a new year and another ikea wishlist

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.

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?

bedroom update ... the details

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.

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)

outdoors

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

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!

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 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!