Bedroom Style with Palms and House Plants

Here we go again !  Do you have a room that you feel never quite looks right ?  I feel that way about my bedroom. Its been blue and white, all white, grey and white

Ideal Home Magazine Feature July 2017

You may remember at the end of last year I had a visit from the very lovely photographer Colin Poole.  Colin spent the day at my home photographing it for Idea Home Magazine.  

Washable paper bag pots

                                                                        Photo :  Tavanastudio


Trying not to go into a total meltdown over the impending visit of the photographer from Ideal Home magazine this week, I decided to have a little retail therapy and treat myself to some new bits for my home.

Big Ideas, Small space

Searching for inspiration for my garden she shed, I recently came across an article on how to decorate a contemporary small space.

the white approach online shop

Returning to work in a "proper job" leaves me very little time these days to indulge my passion for bargain hunting and tracking down stylish affordable items for the home.  When I do find something and post it on my social media, I am often asked where or if it can be bought.

Thrifty Shopping - #Stylewise

I found myself with a little time on my hands on Friday, so what better way to spend it than doing a little thrifty shopping, a great source of inspiration and white interior design bargains.

Living Room Mood Board

The stunning Jonna rocker armchair from John Lewis

I decided a little interior design mood board was in order as I am soon to be getting my living room back as an adult space.

The White Bedroom

by Egger`s Einrichten

For me white is peaceful, its calm, its clean and fresh.  I can't think of a better room more suited to white than the bedroom.

Winter White Ski Lodge Style

all images removed

Its that time of year when all the festivities are over, the weather is usually grey, wet and cold and all most of us want to do is curl up until spring arrives.  

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

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.

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

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

January Style Wise

This weekend I found some great bargains and always get a great response when I post pics on my social media, so I thought I would try a linky to see if others wanted to join in.  Just link your recent bargain home wares or interiors posts/pics.  They can be a sale bargain, an item which you think was great value for money, a vintage or charity shop purchase, something you upcycled yourself, anything at all you consider stylish and great value for money.

You don't have to have a blog , it can be a pic from facebook, pinterest, instagram, twitter etc.  All I ask is that you use the hashtag #stylewise  & mention my blog or username The White Approach when you link up or promote your post.  This will also help me to find you on social media and RT you.

To kick us off, below is what I found this weekend

 I've always been a bit of a bargain hunter, but more so since the birth of the twins which also coincided with the complete collapse of our joint incomes.  Forced in a frugal lifestyle, I was determined to still find a way to live a stylish life.  Thankfully we are pretty much back on an even keel now ten years later, but old habits die hard and I find it very difficult to buy anything without first shopping around for the best value versus quality.  I found this great wooden sign at the range for just £5 its lovely quality.  I was looking for something to put on a newly wallpapered wall but when I put it up it just didn't work against the pattern of the paper.  I think it looks so much better white on white.  The shadow really makes the words pop.

 Bargain number two has to be this totally beautiful, on trend perspex light shade.  It looks perfect ether lit or not and suits my new kitchen/dining space perfectly.  Just £22 again from The Range.  They have a great selection of lighting in store.

As we have finally realised our dream of knocking through the kitchen/ dining room I though perhaps it was about time to put away (or sell off) my huge selection of mismatched vintage dinner plates in favour of a simple, more Scandinavian looking dining set.  I found these lovely, large grey dinner plates at Dunelm Mill for just £2.75 each.  Great quality and big enough to suit the appetites of all four men in my home.  The pretty white side plates I found on one of my bargain hunts last week in the local charity shop for 10p each !

and my final bargain for this week .  I stumbled upon a new store called B&M Big Brands at a retail park in Exeter.  Its a bit like brand value pound shop but HUGE.  I popped in for a mooch around and discovered these gorgeous retro looking table mats (to protect my new table) for just £1 for a set of four.  They are great quality, cork backed and wipeable.  Love them !

So that's my offering.  Would really love you to link up and show me what you have found .