Suzy has decided to have her lounge completely renovated. She has a long talk to an interior designer before she starts. Listen to their conversation and then answer the questions.
Designer: Do you have any idea at all how you want your new lounge to look?
Suzy: To tell you the truth, I don’t. I’m open to suggestions. All I will say is that I want a modern, minimal look. I don’t want anything classic or fussy.
Designer: I know what you mean. Let’s get some basic ideas first and then I'll show you some photographs of some of the places I've worked on recently.
Suzy: Cool.
Designer: How big is the room?
Suzy: Two hundred and seventy five square feet.
Designer: That’s a good area for us to work with. Is there anything at all in the lounge at the moment that you want to keep? Any furniture or features that you want us to use in the new lounge?
Suzy: No. Nothing at all. I want to throw everything out and start with just four walls.
Designer: Is there no piece of furniture that you want to keep? A favourite chair or something like that?
Suzy: No. I’m going to throw everything out.
Designer: Ok! Now, how many windows does the lounge have? Light’s important when you’re planning a new room.
Suzy: There are two windows in the wall facing the street. That’s all.
Designer: We'll let’s start with a colour scheme for the walls and ceiling.
Suzy: I want a very pale colour for all the walls. I don’t want anything heavy. No reds or dark colours. Nothing like that.
Designer: We’ll look at some colour charts in a minute. Now, a very important question. What are you going to do about a television? Is it just going to be on a stand?
Suzy: Yes, I will buy both a new plasma TV and a stand.
Designer: Can I suggest that you think about a wall-mounted TV? We can hide the wires in the wall before we decorate.
Suzy: I’hadn't thought of that. I like the idea of a wall-mounted TV.
Designer: And that gives you more floor space in the lounge.
Suzy: Of course.
Designer: Now, what about the floor? Wall-to-wall carpet or floorboards?
Suzy: Oh, I don’t want carpet. That attracts dust. I want bare floor boards like I have in the rest of the flat. There is a carpet down at the moment and I want to get rid of it.
Designer: Let’s move on to the windows? Any ideas for those?
Suzy: I want blinds. I don’t want any sort of curtains. I would like pull-down blinds. A nice colour to match the walls.
Designer: We’re doing very well here. Do you want a dining table and chairs in the new lounge? We have quite a lot of floor space to fill.
Suzy: I don’t have a dining set in the lounge at the moment but a table and chairs would be good idea because I love to cook and entertain. It would be nice to sit down to a meal instead of balancing plates on our knees when I invite people round.
Designer: No problem. Let’s go over what we’ve got so far and then we can finalise some more details. I think things are looking quite good. It will be a nice room when we’ve finished.