Corner of Marie-Kate's room

Mari-Kate has a new chair, this time not a thrift shop find but a Skruvsta chair from Ikea. She has a new desk too, again from Ikea.  Her desk gets pretty messy, but she loves it, and actually does her homework here. She chose the chair, she loves it, I so do I.

I took this photo last night, Marie-Kate is under her duvet, fast asleep. She still has her mushroom night light. She tends to look after her things, like her sister Charlotte. MK is by far the tidiest child in the family, this is about as messy as it gets.

Thursday's Thrift shop find

 Every Thursday Gaby finishes college at two, and guess what opens at two, a stones throw away from her college?  My favourite thrift shop.  I tell Gaby each time, I'll just have a quick look around, she knows I'm looking for several things on my thrift shopping list (garden bench, vintage kitchen chairs, vintage plates....I could go on) 
This time, I didn't find what I hoped I would, a old rustic garden bench, however I found this bird painting (painted on cotton or something alike) and I just couldn't resist (only ten euros too).  I knew Marie-Kate would love it for or room, so that's where she found it when she came home from school.

 It was hard to get a decent photo because of the sunlight (south facing bedroom), but the colours are just amazing.

Marie-Kate  certainly does love it, me too.

Corners of our almost tidy bedroom

 Our room is seldom tidy, but it's tidier than our five children's bedrooms.
 Amazingly,even though only slept about 3 hours last night(Saturday night), due to a gremlin alarm problem on my phone, I still managed to tidy one corner of our bedroom and half a wall.

 You see the small pile of books, well there are piles more here and there around the house to add to them...so many books to read and now a tidy corner and some spare time (hopefully) before Christmas, so who knows, I might just attack that pile as of today.

I started Christmas shopping a couple of months ago, especially after seeing these cool posters via Door Sixteen that I ordered from Pop Chart Lab.  We have already a couple of their posters (the beer  and the super powers posters) and now we have three more for the children  for Christmas...I'm waiting for the Candy Bar one for Gabrielle, which hopefully will arrive this week and the Monsters poster for our room and finally a beer ti-shirt for Alain.

It's been a while...Stairs, bedroom, Ebay and barbecues

photo's a bit dark, but I'll get a better shot next time

After two weeks away on a fpso off the Angolan coast, Alain and I had a lot of catching up to do and he had a some time off from work which was way overdue, so we've been eating out, visiting Paris and just having a great time, we even bought a couple of bicycles and a new couch (second-hand off Ebay).

Our new second hand Conran couch, it's so comfortable and can you believe it's 10 years old

The weather has been glorious, so much so, we've been having barbecues most days, we never had so many down in the south so go figure.

The work in the house is coming on too. Our bedroom has been painted in Elephant's Breath and we love it. I did manage to paint the armoire Pigeon, my favourite colour. Still lots to tidy, so the photo doesn't really show much.

The stairs and landings are almost finished, hardest part still to do, but who knows, we might just finish it for the weekend. I've stripped the wax of the stairs, know just need to figure our how to lighten the wood ready for varnish.

For the walls we used Hardwick white, which is far from white as you can see, but after first having reservations about the greyness I really like it now.

On the first floor landing (our floor and that of Oliver and Charlotte) we are slowly building up a art/photo wall. The doors (that you can't see) are going to be painted Arsenic, which is something that I'm really looking forward to doing.

Time for a cup of tea I think. Back later in the week with more photos and updates.

Glutton for punishment...Bedroom

I felt like being lazy this morning, the younger children are happy, and teenagers are either sleeping at friends or here and I probably won't see either of them till way pass lunch-time.

Alexis asked me half an hour ago, what was I going to do today and before I could answer he said our bedroom was yuck (his words), and I've decided to get started on it. It will probably take all morning to fill in all the holes but at least that's something.

On the walls when we moved in, there was an orangy coloured velvet fabric that covered the entire bedroom which really was awful. Mr H used this room as his office, hence all the holes to be filled, because he had a floor to ceiling shelving system where we have the headboard now.

I'm going to keep the room as empty as possible, just our bed, armoire and bedside tables and a comfy chair under the second window...rocking chair which was there, is now downstairs and the small table too. Nedd to find a place for the chest of drawers that's empty, pictured in our bedroom.

The patches of paint, colour pigeon, was what I really wanted to use here, but I'm worried about the long winters and lack of light, even if this is a big south facing room.

This is one of our two windows. My H had the original ones changed for these modern ones which is a shame. On the other side of our little road you can see our neighbours house. Guess what, after almost six months here, she came and introduced herself on Friday. She's really quite shy (like me) and she has her hands full with her job and children and their house needs lots of work doing too. She told me that she had visited our house, but there was too much work to do and the kitchen just put them completely off.

Corsica...chosing colours

Marie-Kate took this photo of a painting I found this weekend. This is destined to go in our bedroom when it's finished. The photo doesn't do it justice, it really has some great details, like the woman hanging or shaking out a tablecloth or alike. The buildings are great too, but I feel that somehow the sea isn't working so well.

I thought about painting the room in pigeon, but I think I'll paint it in Elephant's Breath which should go well in our south facing room and I think my red curtains will at last find an home.

I'm just wondering if I'll ever find a room or something to paint with what is one of my favourite colours.

Farrow and Ball's Pigeon

Grumpy Ol's room (still not finished)

I've been on go slow for the last 7 days or so. Before thought, I did manage to "almost" finish Oliver's room...well actually I have a quite a lot to finish, the ceiling , curtains to buy, new bed, one with castor wheels, low and lofty, plus a bookworm..........

I chose chocolate and beige, though the beige looks white. Oliver wanted white.

There's lots of pipes that pass through his room, the vertical ones have been kind of camouflaged by Oliver's many postcards, as for the others (not on photo) maybe one day Alain will box these ones in, when he isn't in Norway, Singapore, Holland or somewhere else in the world.

His desk was found in the cellar here, he liked it, so I cleaned it up which took ages and voila.

Nautical Bunting and the department next door

Alexis' nautical bunting arrived from the UK today and Alexis decided where he wanted it put. I had thought about suspending in over the middle of his bedroom, but that wasn't an option.

Val d'Oise is the department next door to ours, where Marie-Kate's pony club is. I won't tell you where I found this map, you can guess.

Probably never be this tidy again. Teenager room

After days of scrapping and 7 hours of sanding and all the bits and bobs to finish (still not finished by the way), Charlotte's room is looking tidy for the first time since we moved in here way back in October.

I thought I take a couple of photos before a teenager bomb hits it after school...but who knows, she might just change, she did actually made her bed for the first time this morning!

Yet another dusty radiator to clean and paint.

Wardrobe found in local thrift shop (tv just for English dvd's, she's crazy for Friends)

Charlotte likes to do her homework in bed so this desk should stay tidy.

I'm internet shopping for a vintage New York poster, a garland or two and a Famille Summerbelle New York map print. And Charlotte hates her Indian lamp on her desk so that needs changing.

Messy teenager's bedroom...can't get worst

Started Charlotte's room, and thought I better get a picture taken before I finish scrapping and sanding. No wallpaper to strip here...phew, and the walls have already been painted by my impatience teenager, so just they just need a wash down and maybe a lick of paint here and there and all the woodwork needs doing:(.

I'd like to finish before Sunday when Alain gets back from Singapore, but with two parties this weekend and Alexis' sword-fencing and the book I bought today, L'enfant allemand by Camilla Läckberg, this looks unlikely, oh hum.

3rd Bedroom "Alexis'" almost there

I bought 2 chairs (one above) for 16 euros and painted this one dark grey and the other one bright yellow (in MK's room)

A little more varnish, a computer to move out onto the landing (when finished...yes I have started that) and window frames to paint and blinds to buy.....list is at least a little shorter:) but Alexis' room to getting there and he loves it!

Alexis loves his skittles (bought in local thrift shop).

Floor finished..sigh of relief

The job I hoped to finish weeks ago, was delayed due to the fact that I was sick for a whole week , which is unusual for me. Anyway, I managed to finish the floor and the painting the other day, now I just need more varnish but have unfortunately been housebound due to an abundant snow fall (third time in the last couple of weeks).

I'll post better photos tomorrow, maybe even Alexis' new red bed (thrift shop find), when I have finished...yes you guessed....painting it!

M-K's Bedroom

I started chipping and scrapping the cement off the floorboards last weekend and phew I've finally finished. I've a third of the room to sand still, and then I can strip the walls ( the green wallpaper is lovely in comparison with the black woven wall covering in Alexis' room and the same but in brown in Gaby's...sorry no photos, stripped that off the first chance I got).

Impossible to finish today, but I'll give it a go...

Update at 17H15.... was a little optimistic, got started late as I had to wait for a chronopost parcel ( we have a telephone after a a 3 month break). Anyhow floor sanded, and half a room stripped and I did clean out the grout between most of the floorboards too..tedious job!

Tomorrow will be more productive, I hope!