Sunday house chat
Help me choose the paint scheme
This is a quick hello to show you some snaps of our living room renovations. I know, it’s what you’ve always dreamed of: some random snaps of someone’s building work. I never promised exciting times over here. Move on if you are into fun stuff. Thank you.
AND
Please send me your picture book questions for next week’s post. I love chatting about picture books: materials, tech, contracts, money, editors, agents, pacing, layouts, studio snacks, illustrators boob, all that stuff.
Building work snaps
Our living room had a slopey concrete floor that made all furniture tilt towards the middle of the room - unless we propped it up with beer mats and bits of spare kindling. And the ceiling had horrible blown vinyl wallpaper casting thousands of little shadows which made the room feel dark and gloomy.
Then there was the problem of two doors. It was hard to put furniture where we wanted it, and don’t get me talking about the yearly problem of where to put the Christmas tree 😡 . ‘No not there, there’s a door. No not there, there’s another door. No not there, there’s a cupboard/ radiator/ window/ fireplace’. No nook for a Christmas tree and all homes need a nook for a Christmas tree.
So we decided to dig up the wonky concrete floor and add some insulation. LUXURY. No more concrete on bare earth to freeze our feet every morning. We dug up the kitchen floor a couple of years ago and found a spring (the water kind not the bouncy kind) and a sink hole, so we were hoping for boring old earth, and thank goodness, that’s what we got.
After a week of dust and noise and fun chats with builders we now have a nice LEVEL floor with insulation. We have to wait 6 weeks for the concrete to dry out before we can put down a wooden floor, otherwise we are told, the moisture will penetrate the wood and the floor will expand and buckle. And we don't want wonky floors again so we will have to be patient and do as we’re told.
You see that door in the photos above? The one with the sheet covering it? That is going to be an internal window and we’ll surround it with floor to ceiling, wall to wall bookshelves. Then that spot to the left of the fireplace will be the Christmas tree nook and I will be happy. The end.
P.S. Shall we paint the room a lovely chalky pale blue and paint the bookshelves orangey red. What do you think?
Your picture book questions please
This Thursday I would like to chat here about making picture books. Do you have any questions? Stick them in the comments below. Thank you. Air kiss. Air kiss. (I am fancy now I have level floors).
Happy Sunday!
Love Helen x
I love orange🍊I think it’s such a useful colour!
I’ve been watching videos on YouTube of the interior designer Rita Konig and (I can’t find the link to) one where she said that often people start with deciding on wall colour first and it feels like a big overwhelming choice but usually she doesn’t pick the wall colour until 3/4 of the way through the process after deciding on which furniture, curtains, rugs and pictures that will be in the room and then picking colour/colours that work with those things…. It blew my mind a bit!
Level and insulated floor? Very fancy 😂 I like the blue and orange very much. My house is sorely lacking colour but sadly I am lacking motivation and time to paint 🤦♀️ I love reading about what others are doing renovation wise though.