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Lighting
…then stand back and admire.I decided to name this blog post after one of my favourite Interboogle blogs by the fabulous and lovely Raina because the Random lampshade sure does fit perfectly in our stairwell.

My planks of wood were delivered (it’s handy having a sister-in-law whose boyfriend owns a lumber yard) and I cut them to fit across the gap, fitted them into place and spent most of last Sunday painting the stairwell with Dulux Absolute White. Then came the long awaited moment of fitting the new lampshade. It was a bit tricky because the whole thing has to be fitted in one piece but (with a little help from David who held the shade out of the way) I eventually managed to do it and what a difference it makes. It has transformed what has always been a boring, tall and dead space into something rather special. The gap between the shade and the walls is only about 8cm either side so it creates the most amazing shadows all over the walls. It does actually look much bigger in real life. I couldn’t be happier…



…Well it’s nearly the weekend! YAY! The weather is absolutely gorgeous here at the moment and is supposed to be great all weekend, what will you be up to!?? I will be up a ladder trying to finish the painting of the stairwell and the landing. I’ve started already after borrowing a set of ladders and let’s just say that it was somewhat more dis-coloured than I thought!

I was looking through pics today that I have taken of our flat over the (nearly nine) years that we have lived here and even though I remember it being vile when I look at the pics again it all comes flooding back just how bad it was! Below is the hallway and the landing which makes me shudder! Getting all that thick anaglypta wallpaper off was horrendous, quite how I managed to get it all off in the very high stairwell is beyond me. Oh and that carpet, it still gives me nightmares!! Enjoy…


Below are the three stages of when we had the stairs clad with wood by a local carpenter which was about five years ago now and they still look great. This was after we had taken a wall down which was directly in front of the stairs which had an angle on them so they were patched up at the bottom to straighten them out. It took me forever and a day to stain them…

And finally the stairwell as it is today, half painted and I cannot wait to get it finished. I think the last time I painted it was about seven years ago! So far I have been using the ladders and balancing on one of the ledges but it’s impossible to reach eveywhere so I have some scaffolding planks arriving tomorrow.


Why the sudden rush to get it done you may ask?? Well because I have a certain Moooi Random lampshade sat on my dining room table! I went to London last Saturday (after going to a two day 50th Birthday party and getting to bed at 5am on Saturday morning!) to meet up with some great forum friends and my friend Helen had picked up the said lampshade for me and had offered for me to stay at her uber gorgeous house which is to die for! After three days of drinking and partying the thought of getting an 80cm round lampshade across London and all the way to South Wales was filling me with utter dread! After realising I was going to miss my train and a few hairy moments I eventually got it back home and very gorgoeus it’s looking too.

Have a great weekend all…

…after being out bid on two Moooi Random shades on Sunday by the same person on Evilbay I wasn’t in the best of moods! My very lovely friend Helen had offered to pick said lighting gorgeousness up for me if I won so everything was in place and I was ready and waiting to rejoice at my latest long awaited purchase…I lost out by £10! Anyway another one was listed and it was the more expensive black version with a starting price of £99 so I contacted the seller and asked if he was prepared to do a buy it now. Later that day after my many obsessive re-freshes of the page it had been changed to a buy it now price of £299….my heart skipped a beat…David said it was rather expensive for a “fucking lampshade” and we didn’t need one! I said “well we don’t need an iPad but you are absolutely obsessed with getting one” and with that I bought it! It was bought by the seller last October and hasn’t been used, Helen has been to pick it up for me as it was five minutes around the corner from her and she has said it’s in perfect condition. It is £700+ to buy new and I got for less than half price so I am rather pleased to say the least. All I have to do now is to figure out the best way of getting an 80cm shade from London to South Wales…


Above is a white version looking rather splendid.


I will be painting our stairwell soon because it hasn’t been painted in a while and is in dire need of a lick of white, it’s very high so I need to borrow some ladders. Anyway, I have always had a problem with what lighting or shade to have there and I have lusted after the Moooi Random Light above for ages but at the uber-spenny (expensive) prices starting at £418 for the 50cm diameter up to around £1,300 for the 110cm I think I will be looking for a while longer!!! I saw the black version for real in a shop in Cardiff recently and all I wanted to do was rip it down and run off down the road with it!


Also loving the David Trubridge Coral shade below which again is rather spenny at £341 for a 60cm diameter! Although it does come in kit form which fills me with dread after putting the Norm 69 together which was the most frustrating afternoon of my life! Who said I had expensive taste!??