When we moved into our derelict Victorian wreck 12 years ago, I had the fireplace knocked through in the front room. I left it as rough brick, painted it green, put our old grate in it and filled it with fairy lights. It was beautiful and I loved it. Roll on a few years and our very old telly in the corner lost the will to live and as I sadly put it in the front garden for the council to take away, my children started working on me to buy a big flat screen tv. I love telly as much as the next person but I hate big flat screen tvs. I think they’re dominating, aesthetically unpleasing and a bit sinister. Anyway, it was 3 against me and I reluctantly gave in and bought the horrid thing. That was about 5 years ago and I’ve barely been in the front room since, literally.
Then I was chatting to a lovely marketing lady Chloe Goddard about decorating fireplaces at Christmas and how I was making my mini vintage bunting in Autumn/Winter colours and how they’d look lovely edging the top of fireplaces and she suggested I do a mock up and take a few photos.
That was just the push I needed so while my kids were all out I moved the hideous creature (flat screen tv) from the focal point of my living room and reclaimed my beautiful fireplace. The creature is now on a shelf in the alcove behind a curtain and is no longer the undeserved centerpiece of room and as a result the room feels welcoming, serene and cosy again.