The (Relished) Challenge of Redecorating an Inherited Home

Posted on Apr 16 2019 - 2:45pm by Ella

My memory has me remembering visiting a recently deceased great aunt of mine exactly once ever in my life, at her lovely, quaint sea-facing cottage in the coastal hills and it was a case of all the kids being told to go play outside most of the time we were there because the interior didn’t quite seem to be child-friendly. The great aunt never married and never had children and that’s perhaps one of the reasons why I truly believed she wasn’t fond of me at all (I thought she just didn’t like kids), but it turns out I was wrong because she left her charming little house to yours truly!

For a place I’d only been to once before in my entire life, my memory of it was surprisingly accurate because when we went over to check on it to decide just what we’re going to do with it, I found it to be exactly the same as it was when I’d visited as a child! Nothing at all had changed and everything seems to be uncannily in place – like she put everything back in its place right before she departed this earth!

So may her soul rest in peace and bless her many times over for leaving this house to me, but I have big plans for the house! Besides, I’m pretty sure since she left the house to me she’d be happy for me to do it up in a style which I personally feel will be worthy of a feature as part of the #RenovateRedocorateInspire trend, regardless of the fact that our tastes are totally different…find your inspiration here!

So the first thing I’m going to do is perhaps go back in the past and right the wrongs of my childhood experience of the place. I’m going to bring the outside into the house making use of nothing more than the curtains I fell in love with while checking out the pencil pleat designs over at www.juliancharles.co.uk/curtains/type/pencil-pleat. The ones sporting a floral design pattern already have me seeing in my mind’s eye how that would instantly make the interior that much more inviting. I know from recently completing some minor redecorations at our primary residence just how much of a dramatic change merely switching up the curtains can make and I think a nice light- or powder-blue base colour will complement the ocean which is clearly visible from just about every sea-facing window of the house. I’ve thought about getting Window Shutters instead of curtains, but I haven’t made my mind up yet.

Other than that there’s just one more thing that I may want to change– that’s the flooring. Do not get me wrong, I love all things wooden but this one, as it is engineered hardwood with a short life span, is worn out and appears to be beyond repair. So, all I would probably do here is get it replaced with hardwood flooring which I have heard to be durable and strong. If I finalize this choice, I would have to probably get in touch with flooring installers. This would probably not be a difficult task, given that I find professionals like those at https://www.shadowwoodflooring.com/ near me. I think there is nothing more that I’d want to change up – I mean as sterile as the couches may have appeared to be in their design, they’re surprisingly comfortable. Yes, but I cannot vouch for the walls. I might change up the colour of the wall paint in one or two rooms as well, now that I think about the fact that they’re all pretty much painted in various shades of grey.

Exciting times lie in wait and I can’t wait to turn this into our holiday home! It makes for a nice change being able to redecorate a quaint charmer as opposed to the rather “industrial” looking modern designs in domestic architecture.