The tale of our hanging rack

 Our kitchen looked like this yesterday, perhaps less tidy, but with with most of the things you can see on this above photo.   

 Last night however, one of the rawl plugs holding our ceiling rack in place gave up the fight yesterday evening and gave way, sending the chain on the end of it crashing down and making one hell of a noise.  I was in my bedroom and knew it was that, I'd been worried that one day this rack wasn't going to take the weight.  Luckily, no-one was hurt and nothing was broken, the rack itself held fast, supported by the wall hooks and the last remaining ceiling hook, but still it had to come down and I have no intention of putting back up...Cecile and Cedric, if you haven't bought one yet, you can have ours:)

 

This hole should be easy to fill, but I'm going to have to pop and get some more paint from Farrow and Ball, what a chore....

And I need to rethink our kitchen a little.  I thinking of putting a metal shelf above the stove for the saucepans I use all the time (with hanging space under).  Then cutting our blackboard so it's in-line with the splash back putting at least one long shelf here...Still thinking though, and getting lots of ideas from my favourite blogs like this one for example

The children's bathroom Before...Phase 1 cringe

 This bathroom really makes me cringe with embarrassment. What makes it worse is that the chidren have been slowly pulling the wallpaper off the walls in protest of having to put up with this room since we moved here in October 2010

 The sink is enormous and takes up half of the bathroom. The drawer underneath fell off some time ago. There's no storage space, just a couple of towel bars Mr H left behind, along with a mirror. Gaby hates everything about this bathroom, but especially the tiles, those is loathes.

 Personally, I like them, I like small tiles and I like the colour, but I'm alone on that one, even Alain says that they have to go.

 For a small room, it took me all day to strip it down to this.  The children have decided they want it painted either green or cream and if it's cream, they want green tiles and vice versa if the walls are green.  Oh yes, and orange accessories. 
Shopping list is as follows and changes are possible
New toilet (not suspended like we had in Sanary) possibly square shaped
New sink, taps et cetera from Ikea
NO BIDET
Farrow and Ball paint (cooking apple green or teresa's green or new white or similar) 
Tiles for floor and walls 
Shower or bath?  The children want a bath with shower screen, probably good idea and it would cover up the place when the bidet is right now, but we never have baths here, just showers, so what's the point? Also, to fit in here, it can't be longer than 160cm, unless we moved the radiator and put it under the window.....No no no, not a good idea.

That leaves just the choice of a storage unit.  Ikea have some nice towers with enough space for all their towels and sundries, but just the other day I came across some old lockers, a set of three (three kid bathroom, three lockers) for 35 euros in my local thrift shop, and if there's chance of finding the space which would only be possible with a shower cubicle, I think it would be fun.

Finally, mudroom finished

After fifteen months of living here  I am happy to announce that we have finished our mudroom. You'd think that a small room like this  just wouldn't make a difference to the  organization in our home, well that's what I thought, but no.  Now we have freed up the entrance, no more muddy shoes to trip over, everything  has its place, it's so much tidier too.  

I have commissioned Gaby to complete a canvas (see above) that depicts what one might find in a mudroom and when she's finished it will be placed in front of the electricity meter which is rather ugly.

The two trail shoes here were drawn by Marie-Kate, Gaby wasn't too happy when MK actually smeared some soil from a plant pot below them, but in reality it looks great.

Gaby's work a long with a mouse that she says is a rat.

This is the door to the MR that's leads off the entrance, a lick of Charlotte's locks to liven it up a little

I used chalk board paint so we could write memos down, especially for stationary shopping as the children always need stuff and tell me after I've been shopping!

I bought some sky planters for the window (see the blinds have gone), I really like these.

I made the coat rack you can see, initially I wanted to just an old pallet (I think I talked about this in another post) but in the end opted for new wooden planks, two different sizes that are screwed onto a wooden frame.  I used all of my left over Farrow and Ball paints (Charlotte's locks, Arsenic, Brinjal) and one yellow paint

And I bought some new plastic baskets for gloves, hats et cetera...

This is where the children hang their coats, unfortunately coatless today as they're all at school

There's a door behind those shelves that we never use, but rather rush and block it completely, we've insulated it and put some tongue and groove in front and then shelves.  I need to find a little mirror or something for the space above the last shelf.

Next to the shelves is cupboard where we keep all the backpacks (for now), the doors have been painted with chalk board paint too. If you turn after the plant, you'll find a welly rack and then the door for the basement.

Well that's it, our tiny 5 square meter mudroom finished and crossed off the to do list.

Time for me to rest, I'm sick with a sinus infection and am feeling very sorry for myself.  I did manage though, before becoming ill to run 8 kilometers, it was really muddy and very cold. Alain came too and I used a i phone application called Runtastic that is great and for one of my split I ran an average of 19 km per hour, this is fast for me.

Tuesday in the Mudroom

I've almost finished screwing and nailing the tongue and groove wood, this proved to be difficult because of the walls and angles.

I have put up a shelf (that's straight) below the window.  this will be painting in Farrow and Ball's Skimming Stone along with all the wood, mainly because it's the only eggshell paint I have enough of left (I'm going to try and paint the room just with paint colours I have left.

Now I have three F & B colours left for the wall leading into the room and I think I prefer Charlottes' Locks (the orange one) although the Hardwick white is fine too.  But the Brinjal looks too dark I think.  And yes my Charlotte's Locks is only in estate and so that would mean I'd have to buy a 2.5 liter pot.
(5.30pm update 3 children prefer the orange and Gaby's vibrant and colourful friend loved the purple.  Just Oliver and Charlotte to ask, I bet that Oliver choses the grey and Charlotte ...not sure, depends on her mood, and that changes all the time.

I found via Shelterness this coat rack and if I can find a pallet I shall do this with it  for sure

New find at our local thrift shop...before and after

 This is the piece of furniture that we bought for our house in Sanary, it was great there, it held most of our crockery (one side) and art stuff for the children and our English club on the other.
However since we've moved, this piece just hasn't felt right and I've been looking for something a bit more rustic or 60's style ever since.

 I didn't find what I was looking for, but Alain didn't do too bad.  Probably 1950's, in oak and just a perfect fit for between our two windows.

 I did think about painting it, but I think I'll wait, I like seeing the contrast of wood against mizzle, it warms this area better.

Bad photo, but better than nothing.  We moved the picasso (ebay find) above and the Italian oil painting has been put it's place, next to our computer (not on photo).  I like Alain's bronze next to Picasso's flute player, they belong together.

glimpse of our newly finished stairs and le Prince Aventurier

Four flights of stairs later, and over seventeen liters of paint with bits and bobs still to paint (including whether or not to paint part of the stairs or not) we have finished the stairs, landings and half-landings. This is the view from the entrance looking up towards our newly acquired ebay painting, he's lots of fun and brightens up the space.

The first two walls have been painted in a neutral colour (dimity) and the door in blazer.

The skirting boards look almost black in railings, now we have to decide what to do with the stairs which were waxed. I'd like to lighten the wood and maybe paint the stair risers in a light colour.

The rest of the walls have been painted in Hardwick White..photos to come sometime today ( spindles still to paint...boring and long)

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.

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

Finally we have a kitchen

It certainly took longer than we imagined but the hardest part is done and we have a kitchen that we works for us. No more awful green cupboards (still got the floor though...can't have it all). The kitchen isn't dark and gloomy anymore, it's just so light and we have lots more space now.

I bought this mirror ages ago from "the" local thrift shop and we moved to the buffet we bought (thrift too) out of the kitchen as it didn't hold even half of our stuff, luckily I found this one in pitch-pine to take its place.

I really love these Ikea prints (the two in the middle) and along with Alexis' and MK's flowers they fill the wall space well.

I've been getting back into Ebay and bid for a couple of things and was beaten at the last few seconds, but I did manage to get a vintage Herman Miller chair and a Knoll Bertoia chair for the kitchen...coming as soon as Alain picks them up from opposite sides of Paris

Today's lunch is Daps in baps (Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) and for dinner we're eating chicken curry.. The Ikea draining rack is just there until we find a nice one.

I've still got the radiator to paint and the two kitchen doors, but that's for another day.

Kitchen Update

the little compotier on the table was my thrift shop find this Sunday

We really thought that we would have got further on with our kitchen renovation this weekend, but sadly that wasn't the case. I think we were far too optimistic and now it seems like we have at least two more weekends of work. I can do some things on my own during the week, like clean and sand down the walls, ceiling, and woodwork, I can also maybe get the ceiling painted before the weekend, however, I can't do the electricity nor the plumbing work needed (two water pipes to cut that run through the kitchen plus a drain pipe for the bidet that was in out bathroom that Mr H had taken out ages ago). I could have maybe started painting (after plastering and screeding a bit all over) but Alain bought the wrong paint for the walls... Instead of buying Dimity in modern emulsion from F&B, he bought eggshell which is for woodwork and not walls. Crazy thing was that it was the sales woman at the shop who insisted on him that eggshell was the right finish for our walls. He's going back there today with a flea in his ear and I wouldn't like to be in the place of who ever he meets in F & B's.

Anyhow, as Alain is off for week for a safety offshore course in Marseille, some things will have to wait. I probably will paint our thrift buffet while all alone dealing with difficult teenagers and helpful younger ones.

We still have enough space for an Ikea cupboard with those doors that pull out just next to our butcher's block.

A bit of a mess, but it's only temporary

Oh yes, that awful double oven was so heavy, we needed a trolley to move it, now we are left with a gapping hole in the wall (I've got that to sort out too) . Maybe a list would be useful.

Need to decide where to put this. Either above stove(stainless steel panel to be placed before above) or above the butcher's block.

Changing the subject, the rain this weekend has certainly revived my flowers which is good cause that's one less thing to think about. I really thought we'd have more rain in l'Ile de France than we used to have in Sanary, but that's not the case up to now, so go figure!

And the sun is back again today too, whilst in Sanary it's raining.