on the way ...

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 ...

found

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?

summer holiday ... sort of

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!

sofa quest 2009

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)

LivingEtc paint

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

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

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

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?

kitchen shelving

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

painted floors

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

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

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!

white out

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.

sunny side up

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

i hate masking tape

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.