After the redecoration of my sitting room was completed in four short weeks with Revamp Restyle Reveal, in the time that followed one of the things that I wished I had changed in the room was getting in a new rug. What remained in the room was a plain, small piece of high-pile rug just in front of the fire which was only put there in the first place so the dog could lay in front of the log burner in comfort. It looked dull, a bit worn and out-of-place in the shiny new room. I decided it was time for an upgrade.

Hello and welcome to my garden! I have not featured the garden on my blog in a long time and with good reason - it is a disaster that I just cannot keep on top of. Well, not the garden itself but actually the decking area. We have a really large area of the garden that is raised decking, but the truth is the past couple of years it hasn't even been used - in fact I've actively cornered it off as I feel it is unsafe for the family.

As part of my Revamp Restyle Reveal Sitting Room plans, I wanted to get rid of an old display cabinet that was not making the most of the space and create what looked like bespoke bookcase shelving. I had long admired the many amazing Ikea Billy Bookcase hacks that are all over Pinterest, so being on a tiny budget and for the love of DIY, I set about making my own version!

Bank holiday weekends for me, like a lot of people, are all about DIY! The three-day period just gives that extra amount of time to complete any projects both inside and outside of the home. With the bank holiday weekend just gone having been dry, warm and sunny, I used this time to spruce up my outdoor balcony. It had been a few years since I had painted the deck boards in this space and they were looking weathered and bare. The metal railings had also peeled and cracked in the sun from summers gone-by. This summer, I wanted to bring an old wooden bench that had been left at the bottom of the garden up on the balcony as a colourful seating area, so I set about transforming the deck, railings and the bench using exterior paints by Sandtex and Sadolin.

It is no secret that grey has played a huge part in popular interior schemes for a good number of years now. Grey-painted walls have completely replaced cream or magnolia as the modern version of the go-to neutral in our homes. I for one am a huge grey fan (as you might have noticed, having recently painted my living room a very matt, clay-coloured grey). The most successful 'shades of grey' have ranged from very soft, grey-tinged whites, to deep, bold greys. The huge 'Downpipe-trend' peaked a couple of years ago, where everyone took the plunge to dark interiors using one of Farrow & Ball's now most popular shades. This year we have seen a move towards using more colour in our homes. Bold jewel tones and a more 'maximalist' style have played a big part in key interior trends for 2018. While at Salone in Milan last month the key neutrals were very warm, beigey pink-tinged colours. So is grey over? Far from it, in fact. It is now all about using grey on the floor to compliment these new bolder colours or warmer neutrals.

Sometimes there are interior and home products that I see that make me elated and go "YES! That is RIGHT UP MY STREET!!" A visit to the the Kohler Experience Centre today on my tour of Clerkenwell Design Week 2018 made me do just that. In the week where London celebrates the best of horticulture with the Chelsea Flower Show, alongside the best in architecture and design with CDW, it was the perfect time for Kohler to unveil in the UK their new collection of Dutchmaster sinks. Big, bold, dramatic florals on a dark and moody background cover the entire surface of the washbasins, with two separate designs that come as a circular or rectangular model.

Lately I have really noticed a shift towards people wanting to live much more ethically within their own home. Showers and white goods that save water have been around for a good while now, while the introduction of new technology has meant that we can get much more of a grip on how much energy we are using (and money we are spending). However, things seem to be taking a bigger step towards purchasing homeware products that are re-usable, recyclable and cruelty-free. Last month at the Ideal Home Exhibition interior designer extraordinaires 2LG created a 'love/work' space that encompassed the use of vegan leather and worktops made of recycled yogurt pots. The result was impeccably sexy and stylish, a million miles away from what could be considered by some as a 'hippy-chic home'.

I am so excited to reveal today a HUGE project that I have been working on for the past 4 weeks - my living room transformation! I was delighted to be asked to take part in Revamp Restyle Reveal again for the second year, where 10 UK interior bloggers undertake the 4 week challenge of re-doing a room in their home with the help of some fantastic brand sponsors. The challenge of course is not an easy one - Revamp Reveal Reveal has a very DIY ethos, so hiring in tradesmen to do the hard work is not an option! This year I chose to revamp my living room. I have never decorated this room as I have really struggled with just how it should look. It was still painted in the same colour chosen by the previous owners (magnolia, which I hated) and it was filled with furniture from our old house that was never purchased for this space:

Once upon a time in a relaxing period called BC (that's 'Before Children') myself and my husband used to take one luxury holiday a year, and we always chose to go somewhere in Asia. We absolutely loved the culture, food and the design, with it being so different to what we were familiar with in the West. Everything were more delicate, more detailed, playful and so well thought-out. Therefore, when modern Asian lifestyle brand Zens contacted me to see if I wanted to pick out a couple of their products to review, I jumped at the chance to style a couple of their contemporary, yet oh-so pretty vases within their Home Decor range.

I have a small balcony accessed via some arched doors from my living area that is an absolute sun trap, so in the summer months I spend more time here than in the garden. Last year I created a really kitsch miami-pink style space here, which although was fun for one summer, it did not work at all with the living space and felt completely disjointed. This year I really wanted the area to be an extension of my living room as I felt it would work better than as a completely separate area to it. I wanted the furniture to be really good quality, while also fit in with the stylish pieces I had indoors. My living room is a warm blue hue, so when I discovered that Marks & Spencer were focusing on Artisan Blues for Spring/Summer 2018, I just had to check out their Alfresco range of garden furniture and accessories.

The picture below is of the en-suite bathroom off our guest room at home. It is mainly used as the 'downstairs loo' as it is right by the kitchen in the basement. It has this lovely window that looks onto our back courtyard and then over to the kitchen window, however, this view can only be enjoyed when frequenting one of two places - either using the toilet or taking a shower! Safe to say whatever side of the window you are on, no-one is going to want to see someone else the other side of the glass

Spring is the perfect time to give the rooms in your home an overhaul, and with statement wallpaper (on all walls, not just a feature wall!) being a key trend in interiors in 2018, why not update your decor with the new wallpaper collections from Laura Ashley? I was recently asked to write a guest post over on the Laura Ashley blog all about my favourite wallpaper picks from the new Spring collection, which you can read and see all the photos in full here.

I've been wanting to do a section on the blog for a while now where I talk about my new favourite bits and bobs that I've added into my home. Spring feels like the perfect time to start 'The Edit' section as this is the time of year that I really want to give my house a bit of an update, what with lighter evenings and streaming sun finally being a thing again. So here are my fave recent additions, some have kindly been gifted to me, others I've brought with my own cash.

A big mistake that people make with hallways is they think they have to keep them plain and neutral in colour. The fear is that an often narrow space will feel even narrower and enclosed if it is painted anything other than white. The truth is having a hallway in a deep colour will actually make the rooms coming off the hall feel much larger and brighter as you walk into them.

The hallway area at the top of my house, which leads to the bedrooms and the family bathroom, has recently looked pretty lackluster. I had a number of random pictures in thick clunky frames hung in no particular order, and the whole space just did not feel cohesive or make me feel particularly happy as I walked up the stairs. So when Scandinavian art, poster and print company Desenio got in touch and asked if I fancied some new art prints on them, I jumped at the chance of curating my own personal, pretty gallery wall on my stairwell.

I've recently found in my interior-design work that I am always including some sort of lighting from high street retailer Debenhams in the design scheme. Clients come to me for help getting great interiors on a budget, and Debenhams have recently been my go-to brand to get incredible lighting that would not look out of place stocked in Heals or The Conran Shop.