Revamp Restyle Reveal: The Big Living Room Reveal!!!
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!
Read MoreBlue Hues: Bringing The Inside Out With Garden Furniture From Marks & Spencer
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.
Read MoreHow To Apply Window Film With The Window Film Company
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
Read MoreBirds, Flowers & Butterflies: The New Spring Wallpaper Collections From Laura Ashley
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.
Read MoreCreating A Gold & Teal Geometric Paint Effect In A Hallway
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.
Read MoreCreating A Gallery Wall In My Hallway With Desenio Art Prints
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.
Read MoreGreat Design For A Great Price: Focusing On Debenhams Lighting
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.
Read MoreUpdating The Kitchen: Looking Towards Kitchen Trends With Howdens
Our oven decided to stop working two days before Christmas. Including us, there were 8 people to cook for on Christmas Day. We ended up making roast potatoes in a frying pan and relied on a lot of boiled vegetables to get us through the meal. Feverishly attempting to purchase a new oven in the Boxing Day sales we found the age-old range installed by the previous owners was a tiny 76cm wide, with the modern standard width being 90cm. The only thing to do was to cut down the existing cabinets and shave back the worktop to make room for a larger cooker. This has now all been done and we have a lovely shiny new oven, but I'm left with half my kitchen units unpainted, plus a missing splashback (they had to remove the tiles to fit the new cooker). I now need to give my kitchen a mini-refresh, and as we are at the start of the year I've been looking towards predictions for kitchen trends in 2018 to give me a bit of kitchen design inspiration.
Read MoreHow to DIY a Rainbow Mural
The 12th - 18th March 2018 is National Home Improvement Week - a week to inspire, celebrate and enable people to improve their own homes. So when DIY & Home Improvement online marketplace Mano Mano asked me to share a great DIY that people could easily copy, I instantly thought of the nursery project that I had recently carried out for one of my clients.
Read MoreProduct Review: Leisure Chefmaster Dual Fuel Range Cooker from AO.com
Our old range cooker was inherited from the previous owners of the house when we moved in three years ago. To be honest, it was always on its way out - one hob never worked and over time it took so long to cook anything I probably could have gone outside and rubbed two sticks together to create fire to boil a pan of water quicker than the time it took to cook a pizza to a decent standard in that oven. So when it finally packed up completely two days before Christmas (we ended up making roast potatoes in a frying pan for Christmas dinner) it was time to start 2018 with a brand new cooker.
Read MoreThe Best Budget Buy Floor Lamps
If you are redecorating or doing up a new home, one area where you can really save your money rather than blow the budget is on the lighting. There are some incredible lighting pieces out there that look designer, but have a very pocket-friendly high street price tag. Since this blog is all about getting a designer look for less, I couldn't resist sharing my recent list of top budget floor lamp finds.
Read MoreBest Of The Blues: 13 Blue Picks For The Home
Blue is my favourite colour, and it is definitely my favourite colour to decorate with (see my new maximalist blue bedroom here, and my blue living room here). I spend a lot of time fawning over the blue pieces of furniture and home ware that I find, so I'm going to share a few of my current faves, available to buy now, on the blog:
Read MoreDecorating my bedroom with Farrow & Ball Wallpaper
According to the interior mags and those 'in-the-know', minimalism is out for 2018 and maximalism - vibrant colours, patterns and a 'more is more' approach - is in. Being much more on the maximalism side than minimalist, I was pleased to hear this as I have just finished decorating my bedroom in Farrow & Ball's new Hegemone wallpaper, and giving my bed a fresh new update in beautiful, luxurious Yves Delorme bed linen.
Read MoreThe Best Teal Coloured Paints To Decorate Your Home With
2018 is all about maximalism, luxury and cocooning comfort. In my blog post last week I talked about how peacocks, and the beautiful teal colours associated with them, are set to be a big thing in interiors and decor this year. A client that I am currently working with wanted their hallway painted in a beautiful teal colour. Because of this, the past few weeks I have been researching and testing out numerous teal emulsion paints. I thought I would share with you the best of the teal colours that I found on my hunt for that perfect teal shade, in case you were thinking of going totally teal in your own home!
Read MoreWhat Will Be The Key Interior & Decor Trends In 2018?
Once Boxing Day is over I am itching to get all the Christmas decorations down and have a good clear out of all the clutter that has built up over the past month! Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but all the extra 'stuff' that takes up space in the house - from the tree and the decorations to the piles of gifts and boxes of uneaten mince pies - starts to bring out a bit of household claustrophobia! The New Year is a new start and once Christmas is cleared away I fill my home with hyacinths, count down to the first days of spring and start to think about how I'll change up my home in the year ahead.
Read MoreBefore & After: Guest Room Revamp Ready For Christmas
Long time readers of this blog will know that I've been working on my guest room for a loooooonng time. The room is in the basement of the house below ground level, is small and is therefore really dark. When we moved in I painted the room, but the room still just felt cold and had no homely, cosy feel to it at all. Being the guest room it also became victim to having furniture put in it from our old house that had no place elsewhere in our new home. Here is what it looked like before:
Read MoreColourful Sinks, Gothic Castles & Pretty Porcelain: The Wonderful World of Villeroy & Boch
Villeroy & Boch are one of those companies that you know and are aware of, even if you don't really know much about them. Their expertly applied trademark stamp adorns sinks and toilets in an abundance of hotels, restaurants and residential properties all over the world. Since 1743 Villeroy & Boch have been producing ceramic tableware, then, later on down the line, bathroom sanitary-ware, and are one of Europe's most valued and celebrated producers of ceramics and porcelain. So, when they invited me to go and stay with them for a few days at their headquarters in Mettlach, Germany, how could I refuse?
Read MoreHow To DIY A Xmas Wreath Like A Pro
I always make a Xmas wreath every year for my front door, but I'm totally self-taught. I just go with an idea in my head and run with it, which is great, but sometimes it is nice to get an insight into just how the professionals do it. When a really great florist makes a wreath, there is often something unexpected in the mix, and you know it will last right through over Xmas without wilting or drying out!
Read MoreTrees & Baubles: My Home At Xmas
Well hello and welcome to this years 'My Home At Xmas!' I can't quite believe it but this year is actually the first Christmas since my living room has been painted blue. The Xmas scheme for 2017 therefore had to match the new walls, so I am delighted to have partnered up with Balsam Hill this year as part of their 'Trees & Baubles' blog hop.
Read MoreHoliday House London With Farrow & Ball
Holiday House London is two ginormous Maida Vale mansions, right next door to each other, which have been completely transformed inside, top-to-toe, by some of the worlds leading interior designers. The mansions act as showhouses for the elite designers, plus some of the best lifestyle brands, to showcase their product and talent. The houses are then opened up to the public, and all money raised goes towards the prevention and cure of breast cancer. You'll agree that this is an excellent idea and a very worthy cause, but I am going to be completely honest here - I had heard of Holiday House London, but it wasn't something that I thought I would be interested in. I totally wrote it off as a big rich fundraiser for big rich people to showcase the sort of interiors and design that decked out a Kensington pied-à-terre, or a home in upstate New York.
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