Thursday 30 September 2010

Help! The White Company Are Tempting Me!

...I'm supposed to be working, yet all I want to do is snuggle up in bed...









Oh, you and your tempting catalogues, with those tempting offers...

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Bright.Bazaar and LivingEtc

Love images like this?:

Living Etc 

Living Etc has been one of my favourite magazines for a while (behold, the evidence below - a minuscule part of my collection that goes all the way back to 2000!) 




If you would like a chance to win a subscription, you should hurry over to Bright.Bazaar, where Will is giving one away. Just click on the following image to take you there:


Good luck... and may I the best person win!

Tuesday 28 September 2010

All That Glitters...

I have never particularly liked the colour Gold. I have never worn gold jewellery, and in the home I have always considered it a definite no-no; too brash, too bling - too much like this:


via Freshome
I am therefore loathe to admit that yes, you will find quite a lot of it in my house! Most of the blame, of course, lies with previous owners, whose taste was simply different to mine. They decided that gold was needed in the bathroom:


Thankfully we managed to change the gold taps...
 ...but mainly they used gold in the living room:

This is only a glimpse of the HUGE chandelier - subject of its own post at some point, once I get camera working again.

I therefore have no idea how this managed to sneak in!:

Double Gold
Despite my best efforts, Blogger thinks this photo looks better rotated by 90 degrees!

Do you find yourself living with something you never thought you would?

P.S. Apologies for the quality of these photos - had to take them on my phone as our camera is being a temperamental diva at the moment.


Monday 27 September 2010

Sleeping in the Air

My husband recently made a throw-away comment that I just can't get out of my head. You see, we live in a reasonably-sized 3-storey Victorian house with 4 bedrooms. Three of the bedrooms are  - by English standards at least - huge. The fourth was originally tiny, and has at some point been made even tinier by the fact that previous occupants stole some space from it to increase the size of the tiny bathroom.
Up until earlier this year, it was DD1's bedroom, however as I started working from home on a regular basis, I needed a proper space to spend my working hours, and the smallest room seemed like the obvious place. Our two girls now share a room (eventually I hope to split the top floor into two bedrooms for them).

Anyway, above what is now my study is a small loft space, probably just enough space for a double mattress. He mentioned that maybe we should open up the ceiling and put a double bed up there, as a useful extra space when we have guests.

Since then, I have been dreaming of a bed in the sky:

via apartmenttherapy


via Mabel & Violet




Daily Telegraph

Malta holiday home

Sadly, I think it would probably end up looking more like this:!


Friday 24 September 2010

The Retro Decorator - 80s bedroom

Go on - admit it; how many of you wanted a bedroom like this when you were younger? I know I did. Yes, we're back in the 80s. These pictures come from a book called "Making the most of children's rooms" by Mary Gilliatt for Marks & Spencer. I used to spend hours leafing through it, begging my parents to re-decorate again!





It's actually a really useful book - lots of great, practical tips. While a lot of the pictures do now look dated (such as those above), there are still some that stand the test of time, even now. I'm sure I'll post a few more in future.

Thursday 23 September 2010

Bargain of the Week

Back into the slightly more affordable end for this week's bargain of the week. I'm not sure whether I can count candles within my lighting fetish, or whether I should declare it separately, but I have been know to go a bit mad with them. There's just something about candlelight that brings out the romantic in me. The fact that these are scented is a plus (dodgy Victorian drains, I'm afraid!). Cinnamon and clove is such a lovely autumn/winter scent, too...

Yours for a very reasonable £9 currently at Dunelm Mill (shhhh...)

Source

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Let There Be Light

I've already mentioned that chairs and lights are my big weaknesses. When I first get hold of any interiors catalogue, my first instinct is always to turn to the lighting section. Maybe it says something about my craving for warmth and light - or maybe it's just the fact that lighting can transform a room in such a simple way. Here are some of my favourite pendants that I have seen recently:


Akiko pendant - Habitat

Black & White Chandelier shade from Brissi

Monday 20 September 2010

Weekend Project

Happy Monday - I hope you had a good weekend!

We spent our weekend in the garden, which has just undergone a major makeover. I'm planning to post some proper before and after pics, but at the moment it still needs a bit of work in terms of finishing off final touches and getting all the plants back in. We potted up a lot of the ones we wanted to keep before we started the work, and they have now spent almost 4 months in pots, and somewhat miraculously the vast majority of them appear to have survived! While we managed to get a lot of them in, this is what is still waiting:




I think we may need a few more weekends yet before I can post full before and after pics!

Friday 17 September 2010

The Retro Decorator

I was browsing some German websites recently, when I noticed that "Schöner Wohnen" magazine has posted pictures of its covers from the first issue in 1960, all the way through to today. Perfect for The Retro Decorator! I have included a few favourites of mine from the 60s below:

SCHÖNER WOHNEN, Heft 12, Dezember 1963
December 1963
SCHÖNER WOHNEN, Heft 8, August 1966
August 1966

SCHÖNER WOHNEN, Heft 8, August 1961
August 1961



Thursday 16 September 2010

Bargain of the Week


I have two big weaknesses when it comes to interior design - chairs and lighting. I'm not even particularly fussy when it comes to style - new, old, modern, vintage, high-street or designer - a good one just "speaks" to me. Therefore this week's bargain of the week are this lovely pair - distinctly one-offs, they are from Ghost Furniture, who specialise in taking things they've found and giving them a new lease of life. Eco-chic at it's best. The 50% sale is still on (this lovely pair is half price at £600), but you'd better hurry - as they are all one-offs, once they are gone, they are gone!  

watch those candles!




(Mind you, part of me is more fascinated by that wall/fireplace!)




Wednesday 15 September 2010

Autumn Colours

Much as I am a fan of white, and much as I would like to pretend that summer is still here, there comes a point when even my thoughts turn to injecting a bit of old-fashioned colour into the grey days:


Zoffany
Harlequin


Kingfisher SILK VELVET CUSHION COVER
Toast

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Seriously, Who Buys...

...novelty toilet seats?

Clown Fish RESIN Novelty Toilet Seat with Metal Round Hinges
Fishies?
Tropical Beach Fun Toilet Seat with Metal Round Hinges
Taking you to a place far away...
Crayon Novelty Toilet Seat - 340 968 100

 Crayons?

Ooooh, dangerous!


Monday 13 September 2010

A Family of White

I love white interiors - I guess it may be my Scandinavian half. My husband though is not so sure - his words are always "You never see kids in these photos". It therefore made me chuckle when I saw this apartment - billed as a "family-friendly loft". Still no pictures of children (or any of their clutter), and you have to hope that the surfaces wipe clean!:




I adore this mix of old and new - fabulous family portrait!:





All Pictures: Home Austria

Friday 10 September 2010

The Retro Decorator

This week's retro decorator jumps forward by a few years to 1995. Can you really believe it was 15 years ago? Well, whilst I was living university days filled with second-hand furniture and lighting from Argos, my mother was reading "Period Living" magazine. It seems stencils were still a big thing in 1995:




I'll be honest - a bit too twee for my taste. Interesting how wall stickers seem to be making a come-back these days - are they the new stencils?

Thursday 9 September 2010

Bargain of the Week

I know it is starting to feel very autumnal out there, but as we are just in the process of finishing off our building project, my mind is still very much on the garden. Of course this time of year is also a great time to snap up some bargains - if you don't mind having to wait until next year to properly appreciate them! We managed to find some great garden furniture vastly reduced like this around the same time last year (the fact that due to building works we haven't been able to use it much this year either is a moot point).

Technically I should not be posting this in bargain of the week, as it does not have a big enough discount (was £379, now £349 - not even reduced by 10%, sob!). However, I'm afraid the small child in me saw this and had to include it. I've had a weird obsession with garden swing seats ever since I was a little girl, and this is probably the most grown-up version I have seen for a while;

Deluxe Luxor Gazebo
Luxor Swing Seat Gazebo

Can we just pretend summer is here for a little bit longer?

Wednesday 8 September 2010

German Country Style, part 2

A few more pics from Germany. Somehow sepia seemed the right sort of effect for these:










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