Question Time

The Guest Room - After

In one of last week's posts I threw in a picture of our old house. I really enjoyed all your comments, but one in particular has caused me to do a lot of mulling over the weekend.

'Ok Millie what do you prefer your old place or new. How about posting some photo's of the interiors then we can get an idea of your style. I know it's going to be classy. What you like is hard to pick from your blog. Kind Regards Karen.'

Well Karen, it's true confession time - I just don't have a definable style, I used to but no more! This weird & wonderful house c.1972 has thrown any chance of that out of the window. Despite extensive research, that one fantastic reference book 'Decorating & design tips for bringing a 1970's house kicking & screaming into the 00's' has eluded me. We purchased for the fantastic location & the big rambling garden, & we always knew the house was going to be a 'challenge'.

So in looking for an answer to the question, I thought it may be time to post the pics on our very recent Guest Room renovation. I haven't added all the final touches (large mirror still at the Framers, comfy chair for the corner still not found, but I know what I want & a few more prints waiting to be attended to ). Oh, & a padded headboard for the bed on the sooner-than-later Wish List- so please be kind! Unlike our previous house, where because of its 1899 vintage it very much dictated to us, this time it's our turn to dictate our needs & wants to this house.

Regular readers at The Hedge know that this renovation is ongoing & huge - with every room needing major work & the kitchen & 2 bathrooms total gut & replace jobs. We have a strict budget to work within, so I've tried to reuse furniture from our old house, most times stripping, repainting & adding new hardware. However, our main objectives are:

• To banish the dark, cave-like feel that all the rooms in the house had due to the dark exposed brickwork & varnished woodwork.


• To let the grounds & garden be the star of each room. The large expanses of glass allow for this, so we wanted to create simple, unfussy interiors.

And we're doing it ourselves without any outside assistance (other than electrics & plumbing)MOTH's done it all when he's had a spare moment from work & with me acting as his builder's labourer.

I'd like to revisit the question in another year, with more rooms complete it will be interesting to see if my answer is more definitive & maybe even half-pie sensible!

The Guest Room - Before (as we saw it on the first day with the previous Owners stuff.)

MOTH's first job in this room was to pull up the disgusting carpet!

Dark, grotty & cave-like.

Like all the other rooms, it had a 1970-style sloping ceiling with exposed beams.

While pretty ugly, the built-in wardrobe was functional & very well built, so MOTH saved it, but relocated it to another wall.

MOTH had been pondering the ceiling for some time, & about a second after I took this pic, he turned to me & said "That's it, I've decided to build a new frame, drop the ceiling & install down-lights.' And so he did!

So here it is almost complete, with new curtains & carpet. The blanket box (a must for chilly Hills living!) on the left has received a Millie make-over. It was the boy's toy box for ever & ever & I just repainted it from a yukky reddish-brown.

I picked the first camelias for the year from our garden yesterday. A padded headboard will set this wall off a treat.

I gave these prints from our old house a make-over with simple black frames from IKEA. The bedside table is nearly 30 years old, was a light brown with doors & scrolly-things which I ripped off in a fit of pique one day. It held the sound system in our old house & I hated it, but once I stripped it & repainted it, I think its found its niche. The external shutters will get a paint once we get to do some outside renovations.

The wardrobe relocated by MOTH. Once he'd moved it, the whole room changed for the better & I was really able to place the furniture exactly as I wanted. He built a bulkhead at the top & is still thinking about how to finish it off, so it's still a work in progress.