I am well aware that I may be becoming boring and predictable as this blog is full of door wreaths for all seasons, but designing and making a new door wreath for my front door is something I personally enjoy doing in my spare time, so apologies, they are just going to keep popping up round here!
Read MoreAfter the Revamp, Restyle, Reveal bedroom reveal, I've had loads of questions about where my new large brass-trim dressing table mirror is from. The answer is it's actually a DIY job and it cost me £9.37 in total! So, today on the blog I am going to tell you how I made it.
Read MoreOn my Instagram and under my Pinterest board 'Kitchen Inspo', I had been collecting up and re-gramming these amazing images of kitchens - such as the one below of the most amazing baby blue kitchen with polished gold handles. It looks so good, right? You'd instantly think it was a completely bespoke, designer-led kitchen costing you 25k plus.
Read MoreI prioritise interiors and decor over pretty much all other factors. The food can be great in a restaurant, but if the interiors are awful I'll never go back. I'll always choose a design-led bar over a standard place to grab a drink. Therefore, when it comes to renting a room for a night, the interior stakes have to be pretty high for me to be satisfied! The thing is, unless you can afford one of London's premier hotels, chances are for a decently priced night in the city you'll be stuck in a sterile small white box room with a cheap MDF desk and one bed for company.
Read MoreThere are a lot of press releases that come into my inbox each day about new homeware collections, and even though I open them all, it really takes something amazing to grab my attention. Well, say a big, fat HELLO to one collection that did such a thing - the brand new Bangle collection by hand-blown glassware specialists LSA International.
Read MoreMy own experience of replacing flooring has been quite limited. The most I've had to do was replace a hallway carpet in my old home after toilet training a puppy for 6 months; while I also had a very inexperienced attempt at painting my wooden floor boards white at the start of my DIY journey - I decided to skip the sanding and priming part, so the paint started to chip after 48 hours! However, I've recently been working with a client on replacing all the floors in a flat she has purchased. She mentioned to me in the initial design consultation that she wanted vinyl and I flinched - vinyl? - isn't that just like the cheap lino of the 80's? Turns vinyl flooring technology has massively advanced since then, and there is now something called 'luxury vinyl flooring'.
Read MoreOK, so this article is about the new Farrow & Ball wallpaper collection - BUT!!! - I have to tell you before I talk about the new floral beauties that a mood board I created around one of the new papers, Helleborus, is featured in the F&B catalogue for the collection. At the start of the year F&B got in touch and asked if I would be interested working with them on promoting the new collection. They would send me a sample of one of the new papers (which was all very hush hush) and asked if I would create a mood board around the paper chosen for me. This would then appear in the new F&B Autumn/Winter inspiration catalogue, sent to customers.
Read MoreHate your kitchen? Want to upgrade? Would love a designer kitchen but don't have the cash? Never fear, it is possible, believe it or not, to get a designer kitchen (or your kitchen looking designer) without having to sell one of your kidneys. There are a few tricks out there that can transform your kitchen from bleak and basic, into something much more suited to your style. If you are someone with champagne taste on a prosecco budget (or even a cheap white wine budget) then read on for my tips to get that designer kitchen for less!
Read MoreJust had a baby or due to have a baby soon? Petrified that your beautiful home is going to be hidden behind a mound of brightly coloured baby tat? Well, I know how you feel. Being an interiors obsessive, when I was pregnant and strolling around the baby section of department stores (clutching my extensive list of things I would 'need' to have in the home for baby), I was quietly groaning to myself as I passed piece after piece of baby furniture and furnishings covered in teddy bears, bright green cartoon apples or pale blue or sickly pale pink toweling fabric.
Read MoreA really fun styling job I have completed recently was to transform a blank room into a bedroom for two very much adored grandchildren for when they come to stay. The boys, aged 6 and 5, are both pretty cool kids, so I wanted to design them a room that was a bit trendy and they wouldn't grow out of too fast. The bedroom as it stood was completely empty, so I needed to buy everything for the boys ready for when they were due to stay in a few weeks time. This included beds, mattresses, bedding, lights and window treatments. As this room was not going to be a room in use everyday, the aim was to create something within a reasonably low budget. To achieve this, I sourced everything for the room from homeware departments in supermarkets, Ikea, and the cheaper end of the high street.
Read MoreI've never painted a room in my home completely dark until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to get rid of the white walls in my office and go a full on, really dark black/blue colour. When I did a complete overhaul of the room towards the start of the year, I dipped my toe into 'the dark side' by painting the chimney breast and the adjacent wall, which was going to be a gallery wall, in a deep, dark navy colour. On the remaining two walls, I painted them a muted white with grey undertones. The reason that I did this, to be honest, was because I was actually scared of painting the whole room dark.
Read MoreIt has only been in the past year that I have become aware of JD Williams. My first introduction was discovering a really great pendant light while trying to source one for a porch project that I was working on. The light was really well designed and incredible value for money, and I was super surprised to learn that it was actually by TV personality Lorraine Kelly as part of her collection for the brand. As it turns out, JD Williams is actually the UK's leading direct home shopping company, with a 6 million customer database, plus 3,500 employees.
Read MoreSo there are a couple of reasons as to why I decided to write this post. Obviously, I was lucky enough to have a few days break away in New York City last week (sans children), so I took the opportunity to fill the days absorbing as much interior inspo the city could throw at me. Yet secondly, before I visited I was trying to research where to go in NYC that had great interiors. There appeared to be no post or article that gave an overview of the best places to visit for decor drooling (unless I missed it?) The best I could find was a Time Out round up of all home decor stores (I visited all apart from two), and guides to things like the 'best places to visit with great NYC city views'. There was nothing that said "this place is all dark velvet and brass lights you must go if you love interiors!". Therefore, I'm going to do a little round up just incase you are about to visit the city and are craving some tops tips for beautiful hotel bars to visit, or a guide to some great home stores (and the ones not to bother visiting).
Read MoreWe all earmark IKEA as the place to go to get cheap, 'need it right now' furniture that is basic and functional. Yet in recent years IKEA has been moving up a level - working with highly revered designers to create incredible, but still amazingly affordable furniture. After talking briefly to Kit Neale about his SPRIDD collab with IKEA last year, he highlighted that IKEA's quality control meant that his collection with the Swedish power-brand took two years in the making. It is obviously IKEA's dedication to their designs that has attracted top name designers to collaborate with them on design-led, but affordable, collections. The much publicised Tom Dixon collection DELAKTIG will make its way into stores at the beginning of next year, while super-hip French multi-brand retailer Colette are currently working with IKEA on a new partnership.
Read MoreDramatic pendant lighting hung over the dining table is an interior look that is both stylish and functional. A low-slung statement pendant light or two creates a real focal point as soon as you walk in the room. Positioned centrally above the dining table, or a few lights clustered together in a line the length of the table, really defines the rooms purpose.
Read MoreIt's my utmost belief that even the smallest space can be impeccably stylish. You do not need to own a mansion to create a glorious living space - which is lucky as apparently the average size of a family home in the UK has shrunk by two square metres over the past 10 years. If you rent, chances are that you are currently renting or have rented a flat in a converted property that was once a whole house? If you own your own place, let me guess that you shed a little tear when you saw the average cost of 'price per square metre' of a home in your area, and you had to purchase a smaller space than you had origionally intended?
Read MoreLast week was the press preview for Tom Dixon's new collection for Autumn/Winter 2017. If you follow me on Instagram stories you'll know I attend a ton of press previews for new interior items - so what makes this one so special? The answer to that is that Tom Dixon is THE pioneer in design for the home. You know whatever he does everyone else will follow. What is seen at this collection will filter down to high street home ware a short while later. When he started doing his Oil Slick range, the following season there were oil slick bowls and vases and plates; and lets not even start on 'copper'. His round copper pendant lights indisputably started the trend for copper in interiors.
Read MoreIt was only a short while ago that I was a wallpaper neophyte. Even though I jump into pretty much all DIY with both feet, eager and willing to giving whatever it is a go, with wallpaper it just did not appeal. Mixing the paste, matching the pattern, not covering the light switch - it all seemed so stressful. Yet when I decided that I wanted to wallpaper my bathroom, enough was enough, I needed to bite the bullet and learn how to do it. Turns out it wasn't as bad or as stressful as I had expected after all! Since then I've done a bit more wallpapering and learnt what you have to do and where you can cut corners, so to speak.
Read MoreThis week is British Flowers Week - but did you know only 10% of flowers sold in Britain are grown here? To highlight this fact, and to celebrate our home-grown flowers and foliage, New Covent Garden Flower Market launched British Flowers Week in 2013 to promote British flowers, their growers and the independent florists working with them. One of those independent florists is Agent F, whose bouquets are a riot of colour and who I first met just before Xmas when I made a festive table centrepiece with them.
Read MoreThe guest room in our house has been somewhat neglected compared to the other rooms. The furniture that has been in there the past couple of years since we moved in was furniture from our old house that I didn't really like anymore. The sofa bed had seen better days and was on its last legs. This room has been on the re-do list for ages, but I was really struggling trying to decide what design would suit the room best.
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