At last my energy levels have returned to what they should be and we have eventually commenced decorating!  We had a slight problem with the tiles on the floor of the downstairs loo but I will reveal that story when it is finished and I have some pictures to show you.

We’ve started on Kate’s bedroom.  I have given in and am letting her have pink walls in the hope that having to sleep within pink walls for a couple of years will eventually steer her in the direction of some vivid teals and greens which look fab with her red hair!

So, it is going to be Designers Guild’s Petal on the walls.  I had thought about getting full length eyelet ready made curtains but our windows are very wide, over 100 inches/250 cm and the 90 inch curtains would be too skimpy and I couldn’t find anything I liked in the 106in.  Then, I reckoned she’s be putting toys/storage under the window so decided to go with Mulberry Walk fabric.  We can’t do roman blinds as it is to the front of the house and would look naff from the outside so made to measure curtains it is but just to below the cill.

Mulberry Walk curtains

The Mulberry Walk has just enough green in it to keep me happy and enough pink for her so all is well

She has decided she has outgrown her homemade castle bed.  I have an antique oak single bed – headboard and footboard but without the irons – that I bought at an auction over 10 years ago and we have never used it.  So the plan is to paint it and Brian will connect it somehow to her bed.  And we will finish it off with some Mulberry Walk bedlinen.  I’m also going to let her choose some of the Mae fabric wall stickers when they arrive – all in the name of research, you understand!

We started painting it yesterday evening and the children were painting the lower edges with 2 tiny little brushes and some paint in a jar and they did so well and enjoyed it so much.  Okay, they wouldn’t win decorator of the year but I gave it the occasional brush stroke to brush out the harsh edges or any excess and it was fine.

Pics of the actual room coming up soon then – hopefully!

Designers Guild paint can now be ordered from Garrendenny Lane Interiors’ showroom.  Lots of gorgeous colours available in Floor paint, Water based eggshell, Oil based eggshell and Matt Emulsion.

And I will soon be able to show you photos of some rooms in my house painted with Designers Guild paint! Do you remember my new year’s resolution whereby I planned to decorate a room every 6 weeks or so?  Well, I made that resolution when my energy levels were very high, I had just had 5 steroid injections in about 6 weeks in an attempt by my consultant to reduce my IGE levels – as a result, my eczema cleared up, my skin felt great, I was able to stop taking anti-histamine, I had loads of energy, I felt like I could take on the world. Unfortunately, having steroid injections regularly isn’t necessarily that good for one’s health and I have recently felt the results of having them wear off – in that, keeping the house, keeping a business going and looking after the kids seems to consume my energies. I did hack the tiles off the floor of the downstairs loo and Brian removed the loo and I painted the ceiling and then it stopped for 3 weeks – partly due to my low energy levels and Brian’s lack of sleep with cows calving but I am determined to get it done by the end of March.

I’m definitely getting old – I even fell asleep watching the Late Late show the last 2 weeks, while waiting for Jonathan Ross to come on!

Why not get a decorator in? I hear you ask!  Because I love decorating!  I actually find it quite relaxing and refreshing to spend an afternoon or evening painting – not so relaxing when it involves multi-tasking keeping 2 kids amused and getting them to bed I must admit but I do enjoy it. Having decorated a number of houses in the past too, I would consider myself a woose if I didn’t do it!  So hopefully I will have some pics for you soon.

I painted the front door of this house about 6 months ago and kept meaning to write a post on painting front doors so here it is at last!

I used Farrow and Ball’s Carriage Green, a fabulous dark green. Indeed, according to  F & B, they describe it as a ‘front door’ green. Do you agree with them??

Apparently, in Georgian times, red was a very popular colour for the front doors of Dublin as it was more durable!

The Doors of Dublin

If you are looking for inspiration on how to paint or recover a chair or any other piece of furniture, I came across Furniture Redo  flickr pool via Jessica’s How About Orange blog.  (Incidentally, Jessica also designs some fab fabric).

It’s a great source of inspiration if you are looking for some ideas and have some time on your hands!  As we are post-birthday party here today, we’re all a little tired and on a go-slow so I’ve just about got sufficient energy to surf the net rather than get out with the sandpaper and paint brushes.  Another great blog is Pretty Far West, where Brid just about paints anything that moves!!

I’m cheating a little with this week’s Fix-it Friday post!  It’s been a busy week with working in the garden in the rental house, birthdays (my son, my dad and my niece), plus the weather has been good so I’m attacking the weeds in our garden.  It’s 10.45 on Thursday night and I’m waiting for silage men to arrive with the first load of silage from the outfarm. There’s 25 acres to bring in and it’s supposed to rain heavily tomorrow so it could be a very late night if they stay working to finish it  but I’m not starting to make sandwiches until I see evidence of tractors and trailers arriving!

I visited a friend in her new house recently and she was asking me about painting her stairs – painting stairs is often a popular topic so I just thought I would show you ours. Please excuse the quality of the photos, the artificial light in the hall isn’t the best and I took the photos only half an hour ago!

The treads and banister are oak.  The risers and sides are just red deal so we painted them by simply priming them with undercoat, primer and then I think it was 3 coats of eggshell Farrow and Ball, I think White Tie but to be honest, I did so much painting of other doors and rooms at around the same time I did those stairs, I can barely remember.  We put in this stairs about 3 years ago as the previous stairs came out into the middle of the hall, thereby taking up too much room, plus they were quite a fussy barley twist and as they were a dark teak, made the hall even darker.  The paint lightens the room, plus being able to paint the ‘cheaper wood’ meant that the price of the stairs was reduced somewhat, yet we still have the quality of the oak.

If you are thinking that the turquoise in the Designers Guild chair looks a little out of place, it is to tie in with the occasional stripe of turquoise in the curtains (along with fabulous turqoise Moulin Rouge tiebacks on the downstairs windows) – you can see the curtain on the window upstairs.

Don’t leave the masking tape on the steps for too long.  If it is going to take you quite a long time to paint each riser, then do a couple at a time, repaint the next day and then move on. The reason being is that dust does tend to stick and accumulate under the masking tape if it is left for more than a week, it becomes harder to remove, and it is also quite difficult to scrub the sticky dust off as it almost becomes engrained into the wood – I speak from experience from a couple of steps!!

Turquoise Moulin Rouge Tieback

Please ignore the carpet on the upstairs landing!  I fell in love with the carpet we got for the hall downstairs and as it was a remnant from a very posh hotel, unfortunately there wasn’t enough to do the landing upstairs too so I’m still on the hunt for a co-ordinating carpet for there!  I do love my Singer sewing maching table – Brian bought it for me at an auction in Salisbury for a mere £22 – we were lucky with that one.  We have another one that is larger with drawers the whole way down that cost £80 but was riddled with woodworm underneath so still needs to be repaired somewhat – maybe next winter!

And if you are thinking of applying wallpaper to the risers on your stairs like Shawna’s stairs below, check out here and here for instructions ( I couldn’t find the post on Shawna’s blog but found it on Homebug)

Shawna's Stairs - Design in Dublin blog

PS It’s 11.15pm now and the first silage trailer has just arrived so I’d better start making sandwiches. Just as well I have chocolate biscuit cake to keep their energy levels up. The joys of being married to a farmer!