Thursday, May 12, 2011

Interior designers, sofas, rugs and windows


Hello, everyone! I'm back! Had a rather longer hiatus than I'd intended mainly because of over-commitments and increasingly frustrating delays with the house which was making me feel less than inspired.

Update: still not all the windows have been put in! Can you believe it? How a company can be in such disarray for windows sizes to be continually wrong and for them to be unable to meet any deadlines that are put to them is unfathomable. But only in the building trade, I guess. As I have already mentioned, all we need now is Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs) to do a close-up to camera.

Nonetheless, I have been plodding on with interior stuff which is a little tricky when you have less than a 'done' house to work with. For instance, how to chose curtains/blinds when you have no windows? My solution: enlist the help of an interior designer. My friend Rachel of Olsen ID has been a godsend. She has taken away the gumpf cluttering my mind and turned it into something amazing. Well, that's what it looks like in mini samples on the floor - a mood board of sorts (sorry, no photos). She has managed to cut the wood from the trees, the daisies from the meadow, the birds from the bees ... what? Nevermind, you get my drift.

Having decided to upgrade our sofa, the mere fact of finding a new one became a bigger and ever more confusing job than we had ever expected. It seemed the pressure to find the 'right' one in the 'right' fabric that was going to suit our still incomplete living space that would last indefinitely proved all too much. And then hubby and I had to agree! Oh, hail, the interior designer. Thankfully, Rachel knew what I liked (the colour teal, primarily), where I was coming from (traditional contemporary, or something like that) and was able to pluck out suitable fabrics, wallpapers, paint colours and even a new twist to the underside of the kitchen island bench that all coordinated perfectly.

We managed to decide on the main fabric for the sofa (Westbury textiles, Lugano, colour Rye, if anyone is interested which sort of feels like velvet but sort of looks like linen - trust me, it works) but have yet to decide on the cushion fabric. Yet what I do have my heart set on is an amazing turquoise rug (something I never thought I'd have and neither did hubby who did require some convincing!) that is made from old bits of Turkish rugs and dyed the one colour. It looks like an antique sea (it's the one above and you can check it out and others in other colours here).

Tomorrow, I will be going back on site to see if maybe, just maybe, all the windows are in. And hopefully, I'll have some good news and some more pictures.

Until later ...
Jx

6 comments:

  1. Oh so love these blogs with houses evolving, we're doing it in a year or two, yahoo. Love Posie

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  2. Ah the drama; you will laugh about it one day, or put some other troubled renovator's mind at rest, that it's all part of the reno journey.
    Your interior designer sounds as if she is a great fit for you, and doing her job perfectly. Sometimes all the inspiration overload that is out there can be just too much.
    Never heard of these rugs before, but I like the RRR factor in that it's made from remnants of Turkish rugs. That image is beautiful!

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  3. I like the sounds of it and I am sure it will look amazing when you have it all together. Hang in there. ;-)

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  4. Curtains are hard enough with windows in and all the furnishings, I can imagine it would be pretty impossible to decide without that! Best of luck its great to hear an update :)

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  5. Wow, that rug is incredible. It lights up the room ~ would be even more incredible in reality. Hope you buy it!

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  6. Can so relate to the frustration as we are experiencing many delays and every week are told a certain stage will be done to find it is not. I have been wishing Kevin could visit our place as I watch episodes of Grand Designs on DVD as a good distraction. Good luck with the windows and love the rug in the picture. Gx

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