If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. My parents instilled that in us as children. It seems they did a fairly good job of it because I have succeeded in convincing the Bavarian that we need a new floor. It has only taken me eight and a half years of trying.

Really, it shouldn’t have taken any trying at all. The laminate which you may recall from our hall floor a few years ago was also laid in the living room by the previous owners. When they knocked through from the dining room to the kitchen, they came up with a, let’s say, unique solution to the matter of flooring for the space where the 50cm thick wall had been. They put laminate there too, but in a totally different colour and style to the laminate on either side. We’re not taking statement feature here, just to be clear. We’re taking throw a large rug over it to cover the ugliness.  The room has never been properly finished.

When we took up the hall laminate, we found the original tiles from the 1950s underneath and upstairs there are the original wooden floors. No such hopes for the living room though. We will definitely need a new floor and are thinking of good quality vinyl, having had a look around  some local flooring places. Now that we have an idea of the colour and structure of floor we want, we need to start thinking about modern skirting boards.

The ones we have can’t be reused. They are very flimsy and won’t do at all with the new floor. We’ll need something sleek but with a bit of profile.  Something that will be in keeping with the architrave and which will give the room a good finish. Because that is what I want the room to finally be. Finished.

[Disclaimer: This is a collaborative post but all words, opinions and photos are my own.]