All posts tagged: masonic villas

The Pre – Final Reveal (Preveal)

Published by Karen Knox

I’m not talking much today. It’s just pictures. Pictures of the “Preveal”. The preveal and the shopping list for the living room at the Masonic Villas project. I think it’s good to have everything in one place just incase you actually haven’t been following each and every blog post (how dare you). Anything that doesn’t get a mention means it was already here; artwork, furniture, lighting, this place already had many beautiful vintage and salvaged pieces to work with (lucky me). But let’s take a look at what we added to the mix to pull it all together. Ceiling light – Molecular Light by HouseDoctor Walls – Farrow and Ball Off Black Ceiling & Woodwork – Farrow and Ball Shadow White Black mid century planter – La Redoute Louka Wool rug – La Redoute Bunny Girl Print – Desenio Black Rattan Mirror – La Redoute Crosses Framed Print – made.com Swoosh wall light – French Connection Connor Sofa in Petrol – made.com Dolly tub style planter – Netto (you can read more about my Netto finds …

The Pod

Published by Karen Knox

I last mentioned “The Pod” in the Peignoir and Worsted reveal post. You can see the flash of Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue through the door at the top of the landing here: The Pod, named mainly due to its size, 1.5m x 1.9m is just about big enough to fit a single bed in. A single bed and one small book. It’s actually used as the home office. Not the most successful one, however: Before It had gotten so cramped the homeowner had set up office-camp on the kitchen table downstairs. Not great when you’re working from home. Seeing your computer all the time means you’re switched on 24/7. I know a few of you out there can relate to that. It’s not good for a healthy work/life balance. Things that needed sorting were: The desk was too deep and interfered with the door architrave. There’s not nearly enough storage but the amount of “stuff” (which needed downsizing). Electrical trunking ran across the top of the desk meaning cables were trailing all over the place. It felt cold …

Steel Magnolias

Published by Karen Knox

During my hunt for pieces for the Masonic Villas project, i’ve come across some great new places to shop, new sellers and some corking unique pieces. I’ve really done my homework for this project. There was one specific piece of furniture however, that almost stumped me. Almost! Before This space wasn’t quite working for me. The standing wine rack was a little intrusive here, the mirror was hung too high and the hallway was calling out for a console table to sit over that radiator. So I began the search. Our hallway console needed to be: tall enough to sit over the radiator which is 78cm high wider than 100cm, preferably over 120cm. no cross bars or anything that would interfere with the radiator no deeper than 35cm have a paired back slightly industrial feel It turns out, console tables are all about 75-78cm high. So not quite tall enough to sit over the radiator. Most are more than 35cm deep and almost all of them have shelves or cross bars. We were getting to …

Off Black & Shadow White

Published by Karen Knox

Following on from Peignoir and Worsted (i’ve stopped crying now btw) i’m going to give you a pre “final reveal” peep at how the living room at the Masonic Villas project is looking…. now it’s gone all monochrome on us. Please bear in mind, the room doesn’t have everything in it just yet. Still some pieces to arrive, lighting to fix, shelves to style and lots of artwork to hang. LOTS. But I already love it. Farrow & Ball’s Off Black and Shadow White have given this Victorian living room, bursting with original period features, a real contemporary, Scandinavian edge. Let’s take a look at how colour alone can transform a space. Before After (with barely anything in it yet) I want to live in this room. Before After See how this space has been completely transformed, without actually changing all that much? Same furniture, same curtains, same layout-ish. With those Off Black walls, everything that sits in front of them just looks amazeballs. Shadow White, one of Farrow and Ball’s new colours for 2016 was chosen for the woodwork, …

Peignoir & Worsted

Published by Karen Knox

I could barely contain my excitement yesterday. I was off to visit the Masonic Villas project for the first time since the hallway, stairs and landing were given its new Farrow & Ball colour palette. I won’t lie. I did a little cry when I arrived to finally see it, worse still I found it impossible to leave… I just kept gawping. Truly beautiful. Please bear in mind, we’ve still got artwork and mirrors to hang, brass stair rods to fit and the final finishing touches to sort, but I thought it was only fair you got to see it. I mean, we’ve all been waiting so long to see F&B’s Peignoir and Worsted up on these walls haven’t we? **Major pic heavy post** Before After – Farrow & Ball’s Peignoir and Worsted Everything from the dado rail and below was painted in Worsted Estate Eggshell, including all the door frames, staircase and spindles. Everything above the dado was painted Peignoir Estate Emulsion. I didn’t want lots of fussy colour changes around all the detail like the picture rail, …

Masonic Villas goes Monochrome

Published by Karen Knox

After dealing with the trauma of the landing chandelier being fitted (after a month of set backs and six fairies – you kind of gotta read the post to understand what i’m on about there) this is going to be a nice and simple blog post. Oh good. See, now the light is up, it means we can get on with the fun stuff. Fun stuff like getting paint on the walls and seeing the backdrop for our new rooms. You can read more about the colour palette for the whole project here, but for today i’m just going to show you what a difference colour can make to the overall feel of a room. Farrow and Ball’s Off Black and Shadow White The last time I walked into this room, it was like this: The only progress we’d made at this point was updating the ceiling light. And let me tell you, that was one million times more simple than fitting the light on the landing. Fo sho. On my next visit, we’d made great strides. Well, …

Masonic Villas – Update

Published by Karen Knox

It’s been some time since i’ve updated this project. And i’ll tell you for why… it’s all been put on hold for one thing. One piece to fall into place. And now that piece is finally done the decorating can now start. In fact it already has. Hoobloominray! How many people does it take to change a light bulb? Well actually, fit a new ceiling light over the mezzanine of this landing area? The answer: Six. SIX! This huge 4.5m drop was crying out a for a light. A huge statement chandelier. Why wasn’t there one there already I wonder? Grab a cuppa and i’ll tell you a story…. Chapter 1. Once upon a time there was no light over a beautiful landing area. The mezzanine was sad, dark and lonely without a chandelier so the Making Spaces fairy decided it was time to call on some of her friends. Chapter 2. In order for the new light to be wired in, the Lighting Fairy needed to access the loft space. The existing loft hatch was …