What happened this week....

Well, it seems you almost all resoundingly like my antiques and I am clearly in the minority. I agree with all your wonderful and creative suggestions about how to incorporate them, ranging from piling them high with books, flowers, mags and lots of blue and white, to sticking them in the playroom or the cabana and even painting them (sadly I won't be allowed to do that latter!).

And I agree that dark pieces ground a room and give it "gravitas", the only problem is (and I didn't mention this), that I already have several pieces of large dark timber furniture in that open plan dining/living/entry area that already provide the grounding and gravitas. Let me demonstrate.

A grandfather clock

A large black bookcase (disregard styling of shelves, just chucked stuff there for the moment)

An Asian table with antique vineyard clock hanging above.

A dark grey chest of drawers

A black Asian faux bamboo side table

A dark Indonesian cabinet

A dark 3.5m dining table with matching dark chairs and dark rug!

And a large black mirror.

Two dark bamboo chairs

And of course, the dark treads on the staircase and dark floors. Still think I need more?

Add to the mix all my dark navy cushions and you begin to see my problem! Hence my concern about it looking like a dark and gloomy castle from the middle ages. Never fear, with a bit of lightening up, adding some softer shades of fabric, some relocating, shuffling, rethinking and reworking I'm sure I'll be able to assign them all to the right place somewhere in the house (or under it!).

It's been a busy week trying to move ahead with my decorating. I have ordered lamps, blinds, curtains, cushions, plants and just come back from a mammoth shop of photo frames from Target, having found the offering at Ikea woeful, as annoyingly none of their frames come in standard sizes and therefore don't fit any of the prints I ordered or the very expensive family portraits we had taken at Christmas. Target had almost the exact black frame with white mount that I found in Country Road and Freedom for $49, for only $12 with 25% off at the moment. Bargain!

I have received my prints from Etsy, and I have to say that my purchases from Etsy have so far been rather disappointing and unfortunately only go to strengthen my belief that buying homewares/decor online can be a risky business (although obviously this is a generalisation and only based on my limited experience). I've learnt that colours can be inaccurate, details misleading and precision of product representation can be sloppy. This has been the case for the cushions I bought and some of the prints. Buyer beware is my lesson, but I'm sure there are plenty of sellers who are of a high standard and quality and whose products are as they appear.

Further on Etsy, I have to report that the two lots of stencils I ordered have still not arrived from the US, and it is over three weeks now. I paid $30 for one lot to fly airfreight, but clearly it's coming by pigeon. I was told when I contacted the company that it wasn't unusual for them to take 8 weeks to arrive!! What the?? I would never have ordered them had I known that, as it's now holding up my finishing these DIY projects. Extremely frustrating!

And finally, to Overstock. After my tirade last week about their poor after sales service, my girlfriend Esther cleverly suggested I comment on their Facebook page. It never occurred to me to do this or that they would even have one, but I posted a link to my post on their page. It was removed immediately. So I tried again, and same thing happened - it mysteriously disappeared. So I commented on their wall, about not being impressed with their service for international customers etc. Straight away, I was contacted by their Facebook customer service by email and told to give them my order details and they would see what they could do to help me. Well, not 5 days later, this replacement faucet head turned up by Fedex. 

So I commend Overstock for addressing the problem and actually providing me with the replacement part as requested despite it being past the 6 month date, although I doubt it this will have any long term effect on their international shipping/replacement parts policy, and has more to do with being shamed on social media. But the only problem is the replacement part is faulty as well! The stupid little bit of rubber has already fallen off this head, and so it's clearly a design fault in this tap. Nice try Overstock, but shame on you Kingston Brass!

Have a wonderful weekend.