DIY Project Diary - Week 30

My arms are killing me. I spent the last 7 days painting, painting and painting… I covered the walls with a textured paint that is supposed to be used to achieve a Mediterranean rustic look. Instead of painting this with a strong colour, I decided to paint it with satin white paint. The effect is really quite interesting - the walls have some texture (rather than looking flat) but they are not rough and chalky. The silky finish of the paint makes the walls look subtle and they bounce the light back into the space. The room looks much bigger.  It took some time because I needed at least three coats of paint, plus I also had to paint the ceiling..

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DIY Refurbishment diary - Week 29

Well, the parquet tiles weren’t easy at all. It was relatively easy to lay them - but because they came as untreated I decided to stain and varnish them. The first stain was too red. The second was OK, sort of dark brown - but when I varnished it, the colour turned red. The third stain looked too dark and too messy as the parquet bits didn’t stain evenly. It looked absolutely dreadful. We had to hire a floor sander and sand the whole floor back!..

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Diary of a redecorating project - Week 28

I spent the whole week on painting. My arms are killing me. I painted the walls in the hallway, the staircase (two sets!) doors and other woodwork etc. Although I like painting, I got very bored by the end of it…everything needed at least three coats of paint.  Anyway, I decided to keep everything white in a soft sheen finish. This will reflect the light back into the space making the rooms appear larger and lighter - also this finish is more practical as it can be easily wiped..

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Week 27 - finishing first floor

The vouchers have arrived from IKEA, so we had to go back to spend the money! Actually, I needed some blinds and the utensil rails and other cabinet accessories. So off we went.

Going to IKEA is a whole day’s outing. You can’t just go there for a couple of hours - by the time you get through the checkout, half (if not most) of your day’s gone. Also, you end up buying hundreds of things that you don’t really need, but they’re such a good value - then at the checkout you wonder why the total amount is so high..

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