Tile sizes

I’ve now nearly finished the paintwork in the dining room, and a massive task it has been.  All I have to do is the tops of the windows and the ceiling beams – for these I need some help of a very basic and unskilled type.  Someone to hold the ladder.    This is going to have to be J and I need to put a rocket under him to get him away from his computer so I can reclaim our dining room table.

While I am patiently waiting I am turning my attention to the fireplace.  It was really horrid.

So I have sanded it down and painted it in eggshell cream.  I’ve bought some beautiful Victorian fireplace tiles, and the idea was to match them with some plain green modern ones.  Unfortunately I did not realize that Victorian tiles are 6 by 6 inches and modern tiles are 15 by 15 cm.  These are in fact not the same – they are 2.4mm out, and while this may sound insignificant for one tile, it rapidly multiplies over a large panel.  I also didn’t know that Victorian one are far thicker than their modern equivalents.  As you can see in the picture though perhaps not very clearly.

So I am having to segregate the two types rather than putting them next to each other.

I also discovered that the largest ready made curtains I can find are too short for the windows, and that using the handy calculator on John Lewis’ website, they would charge me £1100 for a pair of curtains to fit.  So after I picked myself up off the floor – I came to the decision to make them myself.  Another task to be done…