On the first day, we made great progress in the shared living and lounge rooms. We cleaned and completely repainted it a cosy, soft white with a lovely pale tea-coloured feature wall. Lots of muscles were used to detach a bank of built-in cupboards which were relocated to the other end of the room which created a much more usable area for the lounges. It is so much brighter and more welcoming. One of Shack’s handsome Rhode Island Large Buffets will go in on our final styling day.
The second day saw us buzz around like crazy – making huge changes to the kitchen / dining room and sunroom.
The kitchen and dining room had one dark red wall and the rest of the walls were lime green. It was very dark and gloomy. The sunroom was packed full of old stuff and not usable, so needed a particularly good clean. So it was all looking a bit grim.
In just over four hours we repositioned the fridge to open up the space, cleaned and repainted the kitchen / dining room and the sunroom – what an incredible difference! We also brought in the New York plain 1.8m table and Parisian chairs and put up the New York square mirror, it looks so good!
Everything was taken out of the kitchen cupboards and reorganised by a professional organiser Sue Blake and her hard-working assistants. They also sorted out all the books – two very big tasks.
The biggest change however was to the sunroom – it is on its way to becoming ‘the sanctuary’ – a private space just for the mothers to rest and think in peace and quiet. The luxurious new rug has gone down, the gorgeous white and gold vintage Victorian iron bed is in position.
At the next working bee, the finishing touches will happen in 'the sanctuary’ – the linen will go on the vintage bed, the sheer white voile draping for the ceiling, the hand-painted gold table – it will be so pretty and restful.
We'll also be completing the styling of the living, lounge and dining rooms by hanging artwork, mirrors, curtains, Christmas bunting and other decorative items. We look forward to everything coming together in time for the families to enjoy these spaces for their Christmas holidays. They definitely deserve some beauty and joy around them as they journey through a very difficult time.
