No more boy tenants with long hair. Ever.

There is not a cat in hell's chance I am ever again renting a flat to a boy with long dark hair, who owns any type of musical instruments. Over the years you kind of get to know types, and how they will be, clean, fussy, easy going, annoying....

Computer geeks are great, and never bother you, but have so much stuff the carpets get wrecked from boxes from internet gaming companies on the floor all the time. And they never use the oven, so its always spotless. Nurses cause lots of condensation from cleaning their uniforms, but are clean. Doctors are mucky. Irish girls have lots of lovely stuff and keep the flats in a lovely state. Etc.

But boys with long hair and musical leanings. NEVER AGAIN. There have been 3 of them, all in different flats, over the years, and they have all been nightmares. The flats are always filthy, with long dark hairs stuck to everything from the ice in the freezer to the bathroom light, how is this possible? They must just never brush their hair. It's weird, because I've got girl tenants with flowing locks, and their flats aren't full of hair. Do these boys not own combs? Are they incapable of using a hoover?

They do not know the meaning of the words 'tenants responsibility to clean the flat'. Of all the flats over the years, the two worst have been lived in and left by hairy musicians. I though the doctors were bad the other week, but this flat this week, the bloody bathroom has to be regrouted there is so much black mould. As we stood in the bathroom doorway on the inspection, and my jaw hit the floor at the state of it, the tenant said to me "I think there's a difference in our standards, it must be a boy girl thing." The toilet actually looked like it had a toupee, there were so many of his hairs stuck to it.

Plus there are always money issues, in that they never have any, so the whole deposit issue is always that, a big issue. 2 of the 3 didn't get any deposit back at all, and I hate reducing deposits. 

So that is it. No more of them. They will be turned away at the door and can lay their guitar strummin leather clad moulty heads elsewhere.

Gathering ideas for Project Home

I'm not sure why I am even writing this, because the chances of ever getting round to renovating my home, with each passing credit crunched day, are slim to remote.... but I am nonetheless  starting to gather inspiration for Project Brook.

How lovely are these images posted by My Sweet Savannah? 

http://mysweetsavannah.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-heart-silhouettes.html

And perfect in style for Brook, with its oversized rooms, quirky features and monochrome vibe going on. Oh yes, these will definitely be popped in the scrap book for when we start the renovations in 2018..... 

Rain rain go away, sleepover boys want to play

So of course, we have a boys sleepover, and it bloody rains. So, no nets up in the garden, and 3 10yr olds now so full of energy and bored of playing Buzz. 

I'm going to have to let them out. 

My lawn is going to be a mud bath, like last time, see below. Buggar.

Bear in mind this was green before. Lushly green. Like a lawn should be.

The particularly barren patch to the left is the goal. Clearly.

Do boys ever stop eating?

Si's caf is open for business.

Half term. 

Football sleepover....

So far today it's produced:

Cereals

Yoghurts

Chicken and philly sandwiches, no salad

Chicken and mayonnaise, with tomato

Chicken and lancashire cheese sandwiches, full salad

Ham and sprouting seed salad (guess who)

Chicken burgers

Super noodles, bbq flavour

Ham and mayo sarnies

Ham and cheese toasties

Southern fried wedgies (homemade), 4lbs of

58 drinks

And now they want pudding. "The same one we had last time please Si, with the chocolate cake, ice-cream, marshmallows, bubblegum and chocolate sauce"

I may leave home.

Project BB - Tuscan Olive worktop

I loved the Duropal sample of this worktop, and when the actual top arrived I wasn't disappointed, looked great, and a radical overhaul from the dull beech woodblock one in there already. It wasn't 100% necessary, the old one looked ok and wasn't in bad condition, a bit warped and marked, but cost price was under £100 and when coupled with repainting the old doors in Rum Truffle, it now look a lot more contemporary. Well, I think so anyway! There were some large travertine tiles left over from a previous job, a little high for a splashback at 45omm but at least they will protect the walls if the next lot of tenants (3 boys) are as grubby as my last lot of dirty doctors :)

This is the new look kitchen, have none of the old look for comparisons so you'll have to take my word for it that it looks better.

Paint your laminate flooring, credit crunch style!

Project BB was looking a little tired, as well as filthy, and the living room laminate floor, which has seemed oh so funky in 2001, now looked like a battered old squash court. Time for a change, but no cash, in the attic or otherwise :)

So a Sian stylee makeover was needed, starting with the floor. Inspired by the gorgeous brilliant white floor in Project Cathedral, but lacking the new extra wide pine boards, a little experiment has been carried out. Laminate lightly sanded, oil based primer sponge-rollered on (don't use brushes as they leave lines and hairs), then get rid of all the dust and close all the windows, cause heaven only knows where all the dust, insects and bits of fluff come from.

After the primer, comes the two coats of diamond eggshell white paint - water based, not oil, as oil based gloss paint eventually yellows and looks hideous. Of course if you are using another colour, then this doesn't matter, though water based eggshell dries a zillion times quicker than gloss.

Then two coats of varnish, flooring hardness, I used Ronseal cause it does what it says etc etc :-)

And suddenly, the room was transformed, I was delighted with it. Blitzed the Ikea tables with gloss, new lights instead of the papery student ones, new hanging panels at the windows and a zippy Ikea print on the wall. Lo and behold the very next day, two lots of tenants fighting over it. Result.

Of course there was the obligatory disaster. Not mine, you understand, because I wouldn't have been stupid enough (like a man was) to move chocolate brown gloss paint (like a man did) and put it on the communal hallway carpet (like a man did) without ensuring the lid was properly on (like a man did)......

Homesmine Summer Interiors special

Todays new Homesmine Ep 21 ( I think!) - http://www.channelm.co.uk/programmes/index/0/25/homesmine.html 

features lots of great designs, products and people we've met at recent shows like Birmingham Interiors and 100%.

Above is the BRILLIANT invention the Snood, a magnetic halogen light revitaliser!,and an interview with the inventor  herself.

I also had a chat with the furniture designer Amy Vinn about her funky and fun award winning Allsorts furniture, admired by Bertie Bassett himself.

More young designers work which is pictured on the episode can be seen at :

http://mydeco.com/people/Sian Astley/blog/2009/jan/22/birmingham-interiors-young-designer-2009/

Also featured on today's show is trend forecaster Victoria Renshaw from Scarlet Opus, who I've blogged about before on mydeco.com - http://mydeco.com/people/Sian Astley/blog/2009/feb/01/alice-in-wonderland/   

Now there's a woman who knows her industry; she's fascinating, interesting, and friendly to boot.

http://www.scarletopus.com/

And last but not least Anna Ryder Richardson gave us a masterclass in dressing rooms to impress with a demo down at John Lewis. That lady is seriously enthusiastic. Whenever I see a bit of dippy hemming, I will think of her haha.

Total result and new babies!

Well, what a great night. Project BB has been snapped up by a group of 3 lads, and I came home on a high. I glanced up at the bird box and felt a bit sad, only to look further down the garden and see two new visitors.... two baby squirrels chowing down on the melon I put out this morning. Soooo cute. They don't know us well enough yet, we've one lady squirrel who marches into the kitchen demanding nuts, so they scarpered when they saw me, but not before I got a snap.

Whooo hooooo Got some viewings

Off to do 3 viewings now, one on an empty 1 bed and 2 on Project BB, pleasepleaseprettyplease let one be let!! It's such a trauma when they are empty, in the good times I never thought about it, it was just a hazard of the job, having short vacant periods, but now it's like, gottta get them full, gotta get the cash in, gotta pay the mortgages, gotta STOP panicking :-) 

The lovely Brimelow Babes (and Matt!) are working hard to get viewings, but its so up and down. 

http://www.jpandbrimelow.co.uk/

Have to give myself a break, only finished giving Project BB a facelift, well, not quite a facelift, more a bit of Botox and a new lipstick, yesterday.

Loyal Loot Collective and Livio de Marchi

The Loyal Loot Collective work out of Alberta, Canada, and comprise of four designers working both individually and collaboratively.

http://www.loyalloot.com/

Their water based paint, gloss and reclaimed timber Log Bowls have featured heavily in design press but I only just saw these coat / wall hangers; they reminded me of the amazing Venetian timber artisan Livio de Marchi, though nowhere near as intricate. Some of his smaller works are bras and knickers carved out of wood, and it just sparked off my memory of stumbling across his workshop in Venice years ago and having a chat with the man himself. I was quite skint at the time, but stretched to buying a carved wine bottle and glass. And I still adore them. I couldn't quite manage finances for one of his full sized Ferraris.

http://www.liviodemarchi.com

http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/demarchi.htm

http://www.italiaspeed.com/2006/cars/ferrari/08/livio_de_marche/1408.html

No,I haven't been shopping, honest

Look, Mart,  I know I said I wasn't going to go shopping and I didn't go anywhere near the Trafford Centre. This old thing, christ, I've had its aaaaaages, since the 80's, can't you tell from the body con look?! 

Herve Leger? Is it heck. It's Top Shop! You've seen it on Net-a-porter? You've checked my email? How could you?!

What do you mean £6,546 is a bit excessive for a bank holiday weekend night out with the girls? Do you know nothing about fashion, about investment shopping? Don't you know it's a classic?

Yeh, yeh, I'm dreaming, I will be rocking the skinny jeans and top look as usual, and Cheryl will be pictured in this dress in Grazia in a few weeks. Bitch.

Green shoots?

Chatting with some Didsbury estate agents yesterday about the local property market and they are adamant things are getting better, though whether this is simply relative to how bad things were, I don't know. More sensible offers are being made, they say, not the unbelieveably cheeky ones they have seen over the last few months, and they think the real bargains have been had now. 

I remain unsure about that. Homeowners are still coming to the ends of their deals and facing nasty surprises when the value of their homes are revised for any new deal, landlords are facing increasing competition and static rents, and developers still cannot get any cash from the banks.

I hear day after day from people struggling to get by and hit by the uncertainty of the future, and that's the killer. You just can't plan anything right now, because the blinkin goal posts move every other day. I was adamantly going to refurb my own home, then that had to change to doing a new build, now I'm unsure whether to just sit tight. It's bloody annoying thats what it is.

And still my hands are full of is it Lyme isn't it Lyme lumps and bumps, 3 weeks of super strength antibiotics later.... this being even more irritating than the credit crunch.

Oak mantelpiece from reclaimed timber

I always have bits and pieces of timber lying around the cellar.... house.... garden.... well, anywhere really, and they come in useful when something unusual is called for. I get them from building sites, tree surgeons, all sorts of places. M whistles the theme from Steptoe and Son at me when I bring home another piece of treasure to save for a rainy day or dull wall. Even Sarah Beeny was very dismissive of my bits of salvaged timber but I think they are BEAUTIFUL!!

Used a chunky piece of oak this week to create a mantelpiece in Project BB, above a very sad looking hole which once housed a 1950's gas fire and now tenants pop in pebbles and tea lights. I sanded it down and brackets, hidden behind chiselled out plaster then filled over, support it so it looks like it's floating. 

Massacre - Octomum Blue Tit loses 8 to Killer Sparrow

This morning I heard THE worst noises coming from the blue tits bird box outside my hallway window. We got it two years ago on an RSPB bird box bonanza, and it's been happily settled into by a nesting pair each year. Last year we had 4 fledglings, and it was just lovely to watch them in the hawthorn outside the bedroom being taught how to feed.

So, this year, much the same. The last two weeks have seen Mr & Mrs in and out non-stop with worms and grubs so I figured there was a nest full in there, ready to emerge in the next few weeks. 

When I heard the noises today, real squalks and shrieks, they were almost scary. I dashed to the window just in time to see a big sparrow emerge from the front of the box and fly into the tree opposite. My heart sank. Though M insisted it would be fine, and it was probably just having a look, yeah right!! So out came the ladders and up I went, only to have the most hideous sight greet me. 8 dead baby chicks, all huddled in a corner of the box. I though there was only 4, but they were on top of each other. God, it was awful. That bastard sparrow had just gone in a killed them all. It felt like bloody Rwanda at the top of that ladder, he must have sat in the same tree as Mr & Mrs BT, and he'd just slaughtered their kids! I'd had the Octomom of the bird world in my bird box and they were no more. 

After checking with the RSPB what to do, and them telling me I couldn't shoot the sparrow, I got all the little bodies out of the box and we buried them under my orchid tree. With Mr & Mrs flying back and forward into a now empty box. So sad, knowing there are no longer any babies in there, do birds have feelings? They'd need bloody counselling after this.

What a rubbish start to the day. 

Not assisted by M accidentally (?) hitting me in the face with the camera and giving me a fat lip.

Haggling at B&Q and Lush Living Etc paints

Project Ballbrook is almost complete, a quick tickle of a rental flat which has turned into a newly tiled bathroom, full redecoration, new kitchen work tops and lots of added bits, sorely needed in what had become an unrentable apartment. Well, unrentable at a decent price, and some of the would be tenants who viewed and didn't take it made me embarrassed. Yes, it was filthy after the dirty doctors but it still needed doing.

The living room needed a mirror, and also another pot of the I-wanna-be-Hoppen Rum Caramel 1 for the kitchen doors, though I keep calling it Rum Truffle, which does suit it far more. So it was off to B&Q. Ikea's mirrors are rubbish at the moment, and the budget dictates no splashing out. Pleasantly surprised, some very acceptable mirrors, including the last of these ones called Aztec, for no other good reason than they have three steps in the oak frame, bit tenuous I thought. Unwrapped and a bit bashed about though, fine for a rental so a bit of haggling was called for. They offered 10&% off. Not good enough. Wouldn't leave the till until the very amused cashier had rung the only manager 3 times and got her down to 25% off. Was very funny. 10% was a rubbish discount though.

Aforementioned mirror up, great for £30!

My problem is not knowing when to stop. I was then found in the decorating aisles drooling in a lustful fashion over the new Living Etc range of paints. First time I'd seen the range, created as a collaboration with Craig & Rose, so the quality is bound to be great, I've used lots of their paints in the past.

. 

Who could resist names like Siren, Love Letter, Rush Hour and Plimsoll?! How great would a job be at that magazine, brainstorming cool tags for stylish shades? I met Suzanna Imre, the editor, once at Chelsea Harbour, she was lovely, very friendly, and open to everyone's questions and interior-obsessed harrassment.

And then a question from M stopped me in my emulsion frenzied tracks. Will painting the living room wall "Wasabi" make the flat more rentable? Buggar. Of course it wouldn't. So I left the store with £19.95 still in my pocket but slightly dejected. I hate this credit crunch :)

You can see the range of paints at the following link:http://www.livingetc.com/decorating/Livingetc_paint_for_modern_living_article_280675.html

And they were DOCTORS!!! do they not know about bacteria???

How in god's name are out hospitals expected to be clean when trainee doctors are happy to live in filth like this??!! 3 girls as well.... Dirty Gertys. You could catch MRSA from this bloody flat.
You wanna be a landlord.... get used to seeing your properties in this state!

This shower was so bad, we had to take it apart and out of the bathroom to really get to all the hideous black mould / dried hair / skin , no really, it was that bad. This is a tenant's version of cleaning......

Kitchen cupboards. Could there be more grease? I maybe should stress to tenants that I really want them to fry more food, just so it's nice and thick with grime which only Jif / Cif will shift. Cause it such a pleasant job to do. 

Kirsty's Home Made Home - is this cheating?!!

If everything on Kirsty's Home Made Home is made by the delicious Kirsty, how come there are feelers out in the craft industry for someone else who can write Kirsty's Home Made Home book - available soon to go with the series?

Kirsty, that's cheating and very naughty, maybe you should be spanked in that S&M dungeon next door to your house.....

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/kirstie-s-homemade-home/

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/287046/Location-star-Kirstie-Allsopp-rents-out-cottage-near-SampM-dungeon-owned-by-Ms-Demmimdashreal-name-Nicola-Brown-in-Welcombe-Mouth.html

Still have to love her though, she is clearly poshly bonkers, and comes across as likeable, fun to be around and a bit bossy (great qualities in any profession :-))  She needs to stop taking daft Phil's advice on where to buy houses though. I do recall reading a few articles quoting him saying that there was no way house prices would drop / collapse, so do have to question his judgement. I believe he's off to Aus now, things are just as tough there in the property market but at least he'll get a tan!

Kelly Hoppen in The Sunday Times - refreshingly honest

Reading about Kelly Hoppen's life is a bit like dreaming about another interior galaxy far far away from the one I inhabit; the closest I got to her life this week was finding a lush chocolate brown paint in B&Q called Rum Caramel 1 to paint 2 Ikea shelves and a lack coffee table. She does a lot of dark laquer, for those of you who aren't familiar with her style, a luxurious East meets West fusion.

She was interviewed for the Fame & Fortune section in The Sunday Times this week, and I was really surprised. Yes, there was all the stuff about spending £160, 000 on a boat for a birthday week's trip with Sol Campbell, and her six day master class being a snip at £2,921, but there was also more honest answers about mistakes and finances than I expected from a notoriously private woman. 

Interesting, if you are into interiors, and you can read it here: 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/investment/article6255003.ece

According to the Telegraph, here are her top design tips 

KELLY'S HOUSE RULES

• Create balance on mantelpieces and other surfaces by juxtaposing one overscaled object with two or three miniature ones

• Beware colour as classic Kelly is a yin-yang scheme of dark and pale, using a palette of neutral colours and contrasting textures.

• Mix old and new antique and vintage, against the clean lines of stark contemporary pieces

• Introduce texture as without it, a neutral scheme will look flat and dead.

• Start with linen as your first choice of fabric: without it, a scheme will never feel quite right.

• Unblock energy within the home using crystals, colour, candles, music and chainmail curtains made of small metal balls.

• Create symmetry, if a fireplace is off-centre in a room, make sure you line the sofa up with it.

Kelly's web-site is http://www.kellyhoppenretail.com/

A bit of rubber brightens a rainy afternoon

Oops. Got a phone call from Hope Hospital, had I forgotten to take back the heart monitor. Buggar, I knew there was something.

Popped it back en route to Lightbox in Manchester to use up a voucher for some wall lights, it's a wonder they let me, as the return was from Jan 08. Wasn't dated though, so I guess they had to. It's getting a bit boring in there, Lightbox I mean, same stock as ages ago, not very inspirational. 

Also had to whizz back to Habitat, liked this display.....

and these candles, almost good enough to eat...

.

And so to the rubber! I've been asked to quote for the refurbishment of a hallway to a residential block of flats. I've not taken much (any!) contracts on this last few months due to this annoying Lyme problem, but things are looking up now, and it's back to work. The tenants have made a terrible mess of the carpets and walls, stubbing their ciggies out and throwing drinks everywhere, so save evicting the lot of them, all 12 flights of stairs will need eventually need to be retiled using something hard wearing, durable and cost effective, staring with the first five floors immediately. I've seen lots of rubber flooring, but all with those round raised dots on them, so did a bit of internet sourcing, and found Sam the rubber man, from The, wait for it, Rubber Flooring Company. It appears there are lots of designs, it's just that everyone specifies the stuff with round raised dots on it! They've just launched a collaboration with Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway  (ex Red Or Dead) now designers extraordinaire, and these are the tiles:

The grid pattern is urban, contemporary and evocative of the New York street blocks. Great for a city centre apartment block. And the tenants can't ruin it, perfect!

The only downside..... got a parking ticket, dammit they're fast.

http://www.therubberflooringcompany.co.uk/

House prices drop by 30%? They have round here

Gutted to hear about another amazing family home being sold in Fallowfield, just up the road from us, for an absolute song - £295K to developers / landlords who are likely to ram it full of students and generally rip the heart out of it. 18 months ago, the same type of house was going for £425k, what a shocker. Its kind of a shame really, cause landlords had been priced out and some families were moving back in. I am a firm believer that a good mix of different types of owners / renters in an area is beneficial to all concerned, otherwise you just create student ghettos / tenant focussed areas where there is little invested interest in care and maintenance. Yes, yes, I know I'm a landlord and therefore should be counting myself in with the evil developer types of which I speak, but I have only refurb'ed existing flats, and so can't be accused of over-development etc.

It's crap isn't it, that people, in good faith, have bought houses and maybe running businesses based on the professional valuations and opinions of people they have paid to do a job - valuers / banks / mortgage companies, and now they find themselves in dire financial straits because of it. The guy that bought the £425k house across the road for me  will be stuffed now, negative equity, falling rents, and probably won't be able to remortgage when the time comes. 

And they talk about green shoots of recovery?? The only green shoots around are the envious glances shooting towards the clever buggars who sold up before the crash :-)

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

This takes place in October this year, last year's was a great exhibition, taking place at Manchester Grammar School. A showcase for local talent, as well as designer makers from further afield, and a real refreshing change from getting on the M1 to go to London exhibitions. Surely this year more than ever is about supporting small businesses and buying local?

http://www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk/

I've been asked if I want to be on the selection panel next week, to go through the 300 and odd entries to whittle them down to the 130 stalls available. 

The other panel members are Philip Hughes Director of Ruthin Craft Centre,North Wales

Kay Day Director of Manchester Craft & Design Centre
Izzy McDonald Booth, Buyer and Curator National Glass Centre Gallery Sunderland

Teleri Lloyd-Jones, Assistant Editor Craft Magazine

Er, yes!!!! And I am really looking forward to it, a whole day looking at gorgeous crafts and new designs and local makers work. Excellent! Cash bribes welcome if you have applied.....

That is clearly a joke for those of you with no sense of humour.

Last year the event was sponsored by design blog IndieQuarter.com, which is a  Manchester based blog about UK independent designers, makers, artists and crafters. The blog features designers from a wide variety of disciplines, with everything from up and coming fashion labels, ceramics and textile designers to contemporary art, photography and jewellery. If you want to find out more about them, head to:

http://www.vanillastorm.com/blog/

Rocking my heart monitor

This heart monitor thing has been quite annoying today a) it keeps falling off being clipped to my pants b) there are three wires  wrapped around my body and c) I can't have a shower - yuck!! Plus its bigger than an IPod but still doesn't play any tunes. The nurses were lovely, and the appointment was bang on time, but I have to say, I was surrounded by the clinically obese and the somewhat elderly, and two of the nurses asked me curiously why I was there! It was very weird seeing my heart valves opening and closing on the tv screen, and hearing it whooshing, weird. And it's sods law isn't it, no palpitations all day, I was so tempted to have a couple of red bulls. 

Well, if something was going to give my heart a flutter it was the lovely article on my Project Cathedral in May's Didsbury magazine. It's been downsized but fattened up into a fab handbag sized glossy, very cute, and the photos look lovely. I whizzed down there and picked up a box full of copies to give to all the trades and suppliers, even dropped one off with the guys who sourced me the oversized floorboards at Fallowfield Timber - I reckon that's the first time they've been name checked in a glossy :-)

Also had a very pretty tiptoe through the bluebells at Reddish Vale woods today. Michael, Hannah and I had two eps of Homesmine to film, and got two done in one afternoon, result. It was all country-shabbychic-interiorsified so we didn't have to be place specific,  and could just do lots of pretty Spring type blossom shots, makes a change from main roads and white van man bipping when he sees a camera. It's proving hard to sell eps at the moment, developers haven't got any cash (who has??!), so there will be lots of repeats and interior types shows I think!

And when I saw the Tuscan Olive worktop, my day was complete, looks fabtastic. Moregeous in fact.

L'Oreal Shine Gelee - WTF

Sorry, what is L'Oreal Shine Gelee, with an accent. It's a bloody lipstick for god's sake, what a load of rubbish!!

The trend for all things Indian

I met and interviewed the lovely Victoria Redshaw from trend forecasters Scarlet Opus at Design Interiors Birmingham this year; just got an email from Decorex today, highlighting a hot trend forecast by Victoria for this year - all things Indian: Western consumers are showing renewed interest in all things Indian this Spring/Summer.  This will continue to be fuelled by India’s hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and has been reinforced by Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 Oscars and 7 BAFTA’s.  Prior to the Games in Delhi the V&A Museum in London will present an exhibition entitled: ‘The Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts’ (Oct 2009-Jan 2010) which will help to push this Spring/Summer trend into Autumn/Winter 2009/10 bringing some much needed colour to the darker season.

• The abundance of different patterns working together is balanced, not chaotic.  The pattern mash-up enriches room schemes: over-sized Paisley, Kashmiri’s, Boteh borders, Buti florals and Butterflies.  
• Saris are used for window treatments, table and bed runners and decorative room dividers.Lighting is jewel-tinted.  Candlelight is crucial.  Ornate tea lights and wall sconces.
• Hammered and cut-out copper tabletops, panels, screens and lighting.
• Images of Gods and Goddesses intrigue. 

In addition to the exotic sari shades and striking jewel colours there are also rich spice and dark maroon tones inspired by the Monsoon rains and mists.  A visual opulence is reinforced by the use of burnished copper and brass.

Scarlet Opus is dedicated to providing Trend Forecasting information to businesses in the Interiors sector including interior & product designers, manufacturers and retailers.  You can check them out and contact Victoria at:

 http://www.scarletopus.com/ or read more at 

http://www.business-scene.com/view_profile.php?u=victoria redshaw

Miserable day, need to pretend I'm in Tuscany

A bit of Light Tuscan Olive is the order of the day methinks. It's so bloody miserable out there, drizzly rain (yes, the sort that gets you wet and makes your hair curl arghhhhh), and I need a ray of sunshine. It has come in the form of some Italian inspiration, Project BB needs a new worktop, and I think this Duropal splash of sunshine may just be perfect. 

Plus they will deliver tomorrow, and I can't pick up as busy having heart 24hr thing for my mysterious ailment. Just need to double check it works with the leftover limestone tiles we found in the cellar, and which match the kitchen floor, and it's a goer. Or should I order a matching upstand.... decisions decisions....

Really could have done with Rip Rap giving me a hand with the painting today but he is having all his teeth out, soooo long overdue. That'll be him moaning about only being able to eat scrambled eggs and weetabix for the next fortnight then. Should have cleaned his bloody teeth, let that be a lesson to you kids.....

Looking to your pocket time at Project BB

It's really funny how everyone's approach has changed so radically, people are really having to look to their own pockets, and see what's actually there, before they make any decisions. Primarily because unlike in recent years, you can't just spend it then get it from the mortgage/back/credit card. Me included. Tenants have moved out of Project BB, which is the first one I ever bought to rent out. Looking at it now, I cannot believe it wasn't rewired, and I didn't strip off the quite hideous bobbly wallpaper, but it's not possible to do it now due to lack of funds, and so a bit of imagination is required. It didn't help that the 3 girls who moved out, although doctors in training left the place in such a state that the environmental health were almost called. Ok, thats a bit of an exaggeration, but it was stinky pete, and with an insanitary fridge, floors and windows black with grime and mould, and a patched up bathroom, some action was needed or it would never rent out, and that means £850 down every month.

So a huge clean up operation, repainting, re-tiling the bathroom and a new kitchen worksurface required. Plus new doors to replace the old 50's glass ones, grim and not very elf and safety conscious. And all on a budget. 

It looks ok from the agents pictures above but they were taken 3yrs ago.....