Pink Fire Pointer December 2012 | Design Your Home

Painting the Church Hall - Interior

I am always fascinated by the zeitgeist of changing colour fashions.

A decade ago I can remember talking to a real estate agent about the colours people paint their houses. We were looking at a house that had been painted a very daring and dark battleship grey and he said "thats just a fad - it will be over by next year."

Well all shades of grey are still very much "in". In fact I am sitting here with four sample pots in varying shades of grey trying to work out which one will work for my church hall interior.

Why not paint it white, I can hear some of you saying. Well the walls are lined in very old cedar boards with plenty of imperfections so a darker colour will not highlight the nicks and wobbles as much. The vast pitched ceiling is painted a bright white (Dulux White On White) with big exposed wooden trusses.

The very deep skirting boards, which I am loving, and chunky architraves are also being painted a crisp white. As the room is so huge we decided that it could take some colour.



My inspiration is the joinery in Atlanta designer Jill Brinson's loft, above.


Cast Iron Beds, more

This is the Lillesand bed from Ikea - not a bad look.
Where to buy Cast Iron Beds?

I did a post on this look some months back and keep getting queries from readers about where they can get that traditional cast iron bed look.
I bought my single beds from Forty Winks (now Home Zone). They look great and I'll post a shot soon - they are currently at one of the beach cottages.
Freedom now do a reasonably priced version, as do Ikea.
I have included photos.

Purists will poo-poo theses knock-off versions but the original ones are usually odd sizes and need work. Believe me, I have a stunning iron bed in pieces in storage as I have to get a custom mattress made for it and fix it up a bit. It will probably remain in storage while my Forty Winks beds are solid, well made and look great!

This is the new Firenze bed from Freedom Furniture which comes in two colours.

If you have any renovating or decorating dilemmas, I'm happy to help out!