I just love the wrought iron balustrades. I am thinking maybe I will do the white staircase with black treads and some white wooden balustrades like the first pic and the black wrought iron balustrades and hand rail from the second pic. So sort of like this:




For lighting it will get a lot of light from the lighting in the Living, Dining, Kitchen area, so I figure it won't need much more. I was planning on maybe putting one of these wall lights from Ivory&Deene on the landing wall (though not 100% sure yet):



And also placing down lights on the wall just above each third (or something like that) stair tread. So like this:


I think that should make sure the staircase is well lit enough that no one goes tumbling down it if they use it at night (((o(*゚▽゚*)o)))