I’m currently renting. Sometimes that means your options for decorating are restricted and sometimes when you ask you can be pleasantly surprised. My house will be demolished before the end of next year so I have carte blanche to do what I like to the property.
You can get me started on demolishing old houses… I love a period home and enjoy renovating them and am the first to get upset when one is knocked down for a new build. But this house was butchered with a bad reno in the late 70s or early 80s. It doesn’t take and use light well and if it was renovated to current standards for design and energy efficiency there wouldn’t be much left – sad but true.
I also fully subscribe to the view that areas around good transport should be zoned for higher density housing. I live on a main road, near another main road, near a train station, a tram stop and a freeway as well as walking distance to shops. If pulling down my house and those on either side to build quality apartments catering to downsizes who want to stay in the area and therefore putting more family homes onto the market, then I’m all for it. Melbourne has the capacity to house so many more people inside our current footprint so give me apartments on my house block any day over more houses at the end of the freeway. (rant over)
It seems my house was on the rental market for some time before I viewed it. It was dark, it had carpet in the ensuite (yuk!). I saw it’s size and possibilities and with it’s rent now reduced I snapped it up. The carpets are swirly, mustard and compliment the trellis wallpaper – actually, no they don’t there is pattern everywhere!
The entry is the most disappointing. I love timber strapping and plate rails, a few timber nib features and a double door entry with 9 lights and bevelled edge glass. But this door is white on the front and painted a shade of not quite mission brown on the back. Infact, most of the timber in the front of the house has been painted in a colour I really don’t want to call. It’s a particular shade of brown… Then the wallpaper between the strapping is a nice enough design, but they may have colour matched the paint to this wallpaper – enough said.
I started painting the day I picked up the keys. 2 coats of white gloss on the doors and strapping and then paint straight over the wallpaper.
I’m often asked why I bothered when I’ll only be here for a year, but I say to those people and I’ll suggest to you that even if you are planning to renovate or knock down – this is the last thing I see when I leave in the morning and the first thing I see when I get back home. I love this space, the colours and the tone it sets for the rest of the house. I am a decorator and to me this is decorated. It was worth every minute and every cent I spent on it.
And remember, it’s just paint and if you don’t like it, you know what you can do 😉