Mews News Part 5 - House Renovations Update

I moved in yesterday.

Not because the house is ready but because 

my brother moved into his new flat.

He kindly offered us refuge but we decided to glamp instead.

Second floor room / our studio

You can't see our bed it is on the other side of the boxes.

We don't have curtains nor blinds so it really is camping.

We are already behind but for some reason we keep tacking on new jobs because they are needed.

We sanded down our floors that have been here since the 1950's.

Sanded and varnished once but still needs another coat

 Our street got bombed during the war so a lot of the mews houses here are reconditioned to varying degrees. 

My house is one of the few that have kept the floor. There is even one house that has the original horse feed drain. 

I would take a picture but the owner is very private.


We kept our Hudevad radiators in the room.
We originally chose them as it has a streamlined look but I chose the standard ugly radiators for other rooms. 
I also think they give out more heat.

My kitchen is on the other side of that wall.

I want to keep a counter bar with an opening like it was before.

Sorry to be a bore but the walls are painted - 

Natural Calico by Dulux.

It is a tried and tested shade. 

It used to be a special tech light enhancing white shade

but I never noticed the difference but I wanted a neutral as 

I am going to hang art.

Onto the kitchen...

Sorry about the quality.

A lot has been done since I left for Copenhagen.

Only just saw it yesterday.

Cabinets are hard to explain - they are khaki.

Green, gray, and beige so that is the best name for it.

The tiles were such a pain.

We went to loads of tiles shops and what did we get in the end?

White subway tiles. 

But they had to be a specific width because of the window ledge.

The shade of the cabinets have been hard to match and I chose 
pale powder by Farrow and Ball as that was also a tried and tested color but this time the tones just clashed.

I am going to have to choose another color now.

 That is the adjoining wall to the sitting room.

That room on the right is our "garage".

The Marmara marble went in the new bathroom.
I like the graphic element of it.
But I wish we grouted it a light grey - you can't really tell in the pictures and even in real life it is fine but just something
 I would tweak in future.

There was a little chip on one of the edges ( will show you another time because can't find the pic) but that would have meant getting a whole new block and as the stone is book matched - 
the wait and cost would have been ridiculous.
So while I love having stone that is one huge piece - 
there are things to be aware of when doing it this way.  

The bathroom sink cupboard all in one piece was from IKEA. 
 I wanted one of these 6 years ago when we did our last refurb but these types of furniture was still new and were expensive.
They were near on £2000 but IKEA now make them and they are a bargain.  Sometimes IKEA earns its place.



The original paint color was white as it seemed natural but it made the bathroom look so stark so I fought my corner and chose 
Dimpse from Farrow and Ball to match the stone.
Will show you better pictures when dust sheets come off.

I will update you with other rooms later otherwise this will just get too long!