We've almost completed the current decorating project - the guest room.
Remember this palette?
These were the colour samples for the music room, recently completed. As soon as we painted the walls that bold turquoise blue, we knew it was spot on and loved it. The woodwork colour was a little more tricky to choose and our initial choice of that medium taupe in the photograph simply didn't work and we evenutally worked our way towards a dark milk chocolate and the end result is just as we wanted.
It's a dark and gloomy room even on a sunny day, so these deep colours work well and the end result is calm and comforting. For our adjacent guest room, however we wanted something lighter, cooler, more contemporary. 
Of course, we had that large tin of lightish taupe paint which we hadn't used...perfect starting point. We went out and bought a tin of the lighter shade for the walls and Mark set to with the paintbrush.
He stood back and gave me a call.
It's pink.
No, it's grey.
It looks lilac to me.
It's the light. Let's wait a bit and see how it dries.
Is it brown?
Whatever shade it is, it's anything but the colour we imagined and making choices for the rest of the furnishings has been very difficult. Clearly, it's not grey and certainly has a definite pinkish hue in certain light conditions. But we keep telling ourselves it's brown and sometime, perhaps, we'll believe it.
Today, I've done my best to boost the UK economy by supporting John Lewis and Marks and Spencer in equal amounts. Did a bit for Sweden whilst I was in IKEA and came home with a car full of bedding, all of which needs washing and ironing before use.
What did we choose?
Marks and Spencer Autograph plain white satin stitch sheets, duvet cover and pillowcases. Interestingly, on the website, a thread count of 500 is claimed, though on the box, it's only 400. Can I claim the extra 100 threads do you think? With a 20% discount offer on all the Autograph bedlinen on at the moment, sad to say that the gorgeous - but full price - White Company bedding didn't really factor in.
John Lewis Peonie cushions in eau-de-nil, picking up the colour of the carpet, which we haven't replaced. These will sit on top of John Lewis Mocca silk cushions because, it would seem, there's no such thing as too many cushions! A JL Pintuck taffeta bedspread will be artfully draped across the foot of the bed in "Earth", to pick up the brown (yes!) in the curtains - VillaNova Aristo in "fossil".
Furniture is IKEA Hemnes in black brown.
Tomorrow, it will all come together (I hope) when we put all the furniture back and make up the bed. Sadly, curtains won't be delivered for another week or two, but hopefully well in time to spare the blushes of the first of our visitors - we have quite a busy summer coming up!
