Aaaagh – too many choices

so I put the kettle on

The enamel ware I’d ordered from Country Contrasts came after lunch and saved me from the minor wallpaper dilemma.

Cup of tea any one?

Update with choices

For Trumble’s Mum

re her kind comment on previous posting

Well, I agree with you entirely.  They would have lovingly cleaned the wall down and redecorated for the new and long saved for cupboards.

I hastily found a number of single sheets of wallpaper that might do the trick for redecorating the wall with the ‘new’ cupboards.  Some dark and of the period and some perhaps a little more 60s than 50s.  Settled on a couple to pick from.

One would probably be OK if the inhabitants were into older wallpaper and the other I think is straight late 50-ish (though has a taste of 70s too perhaps).

Now do we want the quite life with the older style or go with the swinging new?

Pale and elderly and loud and woven

Both go with the pinkish paneling which will remain to protect the wall from the furniture.

To paper or not to paper

Floor seems to sit flat enough now wish to sort out the pattern traffic.

What am I looking for?

Hmmm – a mix, if possible of a 30s to 50s UK feel with the mish-mash that results from piecemeal buying, make-do-and-mend and lack of the wherewithal to renew items.

Hence the early sink arrangement, but the newer washer; the mid-50s cooker and cupboards and the late 50s table; the basic tiling and the pan storage above on the wall for the 30s to early 50s feel.  Looking for a general drab but hopeful look.

But when should we give them wallpaper in here?

Wallpapers

There’s a large window over the sink and part of the washer so with that cut out there’s some relief from pattern, adding small squared panes though.

Floral paper with the smokey look

30s style paper – simple and pleasing but …

Lightly marbled lining paper/note paper. Reduces pattern clash

and on the other side of the room

Over the other side the 50s cupboards. The angular one would be higher up the wall over the serving hatch and the balancing one on fridge will be fixed as high above as it will go.

The serving hatch through which entertainment can be provided.

On the window wall above the sink and cooker the plan is to run a high long shelf full of pans and other likely items with some tiling behind them to protect the wall.

Looking more like plain paper colouring (my wall painting being execrable) will give more freedom for the eye and reduce the pattern headache.

Kitchen – patterns galore

A bit of throw it in the air and see how it lands – if at all.

Progress so far with the chucking

Tiles for over the sink and window cill, behind a pan shelf and possibly in the pantry

Sink now balanced and bracketed in place

and I ended up buying the table

China cupboard probably going over fridge

This, built from kit, to go next to kitchen cabinet/kitchenette

A play around with the lino 

Don’t know if what appears here will be used as it’s possible it won’t sit flat to the floor.  I’ve used a mix of a marble coloured paper as a border to give a little relief to the eye, and the pattern I fancied in the centre.  They are cut to echo the shape of the room floor as it goes around the pantry. Had wondered whether to put a thin border of contrast between the two but think it would be too much.  Will probably go with some arrangement similar for the flooring I think if this example doesn’t work.

Ablutions

Got the sink attached to its base with brackets from Sussex Crafts.  The way it sits looks ungainly but there’ll be the waste pipe down under the overhang along with the draining board over the top, under part of which the washer hides.

Spending

Bought the table from Elf Miniatures for two, maybe three, reasons.

• the dark green one was slightly too wide
• had decided on a serving hatch through to dining room (tell you about that later on) and this table is meant to sit dead centre below it
• want to put the kit cupboard (the last photo of gallery) above the table and felt they went together

I know it looks not quite right from above but it has a wide aluminium strip for the table edge which is the most prominent thing when viewing from the front of the room.

Cupboards

The tiles shown below the cupboards won’t be there but wanted to look at each with the colour range that will be on the walls around them.

The walls and bruising balsa once more

Getting a bit ‘itchy’ about the wallpaper again.  Don’t want to print any more out but would like to keep it away from the lino to minimise the ‘whoomph’ of pattern.  Besides which, am not fond of wallpaper in the kitchen going down to floor level.

Have therefore decided on half panelling around the whole room in that underwear pinky colour that didn’t get used in the hall and, funnily enough, have made the panels themselves out of the closed banister wood that was already prepped, but abandoned, when open banister spindles won the day.  Ah, waste not want not, indeed.

The closed banister sections, being balsa and once I’d squared them off, allowed light scoring with the back of a knife to give the random boarding effect.  It’ll be topped off with a nice dust collecting wood piece.

And the reason for the serving hatch?

A friend reminded me of something that I’d occasionally experienced as a child when visiting – that is watching the television through the hatch, and I so wanted to represent this memory with the table set for viewing and no crumbs able to get on the dining room floor.

What’s next?

Sort out that floor.