Pretty Crafty Home {House Tour part 1}

As I said in my initial post about this, I am going to post photos of my house.  I'm going to do it in two parts, the first of which is below.  Underneath each photo I've listed what is wrong with the room and what I hope to do about it.  I'm not aiming to get it all done this year, but I am hoping to make a good start.

Two of our three problem rooms are shown below, as well as one dead room which I feel sucks the life out of everything that enters it (which will from henceforth be referred to as The Dead Zone.  I'm in that kind of mood).

I have not tidied for any of these photos, and they have been taken at various times of day.

Living Room: Where to begin?! New sofas, new rug, new floor, less toys, remove back boiler and fugly gas fire (hidden behind childrens table - it has been disconnected!).  This room will probably be the last to be done because I don't want to do anything to it until the childrens toys start to get smaller and then disappear. I could move them all upstairs to their bedrooms, but I hate the thought of that.  Oh, and we need a light shade!

Walk-through Room: This room is between the living room and the conservatory.  I think it was supposed to be a dining room, but that's laughable, so it's not a jack-of-all-trades room - Jitterbugs computer, DVD storage, childrens toys and access to conservatory.  We will be hanging more guitars on the main wall in here, so that removes the need for artwork.  Eventually new floors, a radiator cover, doors that lock, curtains to go over the door to help retain heat in winter, a couple of nice chairs to relax and read.  Again, not for a few years yet!

This is our conservatory.  At the moment it is an unwelcoming place, and feels very exposed.  In summer the temperatures match that of the sun.  The room needs blinds, so that is what we're doing in the summer.  I also want to paint the walls and repaint the radiator, and get some chairs in there.  The wall lights don't work for some reason, so we will also be needing some lamps and side tables.

Hall leading from conservatory to kitchen (that is the living room there, it all forms a loop!).  We really need to brighten up the walls here, and the wall at the end will be painted with chalkboard paint for the kids, and also we will be hanging some more pictures.  This will be done in conjunction with the kitchen.

Kitchen: Love  the size, but this is The Dead Zone.  I hate this room.  It's too dark and cold and feels very very empty.  In the distant future we'd get a new kitchen and get rid of the floor.  This will be the first room to be decorated this year.  The noticeboard area will be painted with magnetic paint.

I've bought sample tiles, the walls will be a very pale grey.  The shelves next to the window will be sanded and painted white, light and socket plates replaced with nice ones and walls plastered where needed.  We'll be getting new blinds, and I want to try and hang some plants from the ceiling.  Most of all though, it needs brightening up and filled with light and life and colours!  Wow, that's a lot of work for the first room!

I want to make some new seat cushions for the chairs, and possibly some place mats for table.  I keep my spinning wheel and spinning supplies and various other jars of stuff in here so I need to incorporate them in somewhere until our craft room/study in done.

The entrance hall is cluttered and quite dark, so we need some storage for hats and gloves in winter, and hats in summer.  I want to look into how we can improve the white banister, and cover the radiator.  Ideally we'd lower the jacket hooks and put a shelf above the hooks, and get some proper storage for shoes.

So that's it, the ground floor minus the toilet, because the toilet is just a toilet!  I'll continue the house your next week, though the rest isn't nearly as bad.  Well, except for the Cave!