Sophie Honeysuckle’s English Décor!

Chinoiserie, shoes and news...

2012-01-15T12:47:00.005Z

I've had these antique shoes for years now, and I always wonder how they came to arrive in England as they originate from New York! They are handmade and inside in gold writing it says "Sommers inc, 27th W, 50th Street New York City. In tiny scripted handwriting inside it says the customer's name and order no!
They are pink satin, with gold kid heels and straps, but the double buckle is the prettiest part-it is studded with tiny amber jewels all the way round. Imagine having these shoes specially made to order in the 20's!

Another thing I am really fond of also originated from the States! I love vintage Turquoise Navajo jewellery, and have been given a few bits for presents which came from America. The 3 stone bangle is a vintage stamped one, as is the ring, and the 9 stone bangle with the rope edging is a newer piece by A. Jake who I think is a working Navajo silversmith. I love turquoise jewellery!

Lastly, a photo of the new Laura Ashley wallpaper I've just ordered. It's called Elveden and is part of their new collection which I don't think is in-store yet. You can order it online though and weirdly all their wallpapers were half-price last week, even the new collection! So it was £17.50 a roll instead of £35, and this week it is only reduced by £10 in their winter sale! Very strange! I ordered two rolls which is enough to do a feature wall, although part of me would love to paper the top half of the bathroom, above the grey wood panelling. It does say it can be used in kitchens and bathrooms, but I will wait till it arrives before deciding. I know I'll use it somewhere. It comes in 4 other colours, and I love the pale yellow, although yellow is a colour I never use or buy for some reason. I think it's a really reasonable price for a nice Chinoiserie style wallpaper from their Archive collection, because some other ones I've seen are about £87 a roll.
Anyway, enjoy your Sunday everyone xxx

Fairy lights and frames....

2011-11-05T17:06:00.003Z

If ever I go to an antique fair or shop I always look out for old crumbling gilt mirrors and frames. I don't mind if the gilt is damaged and dulled by age, in fact I often like it better that way. I think you can still find good bargains if you look about-the OH just bought me the lovely giltwood Rococco frame you can see right at the front of the pile of frames. He bartered it down to £20 from £40 in an antique barn. It's still got the paper price tag on it-I always like to keep these on whatever I buy tucked out of sight-it reminds of what I paid for things! I'm going to put the old print of Cupid and Psyche inside it once I get a piece of glass and a mount cut to the right size.

I also just bought the new mirrored LED fairy lights that I've draped around the gilt mirror. They are meant to be for Christmas but they look so pretty I may leave them there all year round! The good thing is that they are battery-powered so you can hide the little switch behind the back of the mirror out of sight. They look like mirror-encrusted twigs, and are bendy so you can twist them into any shape!

New Rachel Ashwell collection coming soon...

2011-07-03T16:10:00.011+01:00

Hello everyone! Sorry to have not been blogging recently but work is really really busy at the moment.

Just had to post the exciting news about Rachel Ashwell's new collaboration with House of Fraser arriving in stores in August. The range encompasses bedding, furniture, cushions, lighting, homeware etc. Here are a few preview photos-apparently the in-store concessions will be set up to resemble Rachel's shops! I really like the styling of Rachel Ashwell's homes and shops as of late-her style has evolved and is a bit less sugary and is more elegant and eclectic. Rachel says that she has broadened her colour palette and has introduced what I think of as tougher elements, with distressed leathers, and weathered dark woods to contrast the pale pastel colours she is known for. I think it's a much more grown up look, and works really well. I can't wait to see the new collection-I love the bedding hanging over the armoire and the grey French style tea and coffee canisters! If you follow the link to the House of Fraser website, type Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic into the search engine box and you get another link to an interview with Rachel. It's been such a long time since Rachel has collaborated with the British highstreet- I think the only foray was her lovely bedding collection with M&S about nine years ago. I'd better start saving now.....

Pale & Interesting...

2011-06-25T17:53:00.014+01:00

Today I've been tidying up and putting my new Laura Ashley duvet set on my bed. I really like all-white bedlinen at the moment, and I've liked this new bedding set for ages-it looks really French and antique-y, with its ladder stitching, embroidery and deep frill all around the edge. But it was a bit too expensive, until the 40% reduction sale! It's called Almarie
and is still available in some sizes.
It was really hard to get the detail to show up in the photos, so I lightened one to almost black and white. The last photo is the Laura Ashley website one-it looks a bit more ironed than mine!
The Pale & Interesting book lives up to its name. It's the sort of book that immediately makes me want to pare down my possessions, paint all my floorboards white and get rid of all my clutter-much like 'The White Company' catalogues do! It's very eclectic vintage/antique chic, with lots of quite empty rooms that have the odd gorgeous piece of furniture thrown in, alongside something quite industrial. The cover says it all really! Actually all of the upstairs bedrooms do now have white painted floorboards, and downstairs they are all stripped pine. So much cheaper than carpet and it looks so much nicer in my opinion! And a blessing if you have cats....

Part 2....things I like...clogs and cane...

2011-06-11T12:17:00.004+01:00

Just a continuation of things I like from yesterday, although clogs and cane is a weird combination that has nothing to do with the other!!

The first photo is a still from the set of 'Marie Antoinette'. I know it's old news, but I love the colours in this photo, from the gilt and duck egg, to the faded Aubusson rug and pink peonies. I especially like the salon chairs!!
The second photo is of Kate Forman's cane Bergere bed. I love this bed-it's of the same age as my bargain chair I posted about yesterday, and is of a similar condition. Although I would never swap my pink brass bed (a present from the OH), if I were to, it would be for one like the ones in the photos. I haven't seen many though at the antique fairs we go to, although the OH says he used to see them all the time when he was antique dealing in France and Holland. They're not really his cup of tea though-bit too girly.

The fourth photo is of the clogs I've just bought on Ebay. I got them in the chocolate brown colour, although I was tempted by the red pair underneath (the OH thinks they look very 'Little Red Riding Hood'!!!). Clogs are quite trendy at the moment, especially Swedish Hasbeens which can be seen in the last three photos. SJP is a devotee and wore a few pairs in the last SATC movie, and here in the UK, H&M have almost sold out of their range of Hasbeens (which are really expensive on Ebay). I wanted a pair of not too high, closed-toe ones because I hate my feet and don't want to show them off!!
So I was pleased to find this clog-shop seller on Ebay, who handmakes your clogs in any colour for £32 buy it now! I found it so hard to decide which colour-red, chocolate, tan, taupe, pink, pale and dark green, black, navy, turquoise, gold, silver, patent.....
I decided upon the chocolate brown because then you can wear them in winter too with wooly tights! The Swedish Hasbeens version are very similar, aren't they, apart from the £70 difference in price-they are £102!! In fact, I prefer the ones I've bought, as I'm not too keen on the slits in the Hasbeens, and I prefer the darker stained wooden soles and the chocolate colour leather!
So this summer I'll be clip-clopping around while the OH laughs at my feet!
If anyone wants to join me I'll post the link!!
***By the way, Sarah-I've tried and tried to log into your blog, but I can't-but your new curtains look Fab!

Things I like....

2011-06-10T18:11:00.007+01:00

Hi everyone-hope you've all had a good week. I've just seen that people have left me some kind comments, so I shall attempt again to try and visit you all, although please bear with me as Blogger is barely letting me log in!

The little French gilt salon chair is my latest find-I bought it yesterday, and already the fabric has been replaced (badly by me, as you can see) with a scrap of my favourite grey 'Sophia' by Kate Forman. It's such a pretty, delicate chair-I'm amazed the cane bergere seat is still so strong. It's at that lovely stage of wear where you can just see the red peeping through in places under the gold leaf gilding, which is all worn smooth with age. Best of all it was reduced to £23 in a local antique shop!!! I couldn't believe the price-normally antique giltwood furniture is a lot more expensive than that! I think that's my favourite type of furniture-pretty gilt or grey French and Gustavian stuff, the more distressed the better. What I always think is funny is that the reproduction copies of it are always so much more expensive than the originals!

Saying that though, the reproduction radiator cabinet is something I'm coveting and trying to talk the OH around to liking. I have looked for antique ones but they are few and far between. We have the ugliest radiator in our bedroom-and it's so visible as it's been put on the chimney breast wall where the old fireplace would have been. Feasibly, I can see why it's been put there-there isn't really anywhere else it could go, but I hate it. I wince everytime I look at it.

The OH says he is going to make a cover for it, but I really love the one in the photo. They come in different sizes and colours, and I know the OH could repaint it grey and distress it and make it look like a real French antique one. But he thinks it's a waste of money and is too fancy for our bedroom, as we're not after all living in a French chateau-just a terraced house!! I'm still working on him though-don't you think it looks good with my new chair......

Lastly, I love these charcoal drawings by Degas-the background colours are so gorgeous. They remind me of sugared almonds or French Fancies. I prefer his charcoal sketches to his finished paintings anyday. Wouldn't they look lovely in shabby gilt frames or just pinned up on the wall? Another project to be done...

Stars and stripes...

2011-06-05T11:31:00.007+01:00

Hi everyone-hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Today I am procrastinating, fiddling about doing everything I can not to get round to the work I should be doing having left it all till last minute!

Just a photo of the corner of my living room-I love the original wooden french doors that lead out onto our conservatory. We installed the red etched Victorian stars above them though as they were missing. I bought three of the stars on Ebay, which were original Victorian ones, and bought a reproduction one to make up the fourth. I love those etched stars-that was one of the first projects we did when we moved in. The repro stars are such a good copy-you can't tell the difference. They come in all sizes, designs and colours, although red is my favourite.

The stripey Murano lamp is another recent project, although not finished as I'm looking for a better shade that's slightly larger. I just fancied having a Murano glass lamp, although in Laura Ashley they are so expensive-£80 just for the base, and then £40 for a shade! So in good old TK Maxx I bought the huge vase for £14, a lamp bottle converter kit for £3 on Ebay (these are brilliant-specially designed to turn wine bottles etc into lamps!) and the shade in Wilkinsons. Fit the lamp kit into the neck of the bottle with cork and it's done! I like that the colour of the lamp and the lilacs pick up the colours in the Gustavian grey walls.

The vintage Hermes perfume advertising sign is french and it still lights up when you plug it in. I had my eye on it for ages in an antique shop window but the owner would never sell it. One day he must have been in a good mood because he did! Lastly, I couldn't find anywhere else to put my little Aubusson rug, so I just laid it over the big one. I quite like it like that, and it makes the floor even softer for yoga!
p.s. I just wanted to say thanks to the kind people that left me a comment-I have tried to comment back but I keep getting the error message that my cookie functionality or something is disabled-well, I have enabled it but it is still very temperamental, so please don't think me rude if I don't comment back!! I will keep trying!

Craving for pared back style...

2011-05-29T20:02:00.008+01:00

Just thought I'd post some inspiring images from one of my favourite designers Kate Forman.
I love her designs and always really look forward to each yearly publication of her new catalogue.
Sadly I do more browsing than buying due to my little budget, although I have quite a collection of her cushions now, which I've collected over the years.
You can choose your style and design and the cushions are made out of a lovely thick linen. The ruffles are doubled and all the buttons are picked out in a contrasting colour. It's a bit like a bespoke cushion service!
My favorite designs are the classic 'Roses' in red, which I have in both sitting rooms, the ticking stripes in pink and green, and 'Sophia' in grey and pink, which can be seen in the last few photos. All her designs are inspired by her collection of antique french linens, and I really like the soft, muted colours. If I had a lottery win I would paper my bedroom in grey 'Sophia', alas as it costs £33 per metre..... I'll just have to make-do with having some 'Sophia' cushions instead lol!
The catalogues are mainly shot in Kate Forman's own house-she must have such fun as the rooms are often re-decorated to display her new designs. I really like the pared back styling of the rooms-the style is antique, but not too heavy and cluttered, and doesn't come across as fussy and chintzy if you know what I mean.
In fact I'm going to look through all my old catalogues to pick up some tips; it's funny but as of late I've been hit with a real urge to clear out a lot of my clutter and try and simplify all the rooms in my house. It started with the bathroom, then the kitchen and the bedroom, and already I'm thinking about re-painting my conservatory and its dresser in a soft Swedishy colour...the grey bug is catching!! Does anyone else feel the same?

Auction Aubusson rug

2011-05-28T16:07:00.012+01:00

Hi everyone-hope you are all well.
We've still been really busy here DIY-ing and tidying up. Now that we've finally got the oven and all the wood for the kitchen out of the dining room I put down the Aubusson rug at long last!

I bought the rug at a local auction a while ago and it's been rolled up ever since. Well, I finally unrolled it and got a shock at quite how large it is!
I was going to put it in my bedroom, but I think the colours are better suited to the dining room, so I'm going to swap and put the little Aubusson rug in my bedroom that was previously in my dining room.
The dining room is actually at the front of our house-we haven't got a dining table in it though! I think it was originally meant to be the front room, but we use the back room as our sitting room as it's much bigger and leads onto our conservatory and garden. So the dining room never really gets used much which is a shame as it's so sunny. (We plan to knock through the kitchen and conservatory one day to make a kitchen/dining room/conservatory.)

But lately that's all changed since I unravelled the rug. I've been using it to do yoga in, and it's perfect as there's such a large space to spread out in. We have floorboards everywhere in our house, and doing yoga was a bit uncomfortable and drafty before!
The rug is an antique one made out of wool, and has a few spots here and there, but it all adds to the character. I might try and get them out with Vanish mousse though. It's so large it fills up most of the room and was only £75 if I remember rightly. Quite a bargain when you compare it to these prices!
The last photo shows the view I have of the chandelier when doing yoga on the floor. It looks like a snowflake and the ceiling rose a wedding cake doesn't it? I read in a book that Victorian ceiling roses were especially designed with those holes in them to catch the soot from the coal fires and gas lamps. What a clever idea-I thought they were just for decoration!
By the way just in case anyone is curious, the Yoga DVD's are all by Maya Fiennes. They are cheapest on Amazon, and are based upon Kundalini yoga. I really like the soundtracks (created by Maya set to classical music like 'Clair de lune') and if you buy the 'Detox and De-stress' one you get a free cd of the music- a real bargain for about £8 I think. Mind you Kundalini yoga took me some getting used to, but it's really relaxing.
Enjoy your bank holiday weekend!

Mid-makeover...so start another!!

2011-05-22T13:34:00.023+01:00

Hi everyone, hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Just wanted to show you a classic case of diversion tactics here-what do you do when you are 80% done on one kitchen makeover? You start another makeover!!!

I blame it on all those long Bank Holiday weekends we had, 'House Beautiful' magazines free tin of paint coupon and B&Q! I bet all you DIYers know what it's like when you are doing a makeover and you are almost finished, then you hit that point when you get sick to the back teeth of it and need a break from it. Well, most normal people have a break from DIY, but we start another makeover!! The bedroom!

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of a change but could never quite bring myself to paper over my lovely Sanderson roses which were on a feature wall behind my bed. Well, the thought just kept on coming back to me, and I really fancied changing the wall colour too, so I decided to go for it. I wanted a wallpaper that was soothing, modern yet classic and that was quite difficult to find! But then I came across this gorgeous 'Chinoise' wallpaper that fitted all my criteria. Although the trailing Chinoiserie design was very classic and fitted in with all my bedroom furniture, the colour scheme of its design also made it look contemporary! It's quite hard to explain the colour of it-the background is a sort of stone colour and the trailing pattern is all in one colour, a dark grey that looks hand drawn. But when you look at it from a sideways view, parts of it are shaded in in silver! If you look at it face on though, you can't see the metallic silver at all, as you can see in the last photos which catch the reflection of it. And it's such a bargain-you would think that it would cost a lot more than it does, yet it's still really good quality. And I liked it a lot more than some of the high end papers I looked at from F&B and Harlequin.

So I'm really pleased with it, but also very relieved that I don't regret changing it, although I do sometimes get the odd pang for my big roses! The walls are painted in 'Dove White' by House Beautiful magazine for Brewers. Last month in their magazine there was a coupon for a free tin of paint from their new paint range. Well, I loved this Swedishy pale dove grey colour so got my free litre tin mixed up. Then I persuaded my sister and mum to give me their tins as well (we all subscribe to this mag) and lo and behold I had three free litres of paint-enough to do my bedroom! Actually I've got a whole tin left over for touch ups. It's a really chalky, pale, peaceful sort of grey, with a tiny hint of lilac in it. So whilst watching the Royal Wedding, I was painting my bedroom walls, and the ceiling because of course that looked in dire need of fresh paint once I'd done the walls! Carried away by how fresh it all looked, I ripped up the carpet and starting painting the floorboards in white eggshell, before hitting rock bottom and begging the OH to take over, which he thankfully did. I also sprayed my bedroom wicker chair and table in a pale grey spray-paint from B&Q, which came out really well. I'd definitely recommend spraying as opposed to handpainting wicker furniture!

Isn't it amazing how one free coupon in a magazine can lead to all this work?!!! By the way if anyone wants details of anything just leave a comment underneath-I'll be happy to answer any questions!!

Still finishing kitchen makeover.....

2011-04-13T13:29:00.007+01:00

Hello again-hope you are all well!

Who would have believed our kitchen would still be only 75% completed! We finally had the cooker installed and it looks really nice against the grey Cornforth White cupboards, although it was a very tight fit.

'We' also fitted the new oak flooring, and laid new skirting boards on top. I like the way the skirting board continues round as our unit plinths-it makes a really neat finish, and then you don't need that beading that you normally have to install with new wood flooring. One thing I also like is the corner bit underneath the microwave (see in the 2nd photo)-it's actually a carousel cupboard that pulls out, only the OH disguised one half of it to look like 3 drawers! The 3 drawers next to those 3 are actually little drawers, which I can keep my washing tablets and stuff in.

We also resprayed the plinth heater chrome-it was a horrid brown colour but still worked perfectly. That chrome spray paint is brilliant-we transformed so much of our kitchen with it that we couldn't afford to replace, such as the spotlights, appliances, hinges etc. It makes more sense to respray things that are still in good condition but just the wrong colour.

There's still loads more to do-the cupboard concealing the fridge freezer still has to be made, and all the drawers and doors need a final coat of paint and have to be adjusted on their hinges, but the end is in sight!

American Kitchen love....Sara's inspirational kitchen

2010-11-18T19:17:00.018Z

As you may know, we have been renovating our kitchen on a tiny budget. And one of the things I have most enjoyed doing is scouring the web for inspiration photos of beautiful kitchens!
The elements I loved the most were grey units with shiny chrome/polished nickel handles and pulls, dark wooden floors, old-fashioned pendant lighting, brick tiles and pale marble worktops. And then I realised that all of the inspiration photos I loved the most were of American kitchens-isn't it funny how the world of blogging influences your design decisions? Lots of the elements that we are trying to incorporate into our teeny kitchen have definitely been a result of my American blog surfing-in fact I'm sure that's why I suddenly got the overwhelming urge to re-paint our kitchen grey, especially after seeing how good Joni's at Cote de Texas blog looked....! It also struck me that many of the design elements I loved in American kitchens are also popular in English kitchens, such as Butlers sinks (called farmhouse/apron sinks in the USA?), white brick tiles (subway tiles) and in-frame cabinetry (called inset in the States?). It also made me very aware of how tiny the average English kitchen is compared to those in the States, but I can dream lol... in fact, speaking of dreaming, I keep visiting all the websites where many bloggers in the States buy their kitchen accessories, and I imagine what I would buy if only they shipped to the U.K! Restoration Hardware is a favourite site of mine to browse....I like the Gilmore drawer pulls, and the schoolhouse pendant lights, and the Gramercy marble sinks and the Carrie Bradshaw-esque wall-inset bathroom cabinets that we don't really have over here.......
So I thought it would be fun to show you my favourite inspiration kitchen-sadly, it's not mine-it belongs to the lovely Sara of August Fields blog, who very kindly gave me permission to post some photos of her gorgeous new kitchen. I really enjoyed her post about how her kitchen came about, and the interesting thing is that many of her inspiration and design decisions came about by her blog surfing too!!
It just shows how powerful the blog world is, and how it subconsciously affects your taste!

Thank-you Sara for letting me peek into your lovely home!

Have you found yourself influenced by the blogs you read too?

Bargain hunting....

2010-10-28T10:30:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to show you my latest bargain buy- my 'Hector' style porcelain lamp which only cost £27.98!

I've always liked these classic 'Hector' lamps (as they're known by retailers), but at £120 from places like 'The White Company' I always thought they were too expensive to indulge in!

Not any more! You can buy them here and the only major difference I can see between them is the shape of the porcelain shade. Both have the same colour old-fashioned corded flex and heavy weighted porcelain base. What a difference in price though!

Lastly, just some photos of my silk Ranunculus! I moved them to this new home, and I'm really liking the splash of pink against the Gustavian grey, especially now the winter nights are drawing in!

Favourite things....

2010-10-23T12:15:00.004+01:00

Well, really sorry for the long delay-work has been very hectic!

Needless to say, we are still plodding along with our kitchen makeover, only managing to get little bits done when all the other paying jobs have been completed! You can see that the end unit has been done and one drawer cup-handle is now in place! The peg rail has also been re-painted and I'm still debating what colour to paint the Victorian stool which is F&B 'Blue Green' at the moment (you can just see it's distressed seat in the second photo). I'm thinking of a darker French Grey or even a distressed black, but I can't decide!

I'm still really pleased with the colour of the units the OH made (F&B Cornforth White)-it's such a soft looking grey-white. It was also the colour that went best with the granite worktops, for some reason the colour I was originally going to choose (F&B Blackened) didn't go well at all! And I only just at the last minute checked the granite colour against the paint samples, can you believe! It should have been the first thing I did!! What a rookie mistake!

The OH brought me home the twig lights, and initially I just put them there temporarily, but now I like the glow they make! I'm trying to be a lot less cluttered in this kitchen, at the moment I'm succeeding, but let's see how long that lasts....

Finally, I've been sorting out my winter wardrobe! I've had the pink cardigan about 15 years, it's got a few moth holes in it, but I still love it. I'm going to try to darn them, and then I can wear it with skinny jeans to dress it down a bit! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Still finishing kichen makeover....

2010-08-17T14:54:00.003+01:00

Well, we are still continuing our kitchen makeover, although the good news is that the top half is completely finished!

All the wall sockets have been replaced with polished chrome ones which look much better than the old white plastic ones, as they now match the cabinet knobs.

The window sill has been re-stained dark oak to match the new floor when it eventually goes down.

My washing up liquid has been decanted into a nice glass 'Neals Yard' pump spray bottle which was too good to throw after after it had been used up.

My poor OH will soon start making the new base cabinets which will take ages to do. When they are built, the new oven can be fitted, the floor laid and we can say never again!!

Finally, just wanted to show my favourite new bargain buy- my floral hooded raincoat in a bag! It's perfect for this weather, looks very CK-ish and best of all was only £6 from Primark! The best thing is I can keep it clipped inside my bike basket for those unexpected rain showers we keep getting...

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Progress so far and favourite sandals....

2010-07-04T15:31:00.003+01:00

There hasn't been any major progress to report yet on our kitchen makeover, although the ceiling and walls have all been re-painted. The ceiling was just done in Dulux brilliant white and the walls in the Cath Kidston Linen White that was reduced to £5 a tin in B&Q! We only needed one tin but I've got a spare now which is always handy for re-touching. This afternoon the new chrome plug sockets may be installed and the mantle painted and that's it for today! The microwave is only there temporarily until the new cupboard for it is built under the worktops. I've also hung my little Asiatic Pheasant platter on the wall-I think the colour goes well with the F&B Cornforth White cupboard colour! I'm so glad we decided to repaint the kitchen now-it seems so much calmer yet brighter. I can't wait 'till it's finished and we can put the new oak flooring down, but that's months away yet!

Lastly, we're finally getting some lovely warm weather here at the moment, and I can wear my favourite Catalan sandals! I love them, they remind me of the sorts of sandals people wore in the 50's in the South of France!

Have a lovely Sunday and Happy Independence Day!

Making progress with kitchen makeover.....Farrow & Ball 'Cornforth White'...

2010-06-18T16:04:00.019+01:00

'We' (as always I mean the OH by this) have been making progress with our kitchen makeover!

As the top cupboards and fireplace are all staying as they are, he wanted to paint those, so at least that's one job done. The best way to paint with F&B eggshell paint is to use a mini-roller, it really helps you get a smooth matt finish. There's still major work left to do as the walls and ceiling still have to be repainted,the bottom cabinets have to be totally remade, the new oak flooring put in, and so on....... It will take ages for the next stage of the kitchen makeover to be completed-even though the OH is very handy he is still making everything himself from scratch at weekends, and it's amazing how long it takes to make cupboards and drawers with just a hand saw!!!

The trouble is, once you do get one job completed it shows up other flaws that you hadn't even planned on correcting! Case in point being all the white plug sockets you can see in the tongue and groove panelling-suddenly they looked shabby and dated once the panelling around them was freshly painted. Luckily, I found some really cheap polished chrome ones on Ebay for just £3.50 each (see in the second photo), and they also match the new cabinet knobs also bought on Ebay! What I like about these sockets is that they are nearly totally chrome-even the switch buttons-and have hardly any white plastic on them whatsoever. The knobs I bought were also a third of the price that Homebase charge who stock the identical same ones. What would we do without Ebay and the internet-nearly everything I've bought for the kitchen has come from Ebay so far!

The cabinet hinges have also been resprayed chrome to match the knobs (third photo)-it was much cheaper to respray them then replace them with new chrome hinges, as they were good quality brass hinges.
Another project the OH wants to do is improve the ceiling coving (called crown moulding in the States?). It's not original Victorian coving (unlike the rest of the house) and it just looks wrong for the room. However, it's a bit of a messy job to tear that off the ceiling and replace it, so the OH is going to add rows of wooden beading to the top and bottom of it to make it look Victorian. Apparently this will be much cheaper and easier than replacing it-all you then need to do is paint it white to match. Well, that's the plan anyhow...

As you can see Farrow & Ball's 'Cornforth White' is much more of a pale grey than a white-luckily that's just what we wanted! I love the new colour of the cupboards and think they look much brighter and fresher than before. I'm also pleased that I like the 'look' of painting the tongue and groove panelling and the cupboards all in the same colour-before they were two separate colours, green and cream. It sounds strange but I think it looks more restful on the eye!

By the way, although the roses are from the garden, the ranunculus are silk-I just like the contrast all the pink makes with the grey!

Finally decided....

2010-06-11T16:32:00.003+01:00

After much deliberation we've finally decided upon our colour-Cornforth White! The name is a little misleading, as it doesn't look white at all, instead it's a sort of very flat, light grey. It's quite a drab Georgian kind of colour and it goes well with the worktop and all the nickel cup handles.

We've got a big 2.5 litre tin of it in eggshell, and that should be plenty for all the woodwork in the room. I love the finish of eggshell paint rather than gloss, as it looks flatter and matter, doesn't it?

I always think that the tester pots of Farrow & Ball paint look so sweet-like miniature versions of the real thing. Even though I hate the colour brown, it somehow looks very classic and classy on their paint tins doesn't it? I couldn't imagine the tins in any other design, and I suspect that their design is a big part of their appeal-well it is for me anyhow! Now we've just got to get the room finished....

Decorating decisions...kitchen cabinets...

2010-06-08T15:14:00.005+01:00

Just when I think I have decided upon a paint colour for my kitchen cabinets I change my mind again! I have got just about every paint card from all the 'posh paint' companies, and I have tried out so many colours! The 'Rita Says' sample pot I ordered, disappointingly turned out to match the computer screen sample colour and not the colour chart, being pale blue instead of the grey I wanted! At the moment I am torn between two 'Farrow & Ball' greys-'Blackened' and 'Cornforth White'.
I think I prefer the 'Cornforth White' but that could all change when I buy the sample pot! We have the 'Blackened' in our bathroom, so I think I'd like a different colour in the kitchen.....
Another good website to browse through is 'Posh Paints'. They stock all the designer posh paint brands and group them into colour families which is really useful if you are trying to compare different brands versions of the same colour!

Ongoing chaos...

2010-06-01T14:51:00.004+01:00

Well, major progress has been made, although our kitchen is still in major chaos! All of yesterday was spent removing the old worktops and fitting the new granite ones. Thankfully, thankfully they all fit perfectly (I admit to being slightly worried as no templates were made), although they haven't been sealed in place yet as we have to wait for the new oven to be fitted in first.
Removing the old worktops took a long, long time
and involved jacking up the faux chimney breast until it could be re-supported by the new worktop. If you look in the third and fourth photos you can see the chimney breast floating a bit in space! The slabs of granite had to be slid underneath the sides of the chimney breast and not cut around it as I had envisaged-the OH looked at me as if I was mad when I asked how they were going to cut around the outline of the chimney breast!! We are also going to change the design of the lower cabinets slightly to make them match the top cupboards better. So it's going to be a very long time before all the cabinets and woodwork can be painted pale grey (Farrow & Ball's 'Blackened') but I can't wait! It was a two-man job to lift the longest piece of granite (thank goodness I'm female...) and there was lots of dust to clear up as well. The old green oven was covered as you can see, and somehow I don't think we'll be using that again....

Kitchen chaos......

2010-05-28T15:12:00.009+01:00

Our house is a dumping ground at the moment for all the bits and pieces we've been buying for the kitchen makeover....
It looks nothing like the first inspiration photo of a beautiful 'Plain English' kitchen which
looks very calming doesn't it?

I really like the colour scheme in the first photo, so we're going for something very similar-pale grey cabinets, and an antique linen white wall colour.
The grey granite worktops came back from the gravestone yard this week with their edges all polished and chamfered. The man also did the cut-outs for the sink and tap-holes, and only charged £160 in total which I thought was a bargain. It's definitely worth asking your local yard how much they charge if you fancy having granite worktops but don't want to pay thousands of pounds. We found all three lengths of granite on Ebay for just £250 but I think it was so cheap because we had to collect it ourselves in a van, which can put people off, as it is so heavy to transport. Also, we didn't get a template made out of wood first (which is the norm), instead the OH just drew a detailed plan with all the relevant measurements on it. He's going to fit some of them on Monday, so I hope he got his measurements right.....

We also got some new kitchen oak flooring, which is currently lying on our living room floor and will probably stay there for months! The OH hates the floor-tiles we have in our kitchen at the moment, so he's going to fit this instead. I bought all the cabinet knobs and cup handles we needed on Ebay, and couldn't believe how cheap they were. I couldn't resist trying two already on the green cabinet to see what they looked like... Of course now that means we'll have to swap all the brass cabinet hinges for chrome ones because they would look very strange otherwise (I can feel another stint with Plasticote chrome paintspray coming along)! See how one change leads to another change that you hadn't planned for...

The little prismatic lamp is going to be fitted above the kitchen sink hanging quite low, and now I'm thinking about changing the flex it comes with to something a bit nicer!! Maybe some of that silk corded flex? Stop me somebody....

My favourite Farrow & Ball colour....Chartwell Green...

2010-05-25T13:02:00.021+01:00

My absolute favourite Farrow & Ball paintcolour is one that is not easy to get hold of these days-'Chartwell Green'. It's a colour from a range that F&B did about eight years ago and have since inexplicably discontinued-the 'National Trust Garden Range'. Does anyone else remember this range of historic garden exterior eggshell paint-colours that F&B produced in conjunction with the National Trust? I used to have the separate paintchart somewhere and I so wish I'd kept it!
In my first home, I had a tiny wooden lean-to conservatory built and it was clad inside and out in tongue-and-groove panelling painted in this colour. It was lovely!
Farrow & Ball will still mix this colour up for you (as will Leyland Paints who tap the code into their computer and match it for you) if you contact them, only it doesn't appear on their paintcharts anymore! I think this is peculiar as it was always a really popular colour and loads of double-glazed window companies cottoned onto this and now produce double glazed windows and conservatories ready sprayed in 'Chartwell Green'!!
(You can see a photo of a new 'Chartwell Green' conservatory in the second and second to last photo. If I were to buy a new double-glazed conservatory I would definitely buy one in this colour-it's a real classic English country garden colour!)

I know that F&B paints are quite popular in the States now-I wonder if you could also get this colour too? If anyone else has anything painted in this colour I would love to see photos!
Maybe I could petition F&B to reintroduce this colour!!! Who wants to join me? I'm only half-joking....

The conservatory photo is actually a very good colour match to this paintshade-because it's so miraculously sunny and bright here at the moment, the colour of it in my photos makes it look pale minty green which it definitely isn't! In a blogpost a little further down where we're respraying the fridge you can just see my Ikea Bekvam stool painted in this colour, and that is an accurate colour depiction! In fact, I have never found a similar colour to this shade anywhere and I am paintcolour obsessed! It's a sort of greyish, blueish green, and just looks really vintage! The colour gets its name from Winston Churchill's family home 'Chartwell House' and this is apparently the colour that all of his wooden garden furniture was painted in-you can see an actual photo of one of his chairs in the last photo!

Elsewhere, as you can see my garden is springing to life-the wisteria has gone crazy over the 'Miss Havisham-esque' iron pergola-I'm pleased because I only bought it last year. Likewise, my Lilac bush beside the shed has also flourished and smells gorgeous.
The French table and chairs were in desperate need of re-painting, so they were primed first and then painted in gloss. I'm going to get a piece of glass or perspex made to cover the top to keep it weatherproof all-year-round. I do think I might distress them a little bit before I varnish them though. The Lilac shed is next on the never-ending list to be re-painted, along with a million and one other jobs! We have been taking advantage of the lovely weather though and have been eating our evening meals out here...bet it doesn't last long though!!

Shades of green and cream....

2010-05-20T10:15:00.002+01:00

Just a photo of the fridge-in-progress so far! It's now had all of its coats of Almond Cream spray paint, now all we have to do is attach the cream edging strips over the scooped out handle parts and it's finished! It's amazing how well that paint goes on considering it's the second makeover we've done on it, and you don't have to rub it down or prime it first!!
So all in all it took four cans of paint this time, compared to two last time, but then we were going over green paint! It cost about £29 in all but it's still much cheaper than buying a new fridge-freezer! There's a few bits of spraypaint on the floor, but it does scrub off.

The granite worktops are at the gravestone place and the man is going to try to cut them and then polish and chamfer the edges....fingers crossed!

When they are fitted we can repaint the units grey and swap the handles for chrome ones. Then the new oven can be fitted and the new blind can go up....who can believe a simple decision to repaint the units has resulted in all these changes....

Lastly a photo of a lovely frontdoor I spotted in the countryside a while ago-the colour looks very Farrow & Ball doesn't it?

Polythene, progress and pajamas.....

2010-05-17T10:35:00.009+01:00

Typical-yesterday we ran out of spraypaint and needed one more can to complete our fridge-freezer makeover and of course B&Q had just closed!
The cream paint actually went on really well over the green paint-it's only the sides that need a few more coats and we haven't sprayed the bits of laminate to go over the old scooped out handle bits yet! What's funny is that the cream paint is a totally different finish to the green, yet both are by the same brand 'Plasti-kote Fridge Colours'! I much prefer the cream finish though-it's like a really shiny gloss and looks more like the cream Smeg fridges I so covet! The green paint gave a very matt powder-coated finish, which was nice too, but very different!

The OH ingeniously devised an E.T-like polythene 'incubation tent' in order to eliminate spraypaint drift!! He made a circular tent out of polythene, taped it to the ceiling, a bit like a shower curtain and moved the fridge out into it. It worked too as our kitchen was clean afterwards. Tonight it can have its final coat, and then we can remove the masking tape. We can still use it luckily, which is the main reason we didn't want to unplug it and spray it outside!
Finally-pajamas! I love these very CK-ish cotton pajama bottoms which are only £4 a pair in Primark! I like the polka-dot frill detail on the pockets, bottoms and waist-tie, and at that price you can afford a pair in every design...

Two down, one to go...

2010-05-15T12:37:00.004+01:00

'We' have finished spraying the dishwasher and washing machine chrome and tomorrow the fridge freezer will hopefully be re-sprayed cream! The washing machine and dishwasher look much better now as they were a bit scratched and tired looking. They will also look better against the units once they are repainted grey. We only did the front panels as the sides are never seen anyway, and that cuts down on the spray fumes and the amount of cans you need! We used one can for each appliance, as they did need several repeated coats of paint to get a nice even finish. Every half hour the OH kept on giving them another quick coat, and it took most of last Sunday to complete them. The paint has a really nice iridescent sparkle to it, although you can't see that in the photos very clearly. For £7.50 a can it's quite a fun cheap makeover to do, although it is probably easier to take your appliance outside if you can! We just stuck up loads of newspaper around the room to catch any drifting spray. You also don't need to sand down, just give everything a good clean first. If you have any questions or need advice, just send a Flickr message!

I'm a bit nervous about doing the fridge freezer though in case the cream doesn't go on very well over the green! Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained! Last time we only needed two cans but we bought three this time, as we thought it could be harder to go over green than the original white colour. I like the colour of the cream fridge paint, it will match my cream Kitchenaid mixer. The Aga fridges in the top photo also look good in cream (it's a Fired Earth Shaker kitchen if you're wondering) , so fingers crossed!

We also managed to buy three long lengths of grey granite worktop on Ebay this week for £250, which is quite a bargain. The OH could barely lift them when he went to collect them, luckily he had taken a set of wheels to transport them on. We are going to see if our local gravestone-mason can cut them for us, and then the OH will have a go at fitting them himself! There are loads of videos on Youtube to follow, so he should be ok (again, fingers crossed....)!

Wishlists and works-in-progress....

2010-05-10T16:45:00.010+01:00

I thought it would be interesting to show you the 'if money were no object' cooker of my choice for the limited space we have in our kitchen-the 60cm mini Aga! Can you see what inspired me to buy the cooker I blogged about not so long ago? Both share exactly the same dimensions, and more or less the same cooking functions, only there is a slight difference in price-about £2,500.....
The second hob photo is of my oven, not the Aga model, although both are very similar. I really like the griddle it comes with, and I'm really not being biased but I actually prefer the chrome knobs on my cooker! Both models share the traditional chrome rail to hang your tea towels on, which is a sweet finishing touch.
The rest of the photos are of our works-in-progress! It was a nightmare to get that transfer off the dishwasher (whose bright idea was it in the first place I wonder...)! Tonight both are going back in their usual places and the door will be re-fixed onto the washing-machine. Both are now coated in 'Satin Chrome' spray paint (as are we..) and have a new-er lease of life. Before they were looking a bit tatty and dated, although both work perfectly, so hopefully they will look a bit more contemporary now. When they do eventually need replacing I will get stainless steel or chrome versions, but until then these will do! Anyway, I suppose it's more environmentally friendly to re-furbish rather than replace although I'm not so sure about those aerosol gases...
Can't wait to do the fridge-freezer....

Favourite past makeovers....garden shed...

2010-05-09T19:36:00.005+01:00

Today we are in the midst of a kitchen makeover-we've been spraying our washing machine and dishwasher chrome. They still need a few more coats, so I thought I'd look back at one of the first makeovers we did in our present house.

The bottom photo is the before shot from the Estate Agents brochure (can you spot our Belfast sink with the herbs in it?!) -as handy as the little brown shed was storagewise-I didn't quite take to it because of its colour scheme! The shed is the first thing I see when I look out of our kitchen window, so it was important to make the view as pleasant as possible!
We had some lilac masonry paint leftover from our old house, so we re-painted the shed and then added the lattice panels, which were really cheap from B&Q. We removed all the shutters and window boxes, and then added the roof detail. I really like the mock roof tiles, which were made out of a roll of roofing felt (also really cheap from B&Q!)! All we did was trace around the bottom of a paint tin repeatedly to get the tile shapes, then we just cut them out with scissors and nailed them down. The OH made the wooden finials out of some old wood and attached them-one got struck by lightening once and was found on the grass the next day!!

The whole makeover took one (long) sunny day in Summer, and I think it turned out quite well, although I do wonder what our neighbours make of it....

101 kitchen makeover projects on the go....

2010-05-04T13:11:00.005+01:00

I'm looking forward to the next part of the kitchen makeover: re-spraying the fridge, and spraying the dishwasher and washing machine for the first time!
The fridge is going to be re-sprayed in the cream colour that matches my Kitchenaid mixer, and we are going to trial another change as well. The one thing I don't like about it at the moment are the scooped out grooves in the doors where you used to open them. Now we added the chrome handles we don't need them any more and they always annoyed me because they ruined the streamlined look!
But in B&Q lots of products are on sale at the moment and a roll of kitchen laminate edging was reduced to £2. The OH is going to glue it over the scooped out bits so they appear even in width all the way along, then spray it cream too. This laminate edging is ideal because it's flexible enough to glue around the curved edges and is very strong as well, being like a sort of very thin plywood. It's also almost the exact same width too. They also had loads of tins of Cath Kidston emulsion reduced to £5 per tin as the range is being discontinued. The White Linen colour we got is lovely, a sort of antique white very similar to Farrow & Ball's range. The paint is of a similar quality too, and is a real bargain.

He also bought two tins of Plasti-kote Satin Chrome Appliance spray (they should pay us to advertise this brand as we use it so much) for our dishwasher and washing machine. They are white at the moment and are looking a bit tired. I think all the appliances will match a bit better being chrome, as the new oven has lots of chrome on it, and so do the mixer, kettle and fridge. I didn't want to paint the fridge chrome as I thought cream would look a bit lighter and wouldn't dominate the room as much. In the last photo you can see some of the spotlights we sprayed in this Satin Chrome paint-excuse the weird photo angle! They look so much better than the brassy 80's gold colour they were before (remember to switch your power off first and disconnect them while they are drying!!).

Lastly, all of the clutter in our kitchen is being found a new home elsewhere-our poor conservatory seems to be ending up with most of it, but I do like the new home for my Dutch tiles! They are now underneath my plant pots on the dresser instead of being behind the kitchen taps, and match the Farrow & Ball 'Arsenic' paint colour almost exactly!

Roman blinds....

2010-05-02T17:19:00.006+01:00

Today I am quite pleased because I have found a £24 bargain-a striped linen blind that is just the right size for my very wide kitchen window! You can see it in the second photo-it's a 100% linen blend-but even better, it's made of a special non-fray trimable material incase it doesn't quite fit (or incase I am a rubbish measurer)! You can also get it here in a plain cream Barley colour or a darker Oatmeal colour and I found it really hard to decide! I decided upon the stripe in the end, because it adds a bit more interest. The rest of the inspiration photos are courtesy of Cabbages & Roses-I think their stripey linen fabric is quite similar to my blind-and the last is from Kate Forman. I'll let you know how accurate my measuring was when it arrives....

Peonies and Paint Charts...

2010-04-30T13:12:00.009+01:00

I love Peonies at this stage before they fully open up! I have them planted in my garden but they didn't flower last year, so I'm hoping they do this year!

Our new oven is still in the packaging awaiting to be fitted .Think it's in for a long wait as there's so much to do beforehand! We will have to slice into the worktops to fit the oven as the old one is a built-in model. I think I've decided on the paint colour for the cupboards though-'Rita Says' by the 'Paint & Paper Library'. Has anyone ever used this colour? On my paint chart it's a sort of pale grey with the slightest hint of green-please let me know if you have and what you thought of it, as I keep staring at the tiny square on the paint chart trying to visualise what it will be like!! I also looked online at the colour on their website and it looked absolutely nothing like my paint chart-but instead a cold looking pale Wedgewood blue! Think I might have to buy a tester pot to see which one is accurate!

Goodbye green oven....

2010-04-28T10:10:00.008+01:00

At long last it's goodbye to our green oven! We were going to try spraying it with paint but we just didn't think it would stand up to daily wear and tear! So after spending ages trying to decide whether to get the cream or the black model in this mini-range cooker, we finally decided to get the black version! This is quite an about turn for me as I thought I'd settled upon the cream!
But as 'we' are soon going to be re-painting the kitchen cabinets pale grey and are going for a more contemporary look, we thought the black would be more in keeping!
Having finally decided which colour model to get I then spent ages searching for the best deal on the Internet. I couldn't believe how much variation there was in cost, often over £200! I found the cheapest price for this gas model was £430 including free delivery (send me a Flickr message if you'd like the source!) I ordered it at lunchtime yesterday and it arrived at half nine this morning! Leisure were part of the 'Aga Rangemaster' group until a few years ago, and you can tell that from the classic styling of this mini-range. It has all the features of the larger models but is very reasonable in price. I also like their larger, retro-style model you can see in the last photo-again, you can choose from black or cream, and can find it on the Internet for about £800. If I had a bigger kitchen I would have been tempted by this model!

More kitchen inspirations...oven spray paint...

2010-04-19T12:24:00.009+01:00

I have definitely decided to give our kitchen an update in the next few months! The good thing is that it won't be too big a job as we can just re-paint the units and change a 'few' other things...

We had these hideous brassy gold downlights/spotlights that looked really '80's in our kitchen ceiling! Trouble was that they were fairly new, good quality and are fiddly and expensive to have replaced. So the OH bought a Plasti-kote chrome radiator spray that can withstand high temperatures and re-sprayed them. All he had to do was switch off the power and disconnect them by removing the bulb fitting inside, then place a card template all around them so the spray wouldn't get onto the ceiling.
The rest of the plan is to paint all the cupboards a pale greenish grey like the ones in the top photo (courtesy of 'Homes & Garden' magazine gallery), and re-stain the worktops a dark walnut as carrara marble isn't in the budget just yet. The tiled floor will be replaced one day with walnut wood flooring, and the cupboard knobs might be swapped for oval chrome knobs or chrome catches like the ones in the last photo that B&Q are now selling.

UPDATED: Bargain kitchen makeovers...

2010-04-14T16:04:00.027+01:00

When we moved into our house it had just had a brand new solid oak kitchen fitted with new appliances. It had obviously been quite expensive and the new appliances were all good quality, so we decided to see if we could make some changes to make it more our style.

We were after the hand-built 'country-style' look that you can see in the brochure photo, and so the units were painted in 'Farrow & Ball's' Cooking Apple Green eggshell. The tongue and groove panelling was painted in F&B 'Tallow' and the walls in 'Pointing'.

We removed quite a few of the cabinets and the OH adapted the carcass shells we were left with. He made a faux stud-wall chimney breast to hide the ugly extractor fan, and that meant we could also have a mantelpiece to display things on.

Next to that (in place of the angled corner wall cupboard) he built a larder cupboard with fold-back doors on piano hinges like the style shown in the designer kitchen photo! The tiles were chipped off and covered with tongue and groove, and the worktops were all replaced. He made the worktops out of old tabletops that were then stained and coated with special oil.

We made the units appear more 'country style' by adding on an 'in-frame' (as they're known in the trade) around the carcasses with cock-beading and traditional brass hinges. This is what gives the units more of a 'bespoke' look. The OH made all of the doors and drawer fronts out of MDF-when painted it looks just like wood. So if you open up our cupboards they are still just melamine inside but who can tell when they are shut! A chunky cornice was added to the tops of all the cupboards along with black porcelain knobs. Most of my knobs are original Victorian ones I found cheaply on Ebay, but you can buy identical reproduction ones everywhere now in all different sizes.

If you look at the tenth photo down you can see the gap on the wall between the 4-door wall cupboard and the 2-door cupboard. There was originally an angled cupboard that went across this space (like the oak one in the 'before' photo) but I hated it. It was really wide and took away from the bespoke look I was after! So we just got rid of it which meant I could have a tiny shelf on top of the tongue and groove panelling that I much prefer. You can see this in the second to last photo-what I like is that the tiny shelf support brackets have the same design as the larger ones on the mantle.

The shabby yellow cupboard was bought for £30 at an antique fair-we just cleaned it and left it as we found it! It's one end of an old dresser top and I like the shape of the brackets on the bottom. The butlers sink was found in our garden with herbs in and the taps were about £90 from B&Q!

We covered the UPVC windowsill with a piece of leftover worktop wood and now I don't even notice that it's a new window. In our next house I fancy having grey kitchen units with Carrara marble worktops and chrome catches but that will be years away yet! In the meantime I'm toying with the idea of repainting our units grey like the photos I found on Flickr at the top of this post, but I just can't decide!If anyone would like more info just send me a message via Flickr!

Bargain buys....

2010-04-11T14:42:00.019+01:00

I don't know about you, but the prices I see in all the glossy home magazines constantly amaze me! I was looking at a little pink wooden butchers block trolley in one of this months magazines that was £1,600!

My mum bought a really cheap Ikea Bekvam one (practically the same size) which we painted in Farrow & Ball green eggshell paint, added a (purely ornamental) brass cup handle to make it look the part, bought two cheap wicker baskets to sit underneath on the shelves and I think it looks just as nice as the expensive ones! She left the top and the slatted shelves beech to contrast with the green-I will try to remember to take a photo to show you!

So my next few posts will be about my favourite bargain buys!

Speaking of Ikea and bargain buys, a photo of my new bedroom lamp that sits on my dresser. For some reason, I really like this little lamp-although it's not quite my usual style-so at £24 I gave into temptation. It comes in three different colours-I got the pink version, although you can get it in a clear or green colour too.

Anyway, onto one of my favourite bargain buys-our Carrara marble fireplace and hearth. We bought this on Ebay for £100, and the sellers chucked in the hearth for free too! We did have to drive about 35 miles to collect it, but it was worth it.

Vintage Laura Ashley and my favourite console..

2010-04-08T09:15:00.015+01:00

I've posted a few photos of some of my favourite classic looks from my 80's catalogues. Sorry about the awful photos-photography is not my forte! I love the white sofa and chair range, can you believe they are from the 1989 catalogue; I would still buy them today, as they're such a classic design! I also loved the way the old catalogues told you about the history of the houses and where the design inspirations came from! Isn't it interesting to see the original colourway of the 'Summer Palace' wallpaper which has been very popular in the last few years in that light pastel duck-egg colour. I wish Laura Ashley would go back to more of their archive prints and re-issue or update them! Something else that also fascinated me was that if you look in the 6th photo from the top, the blue 'Amelia' rosebud sample pattern you can see in the bottom corner of the page is almost identical to Cath Kidston's current 'sprig' pattern!

Too nice to put away!

2010-03-28T15:31:00.005+01:00

I love this new little jacket-it was a relative bargain too (£55!)-there are such bargains on the high street! You can buy it here, but hurry it's a limited edition piece and is only being sold online for a short time and in two branches of their London store!

Bloggers in the States and Europe if you want one too don't despair-shipping is very reasonable-£5 to Europe and only £7.50 to the USA!

And speaking of bargains on the high street, here's a picture of my new cream velvet bedroom curtains (sorry about the poor photo quality)-half price online in Debenhams sale! To make them a bit more antique looking I sewed large cream pom-pom trim all down the edge, which I bought on Ebay. I'm pleased with them, although I should have pressed them to get the creases out before I hung them up, but I was too impatient! Enjoy your Sunday!

Bedroom makeover...

2010-03-27T11:19:00.008Z

Recently we've been getting our bedroom ready for the next stage of its makeover! We're going to rip up the carpet and paint the floorboards white-then we'll finally be able to put down the Aubusson rug which is still rolled up in our dining-room!

The rug is massive and I want to place it length ways underneath the end of our bed, then we'll at least have some carpet to tread on when it gets cold in the winter.

My cluttered chest of drawers also got tidied up-it's a shame TVs and digi-boxes are so ugly, but I definitely couldn't be without my TV in the bedroom! The big white roses are velvet and came from BHS (each stem is separate) and I got the fluted mercury glass candle holder for Xmas from The White Company .
The big pillar candle is from Florence-the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy. Even unlit it makes my room smell lovely and I really want to visit their London shop in Chelsea (it's on my list of shops to see along with Rachel Ashwell's new shop) to buy some of their famous pot-pourri. I keep all of my bedlinen in this chest as it holds so much-it's nearly as tall as me!

Emma Bridgewater mug...Country Living magazine...

2010-03-01T19:02:00.003Z

This is my favourite new Emma Bridgewater mug! I like the two-tone green lettering on it; it's got a different message on each side! I got it from the Country Living magazine offer last month, and I like it so much I'm scared to use it in case I break it!

Pink Pashley....

2010-02-25T09:57:00.008Z

I love these Pashley Poppy bikes! If you enlarge the photos you can see them properly-I have a black Pashley Princess which I love, but if I didn't I would be very tempted by one of these! They are expensive, like all Pashley bikes, but are built to last a lifetime. The cheapest I've found you can get this one for online is £389 with free delivery from discount cycles

and they come in blush pink or pastel blue. Pashley bicycles are all handmade in England, and are renowned for their classic styling. One thing you do need is a sturdy lock though-my friend had hers stolen and the police said Pashley bikes are targets for thieves because they are expensive bikes. I use two locks, one of them a Kryptonite D-lock and so far I've been ok!

Gustavian grey...

2010-02-21T11:15:00.005Z

It's funny how things grow on you-at first I wasn't sure about painting our sitting room grey, but now I'm really pleased with it!

I covered the lampshade with a remnant of my favourite Kate Forman

fabric 'Roses' which is an antiquey-style pattern (my other favourite of hers is 'Sophia' in grey and pink).

The lampbase was also wood but we painted and distressed it in a darker grey eggshell colour to make it look a bit more French.

Wardrobe sorting...

2010-02-17T15:13:00.006Z

Today I have been sorting out my everyday wardrobe. The OH made me this built-in wardrobe using some pine doors and a drawer he found in a skip! He lined it in some old Laura Ashley 'Kate' wallpaper I bought for a few pounds on Ebay, which was one of my favourite papers of theirs in the late 80's. Looking at the photo of the inside of my wardrobe, I canCan you also spot a glimpse of my new Cabbages and Roses 'Hatley' wallpaper to the side of the built-in wardrobe?

Pink polka dot bag...

2010-02-04T15:56:00.004Z

This is my new bargain bag from Primark! It was only £6 and is made of oilcloth with a zipped compartment inside, two end pockets for sunglasses and things, and a nice chunky pink zip!

Princess and the pea.....

2010-01-31T16:34:00.004Z

The first photo is a still from an exhibition that was showing at a stately home last year based upon classic fairytales.
The second photo is the living room of Cabbages & Roses owner Christina Strutt. Her new book comes out in a couple of months-if you haven't visited her website do, because there are some gorgeous photos of her own home on it at http://www.cabbagesandroses.com/ - click on the Homeware lookbook down the side where there are 52 photos to look at.

French country-style inspiration...

2010-01-02T15:20:00.005Z

These photos are of the clothes designer Rachel Riley's beautiful home in France, and her mix of very formal French and classic English country-house style.
I really like the Aubusson tapestry rug in her bedroom-I bought a massive one at auction last month for just £90-it's 3 metres by 2.5 metres and is going in my bedroom when I've painted the floorboards.

Happy New Year...looking back...retro fridge makeover..

2010-01-01T10:03:00.008Z

Last year on New Year's Day we were spraying our fridge mint green. It's funny because lately I've had lots of queries about this project-maybe the New Year inspires lots of us to start makeover projects? If you go back to my Jan 1st post 2009 you can see the link to buy these brilliant sprays online-sorry, I don't know how to backlink to my own blog!

The sprays come in pastel pink, green, blue, lilac, silver and cream and cost about £6.99 each from B&Q or the other online seller I mentioned (you can check the stock online at B&Q ). It's also available in all colours on UK Ebay if any worldwide Bloggers find it hard to get hold of!

We only needed two cans but other essentials are a pin for unclogging the spray nozel and masking tape to cover the seal and any logos when you spray. It's also better to clean your fridge first, then lightly sand with very fine sand paper to give the spray something better to adhere to. We gave our fridge about three fine coats, letting it dry in between each coat. You don't need any other primers or sealers, and I have to say, one year on, it still looks as good as new with no chips or scratches! We added the chrome handles (also from B&Q) to make it look a bit more retro and glued them on with Araldite metal glue (£3)-again, another tip is to secure them in place overnight with masking tape to make sure they bond really well.

This was definitely one of my favourite home makeover projects, being cheap and relatively easy to complete. If anyone would like more info just leave me a message via Flickr!

Happy Belated Christmas!

2009-12-30T11:59:00.002Z

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!! We did just manage to finish our sitting room in time (simply by me stuffing tons of junk into a spare bedroom-it's so full I don't even want to venture in there...)

I quite like the colour, but definitely prefer the room without the chair rail in the middle! Anyway, at least the holes in the wall are gone for good thanks to Polyfilla! The wall colour is an old discontinued one by Paint Library called 'Gustave'. It's the nicest Gustavian grey I could find and I tried dozens! I had a sample pot and got Leyland to mix me up a big tin. If anyone would like the colour code just send me a message through Flickr!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Chaos.....Shabby Chateau chic style...

2009-11-19T11:00:00.014Z

Remember how calm and tidy my sitting-room looked a few posts ago? I think we must be mad starting to redecorate the biggest (and most used) room in our house so near to Christmas! Our house is in chaos at the moment-the boiler has broken down (but is soon to be fixed luckily) and our sitting-room is a state!

We have great big holes in the walls because we removed the chair-rail which unbeknownst to us was nailed and grip-filled onto the wall....

The chair-rail wasn't original to the house, and was a horrible shape and cut the room in half, so I think the room will look much more elegant painted grey up to the picture rail at the top.

Log fire...

2009-11-05T10:34:00.000Z

It's getting so cold now I'm going to light the fire soon..

Rainy day...Gustavian grey...

2009-10-24T16:10:00.005+01:00

By the way, in case you have very sharp eyesight, the grey patches on the wall near the console table aren't shadows-they're blobs of paint colours that I've been trying out! I'm trying to find the perfect pale Swedishy/Gustavian grey colour that won't look too cold! It is proving to be quite a feat but I'm not giving up yet...

Ranunculus...

2009-10-16T10:42:00.003+01:00

I love Ranunculus because they have such nice round-shaped heads and springy stems!

Cath Kidston decorations...

2009-10-15T20:12:00.004+01:00

As you know I'm dying to put up my Christmas decorations so I dug out this old photo...

Think my favourite are the Cath Kidston felt Stanley dogs which are too nice to put away...

The artificial Shaker-style tree is from John Lewis two years ago (still available on their website although it's got more expensive!!)-it has a real log type trunk, proper spiky needles and little acorns on the end of each branch!

Christmas...

2009-09-25T09:45:00.003+01:00

Is anybody else thinking about Christmas already? I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by-I'm already thinking about what presents to buy people...

Rachel Ashwell's new book...

2009-09-13T13:39:00.003+01:00

My new book arrived from Amazon this week and it's definitely my favourite of all Rachel Ashwell's books! It's on offer at only £13.75 with free postage and you can look inside some of the pages on the Amazon UK site to see if you like it. It's larger in size than her other books-more of a coffee table size and the photographs are gorgeous, especially of Rachel's bathroom! Definitely recommended!!

Shabby French mirror...

2009-08-13T09:42:00.000+01:00

Roses wallpaper...

2009-08-07T18:43:00.004+01:00

My bedroom and kitchen...

Victorian fireplace tiles..

2009-08-02T17:26:00.002+01:00

These salvaged Victorian fireplace tiles I have propped up by my oven exactly match its colour! I wouldn't have chosen a green oven and hob but as they were brand new when we moved in, I didn't want to replace them yet! At least they match my kitchen colour-scheme....
I love old tiles, and have them everywhere in my kitchen-on the mantle shelf, in the window, behind the sink..

Kitchenaid mixers....

2009-07-30T10:31:00.013+01:00

I love retro-style kitchen appliances...

Second Swedish wreath...

2009-07-29T12:21:00.004+01:00

Here is the second wreath-at the bottom of my staircase just by my front door!

Swedish wreath...

2009-07-26T11:53:00.003+01:00

These Gustavian-type wreaths are made of painted wood. I've got two of these-this one is hanging on my understairs cupboard..

Three measuring cups...

2009-07-16T11:18:00.001+01:00

Set of three melamine baking cups from M&S...

Handy step-stool

2009-07-11T09:58:00.005+01:00

Ikea step-stool (Bekvam-£7) painted in 'Chartwell Green' special order from Farrow & Ball's now discontinued National Trust range of garden colours..

French chandelier

2009-07-09T10:22:00.004+01:00

I love this French antique chandelier at my mum's house. It has matching wall-lights which you can just about see in the photos. The drops on it are a mixture of pink, purple and amber and it's covered with clear beads that have that oil-patterned effect!

Garden table..

2009-07-04T10:30:00.001+01:00

Awaiting a frame...

2009-06-25T10:43:00.003+01:00

I finally printed out this picture onto photo-quality A4 paper, glued it onto an old pine board and then applied aging varnish. The Shaker heart ribbon is just stapled onto the back and is a temporary hanging measure till I find the right frame!

Clutter continues...

2009-06-22T15:52:00.000+01:00

Floor lanterns...

2009-06-21T15:36:00.006+01:00

By my sink....

2009-06-20T14:21:00.002+01:00

By my sink...my favourite Sainsburys Lavander and Orange washing-up liquid and silk Ranunculus!

Grey bathroom...

2009-06-16T09:58:00.003+01:00

A few photos of the finished bathroom-sorry about the rubbish quality! You can see that the 99p Ebay sink is finally in the new built-in cabinet and its glass handles from American Ebay match the antique one on the mirrored cabinet above, although the chrome screws are a lot less rusty!

Peonies on my coffee table..

2009-06-13T09:51:00.000+01:00

New table and corbels...

2009-06-10T15:20:00.001+01:00

Just a quick photo of the new table and wooden corbels in the conservatory. We found a set of four wooden corbels and nailed them up for decoration!

More clutter....

2009-06-03T19:12:00.004+01:00

Peonies and roses...

2009-05-31T13:27:00.008+01:00

Lavender and lilacs...

2009-05-28T20:12:00.004+01:00

Pink food mixer....

2009-05-26T10:01:00.012+01:00

Wicker swing seats...

2009-05-25T15:25:00.005+01:00

Pink persuasion......

2009-05-23T16:22:00.015+01:00

Bears and boxes....

2009-05-21T09:29:00.011+01:00

New dress...

2009-05-17T17:01:00.004+01:00

New dress....

Shabby chic....

2009-05-16T07:42:00.009+01:00

Raspberry conserve....

2009-05-16T07:33:00.001+01:00

Bloggers, most of you have probably heard that Marks and Spencers are celebrating 125 years of trading and are running various different promotions and things at the moment. One of the things they are doing is re-introducing items from their archived designs for a limited period of time. I love the food items in their 50's and 60's prints, especially the jams!

Turquoise terrier...

2009-05-14T08:16:00.005+01:00

Sewing station....

2009-05-10T13:40:00.011+01:00

'Cabbages and Roses' cushion...

Too much clutter...

2009-05-06T14:50:00.006+01:00

Favourite corner...

2009-05-03T11:19:00.006+01:00

Hello Bloggers, hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend!

2009-04-27T16:32:00.006+01:00

Shabby chic garden....

2009-04-26T13:29:00.007+01:00

2009-04-24T18:42:00.008+01:00

New duvet set....

2009-04-23T13:04:00.005+01:00

Trip to Tesco...

2009-04-22T14:49:00.011+01:00

Lilacs....

2009-04-18T09:36:00.003+01:00

More beautiful bathrooms...

2009-04-17T18:25:00.005+01:00

Sorry Bloggers, I am subjecting you to more photos of inspirational bathrooms!

Home inspirations...Lulu Guinness..

2009-04-13T08:00:00.004+01:00

2009-04-11T16:43:00.006+01:00

Making the bed...

2009-04-11T16:07:00.005+01:00

New stool, new vase..

2009-04-10T15:08:00.005+01:00

New shelf..

2009-04-09T19:21:00.003+01:00

Smells like home.....

2009-04-08T08:59:00.007+01:00

Nearing completion....

2009-04-02T19:53:00.005+01:00

Chandeliers and showers..

2009-03-29T15:18:00.005+01:00

Bloggers, we are still carrying on with our bathroom renovations!

Satisfying shopping day...

2009-03-26T10:02:00.004Z