Well we’ve kind of given up on the our freeholders, Southwark Council, and have decided that after waiting nearly three months for a reply on whether they are coming into our flat (drilling through our floors) to repair subsidence - or not - to press ahead with our refurbishment.
So far we’ve painted the study (the second bedroom) and hall walls white just to get rid of the yucky navy and yellow crap that was there before. We’ve also stripped the lounge of wood chip wallpaper - the devils own wallcovering - and are also planning to paint it white. We actually plan on painting the whole place white just so we can bear the terribleness of everything else while we wait for permission to knock down walls etc. The white look I keep telling myself is “just undercoat”. Apart from the very dark hall which needs to be white other rooms will have some colour, I love colour in houses actually. I have about 10 tester pots on the go with evocative names as ‘Grey Cloud Pearl’, ‘Perfect Taupe’, ‘Pacific Breeze’ and ‘Swedish White’.
Which brings me onto my next beef. Mark and I are very creative types and love architecture, interior decoration, mid-century modern design, recycling old things, the whole shooting match. However, every homes magazine you pick up or designery book you browse or décor blog you trawl it’s the same problem: space. Yes, I’d love to paint my tiny hall hot pink or buy second-hand metal school lockers for storage, sit at an Eames ’surfboard’ coffee table or have a enormous kitchen island - but where would I fecking put them? Does nobody write about small English flats?!
I think that most design writers have a huge budget and lots of square meters to play with, it’s not the real world, or my real world at least. Surely people in Manhattan and Tokyo have the same problem? How do you fit a stylishly designed life into 60 meters squared with average 2.4m ceilings and UVPC windows? Oh, for a house with 3m plus ceilings, nice windows, 3 bedrooms, a garden…
Also I’m sick of having to have an IKEA house, just because it’s small. Don’t get me wrong I love IKEA but not IKEA everything. I’d like some nice second hand pieces but sadly they are mostly not designed for today’s small homes. Woe.
I’m thinking therefore of changing my blog to my quest for good small design, furniture and decoration and the ongoing story of our flat renovation. Not ‘Grand Designs’ (although Kevin would be a bonus) but ‘Small and Perfectly Formed Designs’. I’ve been inspired a lot lately by Decor8 but again the homes posted there tend towards massive American ones - I wouldn’t get a quarter of their furniture in my lounge!
Wish me luck.
