Out On The Tiles.

Ok. I'm sorry - I know I've received emails asking for house progress and I've not, as yet, fulfilled your requests but that's mainly because I don't feel like there's been much to report. We're still in the stages of bare plaster and just about laying floor (it has become the norm to expect to balance on exposed floor beams to get around the downstairs of our house - nothing so luxurious as solid floors for us, oh no!) so it's not seemed interesting enough to share.

But one little thing I can report is that our wood-burner is in - those of you who follow me on instagram (2dyefor_) will know this since I post too many pictures of it whenever I get to take a break from renovations and just marvel at it's heat. And when it's minus 4 outside we need that heat.

It's a traditional looking one as we wanted to stay in keeping with elements of the history of the house and not modernise everything and I really love the style we chose.

Here's a little mash-up of pictures of our life with the 'burner so far.

As you can see life around the wood-burner is pretty basic. We're still on garden furniture in place of our beautiful sofa and armchair which are in storage, and there's still alot of dirty work to be done but we are getting there. At least I have to keep telling myself that or I think I'd just give up.

But last weekend OH started laying the final parts of the downsairs oak flooring and with this came an exciting decision. (There aren't a huge amount of those at this stage so I take them where I can find them.) And this was a goody - floor tiles for under the wood-burner. Yippee!

The originals are still there at the moment and we've fought to keep as many intact as possible but unfortunately they're so old and brittle they've almost all smashed, splintered or powdered away as we've tried to extract them so we've had to make our peace with the fact we are going new in this element.

I began my search using my old faithful - Pinterest.

And my personal favourite in the search...

I love the idea of doing the surround in the same tile but with the interior plans I have for the room it would end up being a sensory overload in there so I decided to stick with the hearth area only and began looking at specific tile designs.

 

While I do love the impact of a feature tile I was worried that it would be too much with what I already have planned so I opted for a box of mixed tiles (16 tiles - each tile a different design) in muted grey/off white tones. I feel more confident that this then doesn't dictate the tone of the surrounding area and will be able to hold its own against an array of decorative choices. And we all know I'll not be able to settle with one style of room for long.

 

They aren't in situ yet but they should be this coming weekend (fingers crossed) so I'll take a snap for you and post it up to show the finished look. I'm really excited about these tiles - which worries me - I'm now actually at an age where tiles thrill me.

 

I'd say 'pass me a G&T' but I'm doing Dry January so I'll just have to push through. Wish me luck!