Design Dilemmas

Episode 70: This week we’re talking updating bedroom decor, cabin bed storage quandaries and the hunt for small double beds. Plus whether or not we can paint over marble and the Sunday Niche Edit.

[cover photo credit: Casa Cook Hotels]

I realised at the weekend that my husband had taken all the boxes that I had marked ‘office’ and put them into the eaves storage. This is the first time in ten years that I haven’t had an office - I’ve been very lucky previously that I have been able to have a specified space to spread my things out in, but in this new home, I have based myself at the dining table. There is a spare room at the top of the house which I could utilise, but I much prefer to be where the ‘action’ is, as it were (AKA the kettle, the coffee maker and the front door for copious deliveries). So I’m in the kitchen dining room and it’s LOVELY. It’s next to the French doors, there’s sun coming in from the Velux above and I have Scott Mills dulcet tones every morning. I never, ever don’t count my blessings that I am able to work at home, it is an utter JOY.

Anyway, he whacked all the office boxes into the eaves, including my paper diary which was a categoric disaster. I had not yet had time to rifle through the zillion boxes that are in front of it in order to find it and as such, have been on a back foot all week. I am not one for online diaries, a fact for which I am constantly berated by both Joe and my friend, Sharon. I like a pen, a piece of paper. I like to see it all in front of me IRL, not on a screen. I like a planner, I like to doodle three dimensional cubes (this actually means a yearning to be constructive, btw - we can but wish), I like to use a pen to tick things off. That may make me old school, but whatevs. I am from the era of the Filofax and I make no apology for this.

This morning I was late for a Zoom meeting as I had not realised the time and got stuck in a queue at the tip, before having to chase Flo around the courtyard to get her in so that I could join the call (although the courtyard ‘looks’ cat safe, I am never completely sure that she’s not going to suddenly gain cat super powers and hoist herself up and over the wall in a bid for freedom). I had not been able to remind myself via my paper diary and as a result, was the late person that I am always irritated by when I arrange Zoom calls myself. I was fuming with Joe (obvs) and ranted at how annoyed I was at my uncharacteristic unprofessional lateness which was entirely his fault (due to diary packing) to which he pointedly replied ‘did your Google calendar not alert you?’. No. No, it did not, Joe. Anyway, I have now rescued it and am BACK IN THE GAME at the pinnacle of efficiency. Normality is resumed.

Okay now back to business and this week we are starting with updating a bedroom which has non negotiables of a grey carpet and cream walls. We’re looking at a small girls bedroom and working out the best storage and sourcing small double beds which are not boring and which look good. Plus whether or not it’s okay to paint over marble if you have a hearth or a mantel that are not doing it for you. And today’s Sunday Niche Edit is all about portable lamps to light up every corner.

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