Dining Room Mood Board

Hello

Today I'm going to share with you another mood board I created. This one is for the dining room. We are currently halfway through decorating this room and it is coming together really nicely. This design centred around the gorgeous birdcage wallpaper which is from Next (currently still in stock along with some wall decals in slightly different colours) priced at £15 per roll. This paper has a white background, with blue, green, brown and cream birdcages. The outlines of the cages are silver and all the of them have a pearlised finish which catches the light beautifully. My only criticism of this paper is that is stains easily. Lucy has shaken water off after a walk and it has marked the paper (humph!).

If you have seen my furniture customisation post you will know that we chose the duck egg blue colour to pick out the woodwork and have painted the non-papered walls white. It looks very fresh and clean :) 

I really want to have the furniture half painted like the photo above, but instead of cream use the duck egg blue. We have decided to get some kind of wood flooring because of the pets with a couple of  green rugs to make it softer under foot. The ones pictured are, surprise surprise, from Next, as is everything else in the picture. I have already bought the books which have secret storage and they tie in well with the wallpaper. In terms of accessories I will get things in either the white, blue or green that is on the wallpaper. I'm also planning a piece of wall art with pictures of the pets in ornate silver frames, possible with some cutout birdcages from the wallpaper intermingled between them.

Once we have finished this room I will upload some photos of the finished look and you can see how closely I followed the mood board!

TTFN!

How to Make A Victorian Silhouette

Hello

Today I am going to talk you through how to make your own Victorian silhouette using a photo and some black paper. I decided to make one for each member of our household because I thought it would be cute and would be fitting for our Victorian house.

To make your own silhouettes you will need photos taken side on (in profile), black paper, white paper, glue, photo frames of your choice (mine were from here) and scissors or a craft knife.

The first step is to cut your backing paper to size. The easiest way to do this is by taking out the piece of paper that comes with the frame and cutting around that.

Next you need to make sure your photos will fit into the frame. The way to do this is to use photo editing software. Create a blank canvas and put in the measurements of the aperture of the frame, then import your photo and resize it to fit in this space. On photoshop elements go to file>new>blank file. This bring up a window that allows you to put in some dimensions. Change the measurement from pixels to either inches, centimetres or millimetres (which ever is easiest for you) and put in the dimensions of your frame. Then click ok. Open a new window with the chosen photo then click and drag it into the blank file. Use the free transform tool  (image>transform>free transform) to resize the photo. Then print it.

Stick the photo onto some black paper using paper adhesive e.g. Pritt Stick

Carefully cut the photo (that is now stuck to black paper) out using either scissors or a craft knife.

Put the white paper you cut out earlier into the frame (minus the protective glass that come with the frame). You can then make sure the black head you have cut out is perfectly positioned within the frame. Glue the back of the head and stick it into position. Then take the silhouette out and replace the glass.

Silhouette complete!

Furniture Customisation

Hello

Today I thought I would write a post about how to customise wooden furniture. The techniques used would apply to any type of wooden furniture that you may want to customise. One of my new favourite hobbies is looking around second hand/antique furniture stores. Whilst doing this I kept seeing really cute wall mounted cupboards. I decided that I would really like one to go in the dining room to go with the traditional look we wanted to achieve. I found a really nice one in a local second hand furniture shop that had the perfect look. The price was £40 but I managed to haggle them down slightly to £36. This is what it looked like.

The first step is to fill in any holes or dents with some wood filler.

The second step is to sand down every surface you are going to paint and any areas that you have filled in with wood filler. This provides a good surface for painting. It should be done with a fine grade sandpaper so you don't get grooves in the wood. It also helps to keep the grain visible. 

Tip: Wrap the sandpaper around a small block of wood. This makes it quicker to do and easier to hold.

The third step is to wipe over where you have sanded with a damp cloth to remove any dust. If you don't do this the paint won't adhere to the wood properly and you won't get a smooth finish. Let the wood dry thoroughly before moving on to step 4.

The forth and final step is to paint it. The paint I have used is Homebase Home of Colour satin wood paint in the colour Duck Egg. This is the paint I have used on all the woodwork in the room so it will tie everything together nicely. Its best to use a wood paint, but if you want to match a wall colour you can use that emulsion paint, but you will need to apply a couple of layers of clear varnish afterwards to protect it.

You want to use smooth even strokes and keep an eye on any edges or joins for drops or build up of paint as you go. If you do this then you can correct them before the paint dries. I painted the whole cupboard with two coats and did a third on the outside surfaces. The number of coats you need will depend on the type of paint and what colour you are using or painting over. I didn't need to sand mine in between coats, but if you are a bit of a messy painter it may be worth doing a light sand between coats. But makes sure to wipe the surface as before, between layers.

 

And its complete!

Finishing Touches....

I added a couple of small hooks that I got from Homebase. The owls and heart are Christmas decorations from the local garden centre and the candle is a Yankee Small Jar in the fragrance Pineapple Cilantro. I got this purely because of the colour as it matches the green on the wallpaper. It does smell lovely too!

I'm really pleased with the results and its matches the other woodwork perfectly. Its a big improvement on the grubby cupboard I started with.

TTFN and good luck with your own furniture customisation projects!

Living Room Mood Board

Hello

Today I thought I'd share another mood board. I've already shared my bedroom moodboard. Today I thought I would share my living room mood board. We have nearly finished decorating this room now and it has changed a bit. As I explained in this post the red and the grey didn't really work, so it is now all red with white accents.

We really wanted this room to be warm and cosy. So we have gone for red and dark brown wood. Its the only room in the house that will be a strong, dark colour. We are having a wood burner fitted into the fireplace. Rather than having a surround we are having an oak beam mantle shelf. The fire place is brick and quite rustic looking so I think this will look better than a formal fireplace surround. I haven't got a complete product list for this as I did images searches to get the look rather than choosing specific products. Here's where you can find some of the products.

OWL CANDLE- The Range £2.99

TREE DECAL- Etsy has various designs

RUG- Next Red Bloom £70-250

CLOCK- Newgate Knightsbridge Clock £57

This room is nearly finished now, so I will do a blog post with photos when it is all done and you can see how well I stuck to my mood board!

TTFN! 

Moving

Hello

Sorry for the blogging hiatus. I have had a very hectic two weeks moving into my new home! As you would expect it wasn't a fun experience. Even the prospect of it being OUR home didn't reduce the stress and exhaustion. But we are in and unpacked now. Phew!

We had been told we could pick up the keys on friday so we got up early and packed our remaining stuff and filled both cars up with as many boxes as we could. We then got a call saying the keys could be picked up at 11am. Which was brilliant as I have heard horror stories of people waiting all day in their removal vans to be able to pick up the keys. The estate agent was only a minute away from the house, so we didn't have to wait much longer to see out new home.

The first thing we did was look around everywhere properly. I had a lovely surprise when I opened the cupboard in the bedroom, to find a wardrobe large enough for all my clothes and shoes. This frees up space and also means I can sell my old wardrobe for some much needed cash! We unpacked the car, then my boyfriend went to get more stuff. We had decided it would be easier to paint the living room before we brought all the large furniture over. So while he was getting more smaller boxes I started decorating. In hindsight this might not have been the best idea as it made the whole process more drawn out and exhausting. We had chosen a colour called 'Roasted Red' which on the label looked like a nice darkish red. To go with it I had chosen a light grey. This idea may sound whacky but I had seen it in one of the paint swatch books you can get in DIY shops and it looked lovely. So I started painting and immediately hated the 'red'. It wasn't actually a red, but more of a burnt orange. I hate orange! Stupidly we hadn't bought testers first, but went straight to the big pots. So that was £18 wasted! Anyhoo I carried on with the grey and resolved to go to Homebase the next day and get a 'proper' red.

The next day we moved over some smaller boxes and I went to Homebase to get another red paint. This time I got tester and found the perfect true bright red (crazy I know but wait until you see it finished). So I carried on painting with some help from my sister. After painting 3 walls and leaving the other grey, we decided that that didn't work either so I painted over that in red. Another pot of paint wasted! The finished look is really nice and very cosy. All the big stuff had been moved by this point so this was our first night sleeping in our new home.

Unfortunately we didn't have an oven and had a lot of trouble finding one that would be delivered quickly (there's only so long you can eat hot food purely from a microwave). We wanted to get an electric cooker but the wiring was not in place to have it fitted so we have had to get a gas oven. I'm gutted about this as I hate gas. I think is so dangerous and its much more temperamental getting the temperature right. But at least we now have everything we need to live comfortably.

A month later we have one room decorated and have nearly finished another room, and everything is unpacked. I've also done some work in the garden and bought some pots. Each day we do a bit more work and it gets a bit more like the home we want it to be.

TTFN!

Bedroom Mood Board

Hello

Whilst enduring the agonising wait for moving day, I have been making mood boards for each room in the house. I've found that this is a really good way to build the look you want for the room and decide on matching accessories. With this one I started with the wallpaper. We were originally going to have this wallpaper in the flat, but we decided it would work equally as well in the house. The photo doesn't do it justice. The script is actually done in very light gold and silver so it catches the light beautifully. As you can see from the photo, NEXT have used heather coloured accessories to dress the shot. I think this colour goes beautifully with the cream, and purple is also my favourite colour. So I have used this as the colour scheme. NEXT also do a paint range that matches their wallpapers. 'Autumn Heather' and 'Calico Old English' match perfectly with this look.

We want to keep the decor quite traditional so it is in keeping with the style of the property (Victorian). So I have chosen old fashioned furniture. We love the traditional metal framed bed as it is cream with really nice brushed bronze detail. The furniture shown is all from NEXT but I don't think we will purchase it all from there. I like the style of the wardrobes, chest of drawers, dresser and bed side tables but I would like to get them custom made exactly how we want them. For example the wardrobe isn't big enough.

The overall look I was going for with this room is tradition, but light and airy. The flat we are currently renting can get quite dark at times and it can affect my mood in a negative way so I really want the whole house to feel really fresh and light. I think when the bedroom is finished its going to be a really lovely space to relax in. Incase there are any items here that you would like for your own home I have made a list below of the items, prices and where to find them-

PAINT- Old English Calico £2-£14

PAINT- Autumn Heather £2-£14

WALLPAPER- French Script £15

WOODEN FURNITURE- Isabella Range

BED- Leamington Bedstead £250-£450

CURTAINS- Mauve Ella Eyelet £35-£105

BEDDING- Vintage Wash Floral £35-£65

BEDDING- Natural Lace £25-£55

RUG- Sparkle Heather £45-£230

CUSHION- Faux Ostrich £16

BIN- £25

PAINTING- Lying Lady £80

GLASS BOTTLES- Set of three £22

FRAMES- Set of three £15

Mood boards for the bathroom, kitchen, living room and dining room are to follow. I will also post photos of the rooms once we have decorated them so you can see how the look came together.

Thanks for reading :)

Websites Selling Beautiful Things

Hello

I thought I would share a couple of lovely websites I have found recently that sell gorgeous homewares. The first one I found by chance when googling pictures of clocks. Its called Mollie and Fred. It sells lot of vintage items from some bigs names such as Cath Kidson and they offer free P&P when you spend over £50. I haven't purchased anything yet as I don't want to add to the things I'll have to move, but I've got my eye on a few things...

I love this cute and unusual key hook. Price £16.99.

These photo frames will go perfectly in the bedroom. Price £18.99.

I heart (see what I did there) this Emma Bridgewater Biscuit Tin. Price £12.99.

They also have a gorgeous collection of door mats. Prices £16.99-18.99.

The other site I have found is Dot Com Gift Shop. This again has a lot of vintage products. Delivery is £2.95 or free on orders over £50. Again I haven't ordered from here yet. A few of my favourites items are...

This vintage sign. Price £3.95.

These really cute key fobs. They have got 'Front Door', 'Back Door', 'Garage' and 'Shed'. Price £1.95.

And these cute storage jars. Price £23.95.

If/when I order from either of these sites I will do a blog post (and possibly a youtube haul video) reviewing the products and service with lots of photos. If you know of any good sites please leave them as a comment. I would love to look at them :-)