So this post is inspired by a friends recent decorating dilemma, which upon hearing has made me think about this...

Lots of us end up lumbered with brown stuff that perhaps we didn't choose or maybe choose a long time ago before we all got super cool (we have inherited a brown leather bed, the thought gives me shivers, that Craig brought from his Dad's. You know the Argos type, he loved it when he was a teenage boy.)

By 'stuff' I'm talking things like big old comfy sofas and wooden tables and chairs that have been passed down from parents and family. Lets face it, we can't always afford to buy everything new when were changing up our spaces, and besides some of the brown 'stuff' can have the most character and charm - it's just knowing how to nurture it.

So we have a couple of options with this brown sitch:

1. We can change the colour of the stuff- So paint or re-vamp those old school, classic, built-to-last pieces that you pick up at car boots or had passed down to you. Not only paint but changing knobs and how you dress these pieces is all part of the tarting up process.

and

2. We can integrate the brown- so this is all about making the brown stuff work in your space in a cooler way. Adding other elements, offsetting with other colours and accessories, and throwing in more brown (yep you heard me -more brown) all helps to transform your brown stuff works.

Number 1 is mainly aimed at wooden furniture, (although I have come across painting leather and fabric on the crazy web I've not yet tried it myself, check it out here if your intrigued.) I adore cleaning up and painting old furniture it unleashes so much life into a piece that can be quite unbelievable, but this is going to be another post for another time. Today were talking how to work those awkward pieces into your scheme on mere integration tricks.

Add more brown 

Honing in on the hue with touches like cushions, accessories, artwork, wallpaper and even paintwork will stop your brown furniture sticking out like a sore thumb and create harmony through your scheme. Play around with tones of the colour to create an interesting feel rather than sticking to one which may leave it looking flat and boring. Be brave and try depths you might not have explored before - dark sludgy browns can add grandeur and really ground a space, where lighter tones will make a place feel more calming.

Compliment the hue 

Adding pops of other colours to offset the brown will help to update the look and modernise the whole scheme. Hit it up with brights like orange and pink for a really quirky contemporary vibe or go for greys for a more understated cool. Using lots of earthy colours (greens, neutrals and warm reds) can bring a relaxing element to your space, however for me this is kind of a bit predictable and 'been there'. This is all amount hitting up your 'stuff' with a big bag of cool. 

Go glam

If you do lean towards these earthy tones, think rustic glam and add shots of surprise in other ways. Super scale-up your shiny surfaces like mirrors and metallics, hang your lighting a little lower and layer up varied textile finishes. All of these things will stop your space looking as mundane as the front page of the Next home brochure and create extra WOW (I realise I may offend Next fans here, but I had to take the risk sorry guys. It's not that it's not lovely, but it's just not AMAZINGGGG.)

Mix it up

If your piece is old, clash it up with something uber- contemporary to create unexpected intrigue, a big wooden elephant per say. As I'm learning, this is what makes spaces exciting. Throw in the unexpected and not only does your space scream personality but it will fill your guests with decorating envy!

Play up pattern

Pick out patterns in your sofa or wood work detail and play on them. As long as your sticking to one or two colours, adding in even the most subtle of patterns will transform your space. I must admit, I'm a little bit of a pattern phobe, so I tend to add it in subtly through rugs and cushions in big prints that barely look like patterns.

Get rid of anything else uncool. 

Okay, sometimes we just have to be cruel to be kind (like the NEXT jibe). If your re-arranging or redecorating and keeping hold of your big brown 'stuff', it may be time to throw away any old pieces that just don't fit the bill. I tend to live by the rule of investing in the long term. It the same as with clothes, the more you spend on pieces the longer they will last. If you buy furniture, art or accessories for your home based on your true instinctive style, and not from the latest trend of a cheap homewards shop (I'm not saying you have to spend a fortune here- in fact sometimes the cooler stuff is cheaper - I have a big glass urn that I ADORE and it cost me eight quid from the charity shop. I also managed to pick up 4 ERCOL dining chairs for £90 in a charity shop - safe to say I was chuffed up!) then the more likely it is that you will never have to throw it away. Of course you can grab some good cheap bargains in these places that might see you through the next year, but be prepared to part with them once you're ready for a change. 

I hope these tips enlighten you, I'd love to see your brown transformations, or if you have a piece / pieces that you're not sure what to do with and would like a bit more help give me a shout!

XOXO

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Head over to pinterest for more inspiration!

Heavenly hallways...

Can you remember way back when I shared pics of our living room in a post and said ' wait until you see how my style is changing as I'm gaining more confidence?', here is the post to prove it. ( Read the post on the living room reno here - I'm chomping at the bit for winter to come and allow me to paint this room dark now!)

So I really need to get better at taking 'before' pictures, unfortunately this is the best I have of our hallway previous to it's reno. Between it's 'all white' walls, red carpet (which it NOT ideal alongside a heavily molting yellow labrador I can assure you) and broken lighting didn't have much else going on. 

We thought to leave this space to renovate last as we didn't want to destruct it doing the other rooms, yet somehow Craig managed to have this AND the bathroom going at the same time (typical Craig). So for quite some time now we have been juggling the two, flitting from job to job in room to room. 

But now, 4 months later, we have a bathroom, and I can happily say, a beautiful hallway space that is beyond what I ever could have imagined it to be...

Again we used Abigail Ahern paint on the walls and floor, this time in Bedford Brown and Hudson Black. The brown is so gorgeous, it's comforting yet still classy. In some lights it even has a hint of grey.

 This felt VERY dark at first, and we lived with no lighting for a while as I didn't want to rush into buying for the sake of it which I'm sure you can imagine led to lots of disapproving "oohhh its dark in here" comments. BUT last weekend something MAGICAL happened...

We managed to bag some Laura Ashley chandeliers at massively discounted prices as they were getting rid of them; I was like a kid in a sweet shop as the manager was reeling out boxes of discontinued shop from the 'back'. This is a prime example of being in the right place at the right time.

We compromised on keeping the ceilings and woodwork white ( Craig was not having my Abigail Ahern inspired lust to paint it all out in the same colour), so I have brought white through into the scheme with accessories and lighting to keep it cohesive. I have to admit as much as I love her and agree that that 'knock it back' paint technique is visually brilliant, I am keen on how the white woodwork keeps the space looking timeless and crisp, and I'm possibly just not quite cool enough to pull off that dark, hunkered down feel anyway!

Pulling the carpet up in the hallway made the space feel instantly fresher. We decided to paint the floorboards and go with layered rugs to add different textures and pattern. I always thought floorboards required specialist paint, don't get me wrong it's out there, but I was advised by an expert in the field that as long as the boards were sealed with a varnish, plain old emulsion on the floor will do! So we did just that, two coats of emulsion in Hudson Black and two coats of clear, matt varnish on top. Bob's your uncle!

We also swapped out two naff white radiators that provided nowhere near enough heat to this space with one BIG DADDY of a cast iron number. The heat output from this geezer is literally amazing, and the smell you get from the  cast iron tops it right off! Again we got this from architectural salvage  in Tynemouth.

This little table was £15 from IKEA!!! I love the idea of having little occasional tables dotted around.  There is much more to be added to this space yet but we will hopefully collect pieces we love over time.

Rug above was from h and m. The white wall lights are Kartell, they act as a modern contrast between the classy glass chandeliers. The standard lamp below is Laura Ashley, I stole this from the living room to tie in the duck egg from that room scheme.

 This black mirror (which once was gold), was spray painted using plasticote spray paint in black gloss to make it much edgier. I am on with collecting art, pictures and anything else I fancy to create an interesting gallery wall along here, I've made a start with my bargain £10 zebra print and quirky MIHO Stag head from Liberty of London...

GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS!!! The cut glass just shines AMAZINGLY, photos do not do these lights justice! They add a touch of glam to the space - who doesn't need a bit of that!

Mirrors in round or unusual shapes add interest to spaces - look out for something different to your average and you'll have mirror envy from all of your guests I promise. Also think about where you position your mirrors. With the one in the above picture, I wanted it placed low enough so that the chandelier's reflection (below) was in full view. Unfortunately my INSANE husband likes things in lines and when I told him this was in the wrong place he told me that 'it is exactly in the middle of the wall and the beam above'

 WHAT ON EARTH!? Who in their right mind would look at a mirror and think 'That is out of line with that tiny stump of wall at the top' 

NO ONE- that's who! 

So that mirror needs shuffling to the right a little so it looks in the middle of the wall BY EYE, and shuffling down a bit so that when you can't see the actual chandelier, you see its reflection. This trick is good with artwork too, use your mirrors to your advantage, let them bounce your cool things around your space.

Placing mirrors near lights will also bounce the light around your space really cleverly too!

Craig laid Yorkshire stone at the porch end of the hall. This creates a separate zone for the entranceway and also adds another dimension of texture.

I really am in love with this space and I have surprised myself at how a hallway can actually feel like a room in it's own right. I hope this too has inspired you to be a little more creative with your hallway/ entranceway. I certainly never dreamed I'd have one that guests, and us, stop and linger in. If I can do it, anyone can! Please feel free to leave your comments, and if you have any questions I'd love to try and help in anyway I can.

Happy hallway-ing.

XOXO.

HOUSE RENO CONTINUED...a proper grown up bedroom.

Good morning, things are pretty manic this week after the Easter break but it's great to get back in the studio. There's a bit of a mad rush now until our studio deadline in little over three weeks but I'm gonna try my best not to let the blog posts slip!

Last week I shared with you a glimmer of our very own house reno, starting with the living room and conservatory. Well I thought seeing as though were getting to know each other nicely it's about time to share a few more snaps of the pad...

Today lets tour into the bedroom, which I think has to be my favourite room in the house.
Evidently, it's got a pretty different vibe to the rooms you saw last week -  I'm blaming this on my girl/ interior/ career and all round general crush, Abigail Ahern. Since I started reading her books and following her, interiors stuff just makes so much more sense and our house has definitely got A LOT COOLER! 

I plan to incorporate THE TIPS and cooler colours we've used in the latter renovations (bedroom, hall and main bathroom) into the rooms we did first (kitchen, conservatory and lounge) later on - Craig is about ready to kill me already so I'm not sure he can handle another paint job quite yet! This is not to say I don't like these rooms, I just feel they lack, hmmm, spunk.

So the master bedroom originally had a small, awkwardly (and stupidly) fit bathroom on the side, we knocked the dividing wall down and very, VERY BRAVELY opted to go for an open plan wet room in the bedroom space - complete with toilet! Yep you heard me, our loo is open into our bedroom. To be honest I've heard just about every man and his dogs opinion on this that I'm wayyyy past caring, it might not work for everyone but it WORKS FOR US, its our home and WE LOVE IT :D

P.S Please excuse some of the earlier photos, mid- reno we were just snapping with iPhones so the quality isn't great.

And AFTER...

 

Forgive me for the photo overload  -  I'm practicing my photography skills! I've also added some pics mid- decorating below to show the progress. Again, this room is not totally complete - we're waiting for some wood sills and we need way more art and 'stuff' to make the space more interesting, but hell it's one big improvement don't you think???

 I'll post up some pictures of the sill when it comes, hopefully that will be next week. 

This room was HARD GRAFT and did almost break us (just kidding - came close though!), but to say we now have a gorgeous room that is so MUCH MORE than a room to sleep in is amazing. Craig did much of this work himself (obviously under close supervision), but that really helps with savings if you can do it. I think if we'd have had to pay labour we would'nt have been able to afford a room like this. Have a go I say, you might surprise yourself!

  I've never really had a proper grown up space like this before, and I'd say the colour plays a MASSIVE part in this feeling, it creates such a 'hunker down' feel. So many people knocked this idea of DARK BLUE walls. "What all over?", " YES MAM EVERY WALL WILL BE PAINTED DARK". My advice to take from this - tell everyone who is interested that you're painting your rooms white, then let them be pleasantly surprised when they see how gorgeous your newly painted dark walls are! I was nervous as hell when I started painting the walls, but I stuck with my instinct ( and Abigail Aherns advice) and went for it. And now I feel there is no going back, you'll see what I mean when I share with you some more snaps of the latest paint jobs.

Be brave - it's game changing!

XOXO.

P.s We used Farrow and Ball Hague Blue Estate emulsion on the walls if your interested ;)