Colour and Cloth: belfastinteriors

Tonight my wee house will be on TV, and its getting all excited!! My sister Linda is hosting a GIDC night in front of the telly...we will be glued to the box, and counting the times I say 'Like you know', 'Yer man the builder' and other Northern Irish phrases.

My wee house is not a stranger to fame as 9 years ago, when I bought it, the previous owner Lesley had it featured in HOUSE BEAUTIFUL magazine, back in October 2005.

I fell in love with the sleeper above the fire and the light that came in through the back window. Within 2 days it was sale agreed! Lesley had 'done the place up great' and I didn't think I would change a thing. But over time, every room has been changed, at least twice!!

Here are some photographs before I moved in. Lesley believed if there was a surface to paint, it had to be painted. I believe in the natural beauty of wood, stone, metal and so there was a lot of paint stripper bought! Quite often I would be as high as a kite on the fumes of Nitromors.

3 up, 3 down.

Open plan living room into dining room.

View of the dining room and living room, and wine in the kitchen!

Kitchen and view from dining room into the kitchen.

The main bedroom

The bathroom and spare bedroom.

My dad is brilliant at DIY and he was always lining the walls, wallpapering, matching up the wallpapers, and teaching me how to get a straight line with a plumline. He has been so amazing helping me out, building shelves for me, amongst many other things.

My mum is very creative, and her talents are in knitting, crocheting, sewing, flower arranging and all together a great homemaker. She has crocheted beautiful throws for the cold nights on the sofa. Its from mum that I learnt about sewing and knitting. I just haven't mastered the art of crochet yet!

I think mum and dad deserve their own blog post!

My house has evolved so much over the 9 years, as I have. At the start of 2014 I decided to do a lot of clearing out, selling 'things' and making space to breath. It was all becoming very cluttered. My spaces tend to change all the time, they all are 'living rooms'. Its an evolving process.

Next July I will be in my house 10 years. I like to work in decades. I had said in January to my friends and family that I couldn't do any more to this house, that I needed a new project. Then the call came for Great Interior Design Challenge. Then came Achill, then came other adventures. My friend Hilary then let me know that the number 9 is the number of completion and fulfilment.

I love the Beatles music, just maybe not this one.

Back in 1995, I wrote some ideas and dreams for my 'Ideal House'. I found this a few years ago and without realising it, a few of these ideas are what I had put in place. Albeit in a red brick terrace in East Belfast and not in the West Coast of Ireland!

My dream house, interior and exterior. That's the artist and textile studio to the right, which doubles as somewhere for my visiting friends and family to lay their heads.

Back to reality...

Here's some pictures of my house although it has changed again since these were taken!

A very cosy, if not slightly overcrowded living room, full of textures and cushions! It is now a little less cluttered.

Dining room curtain is a parachute from 1965

Retro sideboard £25 Belfast charity shop. The chairs have been removed from the wall and it now becomes a memory and inspiration wall.

The laminate flooring was ruined when I moved in as the stopcock hadn't been tightened when the previous washing machine was removed.

The quotes were painted on the wall way before the shelves were up. The kitchen has since changed again!

Sisal carpet and then 9 layers of paint and varnish came off the staircase!

A very small space to be on your hands and knees making a mosaic!

My room, I always wanted a white room. The last room to have the carpet lifted and I discovered painted white floorboards underneath which I sanded down.

The spare bedroom back in 2006. Still with sisal flooring.

The spare bedroom became by dedicated sewing room in January. The carpet was lifted and sanded and varnished.

I will post a detailed DIY and decoration for each room in a series of blog posts coming soon. It never stops changing!

Till next time, Enjoy the GIDC show!! And remember...I forgot to add the orange cushions!!

Christine x

An eating space that always ended up being a workspace. It became a stressful room and meant that as my living space is open plan, I could never fully get away from work. It became less a place to eat, and more a space to sew. Something had to give.

In a small space you always need to think creatively. By hanging chairs on the wall this kept the floor area much clearer. However the length of the table blocked the feng shui flow out to the back yarden. It was time for a change...

In January I moved my big dining room table upstairs into the 'spare room' and it became my cutting table for sewing and making patterns. I asked the builders across the way to give me a hand up the stairs with a oak table.

This left me with a gap of where to eat in the dining room. Large scale dinner parties were out of the question unless they became 'TV dinner parties', but I don't have a TV.

I did manage to think around the lack of a 'big table' by throwing a party with 3 smaller tables, it ended up very Parisian, with white table cloths, roses and tea lights.

Margaret, Colin, Shan and Patrick enjoying an evening in Paris / Belfast in September.

Inspiration struck last week when I was clearing out cupboards and discovered the 2 end extensions to the already 'big table'. These have only been used about twice in the last 9 years, and I needed the space they were taking up inside the cupboard so I set to work taking them apart and remaking them.

A girls best friend, my trusty drill/screwdriver combo. Taking off all the wooden batons.