Baby is back

Not quite the same as baby got back...

Anyway. I have been a busy bee recently and still am with the packing etc but I will be posting again regularly, scouts honour.

So as decorating is officially starting this week with prep done and colours picked etc I thought I would show you the colours and inspiration for our small guest room.

This is where it started:

Sorry about the rubbish lighting, but these are lovely in real life, they are ready made curtains from Dunelm Mill. They were half price and an absolute bargain at under £25. They are slightly too long so the bottom can be trimmed to make tiebacks and cushions, score.

This got me started for the room and I am loving the idea of nautical influences, just a hint, we are so not near enough to the sea to pull off full on nautical. Here is what I am talking about.

Source: PrincessFreckles

Source: Notonthehighstreet

Source: HousetoHome

You get the idea...

Here is a sort of moodboard of what I want to do with the room:

I know it is rubbish basic, but it will be better than that when finished. I will keep you updated, and can't wait to start to showing you some during photos!


Lots of Love,

Becky

I'm still here!

Hello lovelies!

I know I have been MIA for the past few weeks but in that time my dissertation and exams have been completed... So my degree is F.I.N.I.S.H.E.D!

And as of today I have 4 weeks to pack up my things from my current rented house ready to move into the new house, which is no where near finished to any kind of standard. So things are getting a bit manic.

Stick with me I hope that in the next few weeks I will be able to chuck in some before and afters for your opinions.

P.s I am still reading blogs and loving seeing what you are getting up to :)

Much love

xxx

Progress? Destroying our lounge and dining area.

Hello lovelies!

So my last post showed you the colours I want to use in the lounge and I got some lovely feedback on that so thank you verrrry much for that.

I've handed in my dissertation so in between revision and work I thought I would fill you in on how the room actually looks right now, and it is NOT pretty. On with the photos:

First off this is the beautiful colour that was on the doorframes & skirtings all over the place, the skirtings are no more but the frames need sorting as we aren't replacing them.

Ok now for the lounge:

Lounge area left from door:

The line halfway up the wall marks the hight of the built in stone fireplace that stretched the length of the lounge (I will find a before snap of that).

Lounge right from the door, the arch seperates the lounge from the dining area

From the arch into the dining area, the double doors lead into the conservatory:

And back the other way into the lounge, sorry for the pants lighting.

So far we have stripped the walls, taken up the carpet, ripped out the architrave and skirting and taken out the big stone fireplace.

We have a LOT to do but I wanted to show you what we are working with here.

And as a teaser (Some of you have already seen the lounge moodboard)

The colours/ style to be used in the lounge:

And the dining area:

Hope you are all really good,

Much love,

Becky x

P.s let me know if you have any ideas and suggestions, I love hearing from you!

Linking to:

Living room progress

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well, things have gone a bit quiet on the house front here as I am finishing my dissertation and revising! So I thought I would just post a quick moodboard I put together for the lounge and get your opinions.

The pattern in the background is wallpaper which we are using, and our sofa is grey:

I decided I wanted to add pops of colour as well as black white and grey, and I think I have decided on blue (hence the colour card on the moodboard). Let me know what you think, I was considering yellow too but the dining area has pops of purple.

All opinions and suggestions are totally welcome so please leave a comment!


Becky x


I'm linking to:

Letter rack makeover

                   

Hello all, first off thanks to all my new followers, I really appreciate it, and secondly I hope you are all having a good weekend.

Some of you may remember this little fella that I picked up from the second hand shop for £9

He was a hideous shade of green but solid pine, and I loved the shape of him... So I quickly got to work, gave him and undercoat, then painted him up taupe as I had planned:

Now picture this scene: I sit on my bed and take the above photo ready to post for you lovely lot to see, then I put him on the floor and turn on the laptop. Two  minutes later: House phone rings, panic ensuses, foot caught in laptop cable, argh, quick... before it stops, trip. Stub toe. On letter rack. OUCH.... Resume panic, run down stairs, phone stops ringing, check number: Anon, no message.

Grrrrr! My poor toe.

Head back upstairs to find my not so dainty toe has dented my letter rack :(, take a closer look, oh its damaged the paint. I'll just get the flaky paint off and touch it up....



Ooops, lesson learnt, always SAND AND PRIME!

So I decided it was fate, sanded him, primed him, attatched some moulding from ebay, and painted him white. And here he is:

Let me know what you think!

Much love until next time,

Becky x

I'm linking to...

Decoraters, and persuasion

Hello! Hope you are all having a good week. This week we had the decoraters in to give us a quote for some work at the house. They have quoted us for:

• Sripping the hall and stairs of the woodchip and covering the artex underneath, then painting the whole lot.
• Sripping the dining room and relining, painting the walls and ceiling.
• Painting 3 walls in the lounge and papering one with a feature paper.

Total quoted: £1300

My other half wants to go ahead and get them to do the lot, however that is a huge chunk from the budget and I only really wanted to get someone in for the stairs and hall because we couldn't sort the artex ourselves. I understand why he wants to go ahead as it would lighten the load on us, and the results will be near perfect.

So please please give me your opinions on this, would you pay the total price, have the lot done, save time, and have perfect results but then have a reduced budget for furnishings, carpet and appliances. OR would you have the hall and stairs only done for around £500 and live with some imperfections as a result of doing it yourself in the other rooms, but then have more budget left? HELP!

On another note I am completely in love with the idea of finding some beautiful old furniture like this:

This picture is from design*sponge, which is a great home interior blog you should check out. I just love the character in pieces like these drawers the author found.

My idea would be to get a couple of chests of drawers, a wardrobe and 2 bedsides from the same era, but not neccessarily matching, then paint them up to match. Now I think thats kinda cute and quirky (and it would save a heck of a lot of £'s). And can I just reinforce the fact that I LOVE THIS IDEA.

But last night other half said he doesn't want our house to end up "looking like a charity shop", so now I'm not sure whether he doesn't really like the things I have already restyled :(, or whether he just meant I need to find pieces that match, which is easier said than done!

And he wants to go to ikea on Sunday to pick out some brand spanking new furniture. They do have one I like called Hemnes, but I dont want white, as much as I love white I realllllllly want to get me some grey furniture for the bedroom. And I know they do a grey but online it doesn't look a very nice colour, although I may fall in love with it when I see it. But my point is that this will be a lot more expensive, and I really wanted to try upcycling some old stuff.

Ohhh rant over, please give me your opinions on whether I should go ahead with the decoraters, and if/ how I could persuade other half to let me pick out some furniture.

Help!!!

Much love,

Becky x

P.s Well done if you read all that

Free stuff?

Hi my little thrify ones. I have some stuff that some of you might like, if not thats cool, if you do give me a message and I could arrange sending it to you, free!

I have got this hand embroidered picture:

It is 18x13cm and veryyyyy sweet, it is really well done and in super good condition. It came out of a charity shop frame, and I can't chuck it away so if any of you would like it message me!

I also have a big bag of fabric scraps, some are big, some are small, plain and patterned, some are very retro and there is alot of ditsy print. Heres some of the styles:

I got given these to make jam pot covers from but I have used what I wanted and have loads left. They are from the 1970's onwards, and some are really cool. Anyway if you have a use for some of it let me know (bear in mind some of the pieces are very small).

Have a good week!

Much love

Becky

Second hand mirror makeover

Hi you lovely lot, here is my mirror makeover post as promised, finally!

As a  reminder, or for those of you who didn't see the original post this is the beast as it was before:



I know what you are thinking, oooh what a gorgeous shade of gold... No?

It was pretty grim, but at £10 from my local second hand shop, I thought I would try and make her into a pretty little kitty.

First off she was a little nicotine stained so I gave her a wash, then repaired the damage to the plaster edges, using a little wood filler (never one to do things by the book!).

Then I taped round the frame and put on a base coat, I used a colour inbetween the gold and the white I wanted to finish with, to try and make it easier to cover and to make sure if the paint chipped the delightful gold wouldn't rear its ugly head.

then I applied 2 coats of white, cleaned up the glass and neatened the edges where I had put too much tape on. And here she is all pretty and finished.

I think this project turned out pretty good, it was simple and very cheap.

Materials used:

Mirror: £10

Paint:

Undercoat: Crown non drip matt for wood and metal in toasted almond: £12.99

Topcoat: Focus quick dry satin for wood, in icing sugar: £9.19

Filler: Cuprinol wood filler: £3.59

Total: 35.77

( I already I had the paint and filler so in reality the project cost a lot less, but even if i didn't a mirror of this size and style would set you back around £80)

Let me know what you think!

Much love,

Becky x

i'm linking this to\;

Update, inspiration, new projects, and wish granted

So my current projects are going ok.
 The letter rack is painted but I am searching for something I want to finish it off, if anyone knows of any places where I can get either letter transfers or stencils I would be soooo grateful, preferably a vintage/ retro style lettering which is quite large, help!

 This is the mirror so far:

It still needs some touching up around the edge, you can see a small gap there at the bottom where I got a little over zealous with the tape before I painted, oops.

Oh and that is my necklace chilling out on the corner there, it isn't attached.

This weekend I got inspiration for two new projects, keep checking for updates, one involves candlesticks, and one photo frames. Ive got to keep you waiting for something....

And finally look what my lovely other half got me today:

It is a thomas kent 6" mantel in taupe and I loveeeee it.

I will check in tommorow with the mirror transformation post, hope you have all had a lovely weekend.

Much love,

Becky x

Paint. Everywhere. And a Master Bedroom makeover in progress

So today I started painting my mirror and letter rack which I picked up from the second hand shop. There is now paint on my toe.

But they are looking better with just their basecoats on, yay! I will upload the transformation pics soon, probably tomorrow.

Anyway this is our master room as it was back in January:

View from the doorway:

View from the doorway looking left:

and view from the window:

  'scuse the other halfs backside!

The room, as you can see. was a single boys room with lots of fitted furniture, you can see in the first and last picture where we started taking it out. Anyway, we have totally pulled this room apart and started a fresh. The main decor is done but not much else, so I thought I would throw in a bit of a room hint (mood board) for you to see...

oooh...

and here is some progress pictures:

View from the door:



View from the left hand side of the room:



The feature wall:

So as you can see it looks completely different, we repapered and painted up 3 walls in a sand type colour, and then created a feature wall with this lovely paper by Arthouse. It is beautiful, the white and grey on this picture are actually sort of metallic (in a nice way) they catch the light really nicely and make the room look luxurious. I would definately recommend this paper, it looks far more expensive than it actually was.

You can also see the lovely skirting boards my other half put in, he stained them oak and I think they look gorgeous.

Thats all for now folks, but keep the moodboard in mind, there is more to come!

Much love until next time,

Becky x

Thrifty treasure hunt

So today I went to look for the perfect bedroom furniture at our local second hand shop (where I picked up the hall table). I failed to find it.

BUT

I couldn't leave empty handed and picked up these:

Letter rack: £9, solid wood, gorgeous... but an unfortunate shade of green, this picture makes it look a lot better than it really is, trust me! Will be cream or grey, not sure which yet...

BIG mirror: £12 its about 35x25 inches and an u-l-g-y shade of gold, but the plaster surround is gorgeous and will look fantastic in a different colour, and will probably get the white treatment. I wanted a lovely mirror to hang above the radiator in the hall but at over £100 for the ones I liked I thought I may as well give it a bash at making my own cheapo version, it will be wonderful. I swear. I hope...

Small mirror: £6 this is a small wooden mirror with heart cutout frame, its pink with white polka dots -not that you can tell because of the rubbish late in the day light, sorry!! Anyway this is going to be cream I would imagine, but I am in no hurry to decide because as of yet I have no idea where it will go. I just love mirrors and hearts so I couldnt just walk past this little beauty. Oh and I have just sussed that this is an east of india mirror retailing around £20 scorrrrre!

So in total £27

And the lady knocked £2 off. Wahhooooo.

I cannot wait to get stuck into these babies.

On another note I have just seen my Ercol tables in Ideal home, Me? Darn lucky? Yesssssss!!!!

Much love,

Becky
x