All posts tagged: valspar

Living Room Update – Pt 2 #styleitdark

Published by Karen Knox

Ok, if you didn’t read Part I, then this post might not make that much sense. So you might want to pop back a couple of posts and catch up so you know what the heck i’m going on about today. Or just keep reading… you’re in charge. I think it’s fair to say I wasted spent a week painting various sections of this room. This bit that colour, that bit this colour. There are some sections of wall that have been painted four times over the space of a fortnight, I swear the room is smaller. https://www.instagram.com/p/BTRQx3RA0GD/?taken-by=makingspacesnet As much as I loved the tone of Dulux’s Rich Praline 3, it just did not work with our oak furniture or pine door. It was also a perfect match for the carpet (which I don’t like) making the room feel a bit “blah”. Not exactly the look I was going for when I started this room update. So after, repeatedly telling my hubster how the room would’t work unless I painted the door in with the …

What’s going on with paint? Water based? Solvent based?

Published by Karen Knox

I’ve been planning to write this post for months, but wanted to collate as much info and evidence as possible before shooting my mouth. I haven’t seen anyone else tackle this issue yet and it’s about time someone did. **Serious face** Over the past few years, there’s been a huge shift in the paint industry. Read this: “Since the latest Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) Regulations came into force in the UK back in 2010, many paint products containing high levels of VOCs – the solvents that determine a paint’s viscosity, flow and drying time – were no longer be able to be manufactured.” Dulux Ok, that’s very interesting, Karen, but what does this actually mean? I’ll tell you. It meant the paints we’re used to painting our wood/metal work with have had to change in order to comply with the new VOC regs. Oil or solvent based paints as we knew them could no longer be sold because of environmental reasons. You know how old school gloss paint stinks and takes ages to dry? It’s also …

The 5th Wall – Conclusion

Published by Karen Knox

I finished it. What? Painting our ceiling in with the walls. Oh right, yeah I remember now, you wrote about starting that a couple of weeks ago didn’t you? Yeah. You can catch up here. We’ve now lived with it for a couple of weeks and i’m ready to give my honest (as ever) opinion on it. It’s changed the feel of the room, a lot. Conclusion 1. It’s a marmite design decision. Nobody is going to walk in and go, ooh i’m not sure. It’s either, “what on earth have you done?” or “wow, I love it.” Conclusion 2. It doesn’t actually make the ceiling feel lower, it did when it was half done, but once it was all done it was back to normal again. So if you’re thinking of trying it at home, DO NOT make any decisions until you’ve finished what you started. Commit! Conclusion 3. It’s definitely made the room darker. Not just feel darker, but actually darker. So it does make things, like doing the ole face paint a little …

The 5th wall – In real life

Published by Karen Knox

I’ve mentioned before, I tend to experiment with our home, trying out design ideas, colours, layouts and living with them for a while to see if I like em, decide if they work for us and how they change the feel of the house as a whole. This way i’m in a much better position when it comes to me making suggestions for your home. Example: when I went to have a consult about getting my eyes done with that fancy pants lazer surgery a few years ago, ALL of the opticians and technicians were wearing glasses. Erm… what’s that about? I’m still rocking the specs to this day. I wrote a post well over a year ago all about the 5th wall and how painting the ceiling can completely transform a room. With this in mind, it was always the plan to paint our bedroom ceiling dark when I started it about a year ago (you can have a peep here to read about it). But I ended up leaving it white, deciding to wait and see if it annoyed …

An Eclectic Living Room – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Ages ago, back in April, I introduced you to some of the projects I was working on. I can’t always feature every project on the blog. Not because I don’t want to, but time doesn’t always allow me to. Well, that…. and an angry dog that didn’t really like me being in the room I needed to work in. This is the room, on my first visit: It had a great log burner, original chimney breast and stripped floorboards, big bay window and some lovely pieces of furniture. The homeowner’s love of white, vintage finds and Scandi design (baskets) was more than apparent. But she just wasn’t feeling this space at all and couldn’t quite work out why. It’s a north facing room, so doesn’t get the best light. Flat white and grey weren’t doing this space any favours. Their plan was to keep it minimal. But it kinda just felt a bit cold and unfinished. The two seating areas felt disconnected and the L shaped sofa was awkward in the space. So how did I make …

Sherwood Forest – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

In October 2015, I had a consultation. A couple had just moved in together into a 1930’s three bedroom semi-detached house in a leafy part of north Leeds. A lovely sized home which held many wonderful treasures. But with all this stuff from two houses being merged together, both with competing design styles… the main living space wasn’t really working. Oh and throw in a new born, just for fun. The living room already had a cool selection of retro, Africana and vintage pieces. A Parker Knoll armchair, taxidermy, old maps, collectors drawers, new maps, pops of orange, brass and copper accents and various pieces of unique, gnarly furniture. It was all there. But it was just a mish-mash. Add in that 70’s tiled fireplace and the room was all over the shop. The colour of the room, I decided upon about an hour into the first consultation. I just knew it would work for them both. A dark, vintage green, using copper and orange as the accent colour was going to make everything in this room …

Some Hella Sexy Shelves

Published by Karen Knox

Happy New Year! What better way to celebrate the start of 2016 than eyeing up some rather sexual shelves? I know. I’m a mind reader. You were just thinking about how fed up you were with all that festive nonsense and just wanted to ogle some bloody good shelves. Let me help…. If you remember where we were in the Sherwood Forest project, we were eagerly awaiting the creation and fitting of some rather special storage. Cue, Bare Joinery, an amazingly creative duo of highly skilled joiners, crafters, makers, movers and shakers. Lucky for me, they’re based in Leeds. About five miles away from my project. But they work all over the country and are always mega busy. The shelving design. In my mind. After Bare Joinery’s initial visit, where I waved my hands around a bit and pointed a lot, Evan and Chris managed to decipher my shelving design ramblings and created exactly what I had envisioned. Genius. I didn’t want any more furniture taking up floor space but the room needed to house …

Midtown Magic Bedroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

About three months ago I started redesigning our bedroom from scratch. Everything was going, apart from a chair, a light fitting and a rug. There was nothing wrong with the room, I just never really liked it. Bit boring for me and i’ve been wanting to do something more bold for ages. If you’ve been following the bedroom saga, you might have heard me mention one or two times that we couldn’t find a bed. For ages. Then we did. One from Maisons Du Monde, a French company. One which we had to wait for nine weeks for it to be made and shipped across the English Channel. During which time we slept on the floor and counted down the nights until we could climb back into a bed, rather than roll onto a mattress. After some faffing with the shipping company who changed the delivery slot three times in two days, the bed and bedside table finally arrived and were delivered to my bedroom by two polite French men. To say I was excited is …

Sherwood Forest is coming together nicely…

Published by Karen Knox

I love seeing how a design project develops. A before and after is great, but how about the middle bit? The real life stuff? Like mess, design changes and sometimes even mistakes. As ever, lots to do still. Joinery, sofa, floorboards and skirting boards painted, but we’ve started getting things back in the room to make it feel more like a family home over Christmas. Then we’re right back on it in the new year. Before and after of the fireplace: It took some work to get the fireplace looking like this. You can see it being ripped out here. Warts and all. Everything went, apart from the original concrete fire insert. I wanted to give the impression of a fireplace without actually having one, so I created a fire surround with a special mix of paint (eg. I wanged a load of different paints together to try and produce a darker version of Valspar’s Sherwood Forest). I chose a gloss finish to add a textural contrast. The concrete fire was painted in Valspar’s Storybook Sundown. …

Sherwood Forest Gets Dressed (a bit)

Published by Karen Knox

I’m annoyed. Annoyed with the weather. The light, to be precise. The light over the past week has officially been rubbish. 1/10. Must try harder. And this, dear readers is why I haven’t posted a blog for a week. A WHOLE WEEK. Unheard of. I do apologise. Sorry peeps. But I’ve soldiered on, taking snaps here and there as the project has developed and here are some i’ve managed to cobble together over the past week. Let me show you what’s new… All of the room has been painted now in Valspar’s Sherwood Forest, except for the skirting boards. Above are the phrenology and skull knobs from Orchard Lane Interiors, now gracing the doors of the cupboard doors either side of the fire. (**rubbish lighting photo) In the right hand fireplace recess we have a collection of gawkworthy items, most of which were already at hand. Stylist’s dream! Anything new has links below. Specimen drawers Phrenology head Lots of bizarre and lovely glassware collected from around the world, including a bottle with a snake in. A cloche …