Author Archives: B

A reclaimed brass door handle and escutcheon for the front door.  It was surprisingly tricky to find a chunky handle but here are my beauties waiting for the joiner (our neighbour) to fit at the same time as draughtproofing in preparation for demolition of the porch.  Naturally they were from Ebay sellers, but they were reasonably priced (£50 and £5) compared with reproductions.  Ebay is my new Pinterest, and luckily we don’t have a van as otherwise we’d be swamped with impulse-bought furniture we don’t need and can’t afford :).

PS N you said you’d painted the front door, can we have a quick snap? x

Okay, so it’s a year since I scrubbed and gave the bathroom a mini makeover. It’s going to be old and tired before I blog it – and I think I was waiting for it to be perfect. This past couple of weeks’ blogging has made me start to appreciate what we’ve got rather than wishing it was better. So here are our efforts.

It’s our main bathroom but on the small side (N, you have the right idea converting a spacious bedroom into a luxurious bath).  We also have a quirky sloped ceiling that accommodates the stairs to the second (or third if you’re American) floor.  And the walls and ceiling are covered in spiky artex.

Mostly this quick fix involved elbow grease, a lick of paint, some new lino, a loo seat and a sealant gun.  I’ve spared you a detailed photo of the stick on plastic bath seal removal; suffice to say it felt like the family of six who lived here had left half their epidermis stuck behind it, and the taps were stuck to the bath with rust.  Our wonderful fixer man fitted a new cheap electric shower and replaced the taps (worn and rusted gold plate) with Screwfix jobs (the ‘C’ has already worn off the basin tap but at the price I paid I’m not surprised). Total cost about £300. It’s still a bugger to clean (textured tiles and limescale) but it doesn’t feel so much like my student house circa 1998!  The vases etc I already had and the picture is wrapping paper from Rockett St George.  Here’s what it looked like before…

N, your bathroom is flippin’ gorgeous, but if I stop saying I can’t wait to have one like it then I hope I can enjoy this one a little more :).  x

We are spending a lot of time outside at the moment. In lieu of a cool outdoor kitchen or decent barbecue we have fired up the camping stove. I love the solid, functional calor gas bottle and cast iron stove even if it wouldn’t win any interiors prizes. Add 6music on my new  80s-style DAB radio, fresh thyme for the risotto, and sunshine (and perhaps a glass of something cold, dry and floral) and I’m very happy indeed.

Patterns, sunshine and a coat rack revamped with leftovers from painting the kitchen cupboards.  Makes me smile every time I potter past to the garden. Ironing board from Wilkos and bag 3 quid from IKEA.

Sweet peas in the garden and the home. Wigwam fashioned from a faggot of hazel poles from the local country park (a fiver!) and bottle courtesy of the Acorns Hospice shop. Dreaming about what the garden could be with a few more years’ effort. There is pleasure in budget-induced restraint. And plenty of Pinterest and Gardener’s World perving!

I need to step away from perfection and start posting! Lengthy posts about finished rooms are beyond me at the moment, so instead here you will find a few details and random thoughts. First, what happens on a wet afternoon when left alone with a paintbrush (don’t worry, it’s a knackered repro fireplace). I do need to watch myself or the entire house will be painted in shades of slate, stone and fog…

Beautiful hand-blown baubles at the Jinney Ring this morning

I am still living in a house of half finished rooms, hence no new posts.  However, I have been doing some Christmas decorating and have a few pics to share.  This morning we visited a local craft centre, the Jinney Ring (oo er missus) where there are little individual workshops where artists are making stained glass windows (including restoring our front door), chocolates, violins and other beautiful things.  We have started a new tradition, buying a bauble from the glass blower.  I could spend a fortune in there, but we’ll have to limit it to one per year for the time being!  We’re on a bit of an economy drive this year.  The tree came from a local farm (much more fun than picking one up from Homebase in the middle of the city) but we chose a ‘dropper’ and I’m slightly concerned that there will not be any needles left for Christmas.  Our only new decorations came from TK Maxx (I love that place) and I managed to get 20 little blue glass gems for 6 pounds, which looked far more impressive with the addition of Hobbycraft ribbon.  And I couldn’t resist the peacocks.  Neither can my daughter, who keeps stroking them.  I’ve attacked the enormous conifer in the back garden and wired the trimmings to the banister, making our curtainless, artexed hallway look a little more festive.  My old Woolworth’s neon Christmas light is bathing everything in a ruby glow.  I haven’t finished Cillit Banging the minton floor tiles in Downton Abbey scrubber style yet so the floor is looking a bit patchy.  And finally I’ve tied glittery deer to the lampshade in the dining room and added some sparkly baubles to the Cable and Cotton string lights that are a year-round feature on the mantelpiece.

The tree: losing needles fast!

TK Maxx peacock

More TK Maxx treasure!

Some festive glueing

Conifer garland and neon merry Christmas (ignore the half restored floor tiles!)

New Cable and Cotton lights and twinkly Hobbycraft deer suspended over the table

Okay, so life keeps getting in the way of blogging.  And decorating.  But here is one room that is on its way; the spare room.  It started life as a (20 year old, ripped and cartoon stickered) wallpapered room with a falling down curtain, and a carpet that had seen better days.

Remember this?

What’s been done:

• Painted white (on top of the wallpaper as we couldn’t afford to strip it properly)
• Carpeted in grey
• Window dressed with another bargain IKEA roller blind until we can afford more
• Fireplace board removed
• Grate blackened
• Dressing table found in an alleyway before we left the city painted and given new handles
• Ercol armchair ‘covered’ (i.e. wrapped) in fabric
• Canvas covered in same fabric

It needs more personality – some photos, and a bit more nature and art.  But it means that we have a nice place for guests to stay for the first time in two years.  Kinda vital when you have moved away from all of your friends (phew!)

Can you see the edges on that dodgy wallpaper?  And the minton floor (all the minton floors) still needs a good scrub with white spirit and wire wool.

This is part of a 3 piece Ercol suite picked up on eBay. The rest is yet to be titivated…

I can’t compete with N but hopefully the hydrangea stem from the garden will dry nicely (I can’t take any credit: it just grew). Bedside table also found in an alleyway in the city and needs a repaint!  And if I was a stylist it would be full of vintage fabrics amassed on my travels.  Oh well.

The bed is too big and my photography skills too poor to do it justice. I need some lessons, N!

The dressing table started out like this…

Before…the formica was just too nicotine stained and the handles wouldn’t polish up (they weren’t good quality anyway)

After a few coats of craft enamel and some new IKEA handles

Bed IKEA from old house (wouldn’t fit in our new room).  Bed linen Homebase (the glamour!)  Silk peonies TK Maxx.  Green pots (on mantel) and ceramic pin pot (at bedside – with the Queen’s seal) charity shops.  Green vases IKEA buys over the years.  Lamp IKEA.  Silk bird (stuffed with lavender) a lovely handmade present.  Fabric IKEA (for teenagers’ rooms, so they reckon).

I’ve been on a management bollocks course this week, although I use the term affectionately and I’m not as cynical as I sound.  And who would have thought revisiting my Myers-Briggs personality preferences would shed light on my blogging and interiors habits: specifically why I never see anything as ‘finished’ and ready for sharing?  Apparently, for me, finishing something means that the creative process is over, and endpoints aren’t where my satisfaction is found.  I need things to be ‘works in progress’ to keep the energy flowing.   So, while I continue plugging away at a houseful of unfinished tasks (yes, kitchen cupboards still in progress), here are some photos of the most together room, the sitting room…

The view from the (very unfinished) hall

G Plan fan club

They don’t make architraves like this any more

I suspect these tiles aren’t original but I love them anyway

Note my unromantic anniversary card on the mantelpiece: N we need some lessons from you and J!

Big sideboard, little stool. I must confess that although it was a perfect home for the decks and vinyl in our twenties, I’m glad they have been relegated to the IKEA Expedit next door!

Beads

What’s what

Furniture:

Rocking chair (covered in IKEA blanket) and tiny stool hand me downs from Granny (the stool was made for Granny and her sister Edna by her father for sitting by the fire to dry their hair).  Coffee table G Plan (£70) and sideboard (£60) Ebay steals six years ago.  Sofa a trusty IKEA Ektorp.

Details:

Print tray from Mum, tat from my travels.  Lamp base Habitat Spindle, shade John Lewis (thanks Mum).  Wall lights IKEA separate bases and shades.  Origami pendant my £6 sale find at Next Home.  Steel candelabra old Habitat, glass candlesticks wedding prezzie from the girls.  Bowl (on table) wedding present from Tom from Morocco (note the excellent taste of mes amis).  Cushions: pink quilted an old Muji buy, blue striped IKEA outdoor cushion, floral TKMaxx.  Pictures: Danish chairs an Ebay find in IKEA frame, mini canvas a tenner from a tourist tat shop on Mykonos.  Paperweight TKMaxx, mirrorball from the Christmas tree, beads (on light) from Topshop years ago, blanket from Tweedmill (thanks to sister in law).

Total new purchases = striped IKEA cushion.  Am rather chuffed with that :).

My antique print tray passed to me by my mum, filled with plastic tat and trinkets alongside my Great Gran’s thimble, my own nappy pin and a wooden rabbit with one ear from my Granny.

Last weekend – so cold we lit the fire in the evening

This weekend – 26 degrees and enjoying summer flowers from my folks

New sand pit made from old Belfast sink we found in the garden

New improvised decking and pots to stop small people damaging themselves (somebody should tell her about that label)

The Olympic flame passed the bottom of our road so it would have been rude to miss it, although it was rather an odd occasion with more police and sponsors than torch bearers

We’ve been living in the house for two whole weeks now and I haven’t blogged anything yet, mostly because nothing is finished and I’m not quite sure where to start.  Should I post finished rooms with before and after shots, or bits and bobs along the way?  While I dither about what to post on a blog read by N and a handful of people who really don’t mind, here’s a couple of shots from the past couple of weeks.