H.O.M.E spells...

Quite a long time ago I bought some 3D letters (H, O, M & E - can you guess what I was looking to spell?!) from the weekly market in Henley-on-Thames. I had big plans to hang them on a wall somewhere on our old house (yes, that's how long ago it was that I bought them - we sold that house in April 2011...) They languished in a drawer in the dresser in the kitchen for a while, then they got packed up and moved to our rental house in our new village where they sat in a drawer in the dresser in the spare bedroom (I think), then they got moved to our new house back in October last year where they sat in a drawer in the dresser in the living room. Until finally, a few weeks ago, I got them out and propped them on the table in the hallway. However, because they were white, they didn't show up very well against our wall since all the walls in the entire house are painted white; so I hatched a plan to paint the letters a different colour so that they would stand out if/when we got round to hanging them up, or even if they just stayed propped up on the hall table. For some reason, this photo refuses to be righted, so you'll just have to enjoy the upside down HOME experience.

 And in homage to that bloke from Steps...

Obviously, buying paint took several more weeks since I never seemed to be anywhere near a DIY store (or anywhere else that sold paint), but finally on Wednesday just gone I managed to pop into B&Q; I had high hopes of picking up a lovely shade of green from the Farrow & Ball range, but I was thwarted since B&Q had none in stock.

Determined not to leave empty handed, I went for Morris Blue from the 1829 range by Craig Rose; I've managed not to take a photo of the paint in its sweet little tester pot. Apologies. But you can see the entire range here, should you be so inclined.

On Saturday morning I set to with my letters, my tester pot and a paint brush, while hubby entertained DC. Here are the letters after one coat of paint. I ended up doing three coats over the course of the day, and managed not to take any more photos. Boo hiss to me.

By Saturday evening, I was ready to start hanging them in the allotted place. I was slightly tempted to go with the Zen approach with a little OM(mmmmm).

But good sense prevailed. Finally, HOME is no longer cluttering up the dresser drawer.

And while the hammer and nails were out in the hallway, hubby set to with a drill and hung the new blind I'd scored for a bargain at the John Lewis in High Wycombe on Wednesday. Here's hubby taking the technical approach to blind hanging.

 

Here's a before shot of the window, sans window dressing.

And here it is after hubby worked his magic. Apologies for appalling lighting in these shots. And the 'Home' sign hanging on the window is coming down, now that we have big HOME above the door (I think two signs is one too many.)

I was rather pleased to have got this blind since it was in the 'bargain basement' section of JL's curtains and blinds department - the section where they sell off at massively reduced prices window dressings (ie all manner of curtains, roman blinds, venetian blinds, roller blinds) that have been made to measure but for some reason not sold to the person for whose windows they were especially made. It takes a lot of luck and patience to get a blind (or set of curtains) in the exact measurement you need and in a fabric that you are happy with. I've been on a mission every time I've been to a JL for the past few months to see if I could find something suitable (and bargain-tastic) for any of the five windows in our house that remain 'naked'. And this time I struck paydirt. And thus, for the grand total of £40, we have this charming little number.

Makes this little corner of the house feel much warmer, more homely and a lot more 'finished.'