Back away from the black??

Made this attempt at a mood board way back in September 09 and still love it.

After a lot of deliberation and much consideration of all the "back away from the black" comments I received from friends & family (and a couple of professionals) I've decided to heed the wise words of Billy Baldwin and am going to follow own my gut (instinct)and explore my dark side.

Be faithful to your own taste because nothing you really like is ever out of style. – Billy Baldwin

Creamy beige flooring be it marble, limestone, travertine or porcelain would be the choice of many in this neck of the woods.  Black & grey slate, basalt and limestone tiles are not in high demand for sure...but I LOVE them.  Maybe it is the Slummy Mummy in me convinced that a dark and footmark forgiving floor wont require the mop out quite as often as the cream marble? (I'm totally convinced this is true)

I like sexy rooms, and I don’t think all-beige is very sexy. -Billy Baldwin

I am a grown up, so do know that if I went with the light, bright and shiny polished marble (or similar) it would make for a brighter hallway and kitchen for the Conlon House, but thinking about it, just how much light does one really need?!  I have large windows(and loads of them), high ceilings coupled with huge amounts of soon to be white painted walls, surely that counts, no?  Do I really need Crema Marfil for that??

In the Conlon House you will see....Hall, kitchen & family room flooring like this.  Dark(undoubtedly)but will be contrasted with large amounts of white walls remember...

Image courtesy of 

Stone Tile Sales

A kitchen like this, charcoal black painted base cabinetry and a light reflecting worktop, huge swathes of white wall uninterrupted by wall cabinets (or industrial extraction!).  

Sneak peak at the kitchen layout

The dark flooring in the main high traffic areas will be contrasted with brushed oak flooring in all the bedrooms, lounge & games/play rooms.  In these rooms will be going for a neutrals with pops of brights (most likely featuring copious amounts of our trade mark cerise ...we are a family of four girlie girls after all!)

I'm happy enough with the decisions so far, and am working really hard at the moment to get the best (lowest)and final quotes in for the finishes I'm after. What I love is one thing, what the budget dictates is another!!

A person with a real flair is a gambler at heart. -Billy Baldwin

Here's hoping the chips on black gamble pays off,

Mrs C x

Read a great Billy Baldwin inspired blog post here on designsponge 

Randoms from round the house

Stairs & Landing

Looking down

Looking up

En-suite 2

Pebble tiles appearing here very soon!!

Stud & plasterboarding complete and feeling happy with how this bathroom has worked out so far :-))  

Guest Bathroom

Not 100% on the built in shelving above where the wc will go?  

Would it look better with just 2 shelves instead of three? 

Was also thinking about putting a door on to hide any clutter....too many decsions already!!

Windows

exterior

Lounge is south facing so these windows let in loads of light, yes even on a grey wet day...and there are many of those here in Limerick! 

The addition of 4 velux windows over the vaulted dining area was definitely the way to go - these were extras as originally I had not specified any.  Again letting the light flood in whatever the weather in Limerick is up to ;-))

Another tweak of the windows here in the Games Room.  Notice the side panels are split into two.  This again was a late amendment.  

We have a full heat recovery & ventilation system running though out the house which should negate the need to open a window for ventilation purposes. 

So in theory this window unit could have been fully glazed with 4 symmetric panels that were fully fixed and no-opening. 

However as you can see from the side panels that are now in situ, I opted to add a window either side that opens for both the sake of safety and the waft of real fresh air should I desire to sniff it!!

see what I mean about the weather!!

Busy Week Buying

Ticked off the list this week

Sockets and Data 

• All the sockets and data points are from the GET Ultimate Screwless range and have now been purchased.
• I have gone for a stainless steel finish with white inserts.
• These have been ordered from an electrical wholesaler in England and should be on site ready to be installed by early next week.

Tiles for 1st Floor Bathrooms

• Have gone for a Classic Flax Mix Honed Limestone (wow that's a mouthful) from MandarinStone and a white pebble tile from MarbleMosaics
• Will be using the Flax limestone tile as the flooring in all the upstairs bathrooms and the laundry room.  I'll be using the pebbles to tile out the inside walls and floors of the showers.  They are all wet room style - NO GLASS!
• Just didn't seem to have the energy or inclination to do something wildly exciting or different in each bathroom.   I'm all for KISS at the moment, just Keeping It Simply Styled!
• Tiles should be delivered first week in April.

Fittings for Master Bathroom

• As if by magic these lovely Dornbracht Tara fittings appeared on ebay this week....who was I to resist!
• Just one more part (the very unglamorous concealed element) for the wall mounted taps to secure and then thats it, the master bathroom is complete...well not quite, but you know what I mean....

Whoooohoooo Windows!!

Long story as you know....but they're here at last!!

Our front door 

Two tone grey aluclad on the exterior

white painted wood interior

all stacked and ready to go!

Little ones Big bathroom

Today here's a little look around my youngest daughters soon to be bathroom.  I'm so proud of my shopping skills  (put to good use at last I hear my husband muttering!) in general on this project, but this bathroom in particular will be a notable achievement once completed.

(I'm going to use a light limestone tile on the floors and white/light pebble tiles in the shower and behind the bath.)

It has taken me a year to piece together bit by bit this bathroom, it started with this tap purchased way back in March 2009 - it was the subject of my very first blog post HERE

This purchase re-awakened my mad love for Ebay and the absolute thrill of bagging a bargain.  I learned early on that the high end bathroom brands have the same code numbers for fittings worldwide, so it's relatively easy to piece together yourself from different suppliers as long as you know what you're after.

So armed with my encycolpedias of Grohe fittings I managed to track down the "royal flush" of taps, bath/shower mixer, concealed shower mixer and shower head.  The set was complete this week with the arrival of the final elusive parts which I purchased on-line from Reuter Bathrooms in Germany, all the other items were painstakingly tracked down on ebay!!

THIS IS IT

Cute Sottini Alchemy corner bath...managed to squeeze this 1m x 1.5m bath in as well as the shower, it came brand new and with the matching bath panel (Ebay - Supplier 1)

deck mounted Grohe Atrio bath/shower mixer (Ebay supplier 2)

Catalano Zero Light basin - mine has towel rail and drawer - (Ebay - supplier 3) 

Grohe Atrio basin mixer (Ebay - supplier 4)

Catalano Zero 55 wall mount wc (Ebay - supplier 5)

Concealed parts for WC - (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

Grohe Atrio concealed shower (Ebay - supplier 7)

Grohe Rainshower 210mm (Ebay - supplier 9)

Grohe Rainshower arm (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

Grohe Sena handshower (Ebay - supplier 9)

Grohe wall elbow & shower connector (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

Grohe Relaxa shower hose (Reuter Bathrooms - supplier 6)

 I think I can quite legitimately claim to have "sourced" these items rather than merely "purchased" them.  "Sourcing" seems to be the word of the moment in most of the 'housey' mags I'm addicted to (cutting down on the habit seriously though Mr C if you are reading this per chance).  I'm now finding myself tutting away when reading the many articles detailing other peoples "projects" in which they claim to have "sourced" their items, when surely simply bought would be more appropriate (ooh get me tonight....meeooow!) 

Apologies now for this rather long winded waffle of a post (I'm presumtious in assuming you've stuck with me this far!), this has been quite theraputic in reminding myself just how much effort I've put into this project and how in the most part I've succeeded in getting the max bang for our buck - there's no way, no how I'm going to let my window woes detract from that.