Victorian terrace

mirror mirror on the walls: Bargain hunt in homeware

interior design

Oh I love a thrift and a bargain!

I have 3 mirrors in my home all bought in local charity shops or vintage stores and all 3 for £100.

My first mirror has gorgeous green filigree. It is so heavy and large. It is the first mirror I bought for my house and I love it. Two but this mirror in a proper shop it would be over £300 the craftsman ship in it is stunning. I paid £20 for it!

It hangs in the upstairs hall way and I don’t think it’s appreciated enough!

My second mirror my dad bought for me at a local antiques shop. It was £40 and fills up most of my bedroom fireplace. The frame is like beaten metal panels. I have never seen a mirror like it and I love it. Again it is super heavy and the craftsmanship is incredible.

It hangs in our bedroom and I love it.

My third and last mirror I have bought was in the salvation aren’t store I bought my first mirror, just 7 years later!!

She was £40 and from a cool pub/ theatre me and Gav still go to.

I love a bargain and my three mirrors are all a part of history. They are so beautiful I am glad they never ended up in a tip. There is nothing like finding a bargain.

Kerb appeal, falling in love

interior design

Day14 outside kerb appeal.

The first time I saw my house was on a viewing to see another house two roads down.

I causally said.

I could live here!

We loved the house a few roads down it was a Victorian end of terrace with room to improve. It was bigger than ours but the owners appears reluctant to sell and we couldn’t get hold of them.

That’s fate.

Then we found our house

I fell in love the first time I saw it listed.

I was trying to arrange a viewing on the Thursday but the estate agent said that it would be sold by Thursday.

He was right!

We bought it! Me and Gav were elated after we saw it. It had everything and was beautiful and liveable. He even left it in a good state.

The first time we stepped inside we knew. It had to be ours.

My four walls mean a lot to me. It’s the home that me nd Gav are building together.

Thank you house!

Nature inspired interior let’s talk about pineapples

french bulldog, interior design

Today’s blog is on nature inspired so I thought a trip down memory lane may be a good idea!

Not my memory but the Victorians in there interior architecture. Nature was inspired with every fleur de ly, every sconce and carpet runner pole.

They brought nature inside without being too obvious. And round my house is no different.

We have a ceiling Rose that is in desperate need of some TLC the paint needs to come off and a light perhaps installed.

In the hallway maybe my favourite room of the house we have a carpet runner in a plush green carpet. It feels lovely underfoot on our steep Victorian stairs.

The runners are brass. When we first looked around the house I declared look Gav they even have pineapples on them. The owner laughed at me and said if you buy the house you can call them pineapples if you like.

They are obvious not pineapples but thistles. Beautiful brass thistles that contrast beautifuly with the green carpet. They do look a wee bit like pineapples and it does remind me of the billy Connelly story where a Scottish man in Asian tattoo artist for Scotland forever and a big thistle on his back.

The man didn’t know what a thistle was so the Scotsman drew it out for him. And so the tattoo artist wrote Scotland forever and a giant pineapple on this back!

I love this story. I also love pineapples and tropical prints.

I upcycled this little chest of drawers and Becky bought me my gold pineapple! We also insulted most of Spain buy buying these sombreros on a trip to Barcelona!

Note to self sombrero are Mexican not Spanish!

As you can see I love colour, pineapples and prints and they are all Seychelles inspired!

Work it!!!

interior design

My little house really works for us. It’s cool all year round so even in the hottest summer that was last year my Victorian brick house was cool as a cucumber.

This means in winter it gets cold but it doesn’t take long with central heating to warm it up.

Plus we love a fire!

It very cold today but not too cold I can put the heating on! Nor the fire so I will have to settle for a few candles instead!

So confession time, I got confused with which day it was and wrote a whole cute little blog on pineapples and it turns out that is for tomorrow. Because I am following Instagram I noticed that the title was work it. So I am literally typing this right now.

So forgive me if this is a bit crazy!

So I had no time to think about what this title meant.

So I thought I should just write about how my little house works for us.

It does. We actually use every room. The dining room the least as we treat this more like a corridor to the kitchen which means it often becomes a dumping ground. It also has a ridiculously large amount of wedding boxes in there.

As well as all our booze ( and gin).

All the bedrooms get used I made a little art area for me to do some drawings. I am currently practicing my painting so that I can hand paint a few signs.

I made a little space for me.

There isn’t a room that doesn’t work for us! We have a lovely little house and sometimes I think it looks after me a bit better than we look after it!

Window dressing a very dull tale

interior design

This will be a short blog sorry. I can dress it up because well we have blinds.

They came with the house and are in every room. They look like wood and suit tha house. I maybe would prefer plantation white wooden blinds but it’s not a big deal.

We have no curtains.

None

Not even in the bedroom. I did try to convince Gav that they would soften the bedroom room but he wasn’t interested and it’s been 5 years now and it doesn’t bother me.

The blinds let in a lot of light in the day and block it nicely at night.

It works for us.

I live in the suburbs so our views are t gorgeous. Our bathroom has the best view and that’s of the garden. Something I would definitely change if I had a lot of money.

At the moment my garden is a hub for dahlias all growing in their pots. This view makes me happy and every time they grow I shriek a little.

But this blog isn’t about views it’s about window dressing.

I am definitely not going to win any awards for that!

Oh so I need another challenge do I? Interior blog challenge

Dreaming, Organising, Planning

So I have seen this account @mybousethismonth and those that run it and it is beautiful. Truly stunning all of them. I don’t even care if I don’t win I just want to try this challenge and see if anyone likes my style man!

Dream challenge really!

So this is it. Some of them are easy some of them will be tricky but it will get me writing everyday. Will get me inspired everyday and get me thinking about how my house looks.

Yes I know I have a lot on my plate but I loved the other blog challenge and now I can share it here.

Yes I also know that this maybe doesn’t help my blog that much because I don’t have a niche or a them that I stick to. But I write because I love it not because it’s a chore!

So join me if you want to. There will be a brief intro on my Instagram after all it is supposed to be a photo not a blog but I thought why not hu?

Join me if you want to!

Carving out a little space for me: home organising renovation

interior design

We creatives need space

Carving out a space that is all yours is so important. We are lucky our house has three bedrooms. Gav is a contractor so needs his office, he also paints Warhammer soldiers and plays a lot of computer games so his office is his world really.

He loves it.

I didn’t begrudge him because when I do my illustrations I normally just paint in the front room. Put this is getting too much. Marie kondo or just logical thinking means that this is wrong. Everything should be in it own place.

Everything should stay in its home.

So maybe its time for me to carve out a creative place for myself.

I had an idea to turn my spare bedroom into a creative place. I had a clear vision of shelves and my school desk as it has storage. We bought a grey sofa bed which is huge but suits the room.

When we first moved in I wanted to go crazy in the room. But when you have a space that is yours it hard to decide what you actually want. Gav gave me free reign so I went to the paint shop certain that I was going to paint the fire place a lovely lemon.

Yeah that didn’t happen.

Gav initially wanted this as his games room so we now have a large tv over the fire place. It may have to go but that is another conversation.

This fireplace is the absolute prettiest fireplace. We are lucky we have four original fire places in our home.

I have been having a bit of a clear out- plastic bin bags in toe. I started by removing all art materials from the bedroom. There is a lot. I have a drawer just for watercolour. I have papers stashed all over the house and pens and pencils everywhere. But can we ever find a pen.

Nope.

Adios mess

Because I am so dysfunctional, I love to organise but no system is ever right mainly because I don’t follow through with it. And it is all about the follow through and maintaining rather than the first burst of effort.

So I have been through. Art books are banished from the bedroom, when I am done all we will have will be clothes and bedding. And a few bedside books. Everything else needs to adios back to its rightful place.

Organising and routines

We all have our routines. What we like to do in the morning.

Me I am a shower, skincare, dress, walk the dog, out the door type of person. Rather than a leisurely get up get ready (that’s what Sundays are for) I prefer to eat at work (my sometimes breakfast) because I am not hungry first thing.

Gav is the opposite. He loves to relax in the mornings.

So I need to organise top to bottom in my small but very full house. Also we are buying lots of bits for the wedding and rather than forget about them it will be best to store them in the attic till needed. I have a cute a5 clip board with whats up there on it!

I know I am the biggest looser.

A space that’s all mine

So having a space for myself is ideal.

When I painted the fireplace I realised that the walls were cream and above the picture rail was white. Grrr.

Gav thinks cream is fine. I find it too fussy so I painted the wall by the window white. It’s a fairly dark room and need more light!

I bought my shelves from Funky Chunky Furniture, they are great and send you samples so you can match the wood. They are floating shelves so no brackets. If you have a Victorian house you will know that sometimes the wall aren’t straight. So I chose a slightly smaller shelf so they really float.

My father in Law and brother in law ( to be) put them up for me. They are heavy and awkward but gorgeous now that they are up! I love them. They match the picture rail woodwork.

I wanted them high enough so I can put my items that inspire me as well as my brushes and non lightfast bits. Everything means something to me. I have a few wooden crates that I will put my art materials in them away for the light.

Plant babies

This is a dark room but it is also the warmest! So we need to be careful with the plants and paints.

I have three plants in here. A money plant that I have propagated ( this is my 3rd one from the same plant yay) a Venus flytrap that is on her last legs… I think she can live for a few more weeks so I thought a warmer room with more sunlight may chest her up!

I love my plants.

Then I have my cactus, I bought it I the next sale a year ago for 50p I bought 15 and 7 survived, this is 6/7 he is a very sturdy happy plant who has been in the dark a while and seems to like it in this shady corner. Gav bought me this science plant jar and 6/7 loves it! Perfect amount of draining for him too!

Results

So this is my space a place just for me. Frank and Manhattan with occasionally join me in this room but it is make just for me. I need to paint the rest of the walls and get some more storage for my art materials so this place works for me.

Everything I love deserves it’s own home. I am so glad I started this project I just need to buy a new chair and start using it.

It is so therapeutic to clean and organise and be slightly less dysfunctional!

I hope you enjoyed. Here is the room before we owned the house!

Thank you for reading.