Before I'd even made up my mind on flooring or paint colours I found myself at a seasonal end of range clearance sale at Hertex. Not intending to get anything for myself of course, I had a plan, and my plan did not involve fabric before floors and walls. No I was there to help Mom find upholstery and curtaining. I was the 'creative eye' and my creative eye landed on a bolt of purple taffeta type fabric with paisley embroidery... and I leapt on it and carried it around the warehouse for an hour convincing myself I was not going to buy it.
It came home with me. Along with a bundle of end of range of cuts - that has no purpose yet, but I think they're evolve into cushions.
ANYWAY... (it was really cheap) Flooring and Wall colours...
It wasn't as simple as it looked. I had a general idea of bold dark colours - of which there are many. I raided the Plascon and Dulux stands, I would estimate that there were over 100 colours laid out on my kitchen counter once I was done setting them out. Good thing is, I'm pretty cut throat. When you see all those colours and tones and hues together, you can quickly toss out the ones that don't suit you. Eventually I cut it down to:
- 9 different whites
- 6 purples
- 4 reds
- 2 greys
- and one metallic charcoal
before finally settling on Brooklyn Nights 1, Fire Cracker 1 and Chiffon White 1 all from Dulux.
Brooklyn Nights and Fire Cracker is what you see on the walls. The very reddy red was a impulsive decision (with a reason behind it: the store I was at didn't have the base to mix a sample of Firecracker, this was the closest they could give me - argh! NOT what I was looking for) and was swiftly thrown out as an option. Dried blood was not what I was looking for - this time.
Now to choose - what colours on what walls? And what floors? They do go hand in hand. Except its much easier to choose flooring - my budget restricts me greatly in that regard. So I took what I had - some flooring I could pick up for free and some for pretty cheap (its all about who you know sometimes).
So the Smoked Oak is an old old old laminatefloor and I have 10 free boxes. Even if I wanted to I wouldn't be able to find an other box in the whole country. Probably not even its country of origin its so old. But its free, and it interesting: small individual planks that make up a sort of parquet floor with bevelled edges on all 4 sides. It should cover the bedroom area - and hopefully the step!
The other floor I can get a super good deal on however, I don't really like. So, for the rest of the flat, I'll have to buy (for just over cost if I play my cards right), thats the Oak Champagne, which is a very new floor that uses quite different laminate technology - instead of a decor paper on HDF core board, its a direct transfere print. It has a lovely texture.
The cork tiles... those are old stick down tiles, and those will eventually go in the bathroom. But I'll be installing that myself, the laminate installation I'll get the pro's to do. And the skirtings...
The skirtings I'm going to call in a favour and get those made from something solid...
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