Friday 18 May 2012

Brightening Up Our Home

The last time we decorated our hall, landing and stairs was almost 10 years ago and have felt for a couple of years it was time for a change. Personally I have never been keen on the colours we have but my mum chose them and my nan was very ill at the time so I kept my mouth shut. We are able to redecorate now thanks to the help of our friends who are more experienced in such things, normally my mum and myself decorate our house, well painting and flatpack anyway! The reason we need more help with this area of the house is, we have 9ft ceilings and it's difficult to safely paint the ceiling and tops of the walls on the stairs. Luckily our troop of friends and lovely neighbours have either found and lent us suitable equipment or actually come round to lend a hand.
Last year we started making big changes to our home so that we can use it to its full potential. We completely changed our dining room into a sitting room. We only ever sat an ate in the dining room on Christmas day and then used it at New Year and any other time we had a party just to shove the table against the wall and have a buffet on it. The room was very dark as our kitchen is an extension from it so there are no windows in the room itself just from the windows in the kitchen (it's open plan from what was the dining room). It didn't help that we had a darkish green carpet and dark wood furniture (table and chairs, dresser, corner unit and 2 arm chairs). Now we have transformed it into a sitting room and have a fairly light wooden floor, a large beech unit and 2 small beech bookcases and a red sofa. We also put a tv in there and a massive picture on one wall. It's still not finished but we have our own family photos to put in a collage style on another wall and bits and pieces to put in the unit. It's amazing what a change it's made to our house and also our lives, before it could get quite crowded in our living room when I had friends over and especially until i bought Sky 2 years ago a lot of arguments about what to watch. If we had changed the dining rom before this would have been redundant as there is another tv. (I'm still so glad I got Sky though as it's amazing! It's brilliant being able to record and store shows.)
This easter we also redecorated the Kitchen, it was a pale creamy colour but we have now painted the space between the counter tops and cupboards a bold red and the same on the window sill, the rest is still white with a pale floor so it's light and bright but with more of a feature now and a running theme through the sitting room and kitchen.
The most recent change (happeneing as I type) is transforming this:
 It's fairly awful I know! This picture is of the stairs leading to our loft conversion (another reason we're very glad of the help, we have 2 lots of stairs!) We are changing it so the bottom half is magnolia and the top half is going to be a slightly different white-ish colour. We just want a much lighter, brighter home. We have always had very traditional decor (except my room which I have in light and dark blue and our loft conversion which is yellow and white, I'm changing that this year though as I can't stand the yellow!)
Sorry if I've rambled on! I will put up pictures of the difference when it's finished and other home improvements we make throughout the year. I will also put up some pics of the difference to our dining room to sitting room and the kitchen. 
What home improvements have you made? 

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