Paper Everywhere

With the boring outside done (paw prints patched and all) I was finally able to start making Bellerose House look like someplace people could live.

The Dining room has had both walls and floors covered.  The flooring in here (and throughout most of the house) is fake.  The tiles in the raised entry area are just a paper sheet from DHE while the parquet in the dining area is printed from a printable tile found on the internet.  Normally, I wouldn't consider printed flooring good enough as it tends to look too . . . .flat.  It lacks the texture of "real" flooring.  But one thing I've noticed is that by the time I've finished working on a room, very little of the floor remains visible.  Between furniture, rugs and people the floor virtually disappears, so this time I decided it wasn't worth the effort of spending hours rolling, marking and painting clay to create a more realistic tile effect.  At the moment the two different floors in this room sort of clash; they both have detailed patterns that compete for attention.  Never fear though, by the time I've finished there will be more of a break between the two to ease the competition.  The wallpaper in here is a scrapbooking paper with a neutral damask pattern.

 Next door in the kitchen is one of the few floors that are "real" and textured in this house.  Although it doesn't show up well in this photo, the floor in here is "slate" made from a layer of polyfilla into which lines were scored to create a block or flagstone pattern.  It's still a little too dark at the moment and needs some more light highlights to bring it to life.  The walls have been covered with "tiles" above which they are covered with a pale blue fabric.

The next floor up sees a return to fake paper flooring.  I bought this parquet paper to use in the house that is now Preston House the second time I decorated it (Preston House is the third incarnation of that particular house).  I had so much left over from that project that I could use it on several floors since and still cover the floor of both rooms on this level.  Since I decided to keep the archway that directly connects the Sitting room to the Rec room these rooms will have a lot in common decor wise, but hopefully still have two distinct personalities.  The Sitting room is covered floor to (almost) ceiling with a William Morris wallpaper called "Golden Lily".  This paper is absolutely gorgeous and not as badly hung as it appears in this photo (I promise!).  It's just that the paper has a slight glossy sheen that wreaks havoc with a camera flash.

Take the photo without the flash and the paper is flawless, but the room is horribly dark and gloomy.  Until we get some sun back in wintery Tasmania, it's a lose-lose situation for taking photos.  The gap between ceiling and paper will be filled by some wide gothic cornice/coving.  The faux hallway behind the room has been papered with more of the Dining room paper.

Through the arch is the Rec room which again features the William Morris paper.  This time it lines the upper walls and some panelling will be used on the lower walls.  By using the dining table as a stand-in pool table I've decided that the three functions I want for this room (pool room, study and art studio) will all fit.  I wouldn't want to be sitting at the desk when anyone was trying to wield a pool cue though, it could prove painful!

 Up to the top floor and the main bedroom is, well, very yellow.  This is the wallpaper I bought for the bedroom in Preston House but decided not to use.  I used a solid fitted carpet in here instead of say, floorboards and a rug, as I really didn't think this room needed any more pattern or visual interest than that which the wallpaper already gave it.  If I were to remove the fire from along the left wall you'd see a small hole in the carpet.  This is because after I pulled the carpet out of the cupboard I left is sitting out in the open where any cat could come along and chew on it.  Luckily, aside from that one small patch, I still had enough unchewed carpet to cover the room.

 The final two rooms are the least adavnced.  Both these rooms have had floorboards made from popsicle sticks laid, but no other work has been done in them.  As you can probably tell from the photo, there aren't quite enough tiles to cover both sides and the back wall of the bathroom.  I do have a plan to accomodate this, but I can't afford to make a mistake or simply change my mind so I'm procrastinating over starting the walls in here until I'm absolutely sure I haven't overlooked anything.  As for the second bedroom, I simply ran out of suitable adhesive before I reached that room.