It struck me yesterday that I keep mentioning the fact that I live in the world's brownest house, but I've never provided you with the evidence to back up this bold statement.
You have to understand that when we moved here to Phoenix last November, we moved from the world's loveliest house in the world's loveliest hamlet in Shropshire, Great Britain:
It was over 200 years old.
It had exposed beams in the ceilings.
It had doorways that people smacked their heads on because people in the 'olden days' obviously didn't eat their bread crusts or whatever you're supposed to do to grow up tall.
We had copies of the deeds showing every owner of the house since it had been built.
It had the most gorgeous kitchen (with french doors out into the garden) where I could moodily pretend to be a domestic goddess:
But most of all, the reason I loved it from the first time we viewed it...it had internal windows throughout that had originally been external ones before the house had been repeatedly extended:
It was small, but had tons of character, and was perfectly formed.
Then we moved to Phoenix and had to find a house to rent for two years.
Now, don't get me wrong, for all it's browness, I do love our new home...it's just it is a tad...brown. And as we're renting it, we're not allowed to decorate. Also coming from a tiny British home to a gigantic American one, we didn't have much stuff to detract from the browness. So, slowly but surely I'm finding ways to unbrownify it, room by room...and as I do I'll show you my progress.
So here it is, the world's brownest house:
With the world's dingiest entrance way:
(I can't honestly call that the world's brownest entrance because the door's khaki green and also I'm concerned that people might think I'm being crude).
And this is the main colour scheme of the bedrooms, the bathrooms....well everywhere except one solitary lilac wall in Melchett's bedroom:
Brown walls, brown shag pile carpets, brown tiles...
I suppose we can count ourselves lucky they painted the doors white...
And even though the bathroom walls are brown, the tiles are brown...the counter tops are white too:
And of course, what's the world's brownest house with a brown kitchen, well, brown kitchen cupboards, paintwork, tiling and surface tops:
Topped off by the world's brownest patio, but that's another story, for another post, because as the weather is beginning to cool down now (we're at 108F/42C) it's going to be a project to tackle in the near future.
And what do you do when you have the world's brownest house and you've got to rent your furniture...why, you rent dark mahogany drawers, desks and cabinets of course....and brown settees. Doh! What were we thinking?! Except we had to order stuff in a hurry and 6000+ miles away, and I've got a feeling nearly everything on offer from the company we had to use was brown anyway...they're very into brown in Phoenix, which amazes me seeing as we're surrounded by very brown desert.
Look there's the sole colourful wall!
So this is what I have to work with, a brown rented house, brown rented furniture, and very limited cash to unbrownify it (well, we're only here for 2 years, so I'd rather spend any cash on days out).
Can a rented house be made light, airy and colourful simply by the use of accessories? Watch this space and keep your fingers crossed!
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