On my blog, I have shared quite a few updates on the decorating and renovations we have been doing to our home, starting back when we had to revamp the entire bathroom owing to a leak from a neighbouring property and with it the stress and angst over not having a toilet for what felt like months, but was actually less than a week - but something to think about if this is on your radar!
Since then we have changed the front door, re-decorated the hallway, changed the flooring, decorated the lounge, installed new carpets and have almost finished the kitchen, it just needs some shelves putting up on the wall and we are currently in the process of getting some quotes to replace two of the windows where the double glazing units have failed and that means the kitchen is cold due to draughts and despite my best attempts to use excluders to keep the heat in, it still escapes. Heating the home is important, being energy efficient is something I am learning - not over-filling the kettle to make one drink, no windows open when the heating is on, a new boiler installation is a discussion we need to have further down the line, but it weighs on my mind that if I am trying to be as energy efficient as I can, then just replacing those failed windows might not be enough.
Throughout the whole time we have been decorating and renovating, we have learnt a lot of what about what we do and don't like, we chose colours we never would have picked (Pinterest has a lot to answer for), we have moved furniture around to make space, learnt the art of de-junking and our walls finally have some art work on them, now we just need to decide whether we do as friends have done and have a custom made neon sign, maybe with our surname on one of our walls to add a different dimension.
As always, there is still more we could do.
So what else have we learnt?
- Budget - Sounds really obvious but it should be the main focus of any work you decide to do. We learnt this one early with a full bathroom renovation, if you don't stick to the budget, the odd purchase here and there quickly adds up and can take you on a slippery road to over-spending, which we almost did.
- Colour Scheme - I found choosing colours hard. I have a Pinterest Board for every room in my house and can merrily spend hours adding item after item, but getting those testers from the shop to your wall is huge and for me, they never look like I expect them too. So be prepared not to have that exact shade you have dreamed of on your wall, but something pretty close worked for me.
- Accessories - It is easy to assume you will suddenly become a minimalist once everything has been decorated, painted or wall-papered, but instead of thinking that, make a list of items you need in each room, a list of items you do not need and a list of items that could be in that room but not necessarily a must-have.
- Storage - Where will the shelves go, What will the books sit on, where will those sentimental items go? We kept it simple and Ikea became our friend, we settled on a Kallax unit which gives us ample storage space for books, paperwork, ornaments and of course somewhere for the cat to sleep on should the mood suit.
We still have the bedroom to decide on decorating, it is the one room of the house which causes me the most stress. I like my safe space from the world, but it needs updating. We need a new bed, I say that is most of these posts, but that is a minefield in itself, I feel like I need a degree in maths to figure out why beds don't come with a headboard or a mattress but cost a fortune. But if we do decide to go there, it will be a whole other post.
Before we started decorating our home, I watched all those programmes which make renovations look really easy, I really wanted to buy an unloved shack of a house to bring it back to its former glory, but I have seen enough gloss to last me a very long time and there is still one door to go!