The Windows: Now Shuttered, Sort Of...

The plantation shutters finally arrived and wow, you don't realise how private some rooms in your house aren't until you have proper window coverings.  Definitely worth the 4 year wait (we couldn't decide between shutters, curtains, Romans...), love them! The shutters went on the 3 bedrooms and the living room.

Looks good, doesn't it?  Let's just say the words you don't want to hear from the installer are "Excuse, me, there's a problem".  Such a WTF moment. Of course of all the windows I wanted to get the shutters on, it was the living room - we've been living crack den style with this sheet covering the window for what seems like forever - so of course that was the one they stuffed up the measurements of. I guess after 4 years another few weeks or months won't hurt, but still we were so close!  Could have been finished!

The Windows and Some Lamps Too

We finally ordered shutters for the living room and the 3 bedrooms, something which I've wanted to do since we moved in 4 years ago...I can't believe 4 years have gone by already, mostly because I thought the house would have been renovated in half that time.  Clearly a naive renovator.  

The shutters are coming in a week's time, which is really exciting because they will massively improve not only each room (no more sheet covering the living room window at night!) but also the street appeal. So with the shutters coming, I had to paint the window frames (only a year after getting the windows) and I'm one coat of paint down, with another coat to do this weekend.  As this is white paint on white primer these aren't the most interesting pics, but the frames are already super shiny if that counts for anything.

Switched around the lamps in the hallway too, with these new ones I picked up on Sunday for a steal.  I wanted a pair of lamps that are grander than what I've had in the hallway before.  I think they still need a little finishing off with some colour somewhere, and I need to tidy up the dust collectors and knick knacks on the table, but it is all progress ;)

The Hallway: Moving and Painting Stuff

I broke the blog last week and it took me what seemed like forever to get it back to how it sort of was pre-stuff up.   I tried out a different layout or two, and then somehow all the sidebar gadgets slid to the bottom of the page and they wouldn't slide back up. Then I deleted a post by accident and so on and so forth.  That would be the reason it is recommended to always back up your blog ;)

I'm still trying to finish the hallway but I'm taking my time for once and considering what goes there. It is tempting to just get the area finished but better to have it finished and love it rather than just finished, you know? I decided one thing I wanted to do was give my antlers a little nip tuck... I had seen some which had the mounts painted in different colours and so out came the black paint (brush this time, not spray).  The shadows the antlers cast in this picture are pretty cool, aren't they?

The other change is that I've swapped the picture at the end of the hallway again (here is what used to be there) because I keep going back and forth over whether I prefer to have a little colour, or stick with something incorporating my favourite black.  Black wins until I change my mind again.

I've mentioned before that the hallway is the darkest room in the house and even though the ceiling was painted not that long ago, it looks dull and bleh because there's no natural light and therefore you can't see the pretty cornice detail. So I'm thinking about working with the dark instead of against it and maybe painting it the same colour as the wall or slightly darker, still not 100% on that one though.  I'd also like to take out the downlights and whack in one or two fancier lights, switch around the lamps, get new artwork....and on it goes....