Prosperous soul in the making

MovingForwards

Not sure about people being more open to colour based on the same colour walls in nearly every property and the same carpet. It's been refreshing to see the odd one where it hadn't been decorated for 40 years, or another where it had bold colours. I even saw one where there was almost forest like wallpaper as a feature wall, which could have worked had the room not been filled with so much stuff.

Hope you've made space and ex gets the rest down soon.

savingholmes

Blackcats said:

It's good to read about your ideas and plans for your home.   I turned my shed into a summer house/shabby chic shack - I bought some odd rolls of mismatched wallpaper and borders for £1 a roll and made a tented style ceiling and I got all my old paintings that were stashed in the garage and put them up - completely random art covering the walls, an old sofa, rug and table and it works really well.  And I've got an old CD player down there for music.  It's the complete opposite to the house where I have everything co-ordinated and matching.  I often take a cuppa to the shack after work and listen to music to unwind in a different zone.  

I fancy this idea. Just found an old media player with speakers too that can play CDs - which I still have some of in the garage... The shed is opposite the back door off the utility - so literally could pick up a cuppa on the way out - and it's an incredibly short walk back in the house...

Just brought down a red and green rug that my mum gave me 30 years ago from her loft when I went to uni - I could put that on the floor...I don't know if we still have it - but we used to have a plug in oil style radiator - if not can probably get one easily enough. I'm imagining myself as the little princess in the equivalent of her attic room after her benefactor appeared...

I have plenty of spare art.... and little tables... For Christmas last year I got some outdoor white bulbs that have never made it out  of the box - I could make it prettier with some of those...

I have an outdoor plastic rattan sofa with grey outdoor cushions - I could use for now - but I'll keep an eye out on FB for other options. I bought a wooden rocking chair to upcycle - need to slim down to fit into it comfortably but it could be a guest seat. I plan to paint it a bright red. My other FB rocking chair with the cream leather effect seat cushions could work well in there... It was only £30 so even if it got 'damp'  it wouldn't be the end of the world. 

Really loving these ideas... Thank you... My hideaway in the garden... I don't have any bunting - but considering making some to add to that festive feel. Loving it... I have material aplenty.... I don't know if I've still got it but I did have some beautiful flame coloured gauze / voile type material. Even if I have got rid of it - it was really cheap and I could buy that again and as you say decorate the ceiling...

I feel all this time we had so much space but were wasting it on things that we didn't value anyway... At least now I get to recover the space and when my little niece and nephews or others come to visit it will be more magical for them too...

girlatplay

Lots of lovely ideas coming in.  I'm so excited for you to get going.  Hopefully what you do will bring you peaceful happiness.

savingholmes

BellaLasagna2018 said:

It’s interesting what you are saying about colour, resale potential and EA. I’ve viewed a few houses lately. One of them, the owner was still living in, and clearly it was decorated to her taste, lots of knickknacks around. I had a clear idea of her tastes and her hobbies, and I loved that! Had the house not been near a noisy, busy road I would have put an offer in. 

Maybe I’m lucky that I can be in a house and visualise what it could be, if I put my stamp on it? Or maybe EAs have brainwashed us in thinking if it’s not white or magnolia, we can’t picture ourselves living there? I don’t know. 

My home at the moment has got white walls with feature walls, and a lot of colour added from pictures and textiles as I make patchwork quilts. Having viewed a few properties online and in RL, I know my next home will have a lot of colour on the walls. I won’t shy away from it. It will be my forever home, so I don’t really care about the resale potential. I care about making it a comfortable retreat for my partner and myself. No wallpaper though! 😂 

When I look at a house and think of buying I look at the light coming in and the size of the rooms... The rest is literally window dressing that will be leaving anyway. But it's true some people just can't do that. I have heard stories of people deliberately and successfully making some rooms more memorable and personal  - so they do stand out when people are scrolling through RM - otherwise every house blends together...

Your home sounds beautiful. I have a lot of colour in the room I spend the most time in - red, teal and yellow ochre - but after I decided to get divorced I realised the rest of the house had been a compromise and toned down. Ex's tastes are not as colourful as mine etc... I am really looking forward to changing the house but am trying not to rush ahead of myself - or incur lots of cost... I can do a lot with what I already have - particularly now we've brought stuff down from the loft.

I did wallpaper the first house that I owned but never again. It is so much easier to just change the colour of paint on the walls. I would consider the odd feature wall with wallpaper but not every room... In our third house - the previous owners had stripped off the wall paper and lost a foot of plaster all the way around the room - it had cost them a fortune to put right... Been very wary of wallpaper since I heard that story. TBF that was a 1930s semi - whereas my house now is modern.

savingholmes

MovingForwards said:

Not sure about people being more open to colour based on the same colour walls in nearly every property and the same carpet. It's been refreshing to see the odd one where it hadn't been decorated for 40 years, or another where it had bold colours. I even saw one where there was almost forest like wallpaper as a feature wall, which could have worked had the room not been filled with so much stuff.

Hope you've made space and ex gets the rest down soon.

Thanks MF. I think if I had forest type wallpaper (mural) (one wall only) - I would want it to be a yoga type room - ie virtually no furniture to clash with it

You've just reminded me - I need to clear some stuff off the bed to even be able to go to sleep. At least the xmas decs are down... Not long now before I put them up! Might even start putting them up once Ex goes - bring some festive cheer to the house early...

girlatplay said:

Lots of lovely ideas coming in.  I'm so excited for you to get going.  Hopefully what you do will bring you peaceful happiness.

Thanks GAP. I really do think I will have peaceful happiness soon - or as much as I am capable of in my too active state of mind. I'm hoping I learn to rest and relax - or at least spend more time doing things I actively enjoy rather than what others expect of me. My counsellor says doing nothing is over-rated - and I agree. I like to have beautiful things to show for my time - even if it is something as simple as colouring...

Tahlullah.H

If doing nothing is the equivalent of another hole in your bucket, then it is important and worthwhile.  For you, using your time productively is important to you and you should embrace it.

I have a forest feature wall in the bedroom to be let out.  It is striking and really lovely.  I call it the Green Room.  As opposed to the Red Room.

savingholmes

@Tahlullah.H
You have a lovely way of putting things. I like the sound of your green room - but you've made me curious about the red one...

Amazingly Ex has bagged a free storage container so is now up for clearing the rest of his stuff asap - and may even move out early. I hope so. The potential downside though would be I could be stuck taking DD to work and a 100 mile round trip when it was his turn... Will see what happens. 

I need to physically go into work today and I am running behind... How unlike me she says sarcastically

savingholmes

We've just submitted a meter reading which was exactly what they estimated - just for a week later. It looks like we are in credit with the water company by £152 anyway. Something to sort after Ex has left... Hopefully that will offset my bills for a while and make it easier to get a reduction. I now know which meter is mine which is a big help.

With help from @Drawingaline I got ballet tickets for January for only £30 for two - it would have been less but I forgot to put in the discount code she gave me. Very excited - my first ballet viewing in person as an adult. Will need to sort train tickets and decide how long to go up for and who to see...

EssexHebridean

I love going to a ballet performance SH but haven't been in a good few years now - MrEH is less keen (although has been once and decided it was better than he expected!). My Nan & my Aunt & Uncle used to take me at least once a year when I was younger, and I have been a few times as an adult with my Aunt too - but she's now too frail to be able to do anything like that, sadly. What ballet are you seeing? 

Loving hearing about people's experiences with their homes too - we moved in where we are now coming up for 20 years ago now - and when we moved in it was all "liveable" but the previous owners did have very odd tastes - think a kitchen with hospital green walls and dark green (painted!) tiles - it felt like being underwater in there and was so dingy we literally started repainting 2 days after we moved in! The hallway had white-painted artexed walls on the lower half, and bright yellow-painted woodchip wallpaper above - THAT was a delight to remove, but did at least stop it feeling like you were walking through a fried egg. The front room was possibly the most interesting - it's not a small room, but not that large either, and was made substantially smaller looking by the addition of a foot-deep border featuring scenes from the roof of the Sistine  Chapel - I kid you not. The chap we bought from was terribly proud of it, and told us what lengths he had to go to to obtain said border - how the hell we kept a straight face I have NO idea!  Took us a good long while to get rid of it, but it did eventually go. We're now starting to work round the place getting one room at a time properly sorted - the bathroom was first, the kitchen followed, and the hallway is next on the list - took a long while to get round to it though  because once we'd started overpaying the mortgage we got fixed on the idea of getting rid of that before we did anything major. At least the two which will cause the most upheaval are done though.

savingholmes

Going to see Raymonda... Never heard of it but looks interesting

Love your descriptions EF. Fried egg and Sistene Chapel - what a mix!! Well done on the straight face.

 In our previous house the occupants had been obsessed with rag rolling. The front room and dining were like that in a mint green. The kitchen tiles had been rag rolled in khaki green over white. The rooms were so much more restful when I painted over all that!!!