Bathroom makeover before + after*

Small bathroom redecoration project 

A shamefully long time ago I wrote a post about planning our bathroom makeover; this was back in January, when I did plan almost all of the redecoration. However, it then took us until May to find and agree on a price with a suitable plumber. Also because we did a lot of the work ourselves in snatched evenings and weekends, it took what felt like forever to get it finished. And then life kept getting in the way of me photographing and blogging it for you. 
But FINALLY... Here's the before - no natural light, no storage and basically no space.

And here are all the pretty afters...

The main difference has got to be light and airy feel the room now has. To give the bathroom some much needed natural light we added a sun tunnel to the ceiling, which goes through our attic and out onto the roof, you can't see through it but it lets loads of lovely light in. The perfect solution when you don't have any budget or space for a proper window. See a picture of the bit you can see in the ceiling here.
The second difference is the wall paint, although it caused us extra work and a bit more cost to strip all the existing tiles and get the top half of the room plastered I was adamant that it needed doing and I'm so glad I insisted. It's opened the space up and allowed us to use this gorgeous Light and Space wall paint by Dulux*. It's billed as using Lumitec and light-reflecting particles to reflect light back into the room. I was a little sceptical when reading about it, but figured in such a dark bathroom we needed all the help we could get! I'm really impressed with the job it's done, and actually spent a few weeks wondering why the corners looked so different in this room and finally realised it's because they are lighter than other rooms - so those light-reflecting particles seem to be doing something.

The other really major change is that we've removed the bath and replaced it with a shower cubicle. I know most bloggers love their baths, but in all honesty neither of us ever used it and as it was taking up valuable space we put a shower cubicle and a proper shower in. We've got so much space in return and were able to use the extra wall space to add a heated towel rail instead of a radiator, which we're loving now the weather is getting colder. The lighter and easy to look after vinyl floor has also opened up the space. Plus we have storage! I even have a few extra ideas to squeeze in even more storage if we need to in the future, but as we're okay at the moment I think it's time for a rest first.
I'd love to know what you think.

*the paint was supplied by Dulux for the purpose of a review, but all opinions are my own.


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The Maker Place wish list*

While we're still busy decorating all the rooms in our house (to all of you who told me it's a slow process, I believe you now!) earlier this year we made a bit of a resolution to think more about our purchases and focus on investing in a few key pieces, particularly from local and UK based makers and designers. And The Maker Place is a new online site where you can do just that. 

With everything from kitchenware to office accessories and wallpaper to decorative prints, it's bursting with handmade pieces from some incredibly talented makers. Each maker has their own profile page so you can find out a bit more about who you're buying from and they feature in-depth interviews on their blog, the most recent with potter Kara Leigh Ford is well worth a read - she got down to the final 20 auditions for the Great Pottery Showdown and I love her organic style (and her striped shed/studio)! 

Here's a little pre-payday wish list of some of my favourite pieces:

Clockwise from top left: stoneware speckle teapot, nest building materials cushion, classic Swedish butter knives, peg it all little in green peg board, great tit screen print, sea foam dinner plate
What handmade pieces are you keen to pick up for your home this season?
*Affiliate links - if you're thinking of making a purchase I'd be honoured if you'd use the links in this post to do so and I'll receive a little bit of commission.

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Recently I’ve been…

Seeing as I haven’t managed to blog for nearly a month, it’s safe to assume that recently I’ve been... fairly busy. So thought I’d better hop on the blog today to apologise and explain the reason for the radio silence.
Firstly, a couple of weeks ago my laptop finally decided it had seen enough photos of crochet and flowers and announced it was full. Some rather desperate deleting ensued but it was clear I wanted to keep more photographs than it would allow. Luckily this was just before my birthday, so the boyfriend’s present to me was to buy and fit a new larger hard drive. Unfortunately this took longer than expected as it also coincided with the start of redecorating our bathroom…
I mentioned when writing this post that we’d be getting our bathroom redecorated this year, and while I planned what we’d need doing back in January it took us a good few months to get quotes and book in a plumber.  To save money we’re doing a lot of the work ourselves, so my evening and weekend blog time has now been taken over by removing  tiles and plasterboard, putting up new plasterboard, removing the tiled floor and many, many DIY shop and tip trips. There’s still a very long way to go as you can see in the picture below! 

But aside from manual labour, I have also been…

Crocheting this cushion for a friend’s birthday, the colours are inspired our local bluebell wood and I’m pleased to say she liked it. I also kind of wanted to keep it for myself.

Visiting Nymans a nearby National Trust garden, which I’ve blogged about several times before, including here. I love that there’s always something different in bloom and took home lots of inspiration for our garden (the next project after the bathroom).

Growing tomato seedlings, I did also try and grow some last year but they seemed to give up the ghost just after I re-potted them. Since re-potting these ones it’s so far so good and they're much bigger than last year's already! 
What have you been up to? 
I’m also terribly behind on blog reading so feel free to add your latest post in the comments so I can catch-up.


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Living room update - easy gallery wall

What else is a bank holiday for if not a bit of DIY? So over the Easter weekend we put up this super simple but highly effective (if I do say so myself) gallery wall. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that despite living in our house for over a year, these are the first pictures we've put up. And considering how much more homely they make the place feel, I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner! 

As promised, they were really easy (and cheap) to do. The frames are from The Range and were a bargain at just £3 each for a 10x8" frame, Wilko and Ikea would also be good places to look for cheap but stylish frames. The photographs are all ones taken by me (most have featured on the blog in one post or another) on various holidays over the last few years. I ordered them from Truprint for just 99p each meaning the whole thing cost less than £25.
As the frames are all the same it made placing them so much quicker than trying to design a mix and match gallery wall. I also wanted a cleaner, more uniform look for the living room. Plus I'm saving the mix and match gallery wall for our hallway!

To put them up we started with the middle two frames and worked outwards, making sure the gaps between the frames were all 4cm. We also made sure to measure each frame individually rather than just assume all the hanging hooks were in the same place – which was a good call as they weren't! 
I think we did a pretty good job and as a bonus they make the room feel bigger and taller too.
Would you have a uniform gallery wall in your home or do you prefer the mix and match style? 

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5 tips to simplify your next interior decoration project

How to make planning your next room redecoration easier

Planning to redecorate a room in your home can be both really exciting and really stressful. Who else gets that eekitsalltoomuchidon'tknowwheretostart feeling? Where you have so many ideas, thoughts and things to remember it's completely overwhelming and you end up distractedly browsing a few websites then panic a bit and give up. Not the most productive use of time, but this was about as far as I kept getting with the plans to redecorate our new bathroom. So I sat down and came up with these tips to make the whole process easier, quicker and less stressful. Seriously, they’ve opened my once-disorganised eyes. I’ve written the tips with a bathroom focus, but you could apply to any room or redecoration project.

1. Work out what you want to achieve with the redecoration Is it just a new look? Or do you also want to create more space? How about more storage? Pinpointing this will help focus the rest of your ideas, and will ensure by the end of the project you achieve what you set out to. For our bathroom redo we want to achieve more space, more storage and make the room feel brighter.
2. Gather inspiration  We all know I'm going to mention Pinterest here, but I do find Pinterest can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, too much inspiration, you know? For example, my bathroom board is full of characterful country bathrooms and roll top baths (neither of which are suitable for our current tiny bathroom) as well as the more realistic small space ideas I've gathered since thinking about the project. So either set up a new board specifically for your project and keep all the roll top pics for the next house, or print off and create a mood board of all the relevant pictures. You might be amazed what it suddenly shows you when all the most appropriate stuff is in one place... clearly our bathroom will be blue and white!
3. Samples, samples, samples Nothing helps you make a decision faster or reduce risk of costly mistakes than getting in some actual samples. Lots of online stores like Victoria Plumb and Tile Mountain offer free samples, or you can buy samples of tiles, flooring and paint from most DIY stores for a few pounds. 
4. Take measurements and keep them to hand What's the point of thinking 'oh that might fit' when out shopping or browsing online, when you could check the measurement and know for sure? Measure the whole room and keep them in your handbag or on your phone, it's a massive time saver. Also if you're tight on space like our bathroom is, draw the measurements out to a small scale onto some graph paper and you'll be able to see exactly what space you'll have to work with.  
5. Get a rough budget in place In a similar way to tip 4 once you have a rough budget you'll know what you can afford and decision making will become easier. Fallen in love with some expensive wall tiles? Then you'll know you might have to economise on the flooring, or find a cheaper shower. Keep a running total so that you can assess and readjust as necessary.
Right, if you've done all that you should be feeling far more decisive and in a much better position to get on with the project! I’ll keep you posted on our bathroom progress. 

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Festive TV stand refresh

You can’t beat a traditional fireplace for creating a cosy atmosphere at Christmas time. But for those of us who don’t have a roaring log (or gas) fire in our living rooms to adorn with stockings, it’s still possible to get that festive feeling. I've teamed up with home brand Wayfair to create this simple TV stand upcycle.
Head over to Wayfair for the full project!

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Skylight inspiration AKA Project Natural Light

The big compromise when we brought our first house last autumn was the bathroom. Apart from being small and outdated, its major flaw is the lack of a window and therefore any natural light. The fact that we brought the house anyway is a testament to just how much we loved the rest of it! Especially considering we had already rented a flat with a windowless bathroom for 18 months - so a bathroom window pretty much at the top of my house hunting wish list. It’s funny how things work out.
But all is not lost. We figured once we got settled we could research how to get some natural light into the bathroom. Being a terraced house a skylight is definitely the most light-giving option (others include glass style bricks to steal light from neighbouring rooms or adding sun tunnels to the ceiling). A couple of weeks ago we had a builder round to see if it was a possibility, which it is and I'm super excited to report ‘project natural light’ has begun.
Obviously, I headed straight to pinterest for some dreamy skylight and décor inspiration… 

Image source / image source

Image source / image source And when you think of skylights, VELUX* is probably the company that springs to mind. I’ve been looking at their range of blinds, which includes everything from blackout to roman, and decided that their venetian blind would be the ideal finishing touch. Helping to keep the room cool and provide a bit of privacy when needed (we live next door to a gliding school!). However, if I thought I could get away with it I’d also be quite tempted by their The Disney and VELUX Dream Collection 'Bambi 1' blackout blind, which is the stuff my 10 year old self would have dreamed of. 
Anyway back to grown up skylights, do you have one in your house? Which bathroom look would you go for? I just love the tile colour in the top right image.
*sponsored link

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DIY painted bedside table makeover

These two bargain bedside tables (thanks, ebay) were in desperate need of a revamp to fit our bedroom decor, so over Easter weekend (and then some) I brightened them up with a lick of white and yellow homemade chalk paint (find the recipe below). 
I say, 'over Easter weekend'... you know those projects that take so much longer than you expect. Yeah, this was one of those. Despite starting them over Easter it took another two weekends before I had finished them!
But it was all worth it as I'm really happy with the result. To get the chalk paint effect I mixed 1/2 cup of Plaster of Paris with 1/4 cup of water and mixed then added this to 1 & 1/2 cups of paint. I guessed the paint quantity, as didn't want to ruin my measuring jug! Just add more plaster or more water if the consistency is wrong, it should be on the thicker side of paint, but not so much that it's difficult to paint with.

The paint used is dulux matt in white chiffon and lemon tropics. We had the white left over from painting the walls and I just brought two tester pots of the yellow.
Although the chalk paint recipe meant no sanding or priming which was great, it still took four coats to cover the dark wood. I might experiment with a different recipe next time as I know some should only require one coat, and I've already got two more projects in mind! 
It's also the first time I've waxed painted furniture, but as these will get a lot of use I decided it was definitely worth the extra effort. I used rustoleum painted furniture wax, but would only recommend using this on pale colours. I read a few reviews before purchasing and it seems to leave white streaks on darker colous - I think stains might be better when sealing darker paint. Luckily there are no streaks here.

I love the finished look and it's so nice not to have everything on the floor next to the bed, no more half falling out when trying to snooze my alarm in the mornings!

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Don't tell by Karen Rose - A book review

Shhh... he's coming for you. Don't tell

I'm ashamed to say I'm totally one of those people who judge books by their cover (books only though) and therefore if I hadn't been leant this book by a colleague, which came with a glowing review, I probably wouldn't have picked it up off a shelf and that would have been such a shame. After quite a few chic lit reads recently this thriller was a welcome change, even if the first few murder descriptions were a bit graphic for my liking. I can't decide if they got tamer as the book progressed or if I got used to them! Anyway back to the review...

Plot - the story centres on Caroline Stewart who builds a new life in Chicago after running away from her violent husband. Just as she and her son are starting to feel safe after seven years away, her old car is pulled from the lake making her husband realise they could still be alive and he embarks on a murderous journey to track them down.

Rather than being a strict thriller, Rose manages to weave in a love interest in the form of Caroline's new boss Max Hunter, and for a while this 'will they, won't they' overshadows the reader's fear of her husband tracking her down. It's a well written book and Caroline and Max's characters have real depth, you certainly can't see all their actions coming, which is something I often find in thrillers. Rose also manages to twist your emotions and loyalties to different characters, just when you decide to feel sorry for one of them she manages to make you question it! I won't give away the ending but it's a good one, a 'just one more chapter before bed' kind of ending.

Just one word of caution from the colleague who lent me the book, apparently some of Rose's books can be quite similar, so she wouldn't suggest reading them back to back. I’ll definitely be reading more in the future though.

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Buying a home | How NOT to move house

AKA how we moved house.

So you've exchanged contracts, congratulations! It's time to start thinking about the practicalities of moving your life from one place to another.

I missed this step. Our house purchase was difficult and teetered on the edge of falling through for a good two months while we tried desperately to sort everything out. Because of this I became very superstitious (not like me at all!) and couldn't even think of the light at the end of the tunnel until we had the keys in our hands. Miraculously this did happen and the keys were ours. But then we suddenly had less than a week to move in and we wanted to spend most of that painting the new place. Oops.

We packed in a rush. Everything in boxes and black sacks, I labelled the first two boxes then gave up and just packed things where they would fit, regardless of what room they came from or whether I'd remember which box they were in (unsurprisingly I didn't). It took much longer than I expected and we had much more stuff than I thought we did. I hadn't prepared enough bubble wrap or protection for fragile things so anything slightly squishy was used to pack up breakable items. And as the boxes weren't labelled we just piled them all into our new living room, with no idea which one went where. It. Was. Stressful. Here's the only photograph I had time to take!

So with my cautionary tale out of the way - I've created a pinterest board with some links to people who clearly have the whole packing thing sorted. Listen to them.

My favourite tips are using a black sack to pack clothes together while keeping them on hangers (massive timesaver) and using coloured tape or washi tape on boxes to signify different rooms at a glance. Find more here.

Happy moving!

Previous buying a home posts - three things I learned when searching for a house and top tips for once your offer is accepted.

Buying a home | Top tips for once your offer is accepted

There are lots of online guides offering help for what to do when your offer is accepted (nationwide has a good one here), so I won't go into detail on the actual process. Instead here are some top tips learned from experience, a few things that the various people involved might not tell you.

Use a local solicitor
For some reason (alright, there's probably a very good one) solicitors insist on posting a lot of documents, using a local solicitor will mean you can collect and drop things off when necessary and cut out postage times. They also have better local knowledge and often a good relationship with your estate agent which can help. It’s best to try and find someone who has been personally recommended – by a friend or relative, the ones recommended by either your mortgage company or estate agents might not be the best. Get quotes from at least two as well, to check they’re reasonably priced.

Don't start 'moving in' emotionally
Sorry this is a bit of a depressing one, but until you actually exchange contracts there is still a lot that can go wrong. By all means celebrate your accepted offer, but I wouldn't recommend buying your paint. It's hard not to start planning and buying bits, especially when you're a first time buyer, but it makes it much worse if things go wrong (trust me on this!). Take it one step at a time.

Shop around for insurance quotes
Don't just take the home, contents and life insurance offered to you by your mortgage provider. We'd got to the point of being bamboozled by all the little costs associated when buying a house (lots of them, like particular searches and reports you have no choice over) so it's easy to get stuck into saying 'yes' just to keep the process moving. But set one evening and do some comparison quote searches for your insurances. You'll most likely find a better deal by going direct to a company rather than through your mortgage provider.

I'd love to hear any more tips you might have, leave them in the comments. Up next – moving day and what not to do (learn from our mistakes!). Don’t forget you can also look back at three things I learned when searching for a house.

Buying a home | Searching for a house - three things I learned

If I could sum up our home buying experience in three words it would be exciting, scary & stressful. With that in mind I thought I'd share a few posts on home buying for any of you first time buyers hoping to make the big move this year. Kicking off with three things I learned when searching for our first house.

Photographs lie - don't get excited until you see it in person
We learned this about 5 minutes after our first viewing, looking down at our rightmove app and then back up at the rather disappointing house we had just exited. Photographs can make rooms seem larger, brighter and hide unsightly features! Look at floorplans to get a more accurate picture, most online listings now include these and many have room sizes marked out. I spent many a sleepless night excited at the prospect of viewing our 'dream home', only to be disappointed by my preconceptions.

It works both ways though. If a house is a great location and at a good price, don’t dismiss it because the photographs don't do anything for you, like I said photographs can lie. Interestingly, the house we brought was one we hadn't seen any pictures of inside before we viewed it.

It really is all about location, location, location
I love that show, but once we were really in the midst of our search I struggled to watch it without feeling slightly depressed, watching all those people find houses! When buying your first home it's easy to start looking online and think 'wow we can afford more than I thought' and 'there's loads of choice'. But on closer inspection they back onto railway tracks (not that there is anything wrong with that, but it's not for us) or are completely the wrong side of town (practically in the next town). Unless you have an endless budget you'll have to compromise somewhere but we quickly decided location wasn't one we could compromise on.

If you're unsure of a particular street or location, go back at different times of the day, on weekends and weekdays to get a feel for the place - it's often good to do this before booking a viewing as you might instantly discount somewhere and save the time of viewing it.

The 'feeling' does exist
Five months and countless houses in I really did start to think the house for us wasn't out there. We'd come close with a few, but I was always missing that 'yes, I can see us and our stuff here...' feeling. Or when I was thinking it was a possibility the boyfriend wasn't. You can start to feel desperate and viewings turn from excitement into a chore, at this point I’d completely stopped watching L,L,L and any house buying shows as they were too stressful to watch!

But then one evening after work we had three viewings lined up and the first one we walked into was IT. We really did just know that was the house for us. Funnily enough the house we viewed after it that evening was actually bigger and closer to town, but that didn't matter as we'd both finally found the 'feeling'. It does exist.

I really hope that’s useful, or at least entertaining! If you have any questions let me know in the comments, I'm no expert but happy to share our experience as it certainly wasn't plain sailing. Next up: top tips for after your offer is accepted.

Bedroom feature wall: before & after

Three weeks in and all major decoration work to our bedroom is finished! And while it definitely needs a bit of dressing (eg. curtains and some accents in a contrasting colour) I just couldn't wait to show you our Farrow and Ball* feature wall.

Having worked in several historic houses I've always loved Farrow and Ball paints, the first time I came across them was seeing the gorgeous Ballroom Blue in the Bath Assembly Rooms - quite an introduction. So it's a bit of a dream come true having a drop of Farrow and Ball in my own home! I knew I was after a mint/duck egg colour for a feature wall in our bedroom and found this in Teresa's Green No. 236. Choosing simply from the colour chart and online pictures was a bit of a worry but it's exactly the colour I was hoping for. It was really nice to paint with too, quick drying and has a nice chalky finish (we used estate emulsion).

So here's the before...

and after!

This is the only room in the house where I can picture the 'finished' look - I had it decided after just our first viewing! As you can see we've painted the other walls a brighter off-white (they were cream previously) and painted the woodwork in brilliant white. You can't see it in the pictures but we've also put down new cream carpet, so all in all it is brighter and feels much more like 'our home' now!

Right, I'm off to go and stare at my new wall. And buy some curtains.

*post in collaboration with Farrow and Ball.

DIY vintage style painted table – before and after

I spotted a little dark wood table at a car boot last summer and immediately saw its vintage, shabby chic potential. I love the distressed painted furniture look, and after buying the table for just £2 I figured I couldn’t go wrong. It took me a lot longer than planned to get round to painting it, but now it’s finished I couldn’t be more pleased! The darker wood looks great underneath the chipped white paint.

This was the first time I’ve bothered to use primer paint when painting furniture and it definitely meant I could get away with fewer coats, plus it seemed to give a nice smooth base for the paint layers. So I might be a primer convert, unless I can suddenly afford nice Annie Sloan paint of course!

Top tip: when distressing your painted piece with sandpaper alternate between using the paper as normal and by wrapping it round a block of wood or similar (I used a particularly chunky screwdriver handle). By wrapping the sandpaper round something sturdy the paint chips in different sizes and shapes to when simply sanding, giving a more realistic distressed look.

Before

After

Our flat

We’ve been in our flat just over one month and it’s gone so quickly, there’s still plenty we need to buy and do – a dining table and shelves are the main items on our shopping list so we can actually spread our stuff out a bit and I’ve still got a few boxes at my parents house. With all that in mind I’m not exactly house proud yet so I thought I’d just share a few snaps of my favourite things.

The colours are mainly dictated by one of the kitchen walls which is a teal colour, luckily I love the colour teal and already have quite a bit of blue stuff to match with it so it worked out well. I love this kettle from argos, a moving gift from the boyfriend’s parents.

Also in the kitchen is our new clock from Marks and Spencer , after being unable to get it online I was over the moon to find it in our local M&S, ironically the bigger M&S stores I’d been to looking for it first were all sold out.

Our window sills are made tiles, not exactly my favourite feature but it’s growing on me, covering them with candles has helped.

My butterfly cross stitch matches the teal colour scheme very nicely.

As does this bath mat from h&m home – they have some gorgeous stuff but be warned delivery takes ages!

Finally, these are our latest bargains. We’re trying to buy second hand wherever possible – mainly for financial reasons (!) but also because of how wasteful it seems to go out and buy everything brand new. This small stand was £2 at a car boot and in the next few weeks will be sanded and painted (not sure what colour yet). The small plant pot was 50p from a charity shop and is similar to ones I’ve been eyeing in home stores for around £5, just need a plant now!