This is mine in the house I just sold. it was £5 off Ebay (and my friend delivered it for me from Wales, happy days) My partner knocked the alcove into the wall and a space for the wine fridge. All the glasses were from charity shops (and some really lovely ones from Sainsbury's) The donkeys head was in the sale at Abigail Ahernes Debenhams and I call it the Nags Head. In my new place it will be called Bottoms Rest after the Ass in Mid Summer Nights Dream :0)

Update on this (June 2015): Yup, those ceilings have not changed one bit!!! I finally manned (womanned?) up and broke out some Annie Sloan chalk paint last night and tested a corner of my office (pics to follow). Dear Husband and I have not swatted each other with much of anything related to this roof or the walls. We have however assembled quite a lot of flat pack furniture and hold a MOUNTAIN of moving rubbish to the tip at this point. 1. If going for the flat/professional look, I fail as a painter, caulker, sander, and...yeah. The job would require what my painter quoted me (to the tune of 6,000+ USD). Total sanding, caulking of all joints (note the hundreds of them....), shellacking and individual knot treatment, 2 coats of paint, coat of sealant....let's just say a car would cost less. I tried - knots bled through. So chalk paint is out but important lesson learned with little pain/cost. 2. I am going to try out a few more techniques on a tiny, small corner of my office. Whitewashing with 2 types of paint, trying to locate some milk paint and gel stain. Not keen on the liming wax. Husband is still convinced we can do this ourselves. We fixed some of the wiring in the downstairs - it's still mentioned at all cocktail parties with photos. 3. We found a builder! We found a builder who talks more than I do and takes QUITE A WHILE to arrive at a conclusion. My back-up is to plaster between the beams and stain the exposed bits. But not ideal. My back-up back-up plan is to get pregnant quickly and thus remove one of our 'painters', necessitating hiring of (qualified) replacements! Back-up to THAT back-up is run away from home...(yes, you do feel like you are sleeping in an orange pine coffin if I'm honest) 4. Still no closer to making this place look decent but lots more ideas! Next on list...find someone to make a headboard to mount to wall Swiss German translation - Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof! Happy Summer!! Any comments or thoughts are WELCOME!

[quote] Best. A cheque for £200 from my bank because apparently when I'd made a cash withdrawal of that amount 2 years earlier, their audit had found the whole amount hadn't been given. I had been completely unaware of this, so that was a nice surprise and certainly not one I'd expect from a bank! I even invited this tax consultant near me. Worst. My son was going to an important interview and I'd ordered him a suit online. On opening the package I found a pair of Bermuda shorts! [/quote] a good option is to invite a tax consultant.

If you want the seats to swing out from the island be sure to check that the island is substantial enough to take the load, also that the island is well anchored to the floor. If you consider the arm is for example 2 feet long, then sitting on the extende seat will be the same as applying your full weight to a crowbar, two people sitting on one side would destroy a normally constructed island. Similarly, if fitted to a wall make sure that they are anchored well and that the wall structure is suitable. A nice idea to save space though