The perfect sofa!

I've been looking for the perfect striped sofa for a long time.  I had in my head exactly what I wanted, a relaxed deck chair striped look in blue and white to continue the beachy theme in my living room.  Something that was comfy

Tips for Decorating with White

When people see my home for the first time they always exclaim "how do you keep it clean"  or "I could never have an all white home with my children" . 

ROADS luxury Candles

Advocating luxury craftsmanship and unique, exquisite scents, ROADS fragrances are extending their range of premium perfumes to include an equally luxurious range of candles.

Trend - Decorating the house for autumn

Autumn is here (despite the glorious weather).  Always in the past one of those seasons for me that was just the in between stage from the fun of summer to the excitement of the buildup to Christmas in winter.

Winter Preparation - House and Garden

So Summer wasn't all that this year and now that its officially Autumn, its time to start thinking about cosying down for the colder months.  If you are anything like me,

Front Door Makeover

How long have I been married ? and blogging ?  and how often have I reminded my husband to PLEASE take before photographs if he is going to embark on some DIY when I am out !

Shopping the shops

Working full time in a "proper" job these days leaves me very little time to go bargain hunting. Having spent over £300 on new uniform, shoes and other

Iconic Lights - Poul Christiansen Style Light

 I have to admit to having a bit of a "thing" about beautiful light fittings.  They really are the finishing touch to a room.  No matter how much time or money you spend on your home, if you don't get the lighting right it can ruin the overall look.

Art for art's sake

Art for art's sake, what does that line even mean ?  It is attributed to a Frenchman in the early 19th Century who adopted it as a slogan. The literal meaning of which goes over my head I'm afraid. 

Recreating the Vintage Appearance of Your Period Property

 

                       image #Pinterest

Three Top Tips for Recreating the Vintage Appearance of Your Period Property

Period properties have a charm that simply cannot be emulated. The cumulative effect of a hundred or more years of rain dashing against the stones,

Video of the Utility Room Barn Door

My first attempt at adding a video to my blog.  I have no idea how to make it bigger so any advice would be gratefully received !  Please excuse the shocking Birmingham accent but do admire the amazing hand crafted skill of my husband.

The Utility Room Renovation - Finished

It's done ! Finally enough cash and time have allowed my very clever husband to finish the utility room.  You can see how it all began HERE and followed up HERE .  I am so thrilled with the end result and reckon we could give any DIY Makeover programme a run for their money. The utility room started life as an outside toilet and coal shed.  When we bought the house they were enclosed with  just a small conservatory tagged onto the back of the house.  We lived for ten years with a cold, damp space for our second toilet, a boiler that broke down all the time and nowhere except for our radiators to dry damp clothes.

NOT ANYMORE !!!

The handmade (by hubby - post to follow) Barn door slides open to reveal a great space for the washing machine, hanging space for socks, pants,smalls etc and storage of laundry basket and washing powders.  This used to be the entrance to the first outside shed and housed our old boiler.

We decided to take up the old wooden flooring and lay these beautiful slate grey tiles from Homebase.  Running the tiles through into the utility room makes for a much more stylish and seamless look.  These were budget tiles (you can see details in the previous posts) but they are really good quality and are a dream to keep clean with dirty feet coming in and out of the garden all the time.

The view through the door !  I LOVE IT ! My hubby did an amazing job. New toilet ! We now have 3 toilets.  That should be enough with four men in the house.  The shelving is from IKEA and the black and white photo art I made myself.  See the post on how easy it was HERE

It was really important to me to make the most of the small space.  A priority was to have somewhere to hang washing to dry when the weather was bad.  With my almost finished new kitchen dining room I did not want to go back to having wet clothes draped all over radiators around the house.  We found this fantastic modular system again at IKEA that you can build as many or as few shelves, baskets rails etc that you want.  Its perfect for what I wanted to do.    Because its a small space I wanted to make good use of as much of the wall space as possible, so put the broom and dustpan and brush on the wall.  The bag from The White Company holds old towels and rags for cleaning the floor and shoes .

Another thing that irritates me is chargers and plugs in EVERY socket around my home so insisted we had what we now call a  "charging station" ha!  Plug sockets and a shelf but it did the job.   It didn't take long to train them all to put their phones and tablets on charge in the Utility room.

Loads of storage baskets for balls and smelly shoes.

The new boiler is boxed in and has its own magnetic catch door for easy access.

That's it !

 All finished and an absolute dream of a space now.  

The Rochelle French Armchair from WITHIN

 

I've always loved French Style furniture, particularly carved chairs with over stuffed seat cushions.  We have a few in our home and they are as comfortable as they are beautiful to look at. 

The Utility Room Renovation ( Part Two)

I say it often, but I really can't believe how talented my husband is.  The utility room is almost finished and it really is a transformation.

The Cup of Tea #BoysBasics

Last month I thought it was about time the boys started to learn the basics of how to take care of themselves. 

Habitat Jerry Chair and Birchbox Review

I was lucky enough to recently be sent the Habitat Jerry chair and Habitat Birchbox to review.  Having been around for a few years

Joseph Joseph Review

Joseph Joseph products, what can I say ! Absolutely divine.  Inspired design and colour combinations. You will not want to hide these beautiful items away in a cupboard.

A new take on the night light

After recently discovering one of the twins downstairs at 3am in the morning, disorientated and convinced it was morning, I thought

British Gypsum - Rooms Made for You Event

Its always a buzz when that special invitation pings into my in box.  I recently had that pleasure when an invitation arrived to The Shard in London courtesy of British Gypsum who

DIY with the Boys - Black & White Bedroom

Is it really only a few weeks until half term !  This holiday my husband's shifts have worked out so that he is also off at the same time as me and the twins.  Think it might be time to get the boys involved in some DIY.  We gave their bedroom a bit of a makeover before Christmas but its just not working for them.  Both boys love the idea of a black and white bedroom so I got my thinking cap on to come up with affordable ways we could make them a cool room suitable for 10 yr old twins.  They are at that stage that they are not quiet ready to give up all their toys but also no longer want Thomas the Tank and the like.

A really straightforward and effective idea for their room is a blackboard wall.  These are really easy to do.  All major DIY Stores now stock blackboard paint and it really is just a matter of painting onto the existing wall.  Obviously you will need to make sure the wall is clean and is a smooth surface.  Also buy the best quality paint you can afford.  You may need several coats.  This is a great idea to get the kids involved, Who doesn't enjoy painting things BLACK !

PIC - housepic.com

I Absolutely love what they have done here and intend to also get the boys to help make a huge Ruler like the one shown.  Again something the children can get involved in and  looks wonderful on the wall.    As hubby is a hoarder of all things wood (he gives me a hard time for my love of stashing bits and bobs but you should see his garage/workshop ) !   There will definitely be a suitable piece of wood for this project lying around.  A leftover floorboard from when we replaced the flooring in the kitchen will be ideal, but to be honest if you want to get involved with some fun over the half term with the kids I am sure cardboard would work just as well.  I think the measuring for the wall will probably be the hardest part but will leave the technical side of things to the husband.  I'll let the boys (big and small) measure out the height lines.  I'm the ideas person in this house.

pic - potterybarn

I love this idea of also sticking Polaroid style pictures of what the boys look like at the different stages.

As my boys are total computer geeks, sometime will inevitably be spent online this half term.  I think I might get them designing some down loadable artwork.  Again very simple to do and all you need is a computer, a simple programme like microsoft word or wordart and a printer (no colour cartridges required) and some very affordable frames available from anywhere these days, even the pound shop.  Alternatively, I think posters and photos look great stuck on the wall with a piece of tape at each corner.

We might even get round to replacing the boys Wooden name letters hubby made for them when they were born and replace with something like this . Huge letter M on one wall above Milo's bed and letter J above Jarvis' bed.

I'll let you know how we get on.  What are you planning for half term ?  If you like my black and white theme for the boys bedroom you might also like my Pinterest board HERE