The Block NZ 2013 - Week 2

Despite being eliminated for not following the rules or brief for the week, Alice and Caleb definitely pushed design boundaries the furthest with their bold use of dark inky walls, colour block curtaining and industrial finishing touches.

Black, dark grey, inky blues and navy's all get a bit of a bad rep as being gloomy, cold and oppressive - but the success of it comes from the other colours you put alongside it and the layering of furniture and finishes in the space.

I think they pulled the look off by teaming their dark walls with plenty of crisp white trim, bright yellow accents and clean lines on the bed linen. The weathered, aged finishes on the side tables and box crates as well as crafty placement of nick nacks become the features in the space; the black acting as a great dramatic backdrop to these more important elements in the room.

Love it or hate it, the overall look was pretty successful in our eyes (even if it was aimed at a teenager rather then a wee poppet) - check out some more great examples of dark walled kiddies rooms below!

Images via here, here, here, here, here and here

Eleanor's House - External Paint Colours

 In the Summer - yes Summer will be here quicker than we know it - we are booked in to have the exterior of our house painted.  This is what it looks like from the harbour side facing north...

... and from the west facing side.

To do this we will need to choose a colour and I think this is going to prove to be a very difficult decision.  I have always wanted to go very dark on the weather boards with white contrast trim but my Husband will need convincing!

I have been going dizzy on Pinterest looking at schemes to get some inspiration - here are a few....

From Poppytalk

From Remodelista

From Ebossnow

From Housemacarbe