house to home

I've moved!

2011-05-23T19:58:00.000+01:00

Sort of!

We're expecting our first baby so I thought I would document the whole process here. I'd like to thank all of you who kindly followed my progress here ... I'll be giving updates of where we are with the house (frantically finishing off projects), my nursery inspiration and transformation, my obsession with beautiful children's products and a whole lot more at the new blog.

Thanks again!
Cx

a new year and another ikea wishlist

2010-02-25T19:12:00.003Z

Has it really been that long? We redecorated the living/dining room shortly after the arrival of our new sofa and chair. Found the perfect green wallpaper, attempted to hang it ourselves, gave up and hired a decorator! We purchased and painstakingly (thanks to my many errors when reading the instructions) assembled the expedit TV unit, which fits lovely into our alcove ... even though I had that moment of panic that it wouldn't fit, despite taking many measurements. We took a break for Christmas, in which we had most of our family across the threshold. And Mark started a fantastic new job.

It feels like I am just about getting my motivation to renovate the house back ... still to do is the kitchen, we mended and have made do up to now but it is still driving me mad! And on the list of 'things to do' are the bathroom and one of our guest bedrooms (not that we have a grand mansion with 8 guest rooms, we have 2 but we did the other one just over a year ago).

About ikea then ... I was a meeting for most of the day, but thankfully the venue was right around the corner from ikea. I thought it would be rude not to go and have a look. And judging by all the new things, it must have been around the same time as my last post that I was last there! With this in mind, I thought it was the best opportunity to update my (ever growing) ikea wishlist.

I immediately fell in love with the olunda alphabet picture, the structure is really good with some of the letters being raised from the background. Now where to hang?

The PS Sticka blanket would be a welcome addition to our room as it is still very cold here! It is photographed beautifully at doorsixteen. Another favourite was the edland bedroom series, in particular the dressing table. I love the classic shape updated with a matt grey finish.And now to the not so new, I would love one or two of the ung drill frames for our room.

vivienne westwood for walls

2009-10-13T19:51:00.004+01:00

Cole & Son has teamed up with the very eccentric British designer to release a wonderful collection of wallpaper! The familiar prints are here, from the squiggle synonymous with her pirate collection to the iconic VW bleached union jack. My personal favourite is Magnolia (shown at the bottom).

Prices are around £55 a roll ... now to find an empty wall!

one year in

2009-10-04T18:15:00.005+01:00

The 26th September was our first wedding anniversary. I can't believe how quickly the year has gone, it feels like it was only a few weeks ago that I was excitedly getting ready to walk down the isle to say 'I do' to Mark (activities this year were slightly different as we awaited the arrival of our new sofas, more to come soon).

He really set the standards for anniversaries ahead by secretively arranging for our wedding florist to deliver an arrangement just like my bouquet. Major bonus points!

Mark, thank you for the past year, it has really been amazing and I look forward to many more to come.

on the way ...

2009-09-14T21:11:00.002+01:00

Decision made on the sofa ... we have just ordered this vienna sofa in mulberry. I love the styling of it, a slight nod to Florence Knoll just like the leather karlstad that we looked at. We decided on fabric as it is slightly more resilient to cat claws!I love the contrast with green, and as we will be redecorating the living room I am now on the hunt for a lovely green wallpaper to go with it ...

yum

2009-09-08T19:30:00.003+01:00

Two posts in one day ... I love this original artwork by jennysbakeshop via Etsy. Having a cupcake sounds much better than carrying on!

brrrrrr!

2009-09-08T17:19:00.004+01:00

There is a distinct chill in the air ... and our heating has broken. Our brief summer has ended and autumn is here! I love autumn, the beautiful colours make up for the fact that the days are getting much shorter. With the lack of heat in mind I have added this welsh blanket by Jane Beck to my wishlist (which seems to grow longer and longer by the week). This would look fantastic in our bedroom don't you think?

And finally, we have made a decision about the sofa and should be able to give an update with lovely pics very soon! For now I'll get back to waiting patiently for the engineer who promises to fix our boiler ...

wanted

2009-08-14T13:19:00.003+01:00

I absolutely love the perfect match pendant by YellowGoat. I'm obsessing about it so much that I thought I would share it with you!

Have a great weekend.

found

2009-08-10T20:08:00.003+01:00

Still awaiting repair is our sad sad kitchen. Mainly because of the insurance company but also because of my indecisiveness. But here it is, my favourite kitchen inspiration picture and the look that I think we will be going for.

I've seen the pictures of Emily Walker's bungalow from Canadian house and home quite a few times not but the kitchen is the room that stands out the most for me, a lovely mix of traditional and modern, a beautiful shade of grey on the walls and most of all the fantastic yellow that brings it to life. I really like the mix of fitted base units and the open shelving (with very carefully chosen items on them).

So that is it decided, white base units, cup handles and of course some lack shelves from ikea are on our shopping list for the kitchen. And maybe some yellow accessories? Or maybe red?

I love this 90th anniversary edition kitchenaid artisan mixer. I already have a kitchenaid so this would be just pure greed.

Far less greedy would be this salong vase from ikea. Now for the perfect grey. Any suggestions?

house envy

2009-08-08T15:16:00.003+01:00

I love this house that is featured in the current issue of LivingEtc. The mix of white walls and bright coloured soft furnishings and artwork add lots of fun and personality to the family home. Maybe I'm not ready to live in an all white home but this I could certainly do!

The shocking pink stair runner is amazing, adding humour to a very traditional entrance. The couple say that their next home is going to have a tomato red runner but I'm lusting after turquoise!

Even the most functional room of the house is bursting with colour ... and practicality with the concrete worktop.

I love the crux throw in the master bedroom.

And of course a beautiful tulip table. What a brilliant family home.

birthday presents

2009-08-04T22:16:00.006+01:00

My lovely Mark bought me my birthday presents (a little early) this weekend. I have called them Bill and Ted ... they are Roborovski dwarf hamsters. I have always loved hamsters (and all other rodents), they are so inquisitive and entertaining! They have a beautiful apartment with 360 degree views, open plan living/dining and a mezzanine level bedroom.

This isn't actually them. They are the smallest and fastest hamsters that you can get and I can't get them to stay still for a second, let alone take a picture. I'm sure there is more to come about these two when they settle in!

tulips from sweden

2009-07-31T14:32:00.004+01:00

Despite my post about the planned update for the dining area, the update never took place. What I mean is, we never got round to replacing the chairs etc. I think it was somewhere between the plumbing intervention and sanding the bedroom floors! Maybe that was a good thing though because the more inspiration images I collect, the more I notice that they have a certain thing in common ... the Saarinen tulip table. It is completely out of our budget but I love it all the same. This image is my favourite set up, the tulip table with Eames DCM chairs.

Enter ikea with their glorious erm ... knock off, the docksta. This table is smaller in size than the tulip, and much smaller in price (at £109). Our current table seats 8 and the docksta would be tight for 6 but realistically we only really have up to 5, and the majority of the time we have 4 at the table ... you can tell that I am deep into convincing myself mode and here is why:

I love these images, and the simplicity of the table is beautiful. Personally, I think that it works best with white chairs as in the third image from skona hem. I also love the aqua and orange combination of the last image from _tris_'s photostream.

bedroom update ... the details

2009-07-26T13:29:00.005+01:00

Finally! Our bedroom update is complete and I thought that I would take the chance to show you some of the details of the room. I have to say that we absolutely love it. It is our little cool, calm retreat after a very busy day at work!

Mark worked so hard sanding the floor and the numerous coats of primer and paint are absolutely worth it. Our house is old so the floor has taken some wear and tear over the years, as has the rest of the house, so we didn't want to paint completely over the history and we left some of the rather rustic details in the floor. I think that the result is brilliant and has a nice homely effect rather than being too pristine and clinical. We also unearthed the solid hearth for the bedroom fireplace which we painted black, this looks great against the white flooring and of course I am on the lookout for a lovely cast iron fire surround to finish it off.

We replaced the light fitting with the medium leran pendant light from ikea. It looks lovely in the day and gives a really soft light at night time. It was really easy to install, Mark did it in no time.

We are really pleased with the wallpaper, it is beautiful. We couldn't take it across the chimney breast as originally planned because the wall there is not great and the paper was so heavy that we couldn't manipulate it to go round the curve. However, I'm really pleased about this because it means that when I find the perfect fire surround it will have centre stage on the wall. Speaking of centre stage, this is our bargain find for the room. A theatre style light for just £20! It adds a bit of fun to the room ... and to the daily routine of getting ready for work.

colour madness

2009-07-12T13:56:00.003+01:00

We are still in the middle of our bedroom makeover, these things certainly take more time than anticipated. I think amongst the white walls, woodwork and floors I am craving colour, thank you LivingEtc gallery for these vibrant shots!

The floor in the bedroom is nearly finished, once dry we can hang the wallpaper and move our furniture, and ourselves back in. The kitchen on the other hand is another matter, thanks to the insurance company this is going to be a long process. Oh well, one more colourful shot by Stefan Thurnmann, just because I'm greedy!

summer holiday ... sort of

2009-07-03T14:59:00.004+01:00

I have been forced to take a bit of an impromptu break from blogging due to a very unexpected leak in the kitchen. Our plumbing under the kitchen sink decided to turn itself into a bit of a water feature, soaking everything in its path. Base units, plinths and floor have all suffered the wrath! As such, kitchen improvement plans have had to step up a gear. We have had some very helpful tradesmen and a very unhelpful insurance company and despite that I'm still a little confused about what exactly it is that I want!

Along with this we were making really good progress in the bedroom. All the walls are prepared for painting and while I was on a hen weekend to London poor Mark painstakingly sanded all of the floorboards. I'm amazed how good they look considering the layers of soot and dirt that had to be removed to reveal that they are, as expected, wood. While doing the room we removed all of our (large) furniture from this room and have rehomed it in our two spare rooms which means that we have one big empty room and two smaller rooms full to the brim.

With most of the rooms in the house currently out of action my kind mum has taken in our little family while we work on finishing the bedroom and getting things sorted for the kitchen. More blogs to come soon about the bedroom update and of course what I actually decide to do with the kitchen!

freebies

2009-06-08T13:44:00.004+01:00

Thanks to freecycle, Mark and myself are now the proud owners of an Ercol Windsor lounge set. We have been given two armchairs and a two seater sofa for absolutely nothing. The frames are in excellent condition and still have the Ercol seal, the cushions are original and in need of some TLC. I'm thinking of covering them in this Lumimarja fabric by Marimekko.

Here is a lovely photo from Kokor Hekkus' flikr photostream to keep me going, plain purple looks good too ...

orla kiely madness

2009-06-03T21:11:00.003+01:00

I love this picture from LivingEtc, the chair is amazing and I need to find myself a bright yellow light. Maybe I'm not destined to live in a white house.

Also the striped petal wallpaper is fantastic ... I think if the cats stayed still long enough in this house they would get wallpapered too.

sofa quest 2009

2009-06-01T14:05:00.007+01:00

Our M&S sofas that we got when we moved in to the house are looking quite sad and tired now, especially with all the work that is going on around them in the house. As such, the search for new seating has begun, or as I like to call it sofa quest 2009 (we had so much trouble choosing our first ones that we are dreading doing it all again). Thankfully we have settled in to the house and we know how we are using the space, unlike choosing sofas days before exchange on our first house together. My obsession with white continues, as does Mark's with ease to care for so despite having cats (with claws) we are exploring the possibility of leather.

There are so many fantastic sofas out there, I find myself in another confusing situation, similar to that with the kitchen (update coming soon) its so hard to settle on what I really want. Here are some of my favourites so far.

This is the cube sofa from Heals, it has lovely simple lines and a great button detail on the side. I really like it and thought that the shape reminds me of something ... then it came to me klippan (with a bit more detail!).

Oh habitat, it is reasons like the days forum sofa why I cannot allow myself to pass through your doors too often. I love the walnut sides of the sofa, they are fantastic.

This has to be my favourite, the tufted white leather karlstad from ikea. I think this one will be hard to beat for price and I love the quilted chesterfield like back.

... And then I go full circle and ponder whether staying with washable covers would be the best option for us, I hate it when I get into practicalities. What about you? What are your thoughts on white furniture with pets?

Just for fun here are some lovely sofas from urban outfitters, unfortunately you can only get them in North America, otherwise I would be running round the house trying to find a spot for at least one of them.

(Antoinette Fainting Sofa and Mid Century Sofa both Urban Outfitters)

Paul Massey's latest project

2009-05-26T19:40:00.003+01:00

This renovation is in the current issue of LivingEtc, or as it has now been renamed by me the bible. I love these images, light and airy and lovely white floors, what's not to like? Head to LivingEtc to see the full 30 images, including some with his lovely dog.

Also, while I am on the topic of LivingEtc, they are currently running a competition where the lucky winner can paint their entire house in LivingEtc paint for free. Needless to say I have entered!

weekend off

2009-05-26T19:01:00.006+01:00

What a lovely weekend it was here, we made the most of the bank holiday weekend and downed paintbrushes for a well earned rest. On Saturday we went to Beamish Museum, a brilliant outdoor museum which depicts typical life in the north east in 1825 and 1913. It was great because we got to see what our typical miners cottage would have looked like at the time and I got to indulge my obsession with fireplaces, I am desperate to reinstate the cast iron range which would have been at the heart of our home, I got to see plenty of them in action at Beamish. This is the Edwardian town at Beamish, the sun had gone and the clouds had gathered by the time I took this photo but it was still a lovely day.

On Sunday, Mark went to the final football match of the season and thankfully, as a Sunderland supporter, the results went the right way for the team and they remain in the Premier League. I on the other hand spent the day with my Mum and we took the opportunity to enjoy the sun and relaxed in her beautiful garden. I wish ours was half as nice, tho only thing that we can successfully grow is weeds, its official.

Finally, on Monday I had some bridesmaid duties to attend to and met one of the girls in Durham to do some preparations for the forthcoming hen weekend in London. After this my lovely husband took me for lunch. Durham is a really beautiful city.

Back to reality now and we have started getting organised in advance of tackling the bedroom makeover, why do I have so many clothes?

yummy

2009-05-20T22:00:00.001+01:00

The colour of the year, or so I hear!

global durhamites

2009-05-19T20:08:00.004+01:00

Image via Design*Sponge

I came across this city guide for Durham, North Carolina in Design Sponge. I think this is a place that I will have to add to my must visit destinations!

lovely light

2009-05-19T19:41:00.002+01:00

Oh ikea ps maskros, how I need you in my life.

outdoors

2009-05-15T18:52:00.004+01:00

The weather today has not been great, but had it been I would now like to be relaxing in one of ikea's roxo easy chairs in green.

With solig lanterns twinkling around me.

We took a day off today and have spent it under house arrest because of the torrential rain.

four legs

2009-05-12T20:57:00.005+01:00

It is so difficult to find modern cat beds and nice looking toys in the UK. Here are some of my finds from the US.

Lovely bright coloured cat toys, in the shape of fortune cookies from Jake and Micha.

THE hepper pod bed (in spring green and grey sigh). My cats will have to make do with homemade ... I'm thinking an envelope back cushion big enough for two in this cecilia fabric from ikea would do nicely.

I'll just have to get working on some fortune cookie catnip toys too!

LivingEtc paint

2009-05-06T22:07:00.002+01:00

I squealed with delight when I found that LivingEtc are releasing a range of paints from May 11th, literally, sorry Mark - hope the hearing in your left ear comes back soon.

monochrome bedrooms

2009-05-05T21:31:00.004+01:00

From LivingEtc.

Habitat are having a mid season sale, up to 50% off, I have my eye on this auckland lamp which would be lovely in the bedroom.

bedroom update 2

2009-05-03T17:27:00.005+01:00

A recent trip to our local B&Q for painting supplies (painting all woodwork in the house at the minute but that is a different story) proved very fruitful when we spied their new colours wallpaper collection. Greedily we bought some of the lovely forest wallpaper in black and decided that this would be perfect for our room, which then meant that my earlier thoughts of how to update the room would have to change. We decided that the wallpaper would look best on the wall behind our bed, I hate the term feature wall so I wont be using it. We are still going to paint the floors white (negotiation complete) along with all the other woodwork, mouldings and walls. Also, given the strong pattern on the wallpaper we are opting for plain dye white bedding. To add some colour to the room we already have bright blue silk curtains and will compliment these with this lovely bedspread from ikea.

The wall lights have also had to change, I spied these Beryll lights, still from ikea but they will blend in better with the wallpaper.

bedroom update

2009-04-23T21:30:00.006+01:00

I have fallen for the Jenna bedding by Linda Barker and was so excited to discover that it is on sale (up to 40% off) on many websites. This will be the perfect thing to accompany the freshly painted floor (still negotiating with Mark) and update our bedroom for summer.

Another thing that I wanted to do was to replace the bedside lamps with wall mounted reading lamps, this will free up space on the bedside tables and give more directional lighting for reading. Don't you just love that ikea always seems to have the right thing for you? These basik wall lights are perfect in their simplicity.

I know that this swallow cushion from Graham and Green would probably be too much with the bedding above but I just can't resist putting it here ... maybe I could use it as a cushion for the chair we have in the bedroom?

rule britannia

2009-04-23T20:09:00.002+01:00

Happy St George's Day everyone!

notonthehighstreet.com
www.notonthehighstreet.com

Thisoldshirt

kitchen shelving

2009-04-22T19:40:00.003+01:00

Just to add to the kitchen confusion, some beautiful images from Sofie Andersson. And look ... white painted floors!

painted floors

2009-04-20T20:45:00.004+01:00

I am drawn to these pictures from LivingEtc and noticed one common denominator, painted floors, white painted floors to be exact. I love the cool, calm, tranquility that they bring to these rooms and now that the warmer weather is here it seems the perfect refresh to add to our bedroom.

I think Mark is dreading coming home one day to find all flooring ripped up in a bid to see whether our floors are paint worthy!

kitchen confusion

2009-04-16T17:04:00.006+01:00

Having lived in old houses before, we set out house hunting with certain proportions in mind, large rooms and high ceilings would fit the bill. But when we discovered our house the large kitchen was a massive selling point to both myself and Mark, and something that we didn't think that we would get, as most older houses like ours have narrow but long galley kitchens. So seeing past the badl fitted, cheap units we (I) started planning what we could do with the space. Three years in and we still have the same units in place (despite my many protestations) we have, however, painted the units and replaced the old work surface but we both feel that it is time to invest in the houses busiest room.

Mark and I love to rearrange our furniture and artwork quite a lot and like to have the opportunity to change them again if something doesn't work, so a fully fitted kitchen doesn't seem to fit the bill. Thankfully there are more and more freestanding kitchens coming to the market ... in fact so many that it is quite hard to choose, I'll be stuck with the old units for another three years if I don't narrow it down!

Here are my top three...

On a recent trip away I found myself in habitat (the first time for a while because I could spend a fortune in there) and there is was, stood proud in solid oak, the massello kitchen. The quality was brilliant, with everything that you would expect from a top of the range fitted kitchen.

But friends of ours have wooden work surfaces and struggle with the maintenance, I think that we would too as the space is used so much (and I'm a clumsy cook who tends to spill). I like the mixture of the gloss white and the wood of the ikea bravad kitchen, which may be easier to maintain in the long term, as units come with a choice of stainless steel or wooden tops.

But then the sheen of the stainless steel draws me to images of a more industrial looking space, I have seen many images where people have installed the ikea udden kitchen which look fantastic. Now I'm thinking that a mix of these units, along with a traditional wooden butchers block would look great in our space. I'm still confused!

Colour ... I'm loving the herbert cookware collection at habitat, designed by Annika Standsteth.

i heart ikea

2009-04-08T20:42:00.012+01:00

We quite regularly have family and friends over for a meal and for drinks so our oak dining table gets quite a lot of use, unfortunately so do the matching leather upholstered chairs which the cats like to use as a scratch post (all six chairs). So when updating our home we are planning to invest in some beautiful, scratch resistant furniture. We will keep the oak table as it is fantastic and can extend to fit 8 people (10 if feeling cosy) so we have been looking for ideas for the seating.

I love this picture from Christina Coop's house tour on apartment therapy, the mix of the bench and the chairs is something that would work quite well for us with having the open plan living dining room.

Our table and the range it is from originally had a matching bench, this seems to have been discontinued (along with the table), so until we find the perfect match we are going for the pocket friendly Norden bench from ikea.

I also love the ikea PS slingra chair but think that this wouldn't work in our space ...

... enter the nordmyra, simple enough without being too bland.

Not to obsess about ikea but we are also planning on getting two of the knappa pendant lights, I love the soft diffused light that this gives off, no glare in the eye when you are at the table ... perfect.

I guess the first meal that we will have to serve in the revamped area will be swedish meatballs!

easter treats

2009-03-30T20:05:00.004+01:00

After seeing Betina's (Chez Larsson) beautifully simple Easter decorations above, I had a search round for some equally lovely (and easy to do) decorations that we could make for our house. My search took me to Martha Stewart's page and these beauties.

The technique looks easy enough for a craft novice (which I am). I love the simple way they have displayed them in the photo and think that a trio of eggs will be adorning my dining table shortly ... along with some of Betina's flags around the house.

white out

2009-03-29T15:52:00.004+01:00

After seeing Birgitte Engberg's all white home in Ikea Family magazine recently, I have noticed that I too am drawn to all things white. At this very moment I am working on the practicalities of creating and maintaining an all white zone. Here are some lovely images from LivingEtc.

organic vegetable garden

2009-03-25T21:40:00.001Z

So the Obamas are to plant an organic vegetable garden at the White House. I say if it's good enough for them, then its good enough for me and Mark. Actually there is an area within our garden (not to the scale of that at the White House) that we had been thinking about having a go at growing some vegetables on. Mark has ordered the seeds and now all we do is wait, or so I thought! After careful research into this it would seem that a vegetable patch is quite labour intensive, not the sort of work for two people that haven't managed to maintain their garden properly for the past three years of being in the house. However, I'm sure we'll give it a go, it will make a nice change to have something there other than weeds and the unsightly shrubs that the previous owners left.

That said, I love these images from mylandscapes (London), they are the ultimate in low maintenance, modern, made for socialising gardens.

sunny side up

2009-03-24T21:36:00.001Z

My new favourite colour, Yellow, seems to be everywhere.

After posting the lovely sunny pictures below I couldn't help but look around at the new season clothing that is around. I liked what I saw - lots of bold patterns and brilliant colour mixes. So ... I know this is meant to be about my house but I cant resist adding some spring/summer fashion indulgence. Enjoy!

Anya Hindmarch

Boden

bring back the british summer

2009-03-23T20:12:00.001Z

Sorry, I had to share these photos that we took last September while on honeymoon. Whatever happened to British summertime?

i hate masking tape

2009-03-23T18:57:00.001Z

The stairs are completed, or at least they should be if it wasn't for masking tape and the little good that it does to keep the paint job clean.

After seeing lots of lovely images for papered stairs we decided to give it a go. The result is fantastic and it really adds the wow factor when you walk into the house. However, I will now have to spend hours with a teeny brush painting over the areas where the grey snuck under the masking tape and went on the rest of the woodwork. Well that isn't everything, the 'stump' still has to be sanded and painted white ...

This shows the during, I totally forgot to take a before and no words could describe how truly awful they were.

Overall we are really pleased, the 'fixing' of the paint will have to be added to my things to do in 2009.