{little bedroom]

I decided to start decorating some of the bedrooms upstairs.  The thought being that while I am saving up to take on the big project I will get on with some of the lower cost DIY intensive rooms.

The single bedroom upstairs seemed like a good candidate as it is the smallest room in the house.  It has a single bed with a pull out underneath for when my delightful but chaotic niece and nephew come to stay.

So the plan of action and current progress:

1) Strip the wall paper - in parts the wall paper turned out to be 4 layer thick and had yellow, pink, blue and grey (yey!) plus a few layers of paint. So all in all it was a bit of a slog to remove and I'd estimate took about 10 hours.  I just finished this the other night.

2) Rip off the current skirting boards - I will be replacing with new either in a traditional style.

3) Remove the raditaor and light switches / fittings

4) Get the walls skimmed or lining papered

5) Get the door dipped and strip and repaint the surround white - I've almost stripped all the paint off the door surround.

6) Install new picture rail painted white

7) Install new radiator

8) Install new light fittings / switches and plug sockets

9) Install new laminate flooring and skirting boards

10) Paint the room (jury still out over the colour...)

Here are some colours I like - leaning towards the more period colours and possibly a blue, green, purple or yellow.  I'm not allowed to paint it a pale grey....!!!

This is my favourite inspiration so far for colours:

This is Farrow and Ball paint in colours stone blue and brassica.  I love this!!!

Some colours from Fired Earth...

Some colours from Farrow & Ball

If there is space we would love to put in a traditional style radiator:

I like this vintage style light for on the wall:

{technical drawings}

So I had the architect back last week again to show me the drawings he'd done of the house.  He rocked up with a tube of drawings - one of the existing layout of the house and one of the new proposed layout.  The new drawing isn't finished yet as I still have a few decisions to make.  His drawings were all hand drawn which reminded me of my drawing lessons at uni - I was seriously impressed and got very excited.

He left me with a couple of options and he's also come up with a brilliant idea to make the room space even more symmetric and large!  You might be able to spot the differences by looking at the original floor plan in my previous post.  Trying to explain it in words....When you come down the stairs to the basement level in front of you is a wall and a small cupboard.  This wall and cupboard are not load bearing and our architect is proposing we knock them down and bring the wall forwards towards the stairs to make the kitchen/dining/living room larger.  He is also proposing either a glass wall be put up or double doors. I am favouring the glass wall option for several reasons - 1) It means the entrance to the room is in the kitchen area and does not create a thoroughfare through the rest of the space to get to the kitchen 2) It means the large spare can be used for something specific rather than a walkway (we are thinking dining table) and 3) Having a glass wall will let much needed light into the bottom of the stairwell.

Here are the rough sketches the architect left with me to decide which option to go for.  A is my preference.  The kitchen layouts are not as they would be.  I definitely want a kitchen island in the middle of the room.  Our architect has supplied the drawings to Kitchens International who are currently drawing up a kitchen layout for us.  I am going over to the showroom later today for a cookery demonstration showing how to use steam ovens / induction hobs etc (and a free lunch!).

Edit - Back from the KI demo and have had my first Xmas lunch of the year!  Was lovely.  Looks like I will be going for an induction hob, a steam oven, a dual control oven and a combination microwave! :-)