Living Room tour

Check me out, another blog post already! I wanted to show you my new living room which has been almost done for a while but now is pretty much finished. I do have plans to paint one wall in a very pale, blue grey wash, but who knows how long it will take me to get around to that so I am showing you the room as it is and will post an update when I get round to painting.

I would describe my decorating style as cozy, and very 'country'. I have always put a lot of thought into colours and furniture placement, and the styling of surfaces. But somehow moving into this place for such 'grown up' reasons made those things seem somehow a little silly and insignificant. At the time my main consideration was simply to fit all the truly 'necessary' items into this tiny space. But gradually as I have relaxed and begun to enjoy this place as our home, I have just naturally begun to enjoy putting those little touches to the place that fill the house with your personality and make it feel like an extension of yourself, a place of comfort and happiness...'home'.

William Morris said that we should have nothing in our home "that we do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful", and I always try to follow that rule. I like to sit in a room and as I look around, be met with happy memories. The starting point for this living room was , as with the rest of the house, simple white walls, as the room was covered in grubby smears and marks so I just wanted it to feel clean. We chose to put oak effect laminate throughout our downstairs mainly for practicality (with two little girls being schooled at home and our little dog in and out of the garden our floors are in need of very regular mopping! ). Our sofa is actually a sofa - bed so the room doubles as a guest room. As it's bright red that more or less dictated the colours we would be using!

On the back of the sofa you can see a memory quilt I made out of the girls pram blankets they used as babies.  I did actually write a post about this quilt a while back. I love it because every time we snuggle up on the sofa together all those happy memories come flooding back. A memory quilt or blanket is such a great way to save those little baby things and use then rather than just keeping them in a bag in the attic. In this picture you can also see the wire chandelier I made and covered with fairy lights in the corner. In my opinion you can never have too many fairy lights! 

I had to get rid of a lot of my books when we moved, along with the actual bookcases. To make a home for my remaining books without intruding on the room too much we added a shelf that runs the whole length of the room above the sofa, which actually gives the illusion of extra length to the room. Being extremely nerdy I had to arrange the books according to colour which again just makes it look a lot more 'fluid' and gentle on the eye. I added a few of my favourite prints at eye level, I chose prints with a similar theme, all featuring roses as I wanted to tie them in with the prints on the soft furnishings and the colours on the sofa. 

I also used a couple of large mirrors in this room to try and bring in as much light as possible and that old trick of mirrors to try and make the illusion of size. 

In a small house storage is of paramount importance, so we have 2 good pieces of furniture from Laura Ashley which we intend to keep forever and which both provide lots of extra storage. One is a coffee table but we placed it against the wall under the tv as we wanted to keep the floorspace free. The lid lifts at the back with tons of storage inside and it has lots of tiny drawers at the front as well. The second is a large sideboard which I love as it also provides a lovely surface for styling with my precious nik naks....

I love to sit on the sofa and look at my treasures in this little corner. The square frame propped on top was found at a tip by my youngest brother,  who appreciates items because of their story, as I do. It contained a rather hideous painting which I immediately loved because at the back was the artists name and address dated 1954, along with a paper ticket from an exhibition the painting had been part of, and you could also see another painting that the artist had covered with the new hideous offering. I like to rescue things that were once loved and precious to someone but now they are gone or getting old are no longer of worth to anyone. It makes me happy that it is of value to another person again. Inside the frame I have hung some vintage lace and used little craft pegs to hang my own memories...pictures of grandparents, my children's first shoes, a rose from my husbands wedding buttonhole, a card from my mother and a label from a gift a close friend gave me after I threw her a 25th anniversary dinner. Such lovely memories. A memory frame like this is easy to make and a lovely way to decorate with things that otherwise might be tucked in a drawer somewhere. I also like the fact that you can ring in the changes and switch out the items depending on how you feel at the time.

The foxgloves painting above the sideboard is one of my own. I wanted to bring some colour to this corner as with all white walls you are sometimes in danger of it looking a little bland. But bright warm colours against a white backdrop really pop and can have more impact than colour used on the walls themselves. You can also see in this picture a beautiful Tiffany lamp made from scratch by my grandad. He was a clever chap and taught himself to lead glass and I just will treasure this lamp forever until it's time to pass it to my kids. Such a special thing to have in my home. 

You will notice in the corner of the picture a largish glass box on top of the sideboard. This houses 2 fire toads which are pets given to my daughters by one of my brothers. It does niggle me that I have to have this messing up my little vignette but this is a lived in home and I have to always remind myself that it can't look like a page from a magazine...its little things like this that make it ours and make it unique. 

I managed to squeeze my little electric 'log burner' in the corner, it's honestly the most realistic looking electric fire and an open fire is something I really miss so at least this gives us that cozy feeling in winter. I picked it up for £50 on ebay. Most of my furniture is second hand, I figure it's silly to pay more when you can pick up things that have so much life left in them for so cheap or for free. In fact the white armchair you just see the arm of in the previous picture is part of a set of two that I picked up for free on www.freecycle.org and they are in immaculate condition! Much less wasteful. You would not believe the stuff people throw away.  The print in this picture is Soul of the Rose by John William Waterhouse who is my absolute favourite artist. I love the pre Raphaelite brotherhood (not that he was a member but he was closely associated with it) and the arts and crafts movement and I love what they stood for, everything handmade and beautifully crafted with utmost care. I really try to emulate that in my home.

This ornament on the windowsill was made by me, it's rather 'rustic' ahem......but it represents our little family and I love it. It's made from air dry clay which is just the best thing ever and a great little activity with the kids.

So that's it, my tiny living room. I totally love it. I can't believe I found quite so much to say about it! Hope you enjoyed having a nose and I will post another room soon.  I hope it shows that no matter what your actual house is like, with a little thought you can make a home.

Stephanie xx

Our new bedroom

Hello! I've been wanting to show you around our new home for a while now so I thought I would start with our bedroom as it's really the only room that's 100% finished. Moving to this house has been such an experience for us and has actually really taught us a lot about what we actually need for our family happiness. I thought moving here that I would 'tolerate' it and make the best of it until things improved, but the biggest surprise for me has been how much I really love it. The house is very small, and storage could be a problem, but I'm actually really enjoying finding ways to make the space work for us. And I have come to realise that a room is just a room;whether it has sash windows or deep skirting or real wood floors, or whether it has artex ceilings, cheap hollow doors and plasticky windows, it feels like a lovely home if it's filled with the people you love and treasures that have meaning to you. So....I do have some 'before' pictures of the house, but the pictures of our bedroom are pretty pointless to show you as you can't see much in them except me looking despondent ;-) . I expect you know the sort of room it was; just a featureless box, with dirty board floors that appeared to have been carpet less for the time the previous occupant lived here, and grubby magnolia walls covered in stains from goodness knows what.  There was also a strong aroma of cat accompanied by large quantities of cat hair stuck to the radiators and floors.  But on a plus side, the room has really great light from two decent sized windows and looks out at a beautiful cherry tree at the front of the house, and distant views of the mountains. And there was a largish built in wardrobe which was brilliant as it's a small room so it was great not to have to find a space for wardrobes. When we moved in we decided to paint the whole place white as it makes it look lovely and clean and fresh and makes every room look bigger and brighter. I also love the way white can look completely different depending on the time of day and the light in the room,or the accent colours that you choose.

A good tip if you have a very small room to try and fit lots of stuff into is to plot the room to scale  on graph paper and do the same with your furniture, then cut out the furniture and try different arrangements on paper....yes I know it's totally nerdy and over the top but it really helps you to decide what to keep and what to get rid of, and how to make the best use of the space. I wanted our bedroom to be calm and serene, so we stuck with white bedding and mostly white furniture, which also helps to add to the feeling of space.

I added a yellow bedspread to our bed which just makes the whole room glow when the evening light streams in. I got it from a friend who was throwing it out....I feel really strongly about up cycling and recycling whenever possible.  Not only do pre loved items have more character in my opinion but it minimises your carbon footprint as a consumer when you do not subscribe to the throwaway attitude people have today. Plus it's easier on your bank account which can't be bad!!!  Here are a few of my favourite items in our bedroom: all are either pre loved or have special significance to me.

This mirror is one of the first items I ever upcycled.  I found it in the back room of a small fabric shop and haggled with the owner to buy it for £3.  It lived in my bathroom in my first ever flat when I left home.  I painted it off white (it was long before chalk paint became popular and my boyfriend, who is now my husband, thought I was nuts 'ruining' a perfectly good mirror!).  I love the shabby chic style and it sort of helped define my taste for the future.

I decorate everywhere with memories of my children and these little shoes belonged to my youngest daughter, I couldn't bring myself to give these away so I keep them in my room and every night and see them and smile thinking of the tiny toes that once filled them.  I love to fill the corners of our home with things that evoke happy memories...I've never been one to go out and buy an ornament just because it matches my room, and to me it's the memories that make it feel like home. 

I absolutely LOVE my dressing table. A lovely friend gave it to me years ago; she bought it at auction for £3.00 as nobody wanted it so they had to get rid, and she painted it.  It's chipped and battered and the mirror is foxed but I love to imagine who might have sat at it in times past when it was new and looked at their reflection in the mirror.  It's also a great bit of extra storage!  Auctions are a great place to pick up a bargain, and seeing the potential in something nobody else wants is so exciting.

I hang this little walnut baby on one of the barley twists, it was a gift from my uncle to my nan when he was a child in Germany and she kept it always. My girls are fascinated by it.  

I use an old chipped teacup and a glass cake plate to store my jewelry, I like to use things for a purpose other than their intended one, I think it's much more interesting and beautiful than an ordinary jewelry box.

And finally, my beloved camphor wood chest.  My grandmother brought it back from Hong Kong where my grandad was stationed in the army and the receipt is still inside. Nan used to keep all her ballgowns in it from her time as a forces wife, and I loved rifling through and trying them on as a child. It still smells of camphor inside.  Above it hangs two prints that belonged to my great grandmother which she got from Germany.  I just love the style of them.  I like to own something that was valued by a loved one in the past, it makes me feel connected to my history. I have loads of precious things that were loved by my my nan and I love to be reminded of her. I'm very fortunate in that.

So that's our bedroom.  It's a real haven and I love it. Hope you like it too! Will post another room soon xxx