future simple passive: interior design

In Stroud we are lucky to have Bailey Paints - a wonderful cornucopia of all things paint-related. It was to them that I turned for everything to do with paint. As I was quite overwhelmed about choosing colours I took advantage of their Colour Consultation Service. Jane Peckitt, an experienced professional furniture painter and decorator, came for 2hr site visit and I couldn't have done it without her.

Little Greene's Colours of England & Colour Scales, and Grey Collection

Jane arrived into the chaos of the building site, with about 8 or 9 contractors also on site. Her secret weapon was a file of nearly A4 size colour samples of the entire Little Greene colour library (for more info about why I chose Little Greene see here). What a difference they made to job of looking at colours. At that size it was so much easier to see what the colours looked like in situ and to see how they related to other colours.

My tester pot samples

We started upstairs, peeled back the protective floor coverings and took a look at how different colours worked with the floor. Jane listened carefully to what I what I wanted to achieve and used her amazing knowledge of colours to guide me through the options. She was great at knowing which colours looked complementary together, moving expertly between different shades completely. Jane was also able to flick quickly between the samples to lay her hands on samples that would offer me a brighter or more sombre option of any colour combo.

We ended up choosing one of the colour scales from Little Greene's Grey Collection; flint, tusk and limestone. These gave a lovely soft graduated background and then chose accent colours for my colour blocks. I wanted to do something interesting with paint and between Pinterest and Remodelista I had been really inspired by painting just a block of colour which doesn't go up to the ceiling and also wraps around corners.

I have fallen in love with Little Greene's Juniper Ash, a gorgeous rich warm blue, which will be used upstairs and downstairs. And for our bedroom I've chosen the beautiful Bone China Blue which manages to be both blue and grey and ever so calm and elegant.

I felt really excited as I was delighted with the colours and my design rules (see here) were all being ticked!

About a month ago now (I'm so behind with my blogging!) I, with my two youngest, drove the 1.5hrs to Oxfordshire. We emerged from the deep and thick fog of Gloucestershire into a glorious sunny spring day. After months of anticipation and waiting, we started the internal design work. The babes were happily deposited with their Grandmother, for a day in the garden (how handy that she lives in the same village as Charlie!(more).

We had just a few hours to blast through a massive amount of design. We did the 1st draft electrical layout and lighting design. We discussed the materials we would use for all the internal joinery and the palette in general. We discussed the possible flooring choices for the upper floor. We designed the staircase (which has become a library - it's gorgeous). We did some playing with the kitchen design. We started on the bathroom designs. We talked about the sliding doors and how they will look and work.

A day of lightening fast design choices left me feeling pretty punch drunk and exhausted but also very, very excited. The living space that we will inhabit is really starting to come to life and become real, and that is an amazing thing! Of course, nothing is final yet and there are a million more design decisions to come. Once you have some concrete ideas to work on though, it is possible to think more carefully about how the spaces will be used, and work on refinements in the design.

I have to say that I am growing in confidence about design as this process goes on. It was fairly overwhelming to think about before- how do you begin? With a blank slate there is a lot of pressure! I wasn't sure that I knew what we wanted aesthetically, but I did know that we are strongly opinionated on a practical level of how design has to be useful not just beautiful. However, I've discovered that I do know what I like, it's just that I might not know what is possible...
Of course I have Charlie and everyone else at CLD to hold my hand and Charlie is very, very good at design - so I'm being mentored and guided in this process.

I can't explain my style in words, and Pinterest has been an amazing tool, I never fail to find inspiration. If you look at my boards there are a diverse range of styles but I've found that if I just pin what I like and find interesting, eventually a theme emerges which helps crystallize what I am most interested in. On my flooring board I repeatedly 'pin' hexagon tiles, parquet flooring and pale wide wood floors, so that really helped me to clarify what I wanted.

Follow future simple passive's board Flooring on Pinterest.

Like everyone else there are lots of things I admire and like but not all of them are going to make it into this house. So I've realised that I am starting to create some rules.

1. Do I get excited about it...
I need to have a visceral reaction. If it's just OK, then it's not the one! It's so easy when, for example, you are in a lighting department to just find the one that you like best, or hate least, if you are me. But that's not good enough, the few choices I have made so far have taught me that when I see the right thing I know it - i get really excited. I just have to be patient...

2. Creativity using low cost items
I, like everyone else, lust after those big ticket items. For me it is the PH Artichoke pendant lamp in brushed copper, by Louis Poulsen (in fact Danish lighting design in general rings all my bells). But at £6,500 it's not going to happen! I want to try to use my (and everyone elses!) creativity and not cash to make a beautiful home.

3. Limited palette of materials
After months of looking at Pinterest and subscribing to Remodelista (which is amazing), I've started to come to some understanding about "design", or at least design that I like (i don't claim to be an expert). The most relevant at the moment is keeping your palette of colours and materials limited and repeated throughout. So we have decided on pale wood, concrete, brushed stainless steel and birch ply joinery - oooohhhh!

4. Be brave
I worry that the house will feel like someone else's, a bit too grown up, and a bit too safe and boring. So, I want to be playful and brave. I think I would probably prefer regretting going a bit too far than not going far enough.

It's very easy to put pressure on yourself to get it right, after all it all costs money. I've lost count of the number of people who have told me that we will make mistakes. That's fine, but I'm going to do my damnedest to minimise those errors! Does that make me a control freak? According to Charlie, I've got control issues...I think I'm just thorough!

future simple passive

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5 Feb 2015

Choosing the colours

18 Apr 2014

Interiors and Design