From the "What were they THINKING?" files

I know that taste is an individual thing, and that when it comes to choosing house colours, we all have our own ideas of what looks good. I'm all for variety - the world would be boring if we were all the same. And around our way, many streets definitely ARE boring, as you go past house after house after house that look a bit like they came off some sort of factory production line.

BUT. I've been watching a house going up behind us, and was keen to see what colour render the owners had chosen. The bricks are a brown/tan colour, window frames black and the roof dark grey (no choice with that one, dark grey roofs are an estate requirement). The spouting and fascia went up and I thought ...er... oh-KAY... Looks to me like Classic Cream fascia and Woodland Grey spouting and downpipes. Not what I'd have chosen, but whatever....

This house has infills over the windows, so I thought that perhaps those might be matched to one of the other colours. Maybe the classic cream? Nuh-uh, looks like Jasper to me, or something similar anyway.

This morning I opened the blinds in The Baby's room, glanced out the window and OH MY GOD!! This is what I saw:



My eyes! Aargh! It burns.......

*************

Yes, I know that nobody elected me the Queen of Good Taste, and there are no doubt plenty of people who think our house is repulsive. But at least we made an effort to make sure our colours actually coordinated.

The owners of this place might have done better to stop some random guy with a guide dog on the street and ask him to stick a pin in a colour sample sheet.... Oh wait. That may be what they actually DID.

Finally! Something got done.

Progress on the landscaping and decorating and the thousand-and-one bits and pieces we need to do is moving along at the pace of a snail on Mogadon. *sigh*

We have been achieving things, but it really doesn't show. Time is a major issue, and some things have turned out to be quite difficult. Even seemingly simple tasks like finding an integrated rubbish bin for the kitchen is far more complicated than you'd think. We have a skinny cupboard at the very end of our breakfast bar that we want to use, but finding the right bin and sliding mechanism to fit has so far stumped us. I'm completely fed up with looking at the kitchen tidy and assorted bottles and recyclables as you walk into the kitchen/family room! Not exactly the decorator statement I'm going for.

I have a few decorating ideas in my head, but as is always the case, when you set your heart on something, you can never find it. That vase, mirror, plant pot, wall hanging or cushion that you know will be just perfect and that you saw a couple of months ago is nowhere to be found. Whatever you can find is the wrong colour, wrong size, wrong style...or a ridiculous price.

Part of my problem is, I have so many ideas in my head, and try to do them all at once. The result, of course, is that I end up with nothing completed.

So this weekend I decided to concentrate on just a few small things. Number one was to get a few photos and artworks up on the walls. They've been sitting around on the floor for weeks now. This is an abstract triptych I painted for our bedroom (the colours have washed out with the flash though, I really should have taken this in daylight. They're not grey, the main colour is lovely greens):



Number two was to finish off the retreat. I bought a coffee table and side table at IKEA the other week, and managed to find a few decorative bits and pieces, and it's actually turned out well. Relaxing and comfortable and - well, somewhere to retreat to:



I hung a few more pictures and am still going with the office organisation - that's mainly involved shredding tonnes of old paperwork this weekend. Next on the project list is to get the remaining shelves I need and finish that area off.

After that, I think that bit of landscaping at the back of the house ....although I have been drooling over wardrobe fit-outs. This is nice:



Or perhaps this:



Hmm, maybe a bit grand. I'd settle for something like this:



One thing at a time. Must remember that.