Decorating Diary - Part One

You might remember that earlier in the year, the Squidges welcomed a new arrival to the house; our stove.

Wonderful as it was to get it in situ at long last, there was a distinct knock-on effect. Namely the chimney breast needed repapering and painting, AND we needed to find a new carpet as the old hearth was about two inches larger than the new one we've had.

Now, what you need to know is that my dining room is called The Yellow Room. It's not from any illusions of grandeur on my part - I wasn't aspiring to make my humble abode sound like a stately home. ("Tea in the Yellow Room, milady?" "Don't mind if I do.") It's because when the room was decorated (about ten plus years ago - can't remember exactly) I was going through a Feng Shui phase.

I dabbled in Feng Shui for a while, but never took it seriously enough to really feel the benefits. The one thing I did take note of - because it was all pretty much common sense - was the use of colours in decorating rooms.

My dining room is north facing. As such, it is a terribly cold room. (Although not post-stove, I'm happy to say!) Using 'warm' colours - yellows, oranges, reds - helps to create the impression of warmth. So I decorated the walls bright yellow, to go with the yellow and orange checked curtains I'd found.

It looked a lot better than that sounds - honest!

Now, bearing in mind that the room was known as The Yellow Room, I faced strong opposition when I mentioned that I was thinking of changing the colour scheme. To something a bit more grown-up, a bit more dining-room-ish, a bit more...muted, maybe?

I wanted red. Just on the chimney breast, with red curtains and new red covers for the chairs.

Task one was finding the curtain fabric - I always take my colour scheme from the curtains, as it's a darn sight easier doing it that way than choosing a lovely paint and trying to match fabric afterwards. Red doesn't seem to be a colour that's too popular at the moment, so we were a bit limited in choice. Third time lucky though...

Task two - the right paint. Ivory. A nice warm tone that will help keep the chill at bay. Which is fine until you can't get the same shade in the emulsion and the gloss. We came pretty close - if you come to dinner when it's all done, you might be able to tell if you look closely.

The curtain fabric has a larger pattern than this sample;
this one will be used on the chairs.

Today, Mr Squidge and I sanded down all the woodwork. He is glossing the picture rail tonight, in advance of emulsioning the ceiling tomorrow while I gloss the skirting boards and radiator. Friday, we'll do the walls.

Baggsy I get to do the Redcurrant Glory.