Elemental Grace

Spring Cottage’s Makeover

November 4, 2009

I was colour-scheming last week, having decided that my poor old living room was looking a little bit tired and bland. It has been suffering old-cottage-itis, which is generally speaking where it gets painted cream, gets a little bit grubby the way cream-coloured stuff does and began to slowly blend in with all the other similar shades and tones in the room, by looking generally bland and nondescript.

It was a CATASTROPHE! Spring Cottage is not a nondescript sort of a place. It’s a kick your shoes of, hi there love and how’s it going sort of a place. So after a bit of umming and ahhing, I embarked upon a trip to B&Q (as an aside, you have to love this place. It’s a DIY shop where the employees don’t know what a mirror plate is) for lots of sample colour pots in varying shades of blue. Just incase you hadn’t gathered from the pictures of the kitchen, I REALLY love blue. I’d even got the chap in the shop to mix me up some paint shades that weren’t already premixed.

With a foolhardy attitude of ‘well, if I don’t like it, I can always paint it back’, I embarked upon the colour squares. The wall metamorphosed from a scruffy white to a patchwork of every shade of light and mid-blue under the rainbow. I wanted a nice light blue, a few shades lighter than the kitchen that wasn’t a particularly cold blue but one that would lighten the room and give the other elements of the room a real lift. I settled on a colour-mix shade called Holiday Blue (6), went to get the mixed up pot and got cracking. (For those contemplating how much paint you need to paint a room, a 250ml can should do the trick)

Since I was clearly in the mood for adding to the room, I knocked up a couple of quick cushions a la Kirsty’s Homemade Home to highlight the ambience as well with old fabrics I was given through Freecycle.

A day and a half later (and post paint fume induced craziness), here are some pictures of the results (the blue’s faily subtle so you probably don’t get the full benefit through the photos):

New walls, curtains and new cushion

The mantlepiece, newly decorated with contrasting flowers, picture frames, candles & funky tissue box.

Some of the new cushions with the family pink woollen rug

The sofa, complete with cushions, throws and blankets. The bookcases stand out well against the walls now, rather than fading into the background.

The dogs, enjoying the fruits of my labours

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