My Shabby Valentine

Happy Valentines Day ! 

Hearts and the colour red, perfect symbols of Valentines day.  Here are a few of mine, dotted around my home reminding me of my life and my loves.

Above - in a corner of my home, a shaker style chest of drawers fits perfectly.  On top are two tin hearts, one red, one white, picked up from a boot sale for 20p for three, I have seen them retail for £9.99 each !  The lovely white wooden photo frame is from The  Range and cost approx £5.  In it is one of my favourite black and white  photographs of myself and No 1 son on my wedding day.  The Laura Ashley lamp base was purchased in their sale (can't remember how much I paid)  The red Shade from Ikea.

Above - 3 pretty hearts hang from the door of my work unit.  This was picked up for a song from IKEA and was a horrible grey colour, a few quick coats of paint and now its a gorgeous white work station. ( more on this at a later date).  The white wooden "LOVE" heart was a gift from the lovely Vintage Amethyst  I popped over and couldn't resist several items in her Winter sale, including the red gingham christmas tree heart. I love it so much I couldn't bear to put it away until christmas and have it hanging on the unit door.  The white wooden heart with red decoration was another boot sale find, I got 2 for £1 !

Finally, upstairs in my bedroom I have this gorgeous framed card. I bought several of them from Etsy to sell in my shop but couldn't resist keeping one for myself.  Machine stitched on Silk dupone the beautifully simple "LOVE" word says it all.  Framing the card in a simple white box frame from The Range, makes a unique and inexpensive picture.  The red candlesticks a gift from a friend were from M & S and the beautiful heart glass vase is by Lalique, a gift to me from my husband when we married (in the days before we had to count every penny).

HAPPY VALENTINE'S xx

Take a minute to pop over to Missielizzie and take part in Magpie Monday.  If you love vintage finds you will love this.

Start Small

When we moved to this house from our previous large newbuild home, we were overwhelmed by all the work that was required.  On the day that we moved into the house we dropped Jacob off at school and the twins to nursery then with the help of some very good friends we set to work moving in.

The first thing I had to do before any furniture was taken off the removals van was to have the men rip up all the filthy stained carpets. I couldn't bare the though of my 6 month old babies touching those floors.

 I found my friend upstairs in the bathroom sitting in the bath sobbing her heart out and scrubbing away at the dirt !  "Karen , what have you done !  You can't live in this filthy house"  She was beside herself, she knew how we lived and the beautiful home we had come from.  But we had no choice, we had to make this house work, there was no going back.

I have found the way to cope when a situation seems overwhelming, is to start with something small.  Something you can control and make an immediate difference to (this goes for all aspects of my life and not just decorating).   For me it was important to get rid of the carpets, even if it mean bare, cold floorboards. I knew I would freak out if I had to put my children and furniture down on those carpets.  We lived with those cold bare (but clean) boards for 4 years.

and  all down to my husbands hard work we went from this ......

to this ........

Welcome

Hi,

Welcome to the first post on my new blog. Throughout all the homes I have lived in as an adult the theme has always been white.  For me it means peace, harmony, cleanliness and brightness. 

People have always commented on my homes and one friend once likened one flat by the sea, as being in God's waiting room.  I loved that image. Pure white everywhere from the walls, sofas, furniture and ornaments. 

Even my children haven't escaped my white mania.  Children in white, makes most people laugh.  "Are you mad" "think of the dirt" but I can think of nothing more beautiful than a baby in a snowy white romper or a little boy in a classic pair of white cargo shorts with a navy and white stripe polo shirt.

Over the course of this blog I want to show how we transformed our run down 1930's Art Deco House in Devon into a haven of white and shabby chic style.  All achieved on a VERY tight budget, with the amazing skills of my husband and my love of a bargain.

I also hope to be able to set up shop on here to sell some of the lovely pieces I have collected along the way.

ooh! and in case you were wondering, no that's not my house in the picture...