It's curtains....

This blog seems to be becoming a list of excuses rather than developments on the house. We had lovely guests to stay this weekend so we were playing host rather than interior designer / builder.

Our lovely guests (hi Aly and Jol) also brought us a fantastic house-warming gift - a vintage typewriter! I love it and it goes beautifully with the awesome phone t'husband bought for my birthday (photos to follow). When we eventually get round to sorting the office they will look lovely together on my desk and I am also envisaging a shelf of other vintage stuffs such as a camera, lots of books and perhaps a globe or two...

Image from Oh Happy Day

Anyway, although we were having too much fun drinking wine, walking, talking and eating curry to get much house stuff done. I did get round to replacing the temporary curtains with the longer term temporary curtains. Eventually I want something really thick and warm with a strong graphic pattern. Was thinking about these....

I really like the material, the background colour (I have a thing about grey at the moment) and the pattern but the pink is just that bit too pink. Wanted something more raspberry and something that won't cost me an entire months wages for one window! So it was a trip to Ikea to see what they had. The bedroom ones we were using were too neutral to really work in the room. The good thing about having a light house where everything is painted white is that I am being a bit braver with the colour choices. But I think I may have been a bit too brave....

Although I love the contrast between the white walls and the shock of raspberry, I sometimes think my living room now looks as though it could double as a bordello! Think I will leave them for the time being (especially after the time it took to hem and hang them - I am not gifted at such things) and because they look much more cheery than these....

Other projects included a cloakroom area.....

And some 'investigative' sanding on the stairs.....

So we now have a random semi-sanded panel that will probably remain this way until we can pay to get someone to decorate the stairs. T'husband has said he thinks it looks like a little bit of art. I keep thinking I may attempt to strip and decorate the stairs myself and then I remember I HATE sanding and I am not brilliant at glossing. No patience = lots of drips....so I am going to also keep thinking of this as a little bit of art too and reminding myself it's not about the finished thing but the process you go through to get there! But when we do get there I want stairs that look like this....
Or like this....

Stair images from Living etc