We have lived at The Farmhouse for over three years now, in a pre-renovation mess of undecorated rooms, boxes and drab creams and browns. The building was a good size, but had funny qwerks like no access to the rear, a kitchen next to a bedroom, a tiny bathroom, and for a house that could accommodate four large double bedrooms, we found the previous owner slept in the lounge! The house is chilly, the huge popular French woodburner pumped most of its heat out of the chimney and the windows were few and small. It needed a good sort out!

So after landscaping, something we always do first for sanity…at least when you arrive and leave and sit out in the summer, you have a beautiful garden around you, and for the poultry, it’s own time to tackle the house. In a previous post we completed the Snug, a cosy evening room, but we needed a pretty bedroom to end the day.

The bedroom sits behind our kitchen and has lovely views of the orchard, but at something, the kitchen will be a morning room, which makes a bit more sense. I had a box of wallpaper bought a while back, very plain, but functional, a linen affect and another couple of rolls of very bright floral paper,covered with dragonflies, bugs and butterflies 🦋 It hung beautifully, no stretching and although it feels very odd having such a lot of colour, waking each morning to a happy wall is just lovely. I have for most of my life lived in unfinished houses and white walked rentals, this is a revelation.

I have added a warm yellow and black chest of drawers and the old brown wardrobe is going to be painted in a soft aquamarine. The window will be lined with timber and a few shelves added, long Colefax and Fowler curtains that my mother had stashed in a cupboard, hung and some pretty rugs to track down at the brocantes.

Black is a great decorating highlight and allows other colours to zing. It stops a room being too bright and over pretty and adds a little definition. Good spots are skirtings, lamp shades, accessories like frames, door handle knobs.

It was a joy to finally take clothes out of bags, put a few decorative bits n bobs out and start to organize. Even George pig 🐖 had a spot….and you can’t get better than that!