Interior design

[Penners]

The clash between the two cabinets is easily solved. Move out the music cabinet, replace it with a decent combo amp and fix a guitar hanger on the wall above it for the Gibson. Then play more guitar and worry less about decor.

NOW we're getting somewhere....!

 

[CliffordPope]

I don't think the clock fits in - too much black marble. And why isn't it in the middle of the mantelpiece?

 

[angrybird]

Have you tried toning down the mirror frame with a bit of black boot polish I find it works wonders on dulling down that garish gold .

 

[plasticpigeon]

I did try angry, but the finish is very smooth and plasticky and it doesn't seem to stick. I shall try and make it more acceptable at the weekend, but it may be another that goes on ebay!!!

I've just seen your picture, the boot polish worked well there, looks much nicer than the brassyness on my mirror.

 

[plasticpigeon]

The clock is genuine late Victorian, on a genuine late Victorian surround, just about the only 2 genuine old things in the room. They are both staying!!!! The clock is in the centre of the manteliece, but perspective skews things as wall, mantel and clock are not all in the same vertical plane.

 

[88v8]

Like the switch.

I think the mirror is too big.
Something like this?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Oval-Oak-Framed-Mirrors-/252146987062?hash=item3ab521b036:g:zrgAAOSw~bFWMeXa

I would make the wood paint a deeper colour so as to add more horizontal emphasis to the skirting and picture rail.

Wallpaper... The Morris paper we had in our last house was Small Willow, I think, red on a cream background. Can't find it now.
Maybe it was this... if so it looks redder on the wall
https://www.william-morris.co.uk/shop/wallpaper/morris-archive-wallpapers/willow/?code=DM6P210381
Perhaps this?
http://www.fashionwallpaper.co.uk/morris-and-co-scroll-wallpaper-210364.html
There does seem to be a shortage of reds in the current palette.
The repeat is also important of course, relative to the size of the room. We spent hours and hours looking at wallpaper books, as I'm sure you did.

Bit hopeless doing this sort of thing on't internet. One really needs to be in the room.

A point... the furniture doesn't have to be for ever.
Start with something. Keep looking. See something you like better. Change it.

Lighting is very important. Especially if you'll mainly be in there in the evening. The main purpose of lighting is mood and ambience. Plus being able to see what you're doing but that is secondary. There again, start with something, keep looking. Thousands of antique light fittings & shades on eBay. And red bulbs can be superb in creating a warm glow in table lamp or wall lights.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191624863114?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&var=490691612150&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks Ivor, I hoped you would comment. Here is the paper we wanted, but it is now discontinued.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/438678819925188164/

Unfortunately I couldn't convince my other half of any other pattern so we just went with paint. I think i would follow all your suggestions Ivor, I like darker wood but I am not alone in making these decisions, but the mirror has gone! I have put up one from another part of the house, it is smaller, a nicer colour and more ornate, and looks much better. So much so that I feel much more relaxed about the whole thing. Pictures to follow when I have hung it properly. I never liked the mirror. We have an appropriate light, I just haven't put it up yet, This is it!.

It's only really the carpet that I'm not so keen on now, it is a nice carpet and well fitted but just a bit bland, but I realise there is a lot to go in the room, so with a rug and a couple of old chairs and some pictures, things on the mantel shelf and in the cupboard, maybe a standard lamp, plant stand, and greenery in the fireplace, I think it will start to look less austere. That mirror though, what was I thinking?

 

[mims&pip]

I think Ivor is right in saying the mirror is too large. I'd go one step further and say the shape isn't perfect either. Combined with the plain walls (albeit in a period colour) and plain, light-coloured flooring, I don't think the room is screaming *period* yet.......

Mirror-wise - something in wood but in a more interesting shape - whether a curved design as per that posted by angrybird, or a more typical overmantel of the period perhaps. eBay has many such mirrors available and whilst it can be a pain searching fruitlessly, it can also be enormous fun and hugely rewarding when the right one suddenly appears on your screen

Not all of our mirrors are of an interesting shape - in fact we have two copper examples that are very pedestrian rectangular designs......but they have other interest - one (a whopper at 60" x 30") has blue ruskin cabochon embellishments, whilst the other smaller (43" x 29") affair has a hand beaten design of galleons. Both very Arts & Crafts as you'd expect :roll:

Both of these currently reside in rooms with plain painted walls (although previously have hung in rooms decorated with William Morris wallpaper - we had Willow Boughs in green in a previous cloakroom, Ivor! - or hand painted friezes), but there is sooooo much additional pattern in said rooms that most would declare the spaces too busy/cluttered and there is no way the space could be described as boring/lacking in visual interest :lol:

Have you chosen fabric for curtains yet? IMHO you definitely need to bring in pattern here. Again if you struggle to find (for example, Morris) fabrics, there are often vintage curtains online. I have recently parted with a few from my collection this way. I also just sold nine tapestry type cushions as we have way too many - a throw back from the days when we had eleven (yes eleven!) sofas in a previous house.

Lamps will give a period feel and are far more atmospheric that overhead lighting. I hate have the main ceiling light on in our snug, so have four lamps - one a floor lamp - dotted around the room. Downstairs in the drawing or morning room we have two ceiling lights that throw out such little light we do occasionally have these on - particularly the one over the table where we sit to read/play games - but again there are five lamps which I prefer to use as they create a far more appealing and cosy ambiance.

Mims x

Edited to add - I took so long typing this up I cross posted with you, PP and now see you have removed the offending mirror - IMHO this can only be an improvement and I look forward to seeing what you you have replaced it with :wink:

 

[plasticpigeon]

Like this one? I have this sitting in my watch list on ebay!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351560432637?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

However I don't think I will buy it as I think the mirror I have put up temporarily will look OK, and I think it the one in the ad would be a bit of a risk. I tried another mahogany mirror there and really didn't like it, gold to my eyes looked better. Perhaps it is a bit ostentatious and I am showing my tasteless side, but the room needs a little glamour!!! At least the other one has been consigned to the scrapheap now!!!! and I can change the mirror again in the future if need be. Some things can stay until I find something better as Ivor has said, but that mirror had to go!

Unfortunately the room will never look authentically period Mims as my partner and I both have to live here, but the result needs to be harmonious, and I'm sure a reasonable mix can be achieved without it being a complete dogs dinner. If you are selling any curtains that you thing might look good, please let me know. The opening is around 7 ft square or maybe a little larger.

 

[Penners]

So there you have it, PP. The paint's all wrong, the mirror's too big, the music cabinet's too small, the furniture doesn't match, the ceiling's too high, the carpet's the wrong colour, the window lets in too much light....

Still glad you asked??! :wink:

 

[mims&pip]

If the rest of your house - at least what I've seen here - is anything to go by it certainly won't be a dog's dinner, PP

Yes, that's the kind of mirror you could use there, although I personally am not a fan of that type. In fact my parents had one almost identical to that which they gave us when we were attempting to furnish our large Victorian home on the south coast on a tiny budget. It filled a space in our cavernous hallway, but I was never very keen. It was later purchased by the National Trust for one of their smaller properties.

I'm pleased you have found something you already have that you are happy with in that space. What you (and your partner of course!) think is definitely all that matters here......

I don't think I have any curtains left that would be suitable unfortunately.......and tbh, the ones I sold were either too small for your room (Liberty Ianthe) or else wrong colour (a deep blue/gold chenille in an art nouveau meets gothic pattern). If I did you would be most welcome to check them out. I still have a few storage boxes containing curtains and fabrics collected over the past fifteen or so years, but these will probably end up being used somewhere here.....if we ever get round to finishing/staying - still not decided what to do :roll:

Mims x

 

[plasticpigeon]

So there you have it, PP. The paint's all wrong, the mirror's too big, the music cabinet's too small, the furniture doesn't match, the ceiling's too high, the carpet's the wrong colour, the window lets in too much light....

Still glad you asked??! :wink:

May as well knock it down and start again!!

 

[Penners]

Whatever you do, don't ask the members of this forum to design the replacement!

 

[mims&pip]

So there you have it, PP. The paint's all wrong, the mirror's too big, the music cabinet's too small, the furniture doesn't match, the ceiling's too high, the carpet's the wrong colour, the window lets in too much light....

Still glad you asked??! :wink:

May as well knock it down and start again!!

Nooooo

Just for interest here's a link to our south coast house (apologies if I've posted this here before - can't remember if I have!) which despite having changed hands since we sold in 2007 still contains some of our *stuff* -

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=37983133&sale=525769&country=england

The first pic (our former dining room) contains our (repro) gothic mirror, our collection of original gothic prints and some pieces of gothic style furniture, all of which we sold to our buyers. The carpet shown was fitted by us in 2004.

The hallway has the collection of around 150 cases of taxidermy butterflies we sold to them - not to everyone's taste I know, but we love them and although we retained a few we are starting to build up the collection again. The floor tiles were laid by me - these came from the church where my parents were married.

The hand-painted friezes in both reception rooms were executed by me.

Much of the wallpaper we hung in bedrooms and bathrooms has been removed, but the Zoffany paper in pic 14 and the porch paper (pic 23) was hung by us.

We designed and built the gothic style conservatory on the footprint of the original Victorian building.

The kitchen we fitted in 1998 is still in situ - although we didn't fit the Aga - with Pip building the kitchen mantel and island.

All curtains shown were made by me with the exception of those in pics 16/17/19.

The (greige) bathroom was deep raspberry/burgundy during our ownership - and had hand-applied print room decorative details.

Unfortunately since it sold again it has most likely been *greiged* to within an inch of its life

Mims x

Edited to add - our taste has matured considerably since we decorated that house. We moved there in the late 1990s and initially had a very typical *Victorian meets country house* attitude towards decorating/furnishing. By 2004 we had discovered eBay and whereas previously we went to a lot of local auctions, the world was now our *lobster* as Delboy would say :lol: As a result we began to widen our interests in collecting and my latent love of art nouveau flourished. I actually shudder to think I chose such *in your face* colour schemes as some of those in the above link!

 

[plasticpigeon]

Look at that, how lovely! I would be happy for my sense of style to mature into what yours was! Picture 1, low cupboard in one alcove, tall in the other. I guess it's not what you do but the way that you do it!

 

[mims&pip]

Look at that, how lovely! I would be happy for my sense of style to mature into what yours was! Picture 1, low cupboard in one alcove, tall in the other. I guess it's not what you do but the way that you do it!

Why thank you, PP

Do you know, I never even thought of that when I posted and both in different species of wood too......

Both those pieces were ours - the lower piece in the left recess is a wine rack (antique pine) whilst the bookcase/display cabinet on the right is rosewood iirc. The mirror was mahogany. All were purchased from a local dealer in Southsea who we became great friends with. I still remember going to pick up the mirror from their shop, walking back to our car in the nearby Waitrose car park only to find it wouldn't fit (had a sports car then, not the trusty Defender, lol!) so Pip had to carry it home!

When we owned the house we had one of those two large antique religious prints that are seen on the adjacent wall hanging above the wine rack. We also had a lifesize papier-mâché cherub that sat on top, whilst his twin (an old church salvaged piece in flaking painted timber) sat on our knole sofa (in the bay window). We still have the sofa - currently in our kitchen - but it has been commandeered by the dogs :roll: We also had two large dressers - one a heavily carved French antique, the other an English *green man* piece - in that room. One (the French) was on the wall where all the prints are, the other opposite the fireplace.

That reminds me of what was said earlier in the thread regarding replacing a piece when a better one comes along - while living in the house we had before that we found a nice French carved dresser from a guy that used to go over with a van and bring it back stuffed with French antiques. We bought it on the understanding he would swap it later if something we preferred came along. Low and behold only two weeks later I passed his shop only to see a far superior piece sitting within. It was double the price but I had to have it. The guy was a little shocked when I went in and suggested we do a swap that included us giving him our old Art Deco style Scandinavian dining suite in px - I think he had been half joking and hadn't expected me to take him up on his *offer* :lol: We kept that second dresser for fifteen years.......

Mims x

 

[Zebra]

Wow, mims!
This thread is making me realise how much I didn't realise there was to know about interior design....

 

[mims&pip]

Yeah, but Zebra, I'd much rather have your amazingly useful skills and be able to rewire a whole house

 

[Penners]

This thread is making me realise how much I didn't realise there was to know about interior design....

Zebra, stop it!

I refer you to my comments about interior design on the first page of this thread. If you look around your house and like what you see, then that's all the interior design skill you need (although I suspect you may not quite have reached that point yet).

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Fab property PipandMims, love the solid Victorian build both inside and out, and it's so rewarding to find that your successors have retained much of your hard work as well as the furnishings that they chose to buy from you. Both of my previous North Norfolk properties have been treated in much the same way. If you google Foxglove Cottage Burnham Market you will find it is now a holiday house, I bought it in one heck of a state and spent 6 months putting it to rights. All the current owner has done is add extra shower rooms and changed a downstairs room into an extra bedroom. She kept my much loved 4 oven Aga! The second property in Walsingham, still on google as 'The Old Gatehouse ' High street Little Walsingham was such a privilge to own . My Buyer simply continued where we left off and restored the gable windows to the top floor and reconfigured the room usage, but he kept my colour schemes and was a naughty boy removing the Aga--but no matter!!