getting *for sale* ready

getting *for sale* ready

Previously, we thought our house and garden were the best they could be, and we were definitely ready to sell. But, we weren’t. We weren’t looking at our house through the eyes of a buyer. We were looking at it through our eyes, and of course, we thought it was the most beautiful house on the market, because it’s ours. We live in it full time and we invest an awful lot into it. But, now starting to look at properties ourselves, we’re seeing things differently. When we look at properties, initially online, rightly or wrongly, we tend to reject any immediately, which are so stamped with the current owners’ taste, that to change to our style, would take too long and would incur costs we wouldn’t really want to incur.

The ones we save and go back to, time and time again, are the ones we really see ourselves in, immediately. The ones which are immediately beautiful, but also are more neutral. Less cluttered. Easier to imagine what we could do to put our mark on them. And so both inside and out, this is what we’ve been doing with our house. Without stripping it of our identity completely, we’ve pared it back, especially inside. Hopefully, taken the overwhelming “us” out of it, and providing a background which potential new owners can really start to visualise themselves in. So, what have we done to prepare our home to be listed?

  • The Hague Blue Farrow & Ball kitchen walls are now a soft pale grey, complementing the concrete style kitchen units;
  • The dark feature wall in the living room is now a very soft pale blue;
  • Lots of our accessories have been put away into storage, creating a feeling of space. A de-clutter is very cathartic;
  • Cushions on the two sofas have been reduced in number and the same pale grey linen cushions now cover them all – no different shades/patterns/textures;
  • Rugs in the living room have been laid now downstairs in The Snug – much better as this floor is concrete (albeit painted) – and the rugs soften it. In the living room we now have all jute rugs – neutral and calming.
  • In the Well Room, the concrete table, with its resin finish, has been sanded back and painted in a white satin finish;
  • The dark Hague Blue floor has gone, and it’s now white. The dark blue rugs have joined the living room rugs in The Snug, and more jute rugs have been laid in this room;
  • The exposed well chamber, covered in safety glass, which we loved but felt could perhaps be an initial shock for others, has now been covered in a lovely round creamy/vanilla faux sheepskin, with tall, structural plants in hessian baskets, sitting on top;
  • All internal woodwork – window frames, doors, door frames – are being painted white. The soft blue, which we have loved, was beginning to look like it needed a refresh, and wasn’t really working for us anymore. It’s proving to be a long job, changing the colour of the woodwork, but the results are speaking for themselves;
  • Both sets of stairs were painted dark blue – these are now both white, as is the floor of the upstairs landing;
  • The bedroom floor of the main bedroom and the bathroom floor are white now – we’ve got rid of the blue;
  • In the main bedroom, we had beautiful faux vines wrapped around the beams. Again, we’ve loved these, BUT we realised that they were actually distracting from the height of the room – it has a huge, soaring apex ceiling – and also covering up the beautiful beams, which have been painted in a very soft, pale grey;
  • All bedrooms have been de-cluttered – nothing feels impersonal, we still feel that these rooms are ours, they just feel more breathable;
  • The Snug has been reconfigured and a utility area now housed much more effectively behind dark velvet curtains – the perfect place for these, as they had become too dark to be hung elsewhere. Neutral linen, oatmeal coloured curtains now hang upstairs, in the living room and well room;

It seems like an awful lot that we’ve done – and, it is! – but we think it’s work that is absolutely necessary. Not only do we have a “new” house emerging, to live in and enjoy whilst we’re still here, but we think it definitely is going to be more appealing to people who are in the market for a holiday home. (Some of the photos below were taken before the work had finished – further paint coats have been applied where necessary etc…)

We certainly feel that our home now has more of a light and airy feel, and we’re delighted with the way the rooms are being transformed. As we work inside, the work continues to the rear of the house, as our new garden wall is constructed. Today is quite a monumental day, as the render is being applied – and we are crossing everything that another builder comes this week, with his digger, so that the different levels can be formed for our zoned garden.

So, we may seem a bit mad, doing all of this work when the house is ultimately going to go on the market and a new owner may change everything, anyway. But selling this house, is not like selling houses we’ve sold before. This house will sell to a particular kind of person at a particular time of year – and we have to do everything we can to achieve the outcome we want. Crossing our fingers, we get there…

 

 

 

welcome, wooden benches

welcome, wooden benches

Our blue IKEA Tobias dining chairs have served us well over the past few years, and are still in good condition. They’ve stood the test of time, often sitting in a room which has resembled more of a builders yard, than a room we’d choose to eat in. The Well Room – as we call the room above because we inherited it with a working internal well, slap bang in the middle of the room, but now drained and relocated outdoors – has developed over the years, and has had quite a strong look, when it’s not being used as a building site. The stone floor above was painted a deep navy, to match one of the feature walls and the concrete table had a resin coat applied. Rather than a pure concrete look, it took on a very different appearance – kind of marbled, but not quite. But, it did dominate the room, both in its style and finish. And recently, we decided we didn’t really like it, after all.

We also decided that in order to sell our house, we had to present it more neutrally. The decor has been quite bold in places – and although we’re sure that most viewers will see beyond a painted wall if it’s not to their taste, we weren’t doing ourselves any favours in showcasing what could be a fabulous holiday home for someone. So, this spring, our focus has been on stripping back the decor and colours and gradually beginning to introduce lighter, calmer tones, with a neutral palette and more natural accessories. The bold navy blue has been whited-out in most rooms, the Well Room being one of the initial ones we tackled. The floor is now white, and the blue rugs are now down in The Snug, replaced by big natural coloured, jute rugs. The wall (opposite the windows) which was Hague Blue (like the kitchen), is now the same soft grey that we repainted the kitchen in, bringing consistency between the two areas. New furniture has been introduced – gone are the bog standard IKEA cubes, replaced by a couple of very funky white cupboards. Still IKEA, but with a bit more design and style to them.

And, the concrete table has been painted white – giving it a whole new lease of life. It was at this point, that the Tobias chairs just looked too out of place, and we felt that wooden benches would suit the look we were attempting to create, so much better. Wanting to support local tradespeople whenever we can, we did get a quote for two handmade benches. Unfortunately, the price came in just a whole lot more than we were budgeting for, and so I had to turn online. I had found a small company, just outside Newcastle, who specialise in bespoke wooden furniture – and although the prices for benches weren’t too bad, once we factored in courier delivery and post-Brexit fees to receive goods from outside the EU, inside the EU, the price became too steep again. But perseverance pays off, especially when you know exactly what you want, and I found a company in Germany, which in terms of their products and ethos on the website, ticked our boxes. An order was placed for two acacia wooden benches, and less than a week later, they were assembled in The Well Room.

The room now feels much lighter and brighter, with a definite nod to those dreamy Mediterranean homes, much posted on Instagram. I think now that we have got used to our surroundings, being fairly close to the Adriatic, it feels a bit more authentic to live in a space filled with natural tones and colours. So, we’re taking it a bit further. The pale blue woodwork (and the grey beams above the window) are all going white, too. The first window in this room has been done, and the difference is quite incredible, as everything now seems to blend, rather than stand out. The front door, which I have always disliked, is much less offensive to me, now that it painted in a soft white satinwood. The handle, which is also not to our taste, but too difficult to replace because of its shape and size, is now also white, so a lot less in-your-face. As with every room you start to make-over, the finish line always gets further away, as one change inevitably leads to another, but it’s something we feel we need to do. Especially as it will mean that, as we get back on the roller coaster of selling a house, we’ll have a real Mediterranean hideaway, in the Istrian hills.

 

 

 

 

the well room : a makeover

the well room : a makeover

With Spring knocking on the door and a house to get back on the market, we’ve been beavering away at the interior of our home since New Year. Now that we are also seriously looking at other properties to buy, we’re seeing things slightly differently and have realised that if we are to sell, we need to present a house which looks like something new owners could see themselves in. Not our home. So, we’ve been de-cluttering, stripping back, changing colours so that we have a much more neutral palette. We haven’t stripped away our personality, because we obviously still live here and I certainly don’t want to live in a sterile space. We’ve just focused on making it a little less us. And in The Well Room, this is where we’ve started making the biggest changes.

Our concrete table – which was a beautiful grey colour – had a resin coat applied a few years back, and this changed it completely. Close up, it still looked lovely. The resin highlighted the different tones and it had a beautiful finish – but the colour overall had changed too, and it’s taken us until now to admit that we’ve never really liked it. We also thought that it might be difficult to paint over resin, but we just decided to go for it, by sanding it down and then applying a very good quality soft sheen gloss in white. What a transformation.

The navy floor has had its first undercoat in white. The floor is original stone and therefore a bit uneven in places – as stone flags tend to be – so our original thinking (when we realised that having a wooden floor laid was more problematic than we were prepared to deal with at the time) was to paint it in a dark navy, and cover it with rugs. This has been fine for the last four years, but as soon as the table was painted, it was just too dark and uncompromising. So, like with the table, we just went for it and went white. The plan is to top coat it in a very pale grey, the same colour that we have in the living room, so that the two rooms flow, but at the moment we’re just basking in the whiteness. The blue rugs have gone too, now having found a new home in The Snug, and replaced with new jute rugs. Again, a huge difference – and with very little effort and expense.

The Well Room should always have been a lovely dining/living room but in reality, when we’ve been doing renovations and DIY, it’s become a glorified storage room for all of the decorating paraphenalia. And so it was never really used, Or loved. Well, that’s all changed. We’ve purchased two children’s wardrobes from IKEA – I know! – but they were just the right size and colour, and a very funky design, so pretty perfect for hiding away coats and bags and trainers and boots. In the other, we’ve stored away all of the excess kitchen “stuff” – blenders, food mixers, casserole dishes, carafes etc – that sat on top of cupboards and shelves just adding to the feeling of clutter. Meaning that in addition to a much better looking Well Room, we also have a much less busy kitchen. Lots of our bits and pieces have also been boxed away – again, a good exercise in de-cluttering but also, subliminally, a start to the packing up – and so what we have in the Well Room now is much more considered and contributes to an overall feeling of calmness.

We’re very used to the glass well cover, but we do realise that some people might be a bit spooked by looking down into – or standing over – a 10 metre drop. So a white furry rug has been bought, to sit on top of the glass, leaving enough around the edges, so that the uplighting can still be seen. And, so that the rug does not get stood on, a coconut palm tree in a basket sits on top, creating a green focal point for the room.

We still have work to do in this room. The floor needs to be finished and the walls repainted, but then it’s over to the professionals, as we are finally tackling the bathroom door and the front door. A sliding wooden door will replace the cheap, not very pretty door, into our renovated bathroom, and in even more exciting developments, we’ve decided that a new front door is an absolute necessity. These, along with two wooden dining benches in the same wood, will be hopefully made to our specifications, rather than off-the-peg. Spring is definitely shaping up to be a very exciting time and we hope it will springboard us into a very different kind of life…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a place for dinner

a place for dinner

Although we are lucky enough to have a few options regarding where we can eat, sometimes we just want to eat in the living room, where the big woodburner is and where we can watch TV. When we’ve done this in the past, it’s had to be on the sofa, eating dinner on our laps – or if I want something less slouchy, I’ll eat at my desk, which is in the living room. Sofa/desk dining just does my head in. Not only is it pretty uncomfortable, it bugs me that we are not using what we we have. We went to the trouble of having a big concrete table made in the Well Room, but this has been so under-used. If the truth be told, I’ve never really liked it since we had resin applied, which changed its look and colour – but that’s another renovation story, as we’re currently tackling it and giving it a big make-over. We also have a breakfast bar in the kitchen which comfortably sits two, and we do use this at meal times, but again, it’s not as ideal as a table, especially if there are a few dishes and you want to spend a leisurely hour or so, eating and drinking and chatting. And then, suddenly, right in front of me, I saw the answer. My desk.

Because it’s not really like a desk. It’s a very simple table, quite mid-century in style, with beautiful tapered legs and a bevelled edge, with a dinky little drawer. from IKEA. Made of ash, it has a beautiful grain pattern, and as it ages the color deepens moderately towards a deep straw color, with the tapered legs in solid birch giving a warm, natural feeling. And the perfect size for two. It was moved to where we thought it might work as a dining table and tried for size – and the decision was made there and then, that this was an ideal solution. Although we now have hot foot it back off to IKEA to buy the same again, so that I still have a desk.

We didn’t want to have to bring chairs in from the Well Room whenever we wanted to eat, but had to have something that would enable us to use the desk as a dining table. Something that would be unobtrusive and able to be packed away. Something just like these little rattan beauties we found in Jysk.

Of course, one change always leads to many more, so as well as having to get an additional Lisabo table to use as my desk, we’ve decided that the navy curtains are going. They’ll be used in The Snug, to hide away the freezer and the condenser dryer and storage shelving under the stairs, so will have a new home. In their place, as we’re going to IKEA anyway, we’ll be buying up a few pairs of the sheer curtains, so that we can still have a bit of a backdrop in the living room, but not as blocky. The curtains are long and light and will be perfect for those spring days when we can have windows open and they billow in the breeze.

Our home is gradually becoming a beautiful neutral palette of whites and sandy colours. The kind of home that might just appeal to someone wanting to buy a property in the sun, to spend their summers in…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the *unfinished* apartment : citta alta : bergamo

the *unfinished* apartment : citta alta : bergamo

Although we’ve largely finished the renovations of our stone house, I can always find something else that needs to be done. So, effectively, it always “unfinished”. But not on the scale of these properties, which have been designed to be deliberately “unfinished”.

Peeling wallpaper, floors that have been left untreated and hanging cables give character to these interior design projects, which look as though they’ve been abandoned halfway through decorating.

All photographers credited in Dezeen article : https://www.dezeen.com/2022/10/02/unfinished-interiors-residential-homes-lookbooks/

All photographers credited in Dezeen article : https://www.dezeen.com/2022/10/02/unfinished-interiors-residential-homes-lookbooks/

There’s something very appealing about rough-around-the-edges, industrial rawness – combined with softness, through colour palettes and accessories and lighting. We’re lucky that our home lends itself to a certain unfinished look in places. Parts of the internal walls are still original Istrian stone, as opposed to smooth plaster, and so even when painted white, they still look, well, not quite finished. But they are! OK, we could have them plastered, but the stone is a nod to the heritage and history of the house. Renovated mostly in a contemporary style, we made the deliberate decision to keep parts of the house in its original state, and so we have a bit of an interesting mix going on.

However, not as interesting – or as bold – as some of the houses featured in the Dezeen article, or the apartment we found in the heart of Citta Alta, Bergamo.

Stripped back and very minimalist, this upper floor apartment in a very old townhouse, was absolutely beautiful, in its deliberately unfinished state. Exposed beams, highly polished floorboards and the remains of stunning frescoes in the rooms. I think this is a really bold design choice in a tourist apartment – I’d be so worried about damage to the historical features – but I guess people do show respect. The apartment does have modern amenities and facilities – in particular, a very contemporary kitchen is housed behind a sleek, high gloss white partition wall – and so the stay is very comfortable. I have tried to locate this apartment again online, as we would recommend it, but it would seem it’s no longer taking guests, which is a shame.

However, we will be taking inspiration from this apartment and from the properties in the Dezeen article, as we begin a new journey in 2023. After a topsy-turvey house experience last year, when we actually popped a bottle of fizz as we thought we had sold it, we’ve picked ourselves up and are ready to go again. We’ve taken a long, hard look at our home and have decided that we have a few projects to tackle to get it ready to re-market. And, we’ll definitely be definitely going for “unfinished” – but absolutely finished – in certain places, to create a house which has a very different feel and vibe to the one which was up for sale last year.

 

 

 

 

string curtains…

string curtains…

Our bedrooms are not overlooked and so we don’t necessarily need curtains at the windows. But sometimes, curtains – or a simple roller blind – can just finish off a window. We have installed white roller blinds in all of the window recesses, because even though we feel OK about having “naked windows”, visitors may well prefer the feeling of privacy. In our bedroom, we’ve always had sheer muslin drapes, because the double window wall, although painted white, is still natural stone and so the curtains soften the wall. We’ve now added floor length duck egg blue velvet blackout curtains, to each window, as even in the winter, early morning sunlight was wakening us up. Not a problem any longer!

Our third bedroom is the one used the least and it currently has the least pretty view, as although very high up, it does overlook the construction of a neighbour’s small stone cottage. I didn’t want to hang curtains as such in here, as I rarely go into the room, so the hassle of drilling a curtain pole into a thick supporting beam above the window, didn’t seem worth the hassle, as the curtains would hardly ever be closed. But, I still wanted to “finish off” both this window and the room, and obscure the work outside at the times we were in the room. Then, bingo! The solution came to me…

The grey curtain strings (there are four at this window) are usually at the front door in the summer, to keep files out, when it’s open, but during the winter they’re just hung up downstairs, not being used. They’re on a very lightweight rail, so no drilling was needed and they were up in minutes, doing exactly what I’d wanted – transforming the window and the room. Not blocking out the light during the day, but obscuring the view.

These string curtains were purchased from Jysk in Istria. In UK Jysk stores, they’re usually priced at £7.99 per curtain but I’ve just noticed (end of Dec 22) they’re on sale at just £5 per curtain. Bargain!

winter teal

winter teal

The main bedroom in our house is large. Certainly bigger than any bedroom we’ve ever had before – and keeping it warm and cosy in the winter, is something I work on every year. It’s great in the summer – light, spacious and airy. With the windows wide open and a couple of lovely retro fans at the bedside, we are kept cool. But come a drop in temperature, we do have to work at keeping it warm. Sometimes, in the depths of winter, we’ve given in and moved across the landing to one of the smaller bedrooms, closing up the main room. But I don’t like doing this, because it feels we’re shutting up a large part of the house, and I don’t like that feeling of creeping coldness that you get in rooms you don’t use. So, this year, we are staying put, but are ensuring that this potentially cold room, is the cosiest yet. How are we doing this doing?

Well, new curtains have already had a big impact.

We’ve always had the muslin drapes at the windows – even though we don’t actually need any coverage at all, as we’re not overlooked at all – but they soften the window wall, which is the original stone. Then we added long, cream curtains, which are great over the summer but don’t give that feeling of warmth over the winter. Over the weekend, we stayed in a hotel in Treviso, and our room had long, floor length chocolate brown, velvet curtains – and this got me thinking, so a quick trip to IKEA was done. And there were the perfect drapes…

All of our bedroom furniture is painted duck egg blue, and we have a big standing lamp in the same colour, so when teal velvet was spotted, I knew these would work. And with a drop of 3m, the exact length needed.

These curtains are from the Birtna range and each pack contains a pair. We paid €69.99 per pack and needed two, so not cheap – BUT we figured that if they kept the room warm and cosy, we’d be cutting down on using heaters. They are also black-out curtains and worked well this morning – even in the winter, the sun does shine brightly into this bedroom, but they did the trick. So, not the cheapest – but also, not the most expensive – and definitely worth it for what we wanted…

 

 

 

 

hallway reno

hallway reno

Not all renovation projects need to involve demolition and mess and heavy tools and living with dust and dirt. I like to think that’s all kind of behind us – at least for now, but we never say never. These days, our renovation projects are quite small scale, very sedate, quite tidy and always done by us. It’s a nice position to be in, in the journey of our home. I quite like not having to haul the Henry hoover up (or down) three floors to get rid of thick layers of dust and plaster. These days, a bit of a tickle with a damp cloth, seems to be what’s involved in reno clean up.

Our upstairs landing has always been a bit of nothing space. We have tried, over the years, to make it into something, but nothing has ever really felt quite right. Until now, and I think we’ve finally achieved what we’ve always wanted, but not really known that we do. It now ties together the upstairs floor, and rather than just being a space to walk through, it’s almost become a room of its own.

Floating shelving has been fitted in the corner outside the main bedroom. We don’t have a socket in the hallway – something on the “to-do” list – and so we have to think about lighting. The two wooden slatted lamps are perfect as they are battery operated and on timers, meaning we have lovely shadows cast across the landing, when it’s dark. The two copper Moroccan style lanterns were bought a few years ago, and now seem to have found their home, after being fairly nomadic. These lovely little baskets are the perfect storage place for batteries for the lamps and tealights for the the lanterns.

The wooden floors throughout the house are painted a very deep navy, and walls are all white. The ceiling is very high with original beams, which we painted a very soft grey to match the woodwork, so the overall feeling is now of space. Despite there only being one window, it’s a very light and airy part of the house, but we’ve created a more wintery cosy feel with the addition of big, thick mustard coloured rugs. The wall where the window is, is still natural stone, although completely cleaned up and painted white. I’m at that stage with our house, where I’m kind of over the original stone work and depending on how much longer we are here, plans are being made to plaster all walls. However, they’ve not been plastered yet, so in order to hide away the stones, we’ve hung floor length sheer, muslin drapes. These don’t block out any light, but add softness, which I think was originally missing. The addition of a mustard yellow Moroccan leather pouffe adds a little bit more interest – and helps create a little Moorish corner in our home.

 

 

 

 

 

nuvolette : cole & son

nuvolette : cole & son

In a previous post I wrote about our desire to eradicate the parts of internal walls which have not been plastered and are still the original Istrian stone. Some people would love the walls, but as the years have gone on, I have to say my love of exposed stone – albeit now painted white – has waned and I am craving smooth, plastered walls. Some will be painted (probably white again), and for others we are considering pigmented plaster. But for the living room walls, once all is smooth, I am looking back to the beautiful wallpaper we had in our house in West Didsbury, when we renovated it,

This beautiful repeat pattern paper is Nuvolette, by Cole & Son, and is a dramatic cloudy sky mural by the Italian artist Piero Fornasetti. Unless you are an expert at wall paper hanging, I’d recommend that you do what we did, and get in a professional to hang it. The striking design is supplied in a set of two rolls, with the pattern repeat being 80cm. I was informed this mean a straight match between roll A to roll B and a half-drop between roll B to roll A of next set…

See! Told you a professional is your best bet.

The overall effect is absolutely stunning, especially if the wall to be covered is quite a large area. We used it on one feature wall only, with ceramic bulb drop pendants in front of it, and it was very dramatic. I really do miss this wallpaper now that we have moved, but I think it may make a re-appearance, once the walls in the living room are all smooth and plastered. It’s definitely not the cheapest wallpaper, but it’s very strong and sturdy and I think if you love it, there’s little chance you’ll be wanting to change it quickly. I do wonder if it is still hanging in our West Didsbury house…

best purchase of the summer…

best purchase of the summer…

For quite a while now I’ve been longing for one of these chairs. But, the garden has never been quite finished, so the idea of swinging gently, whilst sipping a cocktail, seemed ridiculous. We had far too much else to do, to get the outside areas ship-shape, before I could even contemplate going to look for one. But sometimes, circumstances just happens. Call it serendipity, perhaps…

On a trip to Bauhaus, our equivalent of B&Q, in the spring, I spotted one of these chairs and almost made the purchase. But common sense got the better of me, for once. The colour was wrong – either a tangerine orange (nice, but not right for our garden) or a natural wicker (nice, but with a black frame and the contrast was too much). Plus, it was very squeaky – and although this was the shop model and so that could have contributed to its squeakiness, I figured it wasn’t worth the risk of buying one, and it making annoying noises every time someone sat in it. So, that was it.

Until my next trip to Jysk – I think to buy additional plates to this set. And guess what they had in stock?

No squeaking. All one colour – a perfect colour, to be honest, as it’s not quite black, may well be anthracite? – but the best colour to go with everything else garden wise. And, best of all – reduced. 25% off when we bought it at the beginning of the summer. Really easy to assemble and with proper water-proof cushions – we know because we’ve stupidly left it out in heavy rain – it proved to be the hit of the summer in our garden. It works well along with the sofa so we now have two very comfy options – if you to swing, you can swing. If you want to lie, you can lie.

But now that summer is fading, we’ve had to think about what to do with our garden chair over the winter. To be honest, it’s still warm enough to sit outside at the moment, but all of the sofa cushions are inside, and the sun is lower in the sky, so the egg chair wouldn’t be quite the lounge-fest it is in the height of summer. So, it has a new home – and now has pride of place in our renovated Snug.

Over the winter, we use this room at the bottom of the house a lot, because it’s very cosy, with a big L-shaped sofa and a woodburner and all of the TV channels we could possibly want. Well, this year, I think our winter might have just got better, as with just a tiny swivel, our egg chair, will probably become a coveted seat for TV watching. We are very lucky that we have this renovated space downstairs, providing us with the perfect place to store this summer chair, over the winter. Although, with the addition of a cushion and a velvet throw, it’s kind of become a winter chair. A chair for all seasons, if you like…