the lounge....

Shall I show you the living room as it was as we moved in...

The view from the hallway, spot the green carpet and green wall paper (which is slowly peeling off the walls), the massive radiator under the window onto balcony, kaylite ceiling rose... Why is it everyone puts radiators under windows?? There's issues with furniture, you can't have long curtains or close curtains if you have long ones, and surely its silly having a radiator near the warmest part of the room (the window in our living room). Is this just a British thing? Until we moved to England, I didn't know what a radiator was..as far as we knew, in winter you used blankets, lots of layers of clothing and electric heaters - dredged from the dark backs of cupboards(when you had electricity) and wood fires if you had a fireplace.



the view of the balcony door, corner shelving which is scary and even more wires and cables... theres a phone point in the kitchen, lounge, both bedrooms...and cables everywhere...

What it looked like when we moved in...

And back onto the hallway, where there is another radiator by the doorway...it's location means that there is no door. The door is currently sitting in the main bedroom along with another door from somewhere, we don't know where. Theres hundreds of tiny picture hooks and little screw/nail holes in the walls... hundreds...




So...its big, its huge in fact.. about 4.5 x 4 metres or near enough. Considering its the second lounge we have had in the uk, the last one being just under 3mx3m. It also needs a little work to fix up and make livable. I think a bit of paint and fixer would transform it, and furniture...

The new flat

So being as how we are living on the english coastline, I was thinking of redecorating the house with a beachy/holiday feel, but not too beachy. We need a contemporary modern vibe which feels chilled out. Easier said than done! Here are some pictures of the hallway from before we moved in, the long passageway with a dark green carpet that has a nice wooden parquet floor underneath.



As you can see it feels dark, that glass brick dividing wall thing with the knick-knack display cabinet doesn't help much. Although I understand its purpose. It allows the light from a window in the kitchen into the passage/hall and so provides the passageway with its only natural light source. The light fittings feel old and dated, and I just don't like them much.

Here's a shot of the divider and the lights up close.




I was over on A Beach Cottage looking for inspiration and spotted her hallway. Its lovely, bright and white. I was thinking of bright bold colours for the flat. But as we aren't going to live here forever(and need to brighten up that hall)white might be the best option. I especially love the old bleached white wood and her diy oar for coats. Although I don't think its entirely appropriate for a ninth floor flat, maybe I could use some ideas, painting the wood white for instance.

So the question is.. what to do with our entrance hall? I think, remove the wallpaper, paint it a lighter colour and although I love dark wood generally, paint the divider white and get rid of that cabinet - I don't see the point of it. Change those light fittings and maybe have a couple of bright paintings or even some prints framed nicely along the wall? But that's not the first task... that is reserved for the balcony.