I wish there was a shop that sold...

[MerylSqueak]

entire decor schemes for rooms: paint, carpet, lamps, cushions, curtains. I wish you could just look at a room and choose it.

I have two rooms and a hall I need to do and I hate it. I want it to look nice but find searching and wondering and deciding takes so much time and I don't enjoy it. I wish I could point or look at a nice room and say, 'I'll have that one, please.'

What shop do you wish there was?

IKEA do that to an extent. Not paint or carpets but everything else.

A shop that sold clever gadgets that saved time and effort and were easy to clean. Bamix Slicey is not.

Yes. That would be good. Ones that had really been tried and only got in the shop if they were actually good.

It's the carpet and the paint that are mainly driving me crazy! I can pretty much do the other stuff.... Maybe not lights...

John Lewis
Next - but not carpet

John Lewis do have little areas in-store but do they do paint? I can't get to a store though ....

Ditto Next I think. They have furniture set out but not paint and carpet. I want the whole shebang.

If you are willing to pay for it just hire a local interior designer most have websites so you can see their style so you can get someone who designs in a way uou like.

Lakeland! Not sure if everything is easy to clean but if I won the lottery I'd buy the entire catalogue....

The dulux site has a visualise this room app for their paint

Yes me too actually @inthemiddlepiggyinthemiddle . And then I'd need to buy another new house to put it in. And then I'd have to decorate that one

I live in rural Wales. I did look for a designer after your suggestion @Anniefrenchfry but there's only one nearby and I wasn't keen.

I am a slave to this thing. None of the paint samples look anything like their visualisations when I order them.

Personally I think that's the fun bit. What I need is solid, reliable, trustworthy, particular/perfectionist tradespeople.

(I was doing almost all of it myself until I was in an accident & lost the use of some limbs & now have no balance or strength! )

A couple of the designers I follow on insta do remote consults on a platform called 'the expert' - you book an hour with them, give them a spec of what you're after help with and they talk you through it. It's at www.theexpert.com - I've not used it but it seems like a good idea.

If anyone feels like doing mine I've got pics! CF Alert

I wish I found it fun. I think I ought to but I don't.

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I have brought stuff into Farrow & Ball before and asked them to pick the paints, and they've been great. Ask them to pick the walls, floor, woodwork AND ceiling. They're always really happy to chat, and send you off with samples. And they have little painted pieces of wood, nearly A5 sized, so you can see all their suggestions side by side.

Or when I painted my hall a certain colour and had no idea what colour paint to use for the floor, I went onto the Farrow & Ball website, found the colour closest to my walls and then looked the colour combos they suggested. I really would never have thought of the one they put with my wall colour, and it's absolutely beautiful. Then when I was picking a door curtain, I made sure that the floor colour was picked up as a SECONDARY colour in the curtain fabric.

You have to pick ONE starting point - let's say you love jade green - and then build on that. I do think the Farrow & Ball colour combinations are a fantastic starting point.

I will have a look again at them. I lose heart.

I'm sorry if my previous post has appeared in massive type. It has on my feed but I don't know why

Next do have paint/wallpaper and they also have inspo room ideas
www2.next.co.uk/homeware/painting-decorating

Oo that's quite handy. Thanks

I wish there was a shop that sold lovely feminine clothes in florals and bright colours, all perfectly fitting & reasonably priced. As far as I'm concerned this place doesn't yet exist. I can't find my taste anywhere. I resort to making my own.

Laura Ashley do everything. They don't have little rooms set out but I have found their sales assistants most helpful in upselling picking out coordinating things.

I wish all shops sold their women's shoes in larger sizes.

Yes please. I agree - especially the beautifully fitting bit. I can't do oversized.

The holy grail of shopping is Japan. They have shops for not only everything you can think of but everything you never knew you needed! My peak moment was seeing a Crouton shop. Yep they literally only sold croutons! All different colours, sizes, shapes. I had so many questions, do the Japanese love croutons that much? How does a shop only selling croutons stay in business? Who says “oh I absolutely must have some large purple croutons for my salad?

I support you. Could it also stock stylish boots and shoes for people with crazy shape feet like me?

It feels like florals are all there are for sale right now. It's really chintzy and annoying to me. And freaking pastels. If the clothes aren't chintzy then they're giant sacks, stupid puffy sleeves or some other bodice / prairie shit. It's freaking weird right now in main stream fashion. I don't want 1800s prairie aesthetic and its retrograde women's rights being pushed on to me.

Annnnnnnddd breathe. There, I feel a smidge better now.