At the beginning of the year we made out a plan for 2019 and whatever we don’t do will probably fall behind into the following year.
One thing to know about us, we like a good planning schedule. We don’t necessarily stick to it 100% but we like to see where we are going and what we have done so far so I thought I’d list down what we have in mind for this year.
These are the home plans we hope to tackle this year.
Living Room
Wood Panelings in the Living Room
I’ve wanted to add wood panelings from day one. Seeing that this place had a nice ceiling hight of 2m70, I thought they would look so great there. This will be the first project of the year!
Update: We have done one wall in mid-January and slowly thinking about doing other walls. Here is the blog article about it: How to Create Architectural Wall Panels. A step-by-step DIY Tutorial
Storage Cabinets and Wall shelves Either Side of the Fireplace
We need more storage in the living room so I want to have two cupboard either side of the fireplace mantel and perhaps a few shelves either side as well. The look I am going for is minimalist, simple and chic.
Spruce up the garden
Last year we created our little garden from scratch. See post here: How to create a raised flower bed for your garden. DIY Tutorial
This year we will be adding some new plants to the flower bed and perhaps refresh the decor.
External Front Door
It is a dream for me to have a new timber door. We live in an Edwardian property who currently still has its three-panel original door! Yes, It must have been painted dozen of times, and has two glass panels with single glazing. The reason we haven’t replaced yet is because we had to priorities a new kitchen and new bathroom when we moved in.
The original door has a lot of charm so we are puzzled between either restoring the original door by stripping it to bare wood, repair it and add double glazing glass or getting a new one. I want to keep the glass panels because the entrance doesn’t get much light otherwise.
It is also an absolute headache of size because it is not a standard door size. Our door is 78 cm wide - 202 height and about 55cm thick. If you know doors you know what I mean! We either restore or have to ask a carpenter to make one bespoke. We even had a look on second hand market to see if we would find a better quality door in the above dimensions. If we do find one, it will be an epic DIY that we will be doing. Honestly I kind of want to leave this one to professional tradesmen. We will see!
My dream door is : Made of FSC wood (actually that is a baseline not a dream!), ideally , with some high-end door furniture. If you see my instagram, there is a few door inspiration ideas like the one below. Painted in a Glossy Black and with brushed chrome furniture.
Timber Sash Windows or Equivalent
Our place is a doer-upper for sure, and we knew from the start, the 5 wood sash windows will need replacement in the 0-5years after moving in. Actually the living room window (3 of them) were actually sealed closed when we got the keys. I remember my boyfriend and my dad (who came from abroad to assist us for a week when we got the keys) trying to unseal the window, standing on a tall ladder on the street and effectively breaking in the window frame sealant… oh well they now open just fine but they are indeed in need of complete restoration. Again here, I would ideally like to retain the charm of the original sash window. I think original British wood windows are absolutely stunning and it would break my heart to have to replace them with PVC but I am not completely adverse to it if the product looks good as well as performs well. The current windows have single glazing and have been painted over about a dozen time.
Curtains and blind
ok newbie first-time-buyer error here! When I bought the curtains (2m50) for the living room and decided to fixed the curtain rail on the ceiling. I kind of forgot about my high ceilings (2m70). Therefore my living room curtains are about 20cm short. This is my biggest current interior pet peeve and I shy away taking picture of certain angles because of it. I want to get around to either changing them entirely or somehow finding a way to add fabric to it.
I want to change the blinds in the kitchen as well and… paint the window in white! I painted it black when we moved in and now I want it white… I now feel like the space isn’t big enough to rock a large window with thick black frame.
Cat Staircase
Crazy cat people here. Fun fact. Did you know that there is 1.5 cat per household in London ? yes, yes, so there are plenty of coo-coo people like us (source). We have two so definitely pushing the statistic ups. We have designed two catios since we moved in, in order for our indoor cats to have a secure outdoor space for them. One is under the staircase in the garden and a second catio on top of the staircase which we built as an outdoor porch, this one is accessible at all times via the back door cat flap. We will build a DIY staircase in order to link catio 1 and catio 2 together. This means we will be able to place the litters currently in the house in catio 1 which will be nice for us too.
catio 2 catio 1 catio 2
Kitchen - Breakfast area
We have a breakfast bar in the kitchen which we never used for breakfast and have been using instead to pile up random objects because indeed, who likes to stair at a black wall while eating? We did this area as part of the kitchen/bathroom renovations but this was a decision taken too quickly that I regret. So I’d like to get rid of it and design something a little better. We’ve been talking about a few ideas but nothing set in stone yet.
Spruce up the corridor and replace/ fit a few light fixtures in the house
I want to complete the corridor this year as I literally only have a few odd paint jobs to finish there and finally fit my beloved art deco light pendants which have been in the loft for over a year now. I also need to fit light fixtures in the bedroom, and do a few finishes in the living room… So much to do.
Bedroom
I want to add a headboard to our bed. I have an idea for it but I don’t want to reveal anything yet. I also want to add curtains as currently I am using my teenager bedroom curtains and I have grown out of the purple taffeta curtains… very 90/2000s!
Boarding the loft
We started to board the loft last year and we still have some work to do up there.
So that is quite a lot I think ! I would love to do it all but it will depend on budget.
It is quite exiting to put your plans down on paper. Somehow it makes them more real than just having a rough idea in your head, doesn’t it?
Have a lovely day,
Marlene
