Category Archives: colours

The roller coaster ride!

If I had written this post on Thursday night it would have been mostly ranting; but the passing of a few days has been more positive.  We weren’t supposed to do “house stuff” last weekend; we were supposed to be having a few child free days away at a vineyard.  Unfortunately our baby sitters for Oscar were sick so we had to cancel, but we had the time off work so we thought we’d make the best of it and go out for a nice lunch together. It didn’t turn out that way, but perhaps cancelling our weekend was a blessing in disguise as we didn’t have to deal with all this stuff today.

Hubby stopped by the house Thursday and Period Details were there to install the pressed metal sheets, he just happened to notice that the splash back sheets were the wrong colour.  After some frantic checking on what we had asked for we told the builder it was wrong .  These sheets have a six week lead time, so we weren’t happy.  But then it got worse; the colour we had chosen was no longer available!  It hadn’t been available at the time it was ordered either but was when we chose it several months earlier.  (This is the third time we have missed out on our selections because they didn’t get ordered when we chose them.)  So our relaxing day off was spent trying to choose a new colour.  Kath and Dave from Period Details were very helpful with suggestions as was Dulux Powder Coatings in sending us sample paint chips overnight. The biggest issue was that we wanted a metal look and it had to match the colouring in the stone bench top.  Friday afternoon we made our decision:

New Kitchen Splashback Colour
New Kitchen Splashback Colour

Dave from Period Details has cut the sheets to the correct size and they will be re-powder coated, so the delay should only be one week, not six.

The next issue we discovered was the paint in the ensuite.  It was supposed to be the Dulux “Off White” but looked brown.  Hubby thought it was the Hog’s Bristle for the main areas, used in the wrong spot.  It turned out the paint was tinted incorrectly. The rep from ecolour came out pretty quickly, acknowledged the mistake and replaced the paint today.

These things always come in threes! The stained glass has been installed, and looks gorgeous! The only problem is the glass around the front door was supposed to be obscured glass so no-one could see in, but it’s clear.  We called Harkaway and they agreed to organise the replacements straight away and have someone coming out to do the swap over. 

Stained glass on front door - clear not obscured
Stained glass on front door – clear not obscured

 

Update on kitchen splash back: things did not go so well with the recommended selection.

 

Interior Paint Colours and Tiles

It has taken a while, but we have finally decided on paint colours for inside the house.

Hog Bristle Quarter W (A180) for all walls except the Master Bedroom, Ensuite and Bathroom.

Off White W (B13) for the walls in the Master Bedroom, Ensuite and Bathroom.

Peplum Quarter W (B28) in gloss for the trim.

Ceiling white for the ceilings and cornices.

Oscar has chosen red for his Star Wars room (a feature wall only!).

The kitchen cabinets will be in Antique White USA, in a low gloss. The cabinet maker thinks he has found some low VOC paints and sealants for the kitchen.

We also started looking at tiles today.  We haven’t looked at any tiles previously, but we need to select floor tiles for the laundry, bathroom and ensuite.   I would love to have natural stone tiles, to match our other natural materials, but we may have to search a bit to find something in our budget.

Designing the kitchen, pantry and laundry

A couple of weeks ago I sat down with our builder’s cabinet maker to make some final changes to the kitchen, pantry and laundry designs and choose our finishes.

The island bench will be red gum with the Ikea ceramic sink. We moved the sink away from the centre and closer to the outside edge of the bench, creating a more usable bench space close to the family area. The bench on either side of the stove will be marble.

The profile on the drawers and cupboard doors is a pretty standard one, with cast iron drawer pulls and cupboard handles we found at Period Details.

Kitchen Cabinet Profile with Cast Iron Drawer Pull
Kitchen Cabinet Profile with Cast Iron Drawer Pull
Traditional Hardware Co. Drawer Pull 3571AF – Iron
Traditional Hardware Co. Drawer Pull 3571AF – Iron
Traditional Hardware Co. Cupboard Knob 3701AF - Iron
Traditional Hardware Co. Cupboard Knob 3701AF – Iron

In the Butler’s Pantry we are continuing the marble theme, with Duropal laminate bench tops in marble design and Karaboard in “carbide” on the drawers. The same drawer and cupboard handles as the kitchen will also be used here.

The laundry will be the same as the pantry: “marble” tops, “carbide” doors and cast iron handles.

Duropal marble benchtop with Karaboard carbide cupboards and drawers
Duropal marble benchtop with Karaboard carbide cupboards and drawers