Call me a control freak or, as the 10yr old would say, “a meanie”, I don’t mind… I will happily admit to having the sort of Decorator’s OCD that means that only I can do the job properly!
In my funny little world, there is nothing worse than a badly decorated room and in particular a badly painted room. Moreover, try as I might, I am not a fan of masking tape and rollers etc. I paint with a 2” brush and a 1cm wide artists brush for tricky sections and edges. Time consuming it may be, but it requires nothing more than patience, a steady hand and a keen eye. I’m also a temperamental decorator, leaving projects for months and then trying to finish them in a day, but on the days when the mood strikes, I’m a very happy painting bunny.
And I really am best left to my own decorating devices; that and, on the occasions when I forget that he’s not that fond of a paintbrush, the boyf’s kind and valiant painting attempts generally end in emergency trips to the washing machine for whatever anyone in the vicinity is wearing and me “just touching up” whatever he's painted afterwards! As for the 10yr old, she is still only 10 and I will happily admit that I do not have the time or the patience to share the experience. I would love to be one of those laid back Mums who let their children help paint their room and live with the results but, in all honesty, it would drive me mad. The child will learn to paint when she buys her first flat...
And so it was that I found myself painting the 10yrs old’s room last Sunday. It was a lovely day to be painting, the sun streaming through the window and the birds singing up a storm. The colour she chose is a beautiful soft blue-based pink rather appropriately named “Parfait” – its name alone was a very neat way of ending an otherwise long debate!
It was such a joy to get it finished. I didn’t like the colour of her room before, but I hadn’t realised just how much I didn’t like it until it slowly started to disappear. Painting done, we rehung her pictures and stuck on a gorgeous “Family Tree” wall sticker from Cox & Cox. A great deal of her pictures were framed family photographs and this is a far neater alternative to them. A quick shuffle of furniture and a “new” shelf unit from the antiques market (to house the teddy/unicorn collection that she’s inherited from her Nana Nicie) and the transformation is complete.
I love the 10yr old’s room. It is a mad clash of fabrics and colours and collections. Full of books and bits to look at, a wall of stars and a fantastic view and soundtrack outside. I know that she would have liked to have helped paint, I hope that the “Surprise!” was enough to sway her… and there’s always her playroom next door, you never know, I might need a hand with that?
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