Remember how calm and tidy my sitting-room looked a few posts ago? Well, not any more-think 'Steptoe's Yard' and you will get the idea... I think we must be mad starting to redecorate the biggest (and most used) room in our house so near to Christmas! Our house is in chaos at the moment-the boiler has broken down (but is soon to be fixed luckily) and our sitting-room is just a state! And we are having friends round on the 13th of December so it all has to be finished by then!!
We have great big holes in the walls because we removed the chair-rail which unbeknownst to us was nailed and grip-filled onto the wall....
The chair-rail wasn't original to the house, and was a horrible shape and cut the room in half, so I think the room will look much more elegant painted grey up to the picture rail at the top. We're going to have white above that and on the ceiling-I'm hoping that it won't make the room look cold, but sometimes you just have to take a chance on paint colours! I always remember reading about the wall colour of Mr Dior's pale grey salon in Paris, and have hankered after a similar room colour ever since! I have finally found a colour I like after testing about a million different colours!
I bought the pair of French giltwood tapestry chairs at the last Antique fair I went to, much to the OH's dismay. He says I'm always buying chairs that we have nowhere to put (which is true but still-men just don't get it, do they!)! They're really shabby and fragile but I like them like that! They were also a real bargain, as was the little French pot-cupboard that I'm going to use as a side-table! I haggled the pot-cupboard down to £35 and believe it or not found it's twin online that night in a posh London Antique shop for £395!! Mine was so cheap because it had a few bits of the walnut veneer missing at the bottom but I got out my watercolours and painted in the detail and you really can't tell! I love the little ormolu wreath-shaped ring-pull handles-they remind me of donuts!! I'm obsessed with buying old bits of furniture for my house! I walked round that Antique fair for nine hours and only stopped because my knee seized up!!
Mind you, maybe I am in danger of taking the Chateau-chic look a bit too far...think I need to get a shop one day in order to satisfy my split-personality decorating style! I love so many different decorating styles that I've got a bit of everything, I think! French/Gustavian/English shabby chic in the sitting and dining rooms, Swedish-ish style in the downstairs hallway-but Cath Kidston retro style once you get up the stairs!!! English country style in the bedrooms and kitchen, French country style in the conservatory, slightly Deco in the bathroom-sounds migraine-inducingly horrific doesn't it...
