Recreating the Vintage Appearance of Your Period Property

 

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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.

Fenn Wright Manson Rosmarin Dress

Is there any better feeling than a beautifully wrapped parcel arriving in the post !  I was recently thrilled to be offered my pick of the Fenn Wright Manson website.  So many beautiful dresses, which one should I choose ?  I finally settled on the stunning Rosmarin Dress, white, of course.  It arrived super fast and beautifully boxed and wrapped in tissue.

The Rosmarin dress is made from vintage style luxury lace in a delicate floral pattern.  A classic shift style, it suits any shape.  It has a clever Grosgrain ribbon trim running down the front and around the waist which gives the dress a lovely silhouette and for someone like me who suffers from a lack of waistline, really nips you in and defines your figure.

I love the detail at the hemline .

Sheer sleeves with scalloped edging. Pretty and feminine.  The dress is fully lined and no hint of underwear showing through which is a must when wearing white.

This dress is perfect for summer events, days out or even weddings.  I think though you might need to add a touch of colour so you don't upstage the bride !  Its a timeless style that would also suit any age .  If you pop over to the Fenn Wright Manson website, it is currently also on Sale !

Thank you once again to the lovely people at Fenn Wright Manson for sending me this delightful dress.

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.  

Damsel in a Dress - Summer 2015

At the beginning of June it was my birthday.  These days I tend to not want to think about birthdays that  much as A. my family are not that great at recognising it as a day to spoil me and perhaps give back a little for all I do for them throughout the year and B. being over 50 is a really scary though when in my head I am still 21 !  So it was an absolute thrill to receive an email offering me a dress from the beautiful collection that is  Damsel in a Dress !  I first came across this classic brand several years ago when I was offered an opportunity to be dressed for the MAD blog awards final, so I knew I was in for a treat. 

I tend to be a little conservative in my clothes these days but on seeing the gorgeous array of choice on the Damsel in a Dress website I just had to go for some bright, summery colour.  I absolutely loved this Lavender Fusion dress and although it was sleeveless (not a style I usually wear ) I told myself I could always throw on a cardigan if necessary.  I was not disappointed when it arrived, beautifully packaged in its own box.

 
 Shocking photo !  Apologies I am still suffering from a dreadful lurgy that will just NOT go away after two weeks and my photographer was a very reluctant 10 yr old !  It is a lovely dress I would say slightly larger than the standard size.  I wear size 14 at the moment and could probably have got away with a size 12 in this make.  It is though, perfect for me as I no longer like to wear clothes that cling to every lump and bump, a classic shift shape. 

The fabric is 96% cotton and 4% elastane which means its both cool to wear and also has that little bit of stretch to maintain its shape.  I'm not sure if it would have been helpful if it had been lined but then if it had been, I probably wouldn't have been able to wash it.  Its such a great bonus when you find a beautiful dress like this one that you can actually wash.  Definitely adds to its affordability .  Talking of price Damsel in a Dress is in the mid luxury category with this dress retailing for £129 .  Perfect for a special occasion but then also a style and colour you could wear again and again afterwards.

Being a quality brand the attention is in the detail.  I love the zip pull !  Also very astutely they have added pockets to this dress which really adds to its versatility.  I'm thrilled to bits with this dress and would highly recommend you pop over to their website for a browse.  A great choice of special occasion and daywear to suit every age and shape.

Many thanks once again to the lovely people at Damsel in a Dress.

May #Stylewise Charity shop Bargains

The half term didn't get off to a good start when I came down with a lurgy and actually took to my bed (unheard of ).

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.