Magnus was at our house this week, as we had a blocked septic tank outlet pipe, and that got me thinking about colours again, as he’s going to be doing the painting at Coldbackie. Last week I bought a painted wooden towel rail from a lady in Halkirk for Ethel’s and we were talking about how we both loved Farrow and Ball colours, but winced at the prices. ‘Did you know they can mix to the Farrow and Ball colour chart in W&D Ross in Thurso?’ she said. ‘It’s not identical, but it’s very close and it’s about a third of the price.’
Talk about a perfect fit:
So off I trundled when I was in Thurso on Friday and sure enough, yes they can. The base paint is Johnstone’s Trade and it’s £34.90 for 5 litres compared to £103 for 5 litres of F&B. So this afternoon’s job was to sit down with the paint chart and How To Decorate and rethink all the colours.
The hall, the stairwell, the landing and the downstairs corridor are all going to be Stiffkey Blue with Wevet on the ceilings. The kitchen and utility room units are all a dark blue and search as I might on Pinterest, I can’t find anyone who’s done anything other than pale walls, unless they’ve painted the cabinets themselves and done the identical colour on the walls. So I’ll carry on the Wevet on the walls in both those rooms and between the beams on the ceiling, but the wall where the Aga was in the kitchen/diner, which is opposite the door coming in from the downstairs corridor and will have the dining table next to it, will be Stiffkey Blue – it should balance out the blue units at the other side of the room.
I’ve ummed and ahhed for ages about the living room. It’s a big room with a high ceiling and, of course, the very dramatic fireplace in the middle. The floors are going to be a rich warm wood, the sofas are going to be brown leather and I want to make it feel cosy in the evenings rather than vast. A strong colour should bring the walls in and I’m going to be brave and paint it in Blazer to the picture rail and then Wimborne White above the rail and on the ceiling.
I bought actual F&B Cooking Apple Green and James White when the Homebase at Wick closed down. It was going to be for our bedroom at home, but I’m going to try it out in the back bedroom here first. That room overlooks the garden, so it’ll bring the green inside the house.
The front bedroom overlooks the sea, so I’m going blue in there with Skylight on the walls and Wimborne White again on the ceiling. Both these bedrooms will open up off the dark blue Stiffkey landing, so it should make them look brighter than they actually are. The paint chart makes it look more blue than it is in this picture.
From that landing there’s an archway through to the corridor leading to the new bathroom and the master bedroom – the corridor will be Wimborne White and then I’m going darker in the bathroom and bedroom. I’ve ordered bath panels and a loo seat in graphite grey, so I’m going to have a classic stone-effect floor, probably Karndean Clip Fiore:
And then Plummet on the walls with Ammonite on the ceiling.
In the main bedroom I’m going darker again, with either Moles Breath on the walls and Ammonite on the ceiling (I know it looks the same as Plummet on screen, but it is darker!) or Hague Blue and Wevet. Moles Breath was my initial choice, but looking at it next to Plummet whilst writing this post, it does rather look as if I’ve just given up and gone grey in that section of the house. I love Hague Blue, but am not quite brave enough to use something so dark all through the hall, landing etc. etc., so it might be nice to turn this bedroom into a cocoon of a room.
Whichever of those I go for, to prevent the room being too gloomy, I’m going for furniture from Riverside Interiors’ Tister range, which will contrast nicely against dark walls.
Next job: get the room measurements out and calculate how many cans of each I’m going to need at coverage of 12-14 square metres per litre!
