Where I lived next..

I posted a few weeks ago about my first flat and it's generated more interest than anything else I've posted about so far.

So I thought I'd post about the apartment I moved to next.

I lived in my tiny shoe box for 2 years and four months and in that time can you believe more than doubled my money. Don't worry 3 years later the flat I bought next was worth half what I paid.. such is the vagaries of the british property market.

Now I must apologise up front for the quality of some of the photographs. That's because they are scanned from the estate agents details produced when I sold the flat to move to Canada.

This is the outside.. look I even drew a little arrow on the pic to show you which one it was.

This place was quite a move up from Rowlands Rd in terms of size and location. In fact my first flat would have fit in it's entirety into the lounge here. It was part of a development called Westlake Gardens, built on a former market garden to the north of town in the late 70's.
There were about 8 or 9 blocks of flats built around beautifully landscaped gardens with a man made lake shaped like a figure of eight, with willow trees and a bridge.

This isn't the view from my flat obviously because I was on the second floor, but this will show you what it looked like on a gorgeous summers day.

We regularly had residents have their wedding photos taken here.. not surprising really.

My flat had a nice view over the surrounding houses north to the Downs.

What was also great about these flats was that because they were built in the 70's they were really spacious and sturdily built. All the walls were solid concrete and because I was on the top floor there were no problems with noise, like I'd had from upstairs at Rowlands Rd.

When I first viewed mine I was immediately smitten. There were several different styles of both 1 and 2 beds.. and this one was the biggest.

The girl who had the flat before me [who I knew a little bit] had very nice taste, plus she was having an affair at the time with the boss at an expensive local kitchen company.. so it had a brand new kitchen.

I moved in Chritsmas 1988.. having spent a couple of months on my mum and dad's couch since the completion dates didn't line up. There was a sort of buttery cream on all the walls of all the principal rooms except the master bedroom which was a flat sort of pale green. Here in this photo you can also see the deep [and I'm sure very expensive] shag pile carpet which was also everywhere. I also inheirited her [equally expensive] beige linen curtains.. well in the lounge anyway. Which was just as well, because as I discovered years later when I replaced them, those windows were huge and bloody expensive to cover. This is the only photo I have that survived from that time.. but even so there on the right hand side of my bamboo and wicker cabinet is Bernard, the weeping fig, who readers of my initial post have met before.

This must have been very early on because I changed the paint and carpet within a year of moving in. Before I moved out Bernard grew to fill this entire corner.

 

Lot's of gifts and hand me downs in this picture: the tulip lamp was from my mum, and so was the chair, although it was originally my sister's... AND which under the quick fix peach fabric.. was bright purple velvet.

The little pine [always my favourite wood] desk I bought from a chain store.. might even have been M&S, and you'll see on the wall my continued love of displaying art as a collage. That's one design preference that has been a constant. 

 

I realise I've forgotten to show you the layout.. In my first post I drew the plan by hand, but thanks to blogger mate Clara I found some free plan drawing software.. so here you go.

   

 

The corner in the photo above is the bottom right hand corner of the living room in this plan.

As you can see it had really nice spacious rooms.. and a great big hall, which I don't have any photo's of, but which had an art collage down it's entire length, virtually floor to ceiling.

 

I've just found a couple of very early pics of the kitchen.. I must say though I was just taking these to note the condition of the appliances for insurances purposes, so don't expect too much. What you can see in this one is the Laura Ashley 'Sweet Pea' wallpaper border I put up all round the kitchen. The kitchen units had plain white slab doors and a white counter. The handles were a pale turquoise. You can also see the original cork tiles on the floor.. back in the days before 'cork' was fashionable again.

By the time I came to sell the flat in 2002 this was what the kitchen looked like. The basics were the same but I'd laid a pale laminate on the floor...  It had been freshly painted.. more than once.

Again sorry about the grainy photos..

The wallpaper border had been replaced with what looks like real tiles but which is in fact that tiling on a roll.. the original incarnation of which was so ugly on the bathroom walls in the shoe box. The product was vastly improved by this time. So much so that the buyers thought that it was real tile. I'd also put a soft  sheer at the window.. just a fabric remnant really, but it introduced a bit of colour without blocking light.

From a design perspective I realise that this demonstrates that White kitchens is another of my 'design constants'. The kitchen being pretty much the first thing I painted when we moved into our current house. 

This is the master bedroom.. which had a great range of fitted wardrobes, but they were a nasty orangy pine. I painted them an antique white and changed the handles to brushed nickel. This room got repainted a couple of times over the years, and it's the only place I didn't change the carpet. So being a soft mossy green, it really dictated the 'Apple white' on the walls.

The pine chest opposite the bed is still with me.. it's now my bedside table... and the brass bed is now in our spare room.. 'The Mauve Room' which is virtually done so I'll post on that soon.

Finally then the changes to the lounge..

Again over the years there were various changes. The buttery colour was painted a far lighter soft cream pretty much straight away.. Then in 1991 ish I put a wall paper border at dado rail height and sponged below it in a teal green.. which I also chose for the then new velvet drapes. You can see them in the photo and I sold them with the flat. The sponging was painted out and the border removed in 2000. It was all soft white from there on in.

The shag I replaced with salmon pink carpet.. I know !! but it was a popular colour combination in the early '90's, and in fact it too was replaced with a beige burber shortly after this photo was taken.

I had a huge pine corner unit built for me from old church pews.. which housed my hi fi and tv and such.. you can still see that in this photo.

The Welsh dresser on the right is now in my dining room. The Welsh pine table and wicker chairs are in the breakfast nook... and the cream settee and chairs are in my Living room.

Overall I think it's fair to say my style was still quite feminine.. but a lot less so over the years and bear in mind I had no masculine influences at all to take into consideration. Which now I do try to. Plus once that carpet had gone from pink to beige.. most of the 'girlie' went with it.

It's also less cluttered than before.. visually rather than literally.

Oh and one last thing.. see that huge plant filling the far corner almost to the ceiling ? yep.. that's Bernard.

Jo xx