Two years ago I did a ‘before and after’ blog post on creating a home office that both my husband and myself were going to share. As a musician, he was often away travelling and I had only just started this blog, so just blogged as and when for fun. Fast forward two years, he is working from home most of the year and I am running a design consultation business alongside this blog. The shared space was just not working for us anymore. He filled the room with musical paraphernalia and it became a shotgun game to who got to use the desk. I started to think we might be outgrowing the house, when it occurred to me that we had the space, we just were not using it efficiently.

March is usually the month when new pieces from the spring/summer home collections start to become available online or in-store to purchase. I’ve seen quite a few interior bits and bobs this season that I’ve really liked, so I thought I would share some of those ‘must-have’ items out for SS19….

If you have or know a child that is dinosaur-mad, then this 3D gallery wall DIY is a really sustainable and budget-friendly way to create a fun display in their bedroom. All you need are a few second-hand plastic dinosaur toys, some old frames, mounting card and ‘Gorilla Super Glue Precise Gel.'

The unseasonally good weather we have had this February has made me languish for spring even more than normal. When the New Year begins I always feel that I am just waiting for new buds on the trees, for daffodils to push out the ground and a sign that warmer times are ahead. One of the best ways to anticipate for spring is by freshening up your home with a few new decorative pieces that can help you embrace the season via your decor. All the colour and scent of spring is so enjoyable, why not bring it indoors?

If there is one thing that I love just as much as interiors (not counting my child and y’know…gin..) it is fresh flowers. My home does not feel complete without fresh blooms perched in the middle of the table or presented on the mantle. People often ask me what is the quickest and most budget-friendly way that they can make a room feel inviting and homely and I always tell them to invest in a beautiful vase brimming with blossoming new stems. What is even better than buying your own flowers is having someone gift you them, so I was delighted when Marks & Spencer popped round with a number of their new gifting bouquets for me to review, as well as give advice on what bouquets are perfectly suited to certain celebratory occasions throughout the year. It is important to remember that flowers are very personal, so you should always pick the right bouquet that will match your recipients personality as well as the occasion. If this all sounds very confusing then don’t worry, read on for my top tips for picking the perfect bunch….

I’ve not done a ‘best of’ round up for a while, so this week I thought I’d delve into bed frames. Although the online market is saturated with beds, you always just get pages and pages of the same design. Choice is often limited to the plain wood frame, the metal frame or the fabric option with a button headboard. The 5 bed frames that I want to present to you today go above and beyond the ‘basic bed’ design and are real hero pieces that won’t just disappear in a bedroom decor scheme.

I’ll confidently chat way about paints, primers and polyfilla. Interior trends I’m always up to date with and I can reel off places to buy great side tables. Yet, when a client asked me to advise her on what would be the best worktop for her new kitchen, I will hold my hands up to the fact that I was pretty stumped to give her an answer there and then. There is such an array of material choice and things to consider, getting your head around it all can feel like a total minefield. For example, what can be considered top, middle and low price for a kitchen worktop? Do all worktops require maintenance? Is an accompanying upstand always an option? Just what is Silestone anyway?

Whether you are thinking of installing a whole new kitchen in 2019 or just changing things up a bit, looking at kitchen trend predictions is actually a great way to ensure that you create a kitchen that you love, which also feels current and contemporary. Rather than thinking of trends as styles that go in and out of fashion in a blink of an eye, trend round-ups tend to focus on colours and materials that are elegant, stylish and therefore timeless. This is what Howdens have succeeded in doing with their new kitchen trends e-book for 2019. Spotlighting on four very different kitchen trends, Howdens can help you create your dream kitchen by identifying your core interior style.

When we moved into this house 4 years ago there was an alcove in the kitchen/diner that was screaming out for a display cabinet. The alcove to the right of the fireplace contained the fridge, but with boxes bulging with glassware and cake tins, it made sense that the other alcove accommodated a cabinet/dresser. The space is relatively narrow and the ceiling low, so it took me a long time to hunt down the right piece of petite furniture. After a two month search, I finally found the exact right thing on eBay and this pretty cabinet below became mine for the small sum of £40.

In September this year the esteemed paint manufacturer Farrow & Ball released 9 brand new colours to take their palette up to 132 hues. Without looking like I am very late to the party, I held off writing about the colours until they had been used in abundance in ‘real homes’. The thing is with Farrow & Ball press images is they are just so good. They hire the best stylists and produce the most amazing pictures, they could probably rub a dog turd on the wall and it would look like a desirable colour to paint your guest bedroom in. What I really wanted to see was how the colours would look in different types of homes and in different settings. Plus, when I received the press pack (which included sample tins of the 9 new shades) there was one colour in particular, Treron, which I flagged for use on the tongue and groove in my bathroom.

A few weeks ago I attended a bloggers dinner at the Miele London showroom to talk all things interior trends for 2019. Before the event all the bloggers were asked for their predictions beforehand and it was quite surprising to see that we were all pretty much on the same page to what we think is ‘over’ in interiors, and what we think will be the next thing that everyone will be doing in their home.

‘Tis the season for…..doin’ it for the ‘gram! Chances are if you read my blog you are either one of two things (or both): an interior fanatic who loves changing things up at home and / or addicted to interiors on Instagram. There is nothing like a bit of festive inspo on Instagram when it comes to this time of year (although the vast amount of ‘Christmas In November’ on Insta this year has rightly had a few people shudder in horror.) This Christmas I was lucky enough to collaborate with House Of Fraser, styling a few of their Christmas collections in my home

Sometimes it is the simplest changes that can transform a room: a new cushion to refresh a living space or a new vase as a great focal point on an old table. Our kitchen at home is looking a bit tired, but we are years away from replacing it. Yet our kitchen tap was chipped, leaking and covered in ‘you’ll never be able to remove it in a million years’ limescale, so I decided I wanted to swap it out for something special and new to try and reinvigorate the area. Our old tap was a basic chrome bridge tap - so standard, so simple. If I was going to make an impact with a new tap then I wanted something really exceptional and individual, something that would draw attention as the ‘hero’ piece in the kitchen. Instantly, I thought I would want an instagramable polished brass tap, but as I have been working closely with bathroom & kitchen suppliers Kohler this year I was introduced to their very modern, very sexy Karbon single lever tap.

I was recently commissioned by the chocolate company Green & Black’s to create some Instagram Christmas content with their Miniature Bar Collections. I decided to create an indoor wreath which also doubled up as a DIY advent calendar, as this way I was creating something decorative for the home as well as it having a function! This is the end result below, which I was quite happy with as it looked quite pretty and filled the house with the smell of eucalyptus.

All year I’ve been keeping a list of all the best bits and bobs I’ve seen that would make great Christmas presents for the interior-obsessed. Those that have made the cut are either really pretty, really clever or really well designed. Basically, it’s a list of everything I’d like to own and might as well be a personal letter to Santa, but if I love it then I’m certain others will too! Everything listed ranges from £2 - £50, with brands ranging from indie stores to the high street….

The cast-iron period fireplace in my kitchen had not been looking its best for a good while. The front of the fireplace had glimmers of rust (I’ve since found out you should never clean a fireplace with a wet rag or it will rust - who knew??) with the edges of the fireplace having a chalky white rust all around. Before I completely redecorated this space I needed to sort it out. It was suggested to me by a lot of people that I give the fireplace a coat of black metal paint, but I knew that would completely ruin the beautiful iron shine and make it look flat and inauthentic. Instead, I wanted to restore this fireplace properly, so I did quite a bit of research into how I could do that. I purchased the following products and hoped for the best, luckily the fireplace turned out better than I could have ever expected! This is why I want to share this on the blog today as I was so happy with the result and thought it might help others (this post is in no way sponsored, I purchased these items with my own money).