Design Dilemmas

Episode 110. This week we're discussing gloss or matt stair paint, downsizing furniture and a tricky landing space. Plus a new build mood board and the Sunday Niche Edit.

Good morning and what a day to be alive here in the UK! The sun has been shining and my courtyard has been getting some hardcore use by both my family and the animals, a great success all round, in fact. Which is handy because I paid the bill this week and could well have gone into a decline had I not thought it was working perfectly and was worth every penny. Which it was, worth every penny. I had so much fun planting it out last weekend (I wrote about this on Wednesday) and I’ve spent a lot of time popping outside to check that everything is growing okay. Honestly, I am so impatient. Am mostly excited about the Agapanthus which has opened almost all it’s buds and is ready to bloom - I will report straight back when it does. Honestly, I don’t even recognise myself, quite frankly. I think it’s because it’s such a small space that there’s not much to keep track of so it makes it more exciting to watch it develop in real time.

Ella and I are going to see Lily Allen this evening after she bought me tickets for my birthday. Not only can I not wait (I love Lily and her most recent album which probably inspired a zillion women to throw off miserable relationships and remember how great they actually were) but we are going to a restaurant before hand called Blue Sakura where it’s all you can eat but via iPads so it’s just cooked to order and brought to your table which sounds way better than the normal all you can eat restaurants which I wouldn’t go close to with a barge pole. There is something about those massive buffets which screams food poisoning to me, especially since you don’t know when the food was put out (SALADS!) and how long it’s been there. We went to Egypt years ago on an all inclusive trip and all of us had shocking food poisoning for days after eating chicken skewers, with the exception of Max who only ate the chicken nuggets and didn’t veer off course, possibly the only time I was happy that he was a fussy eater. Anyway, both Lily and Blue Sakura are supposed to be brilliant so I am very much looking forward to them.

Back to business and this week, we are looking at the difference between matt eggshell and gloss paint on staircases and bannisters. We’re discussing how to downsize your furniture when it’s too big for the rooms that you now have plus a landing space that needs something added but we’re not sure what. And finally, we are helping a subscriber with a North facing new build living room that needs a lot of warming up. Plus the Sunday Niche Edit today is summer themed - beach towels, but make them not striped (I am astonished how many striped beach towels there are out there). Paid subscribers, remember that you can add your dilemmas or quandaries below here in the comments or you can join in the Group Chat (the speech bubble on your app) where there are thousands of you waiting to help with any issues that arise (I pick ones from both of these locations for my weekly post, so whack yours in).

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