What a grown man finds seriously sexy

An ice maker fridge. That's what my husband finds seriously sexy when it comes to the home decor side of things. He went and bought this without telling me. Always a life threatening action. To his credit he bought a stainless steel fridge and although I think it is huge I have definitely seen larger. Oh the double entendres that spring to mind. You may notice that it still has its stickers and protective plastic in place. Hell we haven't taken it off its styrofoam base yet. The reason why is that this big bad puppy has to fit in that seemingly tiny space. My blind husband has measured and bought. I have measured after the fact and I pray. It will fit but only after the plumber comes to remove that old hot water system. It is attached to the wood burning stove in the kitchen and apparently still works but the height necessitates a tiny fridge if it stays or that horror of home decorating, the fridge in other living area scenario. It's going. New fridge is moving in. Plumbing is there waiting to go. Now that's a bonus. Looks like I might have to splash some paint around before the plumber comes. That's what it looks like behind the fridge when you haven't cleaned for 150 years :) Gotta fly. Say a prayer that the blind guy got his measurements right.

  

My husband wants to buy me this ...

... and I want to be sensible and save the money for something boring like an electrician or a rainy day. Not the chair but the large venetian mirror on the right. It's from my friend Kerrie's shop ES Traders. (Yes Anita it's the one you took a photo of so long ago. Kerrie's website is still under construction. I've set her up a blog. Just one test post so far but I'll let you know when you can see all her gorgeous stock and meet the fabulous Ms Kerrie as well.) Back to the mirror. I love it. It's a good price considering how extravagant it would be. But it is too tall for over the mantlepiece in the living room and my walls are so old and crumbling I'm afraid to hang it. It's not quiet tall enough to lean elegantly against a wall (I think). I thought maybe I could go for a smaller one but they look a bit too small for the spot above the fire. I could lean it on a dresser/credenza but now I'm thinking about my entrance hall. I want. I want. I want. I want to be sensible maybe. I'll let you know how it pans out.

P.S. Don't you love the chocolate walls. Great minds think alike :)

A view of my office

 

I haven't had much of a chance to move things into their final homes at the new old house. Rooms are sadly jumbled or empty. I'm swamped with work. I've been unwell ... again. I have a couple of very exciting projects on the boil and I'm tired. So tired. The good news is that things will definitely change for the better in two weeks time. I've been keeping it very quiet until it was closer to the time but I'm taking 6 months leave from my government job. Yippee!!!!! Time for myself. Time to get better. Time to create and blog and scheme and enjoy life! But boo! My income will drop at first but that's why I am scheming and planning and looking into new business opportunities. Yippee! Expensive renos are on hold for at least 6 months. Boo! No new light fittings for the living and dining rooms. Boo! But time for myself again. Yippee!

Just a little sneak peek at my office reversed in a mirror I popped on my orange cupboard then started loading on some (yes just some) of my west german pottery. Maybe I'll swap it out for the white ones or the brown ones or the green ones. How about the blue collection? Maybe I'll be able to take better photos soon. Maybe after I go on leave, catch up on sleep, get well, take a deep breath and start enjoying life again. You won't be able to stop me then!

Can't get a decent shot of my blue walls

My camera just can't seem to focus on the walls. Oh they will with flash but not without. This is without flash but focused on the white ceiling. Still blurry. The cedar isn't that orange I swear but I guess the tiles are :) Such a difficult colour to capture in low light. In the end I went with Mr Jason Grant's Faraway for Murobond and it is a beautiful rich blue. I didn't go darker (see my original choices here) because I was unsure how the room would read at night. Even in the day it appears a lot darker than it is because the room gets so little natural light (read none).  Here's a better shot of the colour because it is from Jason's website. A better shot too because Jason is in it ;) I can't get enough of the Murobond paint. It is so luscious.

The floor will be covered with a large rug (oh how I hate those tiles) and I have decided to go with my danish dining suite instead of the glass and chrome 70s set I had .... mainly because the glass table broke. LOL. A huge piece of art on the wall you are looking at. My Red Cross WWII cabinet full of Scandinavian, Murano and Sklo Union glass on the left wall. Change the paper shade out. I'm trying to find something vinatge as the extremely expensive Taraxacum light I lusted after is just too big for the room. The scale is all wrong. That and I'm afraid the ceiling will fall down with the weight. And I can't afford it .... even the replica version.

Almost done

My deep chocolate living room walls. I just want to lick them. Gorgeous. Murowash by Murobond in Murobond Brown. Matte as matte can be and rough to the touch. Completely breathable so hopefully the answer to my damp problems. You can see the lead up to my colour choices here. The cedar doors and jambs were just lightly matte varnished showing all their history. Slight problem with the windows being painted the wrong colour ... white gloss not a gloss Murobond Brown so they disappear as opposed to standing out like dogs balls like they do now. Being fixed soon I hope. I took these photos today without styling the room. Just started dragging things back in. That's actually a lie. I'm home sick with a gastro bug and Kelvin dragged the few pieces into their rough spots after Jane the cleaning lady (best one I've ever had!) cleaned the room of the inevitable painter's detritus.  Rug needs to be pulled a bit closer to the wall than where it is in the photo but don't those terracotta floors look so much better now the walls are brown. (The string hanging down in the middle of the picture is the on/off cord for the pendant light. Told you it was an old house!) I haven't taken shots of the fireplace side of the room. You'll have to wait because there is a pile of furniture stacked there and anyway you can't see it all at once. I want to string out the reveal.

The colour scheme is browns, dirty black and white, natural tones of timber, some cane, lots of brass. Basically building on a palette of earth tones then accents of reds, pinks and oranges brought in with art work and accessories. Well that's the plan but maybe that will change by the time the room is styled .... The photo below is the sun coming in very early in the morning. The room faces north east so gets sun streaming in for most of the morning. (I'm in the southern hemisphere remember so I'm the opposite to you guys up north.) There is a lot still to do. More texture, smooth art glass and metals, leather, linen. Layer upon layer. A never ending journey of styling and re-styling. I'm in heaven. Dining room shots soon. It's dark blue and just as gorgeous.

And just a little reminder of what it looked like as we first moved in last year.  Before we tore down the wallpaper to find the damp and mould. Yum! So much better now.