Chez nous, the Changing Rooms phenomenon is not
passé, it is alive, and filled with excitement and wonder, because the whole thing happened while I was out of the country and I haven't had time to get bored with it. It also adapts to an ecological recycling approach, reducing over consumerism and saving cash.
JC and I have just changed R's room - the change to teenage/adult, and because we are dividing R&B's shared room into two dens; a project which involves putting up a sliding door partition with frosted glass, recycling and re-vamping existing furniture, using ecological materials.
We had to put up the partition ourselves as we couldn't get anyone to reply to our requests for an estimate. This is French DIY - you have to do it yourself because you can't get the labour or it's too expensive. I can't show you the partition, as we encountered French Shopping disasters; had to order the doors, when phoned for doors, had already sold out, took the 2 left in the shop, and still waiting for the 3rd.
The whole project took over a week of work, full time, the hardest thing was being responsable for the cooking at the same time.
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| We love LED clip on light, IKEA |
My taste is Arts and Crafts movement, the more colours the merrier and with an abundance of painted on plants , R's taste is your standard square black red and grey industrial, so it was a bit of a challenge for me but I think we found Compromise.
As the room was now divided in two and R's room small, I painted as much white as I could to make the objects recede into the wall.
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| renover secretaire en pin |
We bought the solid pine traditional French style
secretaire at
Emmaus for 15 Euros. We cannot permit ourselves to buy a reconstituted wood fibre and melamine ecological monstrosities from IKEA which will sit next to R's bed and outgas carconogenic and toxic fumes for 10 years (however this type of furniture over 10 years old can be recycled rather than destroyed). R immediately took against the desk; it was old, it was orange glazed pine, it was never designed with a computer in mind, it was scribbled and scratched on and to make things worse, by a GIRL.
We experimented with using cheapo caustic soda, leaving for 24 hours and then neutralising with hydrochloric acid. We scraped off the worst of the gunk and sanded the rest. The worst paint was the local DIY slightly better for the environement, which isn't very interested in sticking. The best was BIOFA water based undercoat and top coat.
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| Metal office locker as wardrobe and recycled peg board and hanger found in bin |
The knobs are Knobs of Contention. Here is how I see them; a modern take on a traditional French design, made in porcelaine, funky as slightly outsized and in a colour range. Here is how R sees them; not metal, not square, and shouldn't be more than 2 colours, preferably 1, grey.
R however, enjoyed the transformation of the desk, and can appreciate the solid wood ecological quality.
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| Solar LED lamp, left, right, LED clip on lamp, both orange |
B took the opportunity to enjoy a mini-makeover for his den. He has 3 multi-plugs full of wires in order to supply the gadgets he needs to live in comfort. We tidied them up with IKEA's excellent wire- tidying organisers and put a red metal cabinet under the desk to put ugly stuff and wires in, and cut the large carpet in two to make one for each den, and he has IKEA's state of the art desk chair guaranteed 10 years, good.
Overall, a joy to be in, visually pleasing, practical, A TRIUMPH
and R loves it (apart from the knobs, have agreed to change the ones on the bed to grey).
Here are some photos of our potager in progress - a decorative herb and vegetable garden with a system of raised beds, using as much of the vertical space as possible for climbers. Style: shabby chic.
