The walls are deep red, the woodwork is black. Can you tell that I got a bit over-excited about being allowed to paint, because I no longer had a landlord breathing down my neck?
I had to buy a new bed too, because it was that or sleep on an inflatable mattress all year. I ordered the second cheapest Argos bed; having slept on the cheapest Argos bed in 2 student houses, I thought I'd splash out and get one that looked nice =P.
When the bed arrived I realised that the bedknobs I had imagined to be silver, were in fact antique brass style. Not usually a colour I go for, but it looked so nice with the red walls that I decided to run with it. I found the candlestick in a chairty shop for 3 quid, and the lamp was from Homebase in the sale.
I even added some brass handles to my new wardrobe (which deserves it's own post if I ever finish it), they were also from Homebase, 3.79 each. The butterfly handles were from Urban Outfitters (3 quid each in the sale). The heart was made my my friend Pip.
Getting carried away with the whole decorating thing, I decided to swap the very ikky old white plastic lightswitch and plug sockets for brass too. I found some cheap from Wilkinsons.
When they arrived they were just too shiny, so I decided to distress them to match the rest of the room. I attempted to remove the protective coating with acetone nail varnish remover. I then gave them a good scrub with salt and lemon juice. The results were disappointing; it only worked in small patches, creating very dark spots. This is because the damn things aren't actually brass at all; they are steel with a brass coloured finish. So instead of a nice patina, I was just getting rust.
In the end I just decided to use a very fine grade sandpaper to dull the surface a little. It's hard to take a good picture of it though.
If anyone has some tips I could try before I go ahead and wire them up (or rather Dad does, because I am not to be trusted with electricity) I'd be very grateful.
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