DOCTOR FRANKENPOTS

Finding the perfect shade of paint is like finding the perfect pebble.  It requires time, dedication and patience, most of which are in short supply these days.

I’ve been collecting colour cards for months – Farrow & Ball, Dulux, Crown, Graham & Brown, Nepture, Sanderson, etc.  There’s enough to fill a shoebox but still it seems the tint you seek always eludes you.  It’s like trying to find a mythical holy grail of emulsion or unicorns, pretty much impossible.  You know what you want in your head but translating that thought into a paint tin is another story.

 

Just how many colour cards do you need?

Dozens of shades to choose from

But I really don't like any of them

Creating a mood board

In the quest to find that ‘just right’ shade of greenish grey, I’ve called upon the services of Dr Frankenpots to help me mix up my own unique colour blend.

 

I've created a monster

Create your own monster shade using paint testers and yogurt pots.  Dabble with a splodge of this and a dollop of that until you come up with the closest match to what you have in mind then take it to your nearest paint colour mixing desk so that they can whip up a recipe on their magic paint scanner machine.

I’ve created my own shade of celeriac green using Dulux’s Mossy Stone as a base then adding white and a smidge of grey to lighten the colour.  Voila!  Looks delicious!

 

Celeriac green Deco Paradiso

Perfect in the hallway with an undercoat of Dulux Dusted Moss 2, the walls are now painted, papered and just waiting for the woodwork to be done.

 

New light by the front door

Before - Dusted moss undercoat

After - bright, airy & finished

My very own Celeriac green hallway

If you fancy a pot of my delicious Celeriac green then the code for the Dulux colour mixing desk is DX-7110LXFFBY.

BOSOM OF BOSHAM

Bosham pronounced ‘Bosum’ in a small coastal village not far from where we live.  It nestles quietly on one of the many inlets that make up Chichester Harbour, an area of outstanding natural beauty.

 

Bosham marina 

Low tide

The gloriously sunny weather and lifting of pandemic restrictions has brought grockles out in their droves but if you’re lucky, you can still find an isolated spot or two away from the crowds in which to enjoy the silence and admire the views.  As you can see, these are quite spectacular.

Enjoying the outdoors at a safe distance

Holy Trinity Church

Grave stone of King Canute's daughter

Looking out over Bosham

Nearby is Bosham Hoe, a quieter less touristy spot with beautiful views across the inlet to Itchenor.

Quiet woodland walk

Nature in bloom

Sun dancing on the water

Ferry terminal - Bosham to Itchenor

Peaceful

Not a grockle in sight

And from the opposite side, Itchenor is just as lovely.

Itchenor - view from the marina

Sun across the mudflats

Bosham Hoe is on the other side of the inlet

GARDEN OF MOTHERS

I’m dedicating this post to my beautiful mum because in the garden of mothers, she is the loveliest flower. 

Everyday as I look out of the patio doors across to the colourful display of red and yellow tulips that resemble the Spanish flag, I think of her and it puts a smile on my face. She loves flowers.

 

Bringing colour into your life

Colours of the Spanish flag

All mums are like flowers, blooming and bright yet tough enough not to wilt at the first sign of inclement weather.  As mums we shelter our seedlings, swaying in the breeze nearby until they’re ready to burst into bloom by themselves.  With time, our motherly blooms will wane and fade as even the hardiest of plants eventually wither and die.  It’s the circle of life.

 

Cherish your garden & your mum

Cherish your mums like you cherish your garden.  Make sure she’s fed, watered, has a nice sunny spot and isn’t given too much manure.

I love you Mum.  xx

Bright and beautiful like mum

CREATING WALLPAPER FRAME FEATURE

Impulse buys in DIY stores are not the best way to go about renovation projects but occasionally you stumble across something in the aisles that you instantly fall in love with and just have to bring home with you. 

Such was the case with this gorgeous roll of Lunaria teal wallpaper picked up in the bargain bucket at B&Q.  I knew as soon as I set eyes on this luscious Art Deco fan design that it was destined to become a feature wall in one of my rooms.

 

GoodHome Lunaria Teal wallpaper

And so, after browsing through a million web images of designer rooms with wallpaper features in them, I’ve decided to create a framed wallpaper panel for the wall behind the bed in the spare room. 

Should you decide to do the same, there are loads of useful tutorials on YouTube that you can follow to help with this type of project but essentially all you need is 4 lengths of pine moulding (B&Q) cut down and painted to construct your ‘picture frame’ and a tube of super strength Evo-Grip (B&Q) with which to stick it to the wall.

 

B&Q - sets in seconds

Fixing the frame to the wall is the tricky part and depending on the size of the frame is definitely a two-person job, one to press the mitred corner into place and the other to ensure the other end of the moulding is perfectly straight.  An octopus with a spirit level could have done in minutes what took us the best part of an hour or so. 

 

Use wooden spacers for levelling your frame

To get round this, I’ve seen some projects where people have stuck their frame onto a thin MDF sheet first then hung the whole lot on the wall.  A good idea but for a large almost wall sized frame might make it quite heavy and bulky to handle.  However you do it, the end result is pretty much the same. 

We cut our frame out in advance to precise measurements only to face the curse of wonky walls.  In order to trick the eye into seeing a straight top edge aligned with the bottom of the cornice, an extra wedge had to be inserted on one side.

 

Tricking the eye to see a straight line

After a lot of faffing and fiddling, there’s a teal frame ready and waiting to be filled with my gorgeous wallpaper.

 

Frame ready to wallpaper

Lunaria Teal wallpaper is one of those ‘paste the wall’ papers making it less messy to hang than those where you paste the back of the wallpaper.  No need to add lining paper first unless you are papering on an uneven surface.  When applying paste to the wall, ensure you have a nice evenly spread coat with a nice amount of paste where the paper edges will join together.

Touch up any defects with paint carefully

 

Finish your mitred corner joins with a bit of caulk and carefully touch up to match your painted frame.  I’ve mixed my own paint colour for the frame from Dulux tester pots – 2 x Nordic Sky with 1 x Teal Touch to get a lovely vibrant teal/turquoise blue that contrasts nicely with the wallpaper. 

 

Beautiful backdrop for the bed

Now you can stand back and admire this gorgeous feature which has added a lovely Deco touch to my ‘elephantine’ room.

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Paint is never quite what it seems.  It’s like a liquid chameleon changing shades at different times of day or in different lighting.

Dusted Moss 2 - tester

 

My tester pot of Dulux Dusted Moss 2 when applied to a sheet of A4 paper appeared a light celeriac shade of green but when applied to the wall, is actually more grey than green so instead of calming vegetation what I’ve ended up with is an ‘elephant in the room’.

 

Hmmm - looks a bit grey to me

Is there an elephant in this room?

Strangely at around 4 pm the elephant metamorphosized into a sage bush as the afternoon sun shone in through the window turning the room a lovely shade of greenish grey.  That’s more like it, less Nelly and more like lime jelly.

 

Is it grey or green?  Well it depends

On what time of day it is

The last coat of paint has been applied to the spare room which is slowly starting to come together.  The dark contrast of the greyish walls has made the cornice look whiter and will hopefully make a subtle backdrop for my Art Deco paper feature wall but more about that later on.

POWER OF PAINT

Paint has the power to transform even the dullest surfaces into something magical; a blue sea of serenity, a tangy orange casbah, an ice white igloo or a lush green jungle.  The choice of paint colours available is endless and some colour mixing centres can even create a colour to match anything you like by using a clever scanning gizmo that zaps your item then works out what shade of paint that translates to.  It’s amazing! 

Homebase have run a buy-one-get-one half price Easter deal on all Dulux paints so instead of chocolate eggs, I’ve been filling my boots with emulsion.  I’ve bought enough paint to cover the spare room, both corridors plus the lounge/diner.  No time like the present to bag yourself a paint bargain.

Inspired by nature and something I saw on the Etsy website, I’ve chosen a palette of serene greenish/grey shades to colour my life.

 

Lovely shades of calming green

For the spare room and corridors, a nice shade of Dulux Dusted Moss 2 matt emulsion.  This kind of grey green is very subtle in tone.

 

Colour for the spare room

For the lounge/diner, I’ve splashed out on Dulux Heritage velvet matt in a shade called Green Earth.  As the name suggests, its greener than Dusted Moss and tones in nicely with my Lucetta curtains which have many shades of green in their patterned design.

 

Goes well with the lounge curtains

For our bedroom we’re pushing the boat out and going all Farrow & Ball.  Don’t tell the other half that it’ll cost as much as a ticket to the British GP to paint our bedroom or he’ll confiscate my credit card!  For the walls, I’ve chosen Cromarty and for the wood panelling, a lovely sludgy shade called Pigeon which I happen to bag on a yellow ticket paint deal at Homebase.

 

Wood panelling behind the bed

Main colour for our bedroom

So now all I’ve got to do is get my arse in gear and paint, paint, paint!

Mist coating the spare bedroom in diluted white paint

Looks like the inside of the freezer

Painting in parallel upstairs &  downstairs

Looks a bit patchy but it'll all work out in the end

My bestest paint buddy