Things to do before Peanut’s birthday party

I know, I know, I told you yesterday none of the aesthetic stuff really matters. However I can’t help myself from wanting my shabby chic home to be more chic and less shabby come Peanut’s birthday party in May.

So, here’s my list of things to do. Or more appropriately, things to decorate:

Lounge
Remove mantlepiece and block up fire ‘hole’.
Hang eye-catching wallpaper on feature wall.
Paint remaining walls in colour scanned to match base colour of feature wallpaper [yes, I’m that fussy].
Hire someone to clean our curtains while hung [or take to cleaner, whichever is least expensive].
Sand and paint enormous overmantle mirror to update from gilt to white.
Replace gilt picture frames with simple white versions from Ikea.
Replace gilt chandelier, perhaps with an enormous white acrylic version.

Bathroom
Paint every last surface white [again].
If I’m really lucky, replace all taps with shiny new ones. Being new, they automatically won’t have a build up of limescale and won’t have handles that fall off in your hand!

Hall
Repaint same colour as lounge to give continuity through to kitchen and also to warm/brighten up the room.
Be sure to paint coving correctly, including getting to those hard to reach bits we missed last time.
Replace two chandeliers.

Master Bedroom
Either wallpaper feature wall above bed or make/have made an extravagant deep-buttoned headboard.

Garden
Install a garden swing from the huge Ash tree at bottom of the garden.
General clean up, planting of new potted flowering plants etc.

Over the top and a little bit masochistic? Perhaps, but we’ll probably only achieve a fraction of it.

In truth, the only real room that matters before the party is the bathroom, which is so small we can easily repaint in a weekend. The lounge would be next as it’s been 7 years between makeovers so we were going to be decorating it this year anyway [wallpaper is already on order]. We just need to make sure we get our acts together in time.

I’d be surprised if any of the light fixtures were changed [no budget] and as for the rest of my list, well even I know they’re not necessary. But then, if yesterday is anything to go by, is any of it?