Once upon a time, one of my favourite accounts to follow on IG @therenovationhusbands, told me that “Parlour” just sounded fancier with the extra “u” in it. And I happen to agree. So for today’s title I put them all in. They are also in the middle of a parlour renovation, so go check out the hilarity of David & Stephen if you don’t follow already! (They also nailed their last ORC transformation)

Week two of the Fall 2020 One Room Challenge is upon us, and while behind the scenes we’ve already got the picture rail up and I’m working on prepping the space for painting – this week I’m sharing the design, moodboard and layout of the room which arguably, most people do in the first week. (missed that post? read on here…) I like to be a rebel, what can I say?!

For those who may not be aware, we are the in the process of renovating about 5 different rooms in the house, and have been doing so since January. We originally planned to move into the house but then I worried about lead dust during renovation with two small kids around, so we paused. And then we re-wired the whole house. And then we re-finished the hardwood floors and installed carpet. And then. And then. And then. This whole escapade has been one big banner ad for ‘project creep’. So we’ve set a move-in date and changed it roughly 20 times in the last 8 months, and it’s become a bit of a joke with the neighbours now… BUT… I think we’re seriously within 6 weeks of it all now and the parlour was the one space holding us back. There’s no way we’d be painting it after we move in, so it is the last “big ticket” item that can’t be managed while living there. Why do I regale you with this not so exciting story you ask?

Well, because it also impacts the house aesthetic stories that you may have also missed. I decided at some point along this journey that my design would be classed as “understated elegance”, an imperfect balance of British coziness and effortlessness using furniture we already have or have recently inherited, alongside a few hints of glam that elevate the style into a space you might see in a British boutique hotel. Beautiful, but not fussy or over the top. Classy, but functional. Somewhat affordable with a few splurges. Admittedly, we are splurging a bit more in this house than we have in the past, because we spent less on the house itself, and because this is our forever home so we view them as long-haul investments. Yes, this is a 6-week challenge, but these aren’t quick fire spaces that we’ll change next week, month or year. I will never, ever do something ‘just for the gram’. But let’s start with the overall plan…

THE LAYOUT & PLANS

I spoke a bit about layout in last week’s kickoff post – we have two conundrums in tackling placement of our TV, and including an area for all of the kid’s stuff. This is the layout I’ve currently landed on, but our TV stand is a cheap piece of ick that we got purely for our temporary accommodation and I’m trying to figure out how we can make it better, or sell it and get something more appropriate. Ideas of projectors and screens have also been bandied around too since we don’t watch TV all that much, but we’re not set on anything yet.

Secondly, I’m creating a bit of a kid’s area behind the sectional so that they have their own space for a desk where they can make artistic mess (cue another reason for a dark wall colour), a lengthy cubby for all of their toys but laid out in a more Montessori style with everything being more visible & accessible, and a soft spot with a rug and maybe their teepee for reading. We have loads of extra plywood hanging about after building the kitchen cabinets, so the plan is to make a long and shallow bookcase for them along the back wall sitting below the built-in telephone cupboard. The golf prints will sit above this area, but to the right I’ll also include some empty frames so we can swap out their artwork every now and then too.

Besides the layout configuration, the plan includes installing in a picture rail around 5” below ceiling height, and painting it (along with the space above it) the same colour as the ceiling to give the room the illusion of added height. We will not be adding crown at this time, as our master plan for this room includes re-creating a decorative Tudor plaster ceiling - a couple of inspiration pics below for example. It’s not something we want to rush in 6 weeks and hiring out a plasterer can take months around here (not to mention is exceedingly expensive), so this is just step one to that process. After that, the other two most difficult things are stripping the radiators of 90 years-worth of paint (not to mention repairing the wall where they pulled off huge amounts of plaster since they’ve likely never been removed) and then building the new toy cubby. We’ve still got 3 other rooms to finish off while we’re doing all this, not to mention the whole moving-in part, so we didn’t want to push the envelope too far!

THE DESIGN

Also mentioned in the last post, the key piece of inspiration is a landscape photograph by the talented Mark Gemmell. Back in 2016, we had it blown up to a whopping 4’ x 5’ size, as the walls in our last house were enormous and custom framed it locally in Atlanta at the time using a double linen mat and dimensional black / gold frame. Although our walls are much smaller now due to only 8’ ceiling heights, it fits perfectly between the windows on the biggest wall of the parlour. It reminds us of our favourite place, Scotland, where we met at university and lived for nearly 5 years. The iconic telephone box provides both nostalgia and a bright pop of colour against a classically British sky of greys and subtle blues, the mountains remind us of happy days spent together with the skiing club, and the green swathes of nature are so peacefully calming. All of those colours provided the base of the design, and much like the rest of the house I’ve incorporated patterns and textures that are common in the British isles and make us feel at home, not just because they seem to be having a ‘trendy moment’.

Using the photograph, I wanted to pull out a colour with a lot of depth for the walls. Many months ago I was certain that *the* colour was “Railings” by Farrow & Ball, a seriously dark blue that looks black a lot of the time. But I painted an enormous swatch of it on the wall and have stared at that swatch over the months and seasons, and it just wasn’t quite right. In the mornings when the room gets little sunshine, I felt like I was standing in a cold black hole. We needed more warmth, more charisma, more historical accuracy. Something that came off as black & white would be way too stark and modern. Additionally, I had just painted Aemelia’s room in F&B “Pelt” and the matte finish showed every tiny mark and ounce of dust. No Bueno. Along came another IG pal Greg @manwithahammer who waxed lyrical about his paint from @fenwickandtilbrook, he said it was like no other paint and he’d never go back ‘to the other guys’ – I decided to bite the bullet and try it. TOTAL CONVERT. This is the.nicest.paint. you could ever ever paint with. It goes on like silk, arguably don’t need more than one coat (though I always do two), the finish is gorgeous with next to no marks and the colours have way more saturation. A lot of the F&B colours looked so gray in our house, but Fenwick & Tilbrook’s just sing. Long story long, I then got a whole load more paint samples from the small family business I have come to love across the ocean and have decided on Burnham Overy (yes, I know just like Greg) which is a beautiful slate blue for the walls – which pulls out those tones from the mountains, along with Oyster (a peachy/pinky toned cream) for the ceiling which balances the warmth of the phone box, with the greys of the sky. Disclaimer: they do give me a decent discount to help with shipping costs despite this not being sponsored or an ad in any way, they are just that nice. I am not required to say a single thing.

As to the furniture – the sofa is slightly the wrong colour in this photo, ours is a shade darker linen. But it’s staying. Likewise the Caden Ottoman (also bought back in 2016), which is virtually kid proof. Soft corners, wicker baskets underneath and leather fabric which can take wayward markers, drink spills, feet and all sorts. It’s a bit out of character for this room being more farmhouse style, but it’s cottagey enough for now. (Pic again for reference of those in our last house) When we move back into the ‘we can have nice things again’ phase when the kids are older, we’ll likely replace this with a more delicate windowpane plaid “cocktail” ottoman (pictured below) with small traditional caster feet. The grandfather clock was a recent inheritance from my father, and will be a project unto itself to figure out how we get it working again but it has a wonderfully booming ‘dong’ as it strikes when it does work! The beautiful Louis French chair(s) pictured is an example, but Stu has inherited two in a later Louis style from his family recently. The kind pictured is Louis XIII style, but ours are actually a bit lower, more tilted back which is apparently more of a Louis XV “Rococo” style. I found this very interesting article on the different styles! Ours also have more English motifs, so it is a clearly a blended style. If you forgive the early appearance of Christmas stockings, this is the only picture I have of our chairs (currently residing at Stu’s parents).

Interestingly, the floor lamp is also “rococo” style which I hadn’t even realised the connection. Clearly, I have a deep seated love of French stuff. My great-grandmother of the ‘De La Salle’ family was French, so I guess that makes sense. The lamp was bought on a complete whim, which was fortunate as the shop then went out of business a few months later. And last, but not least, are the golf cartoon prints pictured bottom middle in the mood-board. My grandparents had a set of 6 of these in their dining room which I have now inherited via my Dad, and they just remind me of roast Sunday dinners, gin and tonic, and tea time (yes that’s a very real thing) at their house with all the family. The prints drawn by Charles Crombie, were originally distributed by Perrier in the 1900s (did I mention I like France?), but then re-printed in England from 1966. They portray Edwardian golfers in various predicaments and the associated "rule of golf". A Shakespeare verse is written below the cartoon as well in both English and French. And finally, I also inherited all of the commissioned drawings of my dad and step-mum’s dogs over the years which are lovely in their own right. I plan to get a drawing of Edie commissioned one day and will hang it together so all the pups can hang out in a pack. All the pictures mentioned will be hung from the new picture rail in the traditional chain manner!

…Bloody hell, I can waffle can’t I? Still with me??...

Everything else will be new to us. Curtains and rugs are a bit TBD, in fact I’m going to write a whole post just about our textile decisions for next week so I won’t dally on it for right now. Those who enjoyed our Instagram stories yesterday were able to help us choose… We have a charcoal gray rug with a traditional motif but modern feel already, but we felt a proper antique Perisan rug potentially fits better in this room. Finding the perfect one though has been nothing shy of intimidating! I’ll share sources once we’ve decided which way we go…😉 So many decisions – so come back next week to see which way we went…

Alright, we’ve all earned a nice G&T at this point even if it might be 10am where you are. It’s still the year 2020 after all. Chink! Chink!

Love & cuddles,

Lex