Home | Fifty Shades of Grey {And a Strong White}

Nope, this is not the next instalment of THAT series - can you even imagine?! Actually, wait, don't.

Have you ever tried to pick Grey paint? Sounds easy? Just pick a colour you like right....?

Oh no, no, no people. Grey is the hardest paint to pick.  It has all these different undertones..... And it looks different depending on your lighting situation.

You all know that I painted our base cabinets Lamp Room Gray by Farrow and Ball, which in itself I love. But then I had to figure out what to paint the walls in the kitchen.

I didn't want plain white but something with a "hint of grey". And that's when I went crazy with testers and swatch cards.

I thought I had found "the one" in Harp Strings by Valspar. It's the middle one above. I could not have been more wrong. The minute I put it on one of the walls I hated it.

It was just way too dark and seemed to clash with the base cabinets.

So it was back to the drawing board. I decided to go to Farrow & Ball and mull over my dilemma with them. There's a reason you have to part with a small fortune when you buy their paint - you also get their expertise.

The consultant was so helpful! She told me that Lamp Room Gray has greeny undertones (who knew?), and the Harp Strings had bluey-purply undertones, which was why it felt all wrong. Then she helped me pick out "Strong White".

I couldn't wait to get it up on the walls. And guess what? I freaking love it!

I know, total weirdo. Everything house (and food, and fashion, and beauty, and travel) related is totally my jam. I literally did a happy dance.

And now I'm one of "those people". I'm totally in love with F&B.....good job most of the house is already painted. We'd have to re-mortgage.

So now what's left to do? Oh loads. I'll keep you posted!

Happy Weekend everyone! x

Life | I Miss You!

You guys, life has been crazy.

Moving house sucks. It's official. And I don't say that lightly; you know I'm usually a "glass-half-full" kinda gal.

As excited as I am to finally be in the new house (and get to bombard you all with about a million photo's), something about the moving process of the last couple of weeks has just totally stressed me out.

Do you mind if I have a whinge?! (You guys are like Therapy, except free! Haha, lucky you...!)

Here's what's really ticking me off.....

1. The house is still not finished.
2. We need to build-in our storage (pantry, open-shelving in the kitchen, understairs, master bed solution) so things can't actually be put away at the moment.
3. We have discovered four (yep four), things leaking since moving in.
4. The dishwasher isn't working (I know, I know #firstworldproblems).
5. The gas hob isn't connected - living without a hob is surprisingly annoying.
5. I have zero patience and want everything done yesterday.
6. There are no more funds for the time-being - things cannot be done yesterday, tomorrow or the day after that....

Property renovation is amazing, I love the transformation process so much but it's this stage right now that's the most frustrating! You're so close to being done yet also so far!

Aaaaaand to top it all off I haven't blogged in over 3 weeks!! Gah.

I just wanted to say a huge Thank You for sticking with me and checking in even when there's been nothing new to see. I love this little blog and can't wait to share more with you - that being said, I have no idea where my camera is so you'll have to make do with phone pics for now......

Taking a few minutes to write this post has made me realise just how much I've missed blogging.

Source

So glad to be back! x

Home | For the love of Lamp Room Gray

So after sharing my Kitchen Candy with you last week I set about making that transformation happen this weekend.

I'm not going to lie, it did take me all weekend, but the end result is so worth it. It feels like a new kitchen!

Before we get to the after photo's I thought I'd run through how I got there.

1. Take all the cupboards and drawers off.
2. Remove existing handles.
3. Fill the holes left by handles with wood filler.
4. Sand back said holes, and repeat.
5. Time to prime! I used Zinsser 1-2-3 Primer and Sealer after reading lots of good things about it's staying power online. Give everything a good even coat of primer, let dry.
6. I used Farrow and Ball Estate Eggshell Paint in Lamp Room Gray. Now you might be thinking that doesn't sound very budget but I felt like splashing the extra cash on good quality paint was worth it, I only want to paint the kitchen once, and it's going to get a lot of use.
7. Apply two even coats of the F&B, leaving 2-4 hours drying time between each coat.
8. When you're sure your paint is absolutely cured you can start drilling the holes for your new hardware. I bought mine from Ikea as I liked the contrasting white handles with the grey paint.
9. Re-attach the cupboards and drawers to the units.
10. Do your happy dance!

Here's a Budget Breakdown for this part of the kitchen update:

£15.94 Primer
£20.99 F&B Paint
£25 New Handles and Knobs from Ikea

£61.93 Total

So here's what we started with....

And here's where we are now. With grey base cabinets, oak work tops and a new white ceramic sink (I put those up on Facebook last weekend so most of you will already have seen them). Oh and the flooring is new too.

There's still a crazy amount to do on this Kitchen Update on a Budget. It's very much a work-in-progress but I can't wait to share more photo's with you next week!

Life | Boy Bedroom Makeover

In fairness to Dan the title of this post is slightly mis-leading; his flat is so lovely, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. But when I moved in over the summer I couldn't help but make a few tweaks to the space to make it feel like home.

Fear not, this isn't about to be a re-hash of the very scary scene in "How to lose a guy in 10 days", (watch the trailer at about 40 seconds in), if you can't because you're at work just imagine frills and tampax EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, I already had a great neutral canvas to work with. I actually chose the wallpaper because when we first got together there had been a leak in the roof which had ruined what was already there. After a little trip to the end-of-line bin in John Lewis we were all sorted.

Before I got my little mitts on it, this is what the roomed could look like on any given day. Pretty messy and blah, huh?

Seriously, how much aftershave does one boy need?

After a little tidy up and some accessories it now looks like this! And I love it. Still neutral but more cosy and interesting.

I added some pillows and a throw, that's it. The throw (£14.99) and stripy pillows (£6.99 each) are from TK Maxx, and little miss "ooh la la"(£7) is from Asda.

Total makeover cost: £35.97.

A (free) tidy-up of the bedside tables keeps them looking pretty.

Oh, and then I added this heart to the wardrobe door.....I don't think he's even noticed, yet!

What do you think? When is it too soon to "make-your-mark" on your boy's pad? Never?! I can't wait to decorate our room in the new house. It will be still be neutral, as much as I love vintage and shabby chic I can't handle anything too patterned and floral (Dan breathes a sigh of relief).

Speaking of the new house. It's all starting to come together, finally! Phew. A little update on that coming soon.

On a side note - why do I have such a good memory for cheesy music and films circa 2000?

Home | Reno Update

There's a lot going on with the house renovation at the moment. 

I seem to spend most of my waking hours thinking about all the different complexities and challenges, and importantly what needs to happen next. Project management is not an easy job and yet at the same time, I love buildings and design, and most of all - I love this house. 

The groundwork for the new plumbing went in this week, as well as the stud work for the new family bathroom and some to square off the en-suite.

All the bathroom fixtures also arrived, as well as the new radiators......so many boxes!! Fingers crossed everything we need is there. 

The plumber and the electrician come in to do their first fix this week, I could not be more excited! Because once that's done we can start putting the house back together again. I'll check in with a little update on how that goes but for now here's a little sneaky peek at a few things that changed this week.

We uncovered this old fireplace in our en-suite. We're not going to cover it but have it plastered (with an air-vent concealed in the top) and use it to store our laundry basket. Got to love a feature turned happy function.

This is what our bedroom looks like now we took the stud wall down. Remember it used to be the only bathroom in the house?

Although it's a lovely big room, it's actually pretty difficult to figure out where to put our bed and wardrobes/storage. Every wall has it's drawbacks so it's proving to be a bit of a head-scratcher right now (more on that later). I'm sure we'll figure it out but our interim solution is to ask the electrician to make provision for bedside-table sockets on two walls in the room and then at least we have options.

And that tub weighs a ton - it's bona fide cast iron. Hello gumtree....anyone that can actually lift it down a flight of stairs is welcome.

Last but by no means least, the new stud walls for our Family Bath on the top floor are in. The space can only be described as small but perfectly formed!

There's a Velux going into the roof you can see on the right to provide some natural daylight. I like that all our bathrooms will have windows, although we still need to provide proper ventilation to comply with Building Regs.

And that's it for now. Wish me luck with the first-fix fun!

Home | Pimp My Dresser

Yes, that is a play on words from that popular MTV show of yore, does it still exist?!

Anyway, there's about a thousand things happening in the house right now; it's a never-ending To-Do list. The progress ain't exactly at the prettying-up stage and won't be for quite some time, so I decided to do a little makeover with super-quick results.

Enter stage left: The Dresser (or Chest of Drawers).

This was the first piece of furniture I bought that wasn't a hand-me-down/second-hand/Ikea find. I got it with 20% off (Marks & Spencer have deals on their furniture all the time) and I was smitten by her clean lines, and the fact that she fit so perfectly into the space I needed her to.

Fast forward two years and there's one thing about her that has bugged me the entire time. Her knobs.

They're just too functional and kitchen-feeling for this kind of piece. To be honest I think good old M&S cheaped-out at the end of production, and we all know how I'm a sucker for the small details so I've been keen to switch 'em out ever since she arrived.

I had grand ideas in my head of biding my time and just stumbling across ten beautiful new knobs on-sale at around £1 each. Having forked out a pretty-penny for her in the start I didn't want to spend too much on a make-over.

Two years of searching later, and I hadn't come across my beautiful but bargainous knobs. There are some stores out there that have a great selection but the ones I liked were all in the £4-£6 (plus shipping) range and I just wasn't keen on making that kind of investment for a quick update. I also considered painting cheap wooden ones bright colours, which would be fun but just not really the look I'm going for right now.

And then whilst I was browsing the aisles in B&Q (as I often do these days, it's my second home), I came across these little beauties.

See how they sparkle? Well no you probably don't because the lighting is terrible in these pictures, it get's dark so early these days #bloggerproblems.

Anyway here's the before shot:

And here's the after, so pretty!

These photo's absolutely don't do her justice, you'll just have to trust me on this one. She's a stunner.

And while I was on a knob switching-mission, Dan's old wardrobe in the guest room got a little make-over too.

See those blah white wooden knobs before?

Now you don't....

Mr Wardrobe is sporting a lovely pair of brushed-chrome-effect knobs (a little gift from Miss Dresser).

Doesn't he look smart?

And all for a grand total of £27.84. The knobs were £3.48 each but then I got two free due to an offer that's on at the moment. And it took all of 5 minutes, got to love a speedy make-over.

Not quite the £10 I had in mind, but also not the £40-£60 I was dreading.

How about you guys? Any cool mini-makeovers happening in your house?


Note: Marks & Spencer (M&S) and B&Q have absolutely no idea who I am. I'm talking about these products because I bought them myself and happen to like them.

Life | House Talk

Who wants a first little peek at the house?! 

The photo's are pretty terrible but they give you a rough idea of what we're working with, it's already changed so much since these were taken.....and actually looks far worse right now. Eeeeek!! I'll keep you updated with more detailed projects as we get to them, but for now....here she is, in all her glory!

I'll try and explain the main changes as we go. 

The front reception room is going to be our dining room.  It's got a big, marble fireplace (hidden by my piles of crap that we moved from storage that morning), and a massive cupboard/closet that we're going to turn into a wine cellar. It's big enough to get a 8-seater table in, and I've already bought the chairs on ebay (I get massively over-excited)!.

There's not too much going on in the hallway. The whole house is being re-skimmed as the plaster and paintwork is really bad. We're keeping the original feature archway and will be changing the flooring.

Through to the kitchen, which is actually pretty big. We're going to change the worktops, tiles and flooring, and add an island to eat at when it's smaller groups.

The back wall of the kitchen leads out to the garden (I have no photo's yet, doh) and the internal door through to the utility/laundry room.

This space has probably changed the most! All the units have been ripped out and that boiler will soon be gone too.

It's a little room that has to work really hard for us. We're going to run units under the window to house the washer and dryer with a sink on top, and directly as you walk into the room, there will be a toilet. This house is crying out for a loo downstairs and without extending this is the only place one can go. We also want it to be a place for muddy boots, coats and pet paraphenalia.....phew!

Head upstairs and you come to what is going to be our living room.

We're sacrificing a bedroom because we don't need 4-beds at this point in our lives and love the idea of extra living space.

The front of the house is naturally very light and airy, and each room has high ceilings, sash windows and gorgeous fireplaces.

Across the hall is our current bathroom. Which is so weird. It's this massive room you could literally cart-wheel across. This partition wall is coming down (actually is already down!) and will become one big room to create our master suite.

Bed 4, will then become our en-suite. It's going to be ah-mazing!!!

 Up the stairs to the top of the house...

I'm in love with the rooms up here. They feel so bright, calm and peaceful. Ultimately, they will be our spare rooms though...lucky guests!

Bed 3 (at the back of the house) is getting the biggest makeover. We're creating a family bathroom up here. The bathroom will only be 150 cm by 215 cm, but will mean that we still have two good size doubles and a bathroom for these two bedrooms.

Oh, and if you come over for a cuppa I will force you to climb out onto the roof. The view is just beautiful.

 So that's it. I'll be back soon with a progress report!