When I was little I used to like designing interiors. I would design fairy houses set in huge old tree trunks and plan rabbit warrens of rooms and sketch out the furniture placement and which way the doors would open. As I grew older I did the seating plans at school – I would draw where the desks would go and decide who sat next to whom (a long forgotten fact only recently unearthed upon discovering my old school reports).
Before I reached teenagerhood I gave up a really really really big bedroom at home for a small one on the condition dad would build me the mezzanine I had designed for it. The mezzanine would have asparagus ferns and other plants hanging from its beams. My purple silk would drape above and I could pretend I was in Arabian Nights. However my plans were scuppered when I didn’t manage to stick to the other part of the bargain; and that was to keep the new bedroom tidy for three months. In hindsight they must have known that was impossible and they were in fact getting a pretty good deal – although I did find it much easier to decorate the small room and remember wishing there was a contest I could enter it into for best decorated room.
Somewhere in my flickr stream there are photos of my old studio flat – which is just over the road from where we live now – illustrating just how messy my version of nice is. As I say in one of the captions – “before Kevin came along and tidied me up“.
So, I have, metaphorically speaking, kept my room tidy now for five years and my prayers have been answered. This weekend Kevin took Astrid out and I unpacked boxes and put away and sorted and hung things up. And now I have my own dream room, complete with handbag and hat collection on the wall, a knitting chair and a proper wooden ladder leading up to my secret hideout – the mezzanine. Next I’m going to ask for some time to sit in my knitting chair or up in my hideout to read all my books and knit all my squares and plan all future decorating work.
I have also been a very lucky girl and have received some lovely lovely post from Di and Yvonne which I’m just going to have to tell you all about very soon indeed! And then I’ll also tell you about all the amazing stuff we’ve been doing and all about how I am working five days a week at an agency in Brick Lane and how I’ve seen heaps of degree shows, including Textile Design (woo!) and how we’ve been to Borough Market and Neal’s Yard and Columbia Road again. And how I’ve ordered some heirloom tomato plants and how we planted the garden last weekend at long last. And the amazing set of nested coffee tables I bought (Kevin thinks g-plan or ercol). And the fact this baby is starting to feel big. Or is that me feeling big? And my recent trips to Loop. And the knitting classes I’ve booked. And the wool I bought (oh. my.)
And and and… and I’ll take a photo and show you my mezzanine.
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