DIY Project

Diary of a redecorating project – Week 28

I spent the whole week on painting. My arms are killing me. I painted the walls in the hallway, the staircase (two sets!) doors and other woodwork etc. Although I like painting, I got very bored by the end of it…everything needed at least three coats of paint.  Anyway, I decided to keep everything white in a soft sheen finish. This will reflect the light back into the space making the rooms appear larger and lighter – also this finish is more practical as it can be easily wiped..

We’ve also finished the radiator covers in most rooms. I didn’t have time to buy material for the curtain-panels nor for the lighting-picture. Perhaps this week or next week I’ll find some.

Now the only two rooms to be finished are the guest bedroom and the entrance hallway. This week we’re  putting down the new parquet floor in the entrance hall –  originally I didn’t want to change the existing laminated floor, but it got scratched quite badly over the last 10 months. Also, we’ve got proper wood everywhere in the house – it just didn’t suit the overall scheme. We’ve bought some cheap & cheerful parquet tiles. These are supposed to be easy to lay. They are untreated so they’ll have to be stained and/or varnished. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. Then I can get the carpet-layers to carpet the staircases. (They were booked for March!)

Then we should finish off the floors on the top floor and paint it. This should only take a couple of days too. Then we’ll be building a daybed in the guest bedroom – made of timber- to accommodate a bed and all my Muji storage boxes underneath. The walls I’ll just paint white, although I’m considering some textural paint to add a bit of depth. White matt finish is very boring and inappropriate in a town house.  I’ll have to come up with something interesting.

Our entrance hall is quite a useless space   – it’s about 1.3m wide and 8.5m long. I want to make it  into a space that is used, not just walked through. So I’ve come up with a design that will provide seating and shoe cabinets and display shelves. They will float and be covered with iroko slats to relate to the rest of the house.

So there is still a lot to do. I hope we’ll finish by Christmas – or more importantly by the 1st anniversary of our moving in! We thought it would take maximum 3 months to redecorate this house. I certainly hope it won’t take more than a year! We also have another deadline – a friend of ours is coming to stay in a couple of weeks. The guest bedroom must be ready by then!