Life Lately - New Home, Making a Project House a Home

Hey All

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that C and I had bought our first home, property by us has been rising in price and we were getting to the point we were about to be priced out, as we started to look more at properties we decided a fully done up house wasn't for us. We knew we wanted traditional features still in the house, we wanted a bay and we wanted something we could make our own.

We've been in the house for over 6 months and I can't believe how much time flies so I thought I'd shared some of our progress, we've essentially lived in a building site for the last 3 months with our bedroom being our only sanctuary and because of all the work the rabbits were also in our room so it's been stressful!

Life Update

Hey all

So it's been a long time since I wrote a blog post and even longer since I did a life lately post. A lot has been going on lately and life has been hectic!! C and I have just bought our first home and it's a total project renovation house so life has been busy moving, and starting working on it and Christmas thrown into the mix.

Life Lately

Hey All

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've recently moved house so I'm without internet. That will be changing on Saturday. Can't wait to have it back sorted. I've also managed to catch a cold so feeling a little under the weather. I've got so many posts I've been wanting to write but I thought I'd just do a little catch up post!!

On Monday it was one of my brothers birthday's so I popped home for the evening to see him and catch up. I also made him a cake as I'm now out of shared accommodation I have room for all of my baking stuff. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it wasn't too bad!

L and I have been lucky enough to head to a few events the last week so we will be sharing some bits from these next week. First up we went to see the new products Dior have released for Christmas and then off to Lush. I couldn't resist some purchasing from both places and I've definitely discovered a few amazing new bits!

As I've just moved in with C we're enjoying making our new place feel homely. We've got most bits from Ikea or TK maxx. I still need to grab a few bits. These are the pots we got for the bathroom. I love the colour and look of these and they were a TK maxx bargain. One was £3 and one was £4. An even better but was the fact they are candles so I lit the candles every night till they were gone and then cleaned the jars. Candle pots are so pretty when I couldn't find what I wanted in the bathroom section I thought I'd check there!

 

Now I'm in a new place I'm hoping I can get a pet. I just need to convince C I should get one. This little guy won me over and even convinced C we can go and look together!

After resisting the urge to dye my hair for two months I couldn't wait to get some colour back on it. I really do love my hair purple but it always disappoints me how quickly it fades out. I need to decide what to do with it next. I think I need something more low maintenance for now.

I also had a great whirlwind weekend in London catching up with some of my closest friends from back home. We opted for London so we could see our amazing friend in Mamma Mia. He's sky in it at the moment. The show is awesome and it was amazing to see him on the big stage again!

L, C and I all headed out for Halloween. He was lucky to get stuck with us for the night ;). We originally got tickets for the Splott Warehouse Halloween party but after queueing for over an hour to get in, being squished in the process then being totally disappointed when we got in (you had to then enter a massive queue to get tokens to then queue again to get drinks!!), spending the night queueing in ridiculous queues didn't appeal to us so we headed into town and ended up having an awesome night!

I'm now counting down till C gets back from his latest work trip! The house does feel strange without him there but I'm hoping to change the colour scheme in our bedroom whilst he's away to make it pretty! ha!

It's been a crazy busy few weeks and with Christmas fast approaching it's not slowing down! I'm so excited for Christmas this year though and luckily I'm off to Copenhagen for new year. If you have any travel tips let me know :).

Love M

xxx

Home Sweet Home - Bedroom

Hello there!

I am finally getting around to putting up some pictures of my new house. I'm so excited for it to have gone through and I've had the keys for over a month now. Broadband has taken a while to be installed and even when it was it had a few issues but I am definitely back online now!

I thought I would separate my posts out by room, I have so many pictures and the before/after is an easier story to tell.

So first up is my bedroom. When I viewed the house I knew I would be changing it straight away, you can see it below:

Honestly, it's not bad decor but it was so DARK. The walls were really dark grey and there were so many black items in the room as well that it made it feel so much smaller than it was. The wallpaper was also a bit too over the top for my tastes, even with all of the furniture removed the room was still really dark.



My amazing dad removed the wall paper revealing a white-ish wall behind. I knew I wanted to decorate the room with a white and grey colour scheme, so it was always going to take a long time to cover all of the black/grey walls.
It took a grand total of FOUR coats of white paint to cover it up - it took days!!

Eventually we got there and my white and grey bedroom has arrived!

I love how full of light it is now, it feels so much bigger

I have some of my prized possessions in my room, including my antique pewter tea pot which looks like something from Alice in Wonderland, and also my Grandma's bureau.
It is a beautiful writing desk that I kept when she died, it's now been turned into a dressing table for all of my make up. I hope she would approve of me recycling an old piece of furniture into something for me to use.
It's a future painting project when I have settled in more and have chosen a colour.




I'm sure that will be a post in it's own right but I love the fact the front folds down and I can sit and do my make up at it every day.
I've also set up some silver plant pots with my brushes in and have a cake stand ready for some jewellery to live on. I love using items for a different purpose than they were designed for!



As for my bed......it could do with looking a bit more inspiring but I've found a throw that I really like and brings a bit of colour to the white and grey palette. I need a few more cushions so I'm looking for some in a similar colour now to bring it all together.

I've also got a really cool bedside table and lamp - they do not match at all!



I bought the bird lamp shade from Asda to go on an antique silver metal lamp stand I was given. The table also came from the same people and I love the detail on it. I think mixing silver and gold can sometimes be completely wrong but when you have a room with such a neutral palette the metallics can bring more to it.
I cannot stop staring at the patterns on the table it's so beautiful.

At the foot of the bed I then have a blanket chest with amazing detailing across the front. All of the main wooden pieces came from family members so it's great to have a few bits of family history in my new house.




At the moment I keep bags and shoes inside this but it's not ideal so hopefully things will be moved around when I get more furniture.

I don't have any pictures or mirrors on the walls yet but I do have an old style map to go up, and hopefully some things more colourful too.

What do you think of that I've done to the bedroom so far?

Do you have any ideas of what I can do to make my bedroom more colourful?

I'm going to upcycle the bureau and the blanket chest, I'm hoping to do them a dove grey colour so if you have any ideas of painting or sanding then please send them my way!

L xxx

New House

Hey all!

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front for a few weeks and that has totally been down to the fact that I have finally got keys to my house!! Woohoo!!

Although it doesn't need a lot of major work doing to it there have been lots of jobs to be done and I've spent every hour there possible to get it done. I'm exhausted!! My muscles have certainly taken a beating and it's therefore no surprise that i have also not been to the gym in 2 weeks either - the horror.

I can't wait to show you all some pictures especially the before and after pictures; the bedroom was almost black to start with!! 

I moved all of my clothes etc in yesterday and spent my first night there last night. It was so quiet I slept the whole night without waking up even though i have a cold so I was pleased that I don't seem to have noisy neighbours even on a Saturday night.

Today is all about a second trip home to squeeze in as many bits as I can to my house as I still don't have enough furniture to store everything yet - particularly my library of books that I've accumulated over the years. I've also got my slow cooker on and meat and fish marinading in the fridge ready for a cooking session this evening. I'm slowly but surely making the place my own as it seems the couple who lived there before me barely used the house. I don't think the oven has ever been used before!

If you have any storage tips let me know, I'm also looking for interior design blogs for storage and furniture painting so if any one has any favourites please send them my way for me to browse! As you can see in the image above I have a lot of old furniture from my family and they're going to look lovely when they're all painted shabby chic style - I just need to get as many tips as possible first!

I should be getting my new broadband etc set up this week so please bear with me whilst I'm offline for another week or so - I have so many wonderful things to blog about and share with you!!

L xxx

New House

Happy Saturday!

I've mentioned a few times on the blog how I am in the process of buying a house (eek!). It's really exciting but also kind of dragging now as it's been 2 months without much happening and I just can't wait to get my date and move in!

Moans aside, I've been picking up some bits and pieces to put into my new house and I wanted to share them with you. My first shop to get to? Obviously Home Sense!

I have always loved reading and have a massive collection of books. Some I've never even read because they are super old and leather bound and I just love the look of them.
But when I do get the chance I'd love to have an armchair to read them in.......and there it was in the middle of the store.
Some of you might hate it, but I absolutely love green and with the living area currently a black and cream colour palette I'm really looking forward to having some colour in it, so a brightly coloured armchair like this is perfect. It's also REALLY comfy so I can't wait to snuggle up in it.

My mum is also making me a quilt/throw for the living area that matches the colours of the chair. I didn't realise how much I like green but it just makes me feel really calm.
I've no idea what it's going to look like yet but I love the thought of having personal things in my house that nobody else will have.

I've also got a load of old wooden furniture that I can't wait to do up. Above is a super old writing desk that I'm planning on turning into a dressing table. I can't afford to buy lots of new furniture and with pieces like this that are solid and have lasted such a long time it would be pointless to throw them out for no reason.

I will be getting well acquainted with some sandpaper and chalk paints over the next few months I'm sure!

I also have a huge chest of drawers - the bottom one is so big that my dad used to climb in it and sleep in it when he was younger!

Then I have an ottoman and a table with a compartment inside. All of it has been stored away for a few years so it needs a good clean.

To bring in some bright colours to the kitchen I'm also planning on buying a lot of aqua coloured accessories like the kettle below, and hopefully a matching toaster. I think it's a great colour and as the kitchen has a lot of cream and beige tones in it, it will hopefully brighten it up!

I am also hoping that I might be getting hold of the chair below from some family friends, according to a Facebook post that I've seen (copied below) you can use chalk paints and paint straight onto the fabric to change the colour! How amazing!!

Spooky coincidence that the chairs are almost the same colour!

I really cannot wait to get the keys and start making some changes to the place, fingers crossed everything keeps going through and I get a date soon!

Have you bought your own place recently? Or have you moved?

If you have any DIY tips or favourite blogs for this kind of topic then please send them to me!

I'd love to see more ideas that I can incorporate into my house, especially storage...

L xxx