This year, I decided to decorate the living room.
Six years ago, when we moved in, the living room was a violent shade of Violet. Not gothic purple- I could go with that - but a vomit-inducing bright purple shade. Complete with silver wooden alcove shelves. And parquet floor & skirtings stained 'Tango Orange'. And stripped pine doors which didn't close properly. Not to mention the ceiling - which 4 summers ago we had finally saved up enough money to get a plasterer to sort out. After the removal of several layers of Artex, wooden baton beams and possible Asbestos - the ceiling was freshly plastered. I quickly painted the walls a neutral colour and then stopped. Other rooms took priority - the bedroom, Kitchen, bathroom and dressing room. Even the garden got sorted. So this year it was finally time to 'do' the Living Room.
We had already sanded back the floor and re-varnished in Dark Walnut. My first purchase was a gorgeous 1930's modernist chandelier from The Old Cinema antiques in Chiswick. The perfect combination of deco-modern design with a bit of glimmering crystal.
Colour for the walls was easy - I knew I wanted a 'Vert Noir' shade - the darkest green possible. This turned out to be Farrow & Ball's Studio Green. The ceiling was painted pale grey to add subtle contrast.
A furious ebay price negotiation got me a fabulous brown leather Art Deco Day-bed. We already had a green/brown sofa in a mid-century modern style, an original 1950's Bamboo bar and a Zebrano wood console table from Heals.
Accessories come courtesy of 1930's American Art Deco glass block lamps, 30's Czechoslovakian Glass decanters and French Deco chrome & glass trays - all hard won ebay purchases from over the last 10 years.
We rescued two original interior doors from a neighbours skip - so they replaced the horrid 1980's stripped pine doors. I also managed to source some original 1930's Deco British door handles.
Changing the radiator for an old "School" radiator was the trickiest job.The old and new copper piping would not weld together without springing leaks. My poor dad had to redo the whole thing three times and it took a whole day!
My favourite purchase of all has been the Moooi Oblique bookcase in dark wood by the genius designer Marcel Wanders - just so simple & perfect!It's still very much 'in progress' - we still have to create a rock wall on the chimney-breast wall - but it's getting there!!
.... Is how The Times described the film "A Single Man" and I have to agree. The directorial debut by Tom Ford was ripped into by some for being merely style over substance. Not a particular devotee of Ford the man, or his work with Gucci, I went to see this with some trepidation on Valentine's night, at the Gate Cinema at Notting Hill.
