Venetian mirror shopping madness!

Here is my greatest example of shopping madness. Did i consider this purchase sensibly for a few days to be sure? No i did not! This was bought entirely on a whim. Always prone to shopping as therapy, this was my personal response to a particularly bad day. This item personifies shopping at its most defiant. 'Screw you world - I'm going to buy some STUFF!'. Also at this time my shoe collection improved magnificently. I can't say i have buyers remorse.

I found this mirror at Alex MacArthur's spectacular house/showroom (Everyone should visit. Alex is so stylish and the house will thrill you). A million years ago or so, I'd seen a remarkably similar Venetian mirror and had fallen desperately, obsessively in love with it. But in the present day I had no plans for anything quite so ornate in the new place. Where can I even hang the thing? It had damned well better go next to some industrial concrete or brick texture surfaces to counterbalance this almost obscene level of girlishness. Also this mirror is large. The bottom (badly taken by myself) photo shows it next to a tape measure for size comparison. at 150cm tall I'm honestly not sure where it will fit in our bijou cottage. Nor am i sure what i have that will work well with it, or what room to put it in. If anyone could tell me where the hell i should put it, I would be much obliged.
In terms of practicality, as an object which the removal guy described as 'a massive, incredibly delicate glass snowflake', I can admit that this purchase was not sensible, on any level.

Still... Look at it. Its pretty bloody good, right?

Coffee Table!!!!! -Sorted.

So i officially have a new coffee table. Although it hasn't arrived yet I'm too excited to wait, so here are some photos of this lovely thing. Instead of traditional butterfly joints there are hummingbirds, which are rather wonderful. You can find some other tables made by the same guy here or at the artist's own site - here.

I bloody love it!!!

Large brass palm tree lamp - and other absolutely necessary home items..

So i've clearly been extremely useless at blog posting since the last entry. Work took over and after mulling things over (for a variety of reasons too numerous and boring to discuss) i completely threw out my ideas for the bedroom. I also discovered pinterest, which i'm finding far more useful for the process of organising my visual thoughts. We're also waiting to see some plans back so until then I'm going to avoid making any grand pronouncements about future decorating decisions. Instead, I'm going to stick to the most important sorts of posts -photo updates of the various items i've been collecting for our new home. I'll add more as they arrive, whenever that is..

So first up, This marvellously blurry photo shows my absolutely favourite item for our new home- the brass palm tree floor light. How i love its gold magnificence! I have done it absolutely no justice with my wonky photography attempt. Truly - it is a thing of beauty. I find myself gazing at it, enraptured for long periods of time. Note the unnecessarily flowery language when i refer to it - a sign of true love..
I'm also rather partial to this beautiful Marco Zanuso style 50's club chair, covered in a rather pleasant honey coloured leather, that i picked up in Brighton over the summer. The lines and flow of it are gorgeous, which one would best appreciate in an image not taken by myself. I love sitting in it next to the lamp. Can't wait to get them down to the house!

Next item for your consideration - a Tibetan tiger rug. I was eyeing this covetously for ages. After several months it finally disappeared from the website and i rang the store in a panic. Legged it down to collect the last one in stock -funny how its sudden rarity made it so much more justifiable.. Only problem with this is that its very, very small. Pretty much the size of a bath rug really. Can i use it in the bathroom?? Probably not..

Last one for now and looking a bit of a state - an ebay purchase - is this dragon lantern. Its quite a decent size - about 24" tall. The silk has gone, obviously, and some of the wood needs replacing. I think it will be a fun project! Not sure where it will go yet, but i do have some ideas for the fabric -possibly a strong geometric -certainly a pattern that provides a nice stylistic counterpoint to the frame. Its a good size too. Hurrah!!!

So, i'm well and truly veering over to the gold detailing these days. Funny, because in my youth i used to find gold incredibly tacky. Not so now.. Otherwise i think i have quite eclectic tastes. Which, i imagine might seem quite crazed to some, but my general room of thumb is that i have to find everything a thing of beauty in my own right. I want to be inspired when i look around me! Hopefully i can make some sense of it all when i get it into the new place....

Bedroom: dreams... and decisions?

The bedroom is the first area that is going to need a makeover because i really don't want to have to do it after we move in! I love the colours that the previous owners have painted it, and so had decided not to change it. Until we moved in that is, when after looking at the room in its bare state, JL decided that he found the colours unbearably girlish. So what now?

Looking at these images makes me really sad - i love the colours so much! -Of course if i change it I will forever have the physical reminder of my thoughtfulness. Which i do like.. 

A couple of other problems need to be addressed in the room. Were going to have to go for the built in wardrobes option if we want any useful storage at all. I don't like built in wardrobes normally, but the place is too small for free-standing units if we want to actually hang up our clothes. The other is that the room is very small, and we have a very large bed. Bed size is non-negotiable, or we'd end up tired and fractious in the summer months when there's the obligatory man heat to contend with. Unfortunately we can't place the bed with its head against the wall (facing the built over fireplace) as there's no room to open/shut the door, or walk around the bed. We can't place the bed facing the windows because the bathroom is behind that wall and the noise will be an issue (i also need to look into soundproofing). So that means were going to have to place the bed with the headboard in front of the windows. I'm not keen on this idea because i was brought up to believe in drafts and sore necks. But that's what's going to have to happen..

Because the room is so bloody small I've perversely decided to try and make it feel even smaller with my decorating choices. I'm hoping this will give it a welcoming and cosy, rather than horribly oppressive quality. Fingers crossed..

So colour wise I'm looking at deep blues, teal, peacock and stormy colours as current wall paint options:

But do i keep the walls a simple block of colour or go for a chinoiserie pattern? Obviously i can't afford De Gournay or Fromental wallpaper, but i do own a paintbrush. Having said that, i am quite lazy and rubbish at getting my craft on, so it's highly unlikely this would ever happen. I'm not telling JL this idea. He would probably have a panic attack.

I'm also really into the idea of using floorboards as ceiling cladding. JL hates this idea. In fact he hates the idea of doing anything to ceilings other than painting them white. This issue is deeply embedded in his psyche. The thought of messing with a ceiling? -Sacrilegious! Too bad for him, as i want to cover all my ceilings in things that are most definitely not white paint. But just look at Oppenheim's La Muna Aspen ski chalet. If its good enough for them.. right?

Regarding the windows, I think i want to place one long curtain rail across the wall, with one large richly coloured velvet curtain that runs along the length of it. In front of the windows themselves I'm torn between the usual things - dark lace curtains, sudare (otherwise known as misu - those bamboo blinds with a fabric hem)  or chinese window shutters. Hmmmmm..

These italian deco bizarro night tables from caviar 20 would be the dream if only they were still for sale. How i crave them!

As for lighting, I'm torn between a large central chandelier or two small lights hung down low from the ceiling on either side of the bed, above the bedside cabinets.

Wardrobes? i'm torn between upcycling deco wardrobe doors and hanging them on the front of the built in wardrobe, or Rajasthani screens. I'm leaning towards the deco doors as if i go with most of the other ideas, the screens are going to be overkill.

Not sure about the bed/headboard just yet. Tufted? Lacquer panel? 70s rattan???? And I refuse to even consider the flooring yet as everything else is so up in the air!

One thing is becoming clear - after years of renting and never actually owning my own place, my method of decorating has been to take the opposite approach from pre-planning, simply wafting about and buying shit i like. Turns out planning stuff is actually quite tricky. Also slightly overwhelming as i'm beginning to realise that even the simplest of rooms comes with overheads! Laying it all out in a blog is quite useful though. Makes it easy to see that I have a lot of competing ideas. No, I won't be using them all as i want my bedroom to be relaxing. Definitely time to dial it back.. Thoughts? Anyone?!

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In the beginning...

Hurrah!!!!!! It seemed like we had waited for an eternity -but then finally the sale went through and we were suddenly IN!!! A brief period of total self-doubt was quickly resolved by a trip to the local and now its time to negotiate the tricky business of doing up the place. Taking photos is taxing as I'm rubbish at taking photos, but also the place is small enough that its difficult to get a decent shot of anything. Nonetheless I shall try to catalogue the delights and horrors of doing up my place with a series of blurry and badly composed photographs. Bloody fantastic!

So what's happening? The place is looking slightly forlorn since the previous owners removed their things, but hopefully we'll start to make some headway on decorating a couple of rooms fairly soon and make it our own. How long can it really take after all?  - Hah!

I have managed a couple of firsts -painting my first paint test strips ever in my own home! (I'm currently thinking of going with Farrow and Ball's 'Mizzle' for the living room -sort of a muted Eau de Nil colour). And I have also bought a new door knocker for the front door. True to form i have made it look horrible in the photo. It is not bulbous looking and painted in a horrible high gloss paint. It is lovely and delicate looking, cast in iron so with a nice weight to it. Its a french georgian 'Fatima's hand' door knocker. The hand of Fatima is meant to ward off the evil eye, or just plain unluckiness. Apparently. Maybe it means that decorating the place will be wonderfully easy and nothing will ever go wrong.

Maybe..