We've just decorated our front room. A lovely soft grey shade. These photos were taken after it was painted, in case anyone tells me it looks rubbish. It is a sunny south facing room with a big (albiet ugly and UPvc) window so can take a bit of a gloomy colour.
We are, like excited parents to be, awaiting the delivery of a big new sofa. We umm-ed and ahh-ed a lot about such a big purchase but since we'd had our last sofas for almost a decade, and hope this one for lasts for as long if not longer, we talked ourselves into it. We are aiming for a vaguely mid-century modern sort of look, in keeping with our house which was built in 1947, and our love of retro patterns and design.
We are, like excited parents to be, awaiting the delivery of a big new sofa. We umm-ed and ahh-ed a lot about such a big purchase but since we'd had our last sofas for almost a decade, and hope this one for lasts for as long if not longer, we talked ourselves into it. We are aiming for a vaguely mid-century modern sort of look, in keeping with our house which was built in 1947, and our love of retro patterns and design.
We need...something to hang above the fireplace, new curtains (or I need to do something pretty spectacular with the miserable old ones...), a clock, since Bella dropped the one we had yesterday and it is now completely broken and we are all lost without a clock on the mantlepiece. I need to design and sew my wall hangings, whenever I get around to those. What else? CUSHIONS! You can never have too many cushions. I am making a granny square cushion with the "good" yarn I bought, I task I am thoroughly enjoying. Unlike the scarf I am attempting for a friend which is going painfully slowly. I am using cotton yarn for a hopefully non-scratchy scarf in greys and purples. It was going to be a ripple pattern but frankly that would kill me off so it will be striped instead. Here is Angus helping me. It took me an hour to untangle that ball of purple yarn and wind it back up again. A task I found more enjoyable and satisfying than crocheting the scarf, which says a lot.
I will do a little front room "reveal" when it is done. That will motivate me to get saving and sewing and choosing and spending so that I can show you what a corner of our home looks like. I'd better get cracking then!
Nice color and nice fireplace, too! I know it will all come together beautifully.
ReplyDeleteIt all looks really drab in these photos - thank you for having faith in me Julia! x
DeleteGrey is a big favourite with me. Can't wait for the big reveal - I love doing a makeover don't you? Bet it will be just gorgeous x
ReplyDeleteMakeovers are brilliant, love them. Especially when there is no dust or building work involved. Curtains bought and hung today, one step closer!
DeleteI'm totally in love with your sofa! Looking forward to the reveal. Bet it'll be fun putting it all together! x
ReplyDeleteIt arrived today and we are totally in love with it too! Although I am obsessed with making sure it doesn't get dirty...ha ha, with two kids in the house I don't hold out much hope!
DeleteI'm sure it will all look gorgeous when it's finished. We've just been decorating Eleanor's bedroom and the hall, stairs and landing. I leave it all to Mick though, I hate decorating.
ReplyDeleteI'm, not a fan either. We got people in to do the hall, stair and landing as it was such a job. Nine doors to gloss...*shudders*...and keeping little hands away from drying paint, nightmare.
DeleteThis is the first time I've looked in, so Hi from me, here in Devon!
ReplyDeleteNow grey. Strange isn't it, but this shade is so fashionable now, even though I suspect you've chosen it simply because you like it. When we married (way back in 1964) we painted our sitting room pale grey, and that is almost 50 years ago!!! Well, we didn't paint it ourselves as it was a brand new bungalow and the builders gave us the option of pale grey or magnolia (yes, even in those days magnolia was an option!) so we chose pale grey and it looked very smart.
The next thing I will comment on is a sofa. Only ten years since your bought one? My goodness, ten years is still a new purchase to us! We bought our sofa (albeit ia very expensive Collins & Hayes sofa) in 1985 and then, ten years ago, had it re-upholstered. It is still lovely, but it cost an arm and a leg to re-upholster (in a Colefax & Fowler fabric) but we felt it was worth the expense. But it is exciting when a lovely new item arrives - I will never forget the first automatic washing machine we bought (1968), an Indesit. It had but an on/off switch and a fast/slow spin (the fast would be considered slow today!) and we were so fascinated with is that my husband and I put chairs in front of it and watched as my tights wrapped themselves around his shirts! But after washing up by hand in the sink, it was a vast improvement!
Margaret P
Hi Margaret, thanks for stopping by and for such a great comment!
DeleteYes I do like grey - I am not very fashionable in my home or my clothes and tend to trust my instincts. I am already picturing the wonderful sixties furniture you must have had in that bungalow, which is probably all very sought after now!
Re the sofa - wow! That is good value for money. There was me feeling proud that we got a decade out of a sofa... All I can say it they don't make them like they used to! How fantastic to have had almost thirty years use from a sofa. And I can see how an automatic washing machine must have been an enormous improvement on hand washing. My mum reminds me that she used to wash all my nappies in a twin tub that took up the entire kitchen!
Gillian x
I have sofa envy... can't wait for the big reveal! It looks very inspiring...
ReplyDeleteIt's so comfortable. It came today. Is it weird to be so excited by a new piece of furniture?? x
DeleteLook forward to seeing what it looks like when its all done!
ReplyDeletexxx
I'm worrying that I've built it up too much now!
DeleteI love the paint colour you've chosen ... just saying! Can't wait for the room makeover reveal :D
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean about untangling the yarn being more satisfying than the project, it's happened to me twice and both times I took it as my cue to get frogging ;D
Annie, you are right, I have frogged the scarf and will attempt a second go when i get my crochet mojo back!
DeleteThat pillow case behind Angus - is it embroidered? It's wonderful!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see your room . . . no pressure :)
It's from IKEA - not one I made myself! I bought it quite a few years ago, I love the bird and flowers, so scandinavian.
DeleteSuch a lovely colour.
ReplyDeleteOur front room is a shade of grey and I love it because at any given moment in the day it ever so slightly changes.
Happy decorating,
Nina x
Nina, you're right, I am noticing that already. It can seem very pale or quite dark depending on the amount of daylight coming into the room. It's midsummer now so I am hoping it's not too gloomy in six months time...
DeleteStrange as it may seem, we didn't have our bungalow filled with 1960s stuff - well, not the stuff that is collected today. We did have a tea dispenser which we were given as a wedding present and which my husband fixed to the kitchen wall (this was the days before everyone used tea bags - and of course, it's now fashionable to use loose tea and a strainer, all part of the retro regime) but it was useless and we soon got rid of that. Yes, I had some coloured Pyrex but was glad when it was crunched on the floor, as I didn't like a lot of the stuff then and still don't like it now. I always bought traditional things, seldom things which were then 'modern'. But the sofa to which I refer wasn't from the early part of our marriage. We went through two suites of furniture before the lovely Collins & Hayes sofa we bought in 1985. More recently, about 6 years ago, we bought another sofa, a partner for the Collins & Hayes one, from Multiyork, a Knole-style sofa in ivory. What possessed us to buy ivory, even for oldies like us! But it is very well made and, like all Multiyork upholstered furniture, the uphostery can be removed and dry cleaned.
ReplyDeleteBut it's still funny when I think of our first sitting room pained dove grey (or, as I used to say on a dull autumn day, rain cloud grey!) to think how fashionable this colour now is. Well, you only have to look at all the grey cars on the roads - it's a bit like "You can have any colour you like as long as it's grey!" (to paraphrase Henry Ford) ... opposite right now are five cars, four of them are silver and the fifth is in a shade I call 'wet tarmac'. I'm sure your grey is much prettier!
Margaret P
I am hoping it is more "dove grey" than "wet tarmac"! You are right about the cars though, silver is very popular.
DeleteI always like to see photos of other peoples homes, I'm so nosey! I liked the look of your old sofas I have to say, though the new one does look very stylish. Looking forward to the reveal...
ReplyDeleteAs to my blanket, I join as I go - when I crochet the final round of the square I connect it to other squares in the blanket at the same time. Much less work involved, which suits me! I'll try and post a little tutorial. It's the method I always use to join squares and, if necessary, will modify the pattern of the final round to allow me to do so (this is not required with plain old grannies though).
Such a good idea to join as you go while crocheting the final round, saves time on sewing and darning in the ends. I am making the final round of my granny squares all the same colour to hopefully make for easier sewing together!
DeleteSomething I also find amusing - in the nicest possible way - is the regeneration of the old crafts: crochet, tatting, knitting, embroidery, tapestry, all kinds of craft involving kneedles and thread and yarn. All this totally by-passed me as young mother in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Indeed, women then would've laughed their socks off if any of their number had been caught with knitting needles! Only our grandmamas knitted (and some pretty awful things at that - I recall my dear late mother in law pulling back a maroon pullover and making our first baby a woollen sleep suit. Yes, it was truly ghastly but was made with love - and, of course, her generation was the make-do-and-mend generation would did such things as sides-to-middle repair of sheets and pulling back woollen garments and making 'new' ones.) Now young women do all kinds of craft work, in the most wonderful colours, and are proud to do so. I've never knitted in my life and can just about sew on a button (although I have made curtains - a case of having to when it was too expensive to have them made for me) so in this instance young women eclipse our 1960s generation of women who, as I say, wouldn't have been seen dead knitting or sewing. We would've have been put in the same 'compartment' as train-spotting nerds.
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
Yes, crafting is incredibly popular again now, you've only got to look at the recent success of shops like Hobbycraft to see that. My interest in crafting was largely motivated by lack of money when I stopped working and the need to find thrifty ways of doing things to the house or making birthday or Christmas presents!
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