11 August, 2012 
The refurbishment of the sitting room is almost complete. It’s taken two weeks of repairs, reconstruction, patching, stripping, cleaning and painting but the results are starting to look good. And just in time, too. The Other Half has several friends coming for morning tea on Wednesday, which means the room must be perfect by then.
The woodwork is finished in a pale olive green gloss, while the plasterboard walls are finished with a soft sheen buttermilk emulsion. The woodwork needs at least two coats, three in areas where boys’ hand slide over it. The emulsion is applied over a base coat of cheaper white emulsion to make it go further and keep costs down.
The exposed stone wall is finished in white high sheen as we’ve found it reflects the most light and stops the room feeling too gloomy. Unfortunately we ran out of white paint before finishing the job, which means the wall will remain as is for a few months until we can save the money for more paint.
There are still a few areas of woodwork that need their first coat of gloss, but the job is finally nearing its end. The only downside of the improvements is that the 10-year-old carpet now looks decidedly shabby with its plethora of stains and wear marks. We’ll look at putting a rug of some sort down in due course as there’s no likelihood of us replacing the carpet within the next few years although I suppose we could take it out and leave the concrete floor bare—much easier to clean with the pressure washer!
I like those colors! Its making me look at my walls and trim with ideas. Definitely bright and cheery looking.
We wanted something bright and warm, without being too conventional or too unconventional. The Other Half says it’s “very nice”, which is Scots for “absolutely love it”.
I like the results folks. Colour choice is good and I look forward to seeing it soon.
Are you intimating that boys hands leave marks on walls etc; oh dear what next?
Nice work Stonehead. Like the colour scheme!