paint

Kitchen Progress: Cabinet Frames + Paint

Okay, it’s been a quite a while since I updated you guys on the progress here in the kitchen. So long that I have actually been asked if it’s done yet (nope!). And as for where we”re at? Well, after Richard left for a month away due to work, kitchen progress sort of stalled. I ordered a bunch of stuff, but haven’t really made any progress.

As for what we have done since I last blogged about it? Well, we finally have a functioning kitchen again!

Increasing storage with IKEA cabinets | Hello Victoria

After we patched all the holes in the walls, and cleaned up from demolition, it was time to paint! We had chosen Barest Hush by Valspar to be the colour for our walls. We tested a couple of swatches, but Richard was worried they would be too dark, so we settled on this option. My goal was to have a grey tinted green that didn’t read too strong either way. As our living room is grey, I didn’t want the whole place to feel the same. But of course, I also didn’t want too bright of a colour, as I tend to prefer more muted walls. Let the colour come from the furnishings, in my humble opinion.

Valspar Barest Hush | Hello Victoria

Valspar’s Barest Hush

For the cabinets and trim, we are sticking with our tried and true All White by Farrow & Ball, colour matched to Valspar paint. This time around we went with their premium paint, as it was the most scrubbable option. It also comes with a built in primer, so win-win! However, due to time we didn’t get around to painting the cabinets, just yet. That’s a job for another day. Or month… year… sigh. Procrastination is real folks.

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Increasing Storage in Our Tiny Kitchen

Okay, I promised a proper kitchen post with before photos and all… so here goes! If you’re following me on Instagram (and check the stories) then you will see we have already begun work on this space.

Increasing storage in a tiny kitchen | Hello Victoria

welcome to our tiny kitchen!

When we had just moved in, we discussed how we could make the kitchen space work best for us. First up, would be to add some hanging storage on the wall, for all of our pots and pans. I don’t have any photos of the kitchen before we put them up, but you can see below how we’re currently using it. We installed two rows of IKEA’s GRUNDTAL rail system, using the top row for pots and pans, and the bottom for pantry goods. One basket contains bread, another potatoes and onions, and the third is a fruit basket.

Those three baskets took me ages to find (it’s hard to find an open weave basket that’s fairly flat) and are actually beach bags that IKEA was selling in their limited HEMTRAKT collection (I just cut off the handles). And yes, we bought waaay more hooks than we need, but we still have to buy more pots.

Increasing storage in a tiny kitchen | Hello Victoria

After adding some hanging storage, we needed to address the cupboard situation. The ceilings are high enough to accommodate another row of cabinetry, so we thought – why not double our storage? (more…)

Black Tile Bathroom Floor

Planning on painting our bathroom tile | Hello Victoria

While discussing painting the tile in our bathroom, I mentioned to Richard that I thought it would look great to paint the floor black. I have seen black tile lots of times, and always think it looks dramatic, and yet somehow classic. Seeing as how our flat is Victorian, and they were fans of black and white floor tiles, I feel like it’s sort of character appropriate. Not really, but it’s close enough to make me feel good about my decision. So there.

However, Richard isn’t too keen on the idea. He likes the concept, but doesn’t think it will work in our tiny windowless bathroom. His argument is that the bathroom is too small and it’ll be too dark. My counter argument is that the walls and ceiling will all be either white, or slightly-blue off-white. Everything else will be so bright that the room can handle the dark floor. Not only that, but the floor tile paint options out there aren’t exactly vast, but they do make black!

Here are a few more arguments in my favor, in the form of photos of pretty bathrooms with black/charcoal floor tiles. One of them is even a basement bathroom, which shows you can do this in a room with no windows!

Black floor tile inspiration | Hello Victoria

black hexagon floor tiles via Crate and Barrel

Black floor tile inspiration | Hello Victoria

large scale hexagon floor tiles via Instagram

Black floor tile inspiration | Hello Victoria

windowless bathroom via Deuce Cities Henhouse

Black floor tile inspiration | Hello Victoria

small bathroom via Houzz

Dark floor tile inspiration | Hello Victoria

charcoal grey tiles via Contemporist

So what do you think? Are you on Richard’s side of the discussion, and think the black floor will be too dark? Or are you with me, and think that those black tile floors will really make this room pop? I’m curious to know what you guys think as it’s a big step to make in such a small place.

*this post contains affilite links*

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Updating the Bathroom

Plans to update the bathroom | Hello Victoria

One of the rooms that has bothered me the most, is the bathroom. It’s a room where clearly someone tried to update it for resale, but only succeeded in wasting money on finishes that are harder to deal with than what (I assume) their predecessors were.

Plans to update the bathroom | Hello Victoria

Poorly installed, cheap tiles, are not a good investment, and only make me angry. (Richard doesn’t seem to understand what the tiles and tub surround “have done to offend” me, but they do.)

Mosaic tile inspiration | Hello Victoria

wouldn’t one of these floor tiles be amazing? (left // centre // right)

But what to do? I mean, this isn’t our forever home, so replacing the tiles aren’t an option. (As much as I would love to have some marble mosaic floors and white subway tiles.)

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Hague Blue Bedroom

Bye bye bright and airy bedroom…

Painting the bedroom | Hello Victoria

Helloooooo drama!!

Hague Blue bedroom | Hello Victoria

While Richard was away for work, I decided to tackle painting the bedroom. As discussed in earlier posts about dark bedrooms, and my plans for this room, we had chosen to paint it Farrow + Ball’s Hague Blue (using Valspar paint) a few months before, and I am so glad about that decision. The paint has such a lovely teal-y green undertone to it, that makes it feel warmer (in my humble opinion) despite how dark it is.

Now painting without Richard meant lots of time spent on a ladder, with no one to see if I fell… but the worst part of doing it alone, was not having a vehicle! Unfortunately Richard took it with him when he left… not that it really mattered as I still haven’t learned to drive on the left side of the road! (more…)

Dark + Moody Bedroom Inspiration

Dark + moody bedroom inspiration | Hello Victoria

navy bedroom via Design Sponge

I’m normally a fan of very light and bright spaces – shades of pale grey and blue tend to be where I gravitate – but I think I’m slowly converting to the dark side. Or, at least when it comes to my bedroom.

Dark + moody bedroom inspiration | Hello Victoria

charcoal bedroom via Design Sponge

I first got inspired by the impact that a dark bedroom can have when I saw San Fransisco blogger Jordan Ferney’s black bedroom. While most everyone in the blogging world was painting their whole house white, she had created this eye-catching space by painting all her walls and trim in the softest of blacks. (more…)

Updating the Flat with Colour

One of the first things that I wanted to tackle with the flat, was the paint colours. Almost every room had some sort of a blah colour – beige, cream, and purple everywhere. The colours weren’t doing anything for the lack of lighting in some spaces. The hallway was the worst culprit, with the mauve above and dark purple below making the whole space feel small and dark.

Updating a dark hallway with paint | Hello Victoria

the hallway before

So, when Richard and I were both off for a couple weeks, we decided to tackle painting the hallway and living room. To be fair, we had aspirations to paint the bedroom as well, but just ran out of steam. While all the moldings and trim in the apartment add such wonderful character, they also add an insane amount of time to paint. The trim and door colour in the apartment was a gross yellowish cream colour (hard to capture in photos, just trust me), so we decided to paint everything, doors included, back to a nice white.

Updating a dark hallway with paint | Hello Victoria

look at all the trim we had to paint… yikes!

After researching colours for a few days, and even getting some swatches mailed to me, I was having a hard time picking. From my limited experience, painting in the UK and North America is very different. Back home, the hardware stores carry a huge assortment of swatches and tend to have other colour brands on file to match. But in the UK, colour matching is a bit more new, and the brands they carry offer a limited selection. (more…)