My 10 home decoration resolutions for 2016
Why is it when you move into a place, you're always in a huge rush to decorate? As soon as you're in, you catch the interior bug, set up a million pinterest boards, then wind yourself up stupid when you realise you haven't made progress fast enough.
Well in 2016, I vow to decorate slowly. Wanna join me?
Decorating slowly means:
1. Taking 4 weeks to choose paint colours in the living room
2. ...and then another 4 weeks to muster up the energy to paint
3. Reading and researching more around homeware I'm buying. Find the best deals, save for the things I want, don't settle for buying cheap and then having to buy twice
4. Getting more quotes from contractors, not just settling for the first ok price
5. Spending 3 days looking for the perfect cushions or accessory, buying lots and bringing back anything that isn't right
Patience is the way forward to building and designing a home you love, and it's important to remember... that that mental list of things you want or need to do to your house - it will ALWAYS be never ending. And the faster you decorate the more you'll make mistakes and want to change it.
With this in mind, there are 10 things I'd like to focus on for 2016 but I'm no way rushing any of it. Might need your help making decisions along the way though...
1. Choose a fresh new colour scheme for our living room
I'm really bored of our Eating Room Red alcoves and Bone woodwork in our living room that the previous owner chose (and painted very scrappily). In early 2016 I will be swapping the white walls and accent alcoves for another
colour scheme that's a little more complimentary, traditional and homely. And I simply can't wait for a fresh new look.
2. Install shutters into our bay window
Window dressing is one of the parts of decoration I and many other people really struggle with. It's an expensive thing to get wrong, particularly if you have a huge bay window like ours in our living room (not shown). It currently has some old tatty white curtains hanging from a rod, and I'm determined to install some easy peasy shutters for a more finished, traditional look. There are a tonne of styles to consider, and given they're a big investment requiring drilling into the frame, I'll be taking my time with any decisions like colour, tier and slat size. It'll look amazing once it's finished.
3. Buy a new roman blind for our bedroom
I sense a theme here. I'm basically hailing 2016 as the year for swapping all of the window dressings I hate that the previous owner left for us (which I've been thankful for, don't get me wrong. Nothing worse than having to impulse buy blinds and curtains). Our bedroom blind is red and stripy. Enough said, it's outta here this year.
4. Install a mantelpiece on our living room chimney breast
We just got a wood burner installed in the living room, and all that's left aside for some fireside accessories is a mantelpiece to finish off the chimney breast. I think it'll be a fairly simple job. I've seen floating timber you can buy from ebay and fix to the breast which will take up to 50kg. Once it's in I can't wait to
for real.
5. Choose a new clock for our kitchen
I used to do a lot of baking for my blog but this year I've lost the interest in it. Having been given lots of lovely baking bits in the
Debenhams Secret Santa blogger swap
this year, I think I might try reignite the passion. You can't see in the above picture, but there's a blank wall in our kitchen that is crying out for a nice clock to help me keep time on me buns. I've seen a few I love, it's just all about choosing the best one now, and get it stuck on the wall.
6. Give the whole flat a lick of white paint
Feel free to yawn at this one. Our hallway has bag, tire and god knows what marks near the door that needs freshening up with some simple white. A job for spring time I think!
7. Buy more defined accessories for our bedroom
This, I'm the most excited about. See that lamp that just looks so out of place colour-wise? I'm giving it a DIY makeover. I want our bedroom colour scheme to see more navy and mustard against the grey, so I'll be painting the base of the lamp and changing the shade instead of buying a new one (it has lots of sentimental value that lamp!) New cushions and textured prints are a must too.
8. Find the perfect light for our living room
Did you see how easy it was for us to
change the light in our bedroom
(thanks to Dowsing + Reynolds) this year? Well I want to get similar ideas together for a statement look in our living room. My initial thoughts are something chandelier-like but we'll see how it evolves once the painting and shutters are all done.
9. Replace all of our light switches for something more traditional
I'm not sure how expensive this could be, I bet it's expensive. All of our light switches and sockets around our flat are white plastic. I'd love to swap them for brass or antique look switches for a more polished look but if they're up on £20 per fitting I might have to let this one slip to the "not so important" pile. Would be lovely to get that done though!
10. Finally, I want to find a storage solution for our very narrow hallway
I've never been sure why narrow hallways exist, but if there's anything I could change structurally about our place, I'd give it a nice wide, welcome entrance. It's such a struggle to find hallway console tables slim enough to act as storage but I'm determined to find somewhere to house our shoes, letters and keys. I don't care how long it takes.
So here's to 2016, another year of me experimenting with decoration and trying to make this little flat of ours a home. If you've followed me this far, thank you so much. I hope you'll stick around in the coming year to see more projects - I could do with your advice ;)
Big love,
Fi x
