NEW HOUSE UPDATE

Time has been flying lately. It’s crazy to think we’ve been in our new house for almost two months now. We’ve been busy putting our own stamp to it and ordering new furniture. Everything seems to be taking ages though. Not sure if it’s to do with brexit or the pandemic but the average time for furniture orders seems to be around 11 weeks now. But we’re getting there and I thought I’d share a glimpse here of the progress we’ve made. I won’t go into detail in this post. I’ll write a separate blogpost for each room once we’ve finished furnishing them.

Lots of people have asked me if we’ll renovate or extend. We won’t be extending (at least in the near future) as the house has already been extended. It was also fully renovated 8 years ago, so luckily we won’t need to do any of the ‘hard work’. We will be redecorating the rooms that need doing though  (there are a few) but mostly just adding a lick of paint and furnishing the rooms.

 F O R M A L  L I V I N G  R O O M

This is probably my favourite room in the house (although our kitchen is a close second!) The previous owners did a wonderful job renovating it, so we have jumped straight into furnishing mode. I wanted to go for a mix of bohemian and midcentury furniture in this room. I love the neutral colours and the warmth of the original parquet flooring. I’ve also tried to add a lot of texture by adding different textiles and mixing metallics.

Although I’m not finished furnishing our living room yet, I have found few key pieces to go in this space. Our new sofas from Swyft are just perfect. I love the midcentury design and how versatile they are. My latest purchase was the Aged Golden Coffee Table from Annie Mo’s. I’ve been looking for ‘the’ perfect coffee table for months and when I saw it online I knew I had found ‘the one’. The elegant two-tier design is ideal for showing off decorative pieces underneath and great for storage as well.

I’m obsessed with the light fixtures we’ve inherited. These antique copper wall lights are stunning and give our living room a real old world feel. The globe ceiling chandelier is a lovely feature on its own. I can’t wait to share more pictures of our living room once it’s looking a more finished. I still need a rug, side tables and some artwork. My shopping list is still pretty long..

M A S TE R  B E D R O O M

Our master bedroom is also coming along nicely. The wallpaper we inherited is quite a statement piece, don’t you think? So many people have asked if I’ll change it, but it is staying (for now). I love it with our new rattan French Bed and midcentury bedside tables.

R E A D Y  – M A D E  C U R T A I N S

The previous owners took their curtains with them, so I had to buy new curtains before our move date. It was risky buying curtains without exact measurements but we wanted to able to sleep in a dark room from day one. I ordered all the curtains online and had some of them altered at our local dry cleaner’s (they were too long). My plan is to get proper custom made curtains (I’d love double pleat linen ones!) but the Ikea curtains in my daughter’s bedroom might stay. They are perfect in the bay window and look more expensive than they were.

We’ll need to paint/wallpaper the girl’s bedrooms at some point, but I’m thrilled how well our old bedroom furniture goes with the existing decor. I’m quite liking the dark feature wall in my eldest daughter’s bedroom and the Hermione the Hare watercolour print that Willow & Weeds kindly sent me. Jo, the owner of Willow & Weeds, is a full time artist and a mum. All the artwork (from notebooks to cushion covers) is created in her studio in Northern Ireland. She is so talented as you can tell!

O P E N – P L A N  K I T C H E N

One of the biggest selling point of this house was the Oak Stoneham kitchen the previous owners had installed. I never thought I’d go for a wooden kitchen but I absolutely love it. The heritage oak looks so timeless and beautiful. It’s definitely a design that won’t date (which is what you want from a kitchen). I love the semi-circular island and I’ve found the layout ideal when cooking and entertaining. We’ve had Stoneham Kitchens in already to fix a few things, but I’ll write a separate blogpost about the kitchen very soon. I absolutely adore it!

I also love our new Calligaris New York bar stools. I spent so many evenings online searching for the perfect bar stools. Finding pretty and comfortable (plus child friendly) bar stools is a lot harder than you think!  I’ve never had a kitchen island before and it was so important for me to get this part right. I wanted something pretty, but practical. I also had to take into account the kitchen style as we aren’t planning to change it anytime soon. I wanted really simple and elegant bar stools that wouldn’t make the space look too cluttered. Oak kitchens can be quite dominating, so it’s really important to pick bar stools that balance it out. I actually ordered these bar stools on the day we exchanged. I was so excited I couldn’t wait. It took 6 weeks for them to arrive as they were custom-made in Italy. Obviously they were worth the wait!

I’m so happy how all the rooms are turning out. I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone a little bit and opt for a more traditional style decor (especially in our bedroom). But I’m so excited to be on this journey and cannot wait to see how our new home looks like once we’re finished.

I can’t wait to share more updates with you very soon!

*This post contains gifted items.