BACK ROOM: Progress...

Getting the second hand kitchen delivered the other week forced us to finally organise the back room a bit more.
When we came to it we could barely get to the back patio door (the only route out to the garden from the house) for old pieces of wood and old cupboards:

.... and these are photos taken back in October before it even got too bad so you can only imagine how it got before the clear out!

We were never aiming for perfect, we can't in this house right now as there is always far too much to do. But we really did manage to reorganise the place and fit in a lot more as a result.

I unpacked a lot of the kitchen items when I did the pantry the other week. We then reorganised the space which was left and slotted the 2nd hand kitchen in the middle of that space.

We then cleared all the boxes, wood and broken cupboards into to be kept (which we put in the loft) and to get rid of....

which we put in the garden, lit the fire and over about 4 hrs burnt the whole lot!

So satisfying though.... and the room is far more usable as a result! 

MASTER BEDROOM: Furniture Inspiration

I'm just going to do a scrapbook here of bedroom furniture which I have seen and really like to use as an inspiration base for what I end up buying....


Linen Cabinets:

Linen cabinets are a great way to display and organise clothes which can be folded and will give your bedroom a real French/ Shabby Chic look. Remember it is always worth thinking outside of the box, if you can't afford a linen cabinet an alternative could be an 2nd hand display cabinet, they may be slightly smaller but usually work out far better value...

Edland Linen Cabinet from IKEA @ £305.36

Schreiber Linen Glass Front Cabinet from Argos @ £224.99

ONE DRAWER TWO GLASS DOOR DISPLAY CABINET WITH THREE FIXED SHELVES from The Great Furniture Trading Company @ £333.00

Dressing Tables:

Again, like the linen cabinet, a dressing table doesn't have to be purpose built, the best thing to do is to collect images of tables that you like, as I have here and then if you cannot afford them look at other tables, desks and cabinets which could work too...

Edland Dressing Table from IKEA @ £141.96

This is my ideal dressing table, if money wasn't an issue, which I have re-found in my scrapbook folder, it's from an M&S catalogue from at least 3 years ago and even then it was listed at £699 for the table & £149  for the stool, but still I love this classic style & really do think it is timeless.

Wardrobes:

At the moment we still have temporary canvas £30 wardrobes in our bedroom, but I do, and have since I've seen them loved these PAX wardrobes by IKEA. I love how well they utilise every inch of space to give the most storage possible in tight spaces. It's also great from the perspective of looking after the clothes you own as you can store everything in purpose designed storage - truly genius - well done IKEA!

one day, someday (hopefully not in the too distant future) I will live the organisational dream of an IKEA PAX wardrobe 

The other kind of wardrobe I really like is the traditional looking kind, please find examples below...

This one again is from the M&S catalogue from a few years. ago and was listed at £1199 then. Man I thought the IKEA stuff I liked was expensive - this certainly puts that in perspective, but it is beautiful

 Bedroom Accessories:
I love IKEA for their accessories, their pretty and practical storage is hard to beat for the price, here are some bits from my scrapbook which I like:

 
 

SHOPPING: Clever Storage GneissSpice on Etsy

Found GneissSpice  when I was browsing on Etsy. Such clever personalised storage solutions! Here are my magnetic spice jars attached to our fridge:

...almost without fail I always get comments on these and always get asked where I got them from.

You can buy them with or without spices already in. 

And as many or as little jars as you like as they all slot together:

You can even get the jars individually labelled to put your favourite spices and herbs in:

And they all come neatly packaged straight from NYC:

Overall its a wonderful product from a wonderful company who I highly recommend!

Enjoy! x

BACK GARDEN: Garden Party ideas....

I plan to make the most of our garden this summer and really dress it up as much as possible and do garden parties. Here are some inspiring images which I like:

 

BACK GARDEN: Railway Sleepers

I want to get a whole bunch of these to smarten up the back garden, they are pretty good value and so attractive and recycled too - how can you loose!

These New BrownTreated Softwood Railway Sleepers 1200x250x125 are great and are on eBay on BUY-IT-NOW for £12.36 per sleeper with about £40 delivery

Here are some of the gorgeous things you can do with railway sleepers in your garden:

These would be perfect for a vegetable bed 

KITCHEN: Cupboard Handles

I wanted something nice and neat and timeless and reasonably priced:

These are the ones which I am currently bidding on on eBay: priced currently at £25 with £7.00. Will post the link once the bidding has finished. 

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I ending up not winning that particular auction but then I went on to bid and win on another one and these are the knobs I ended up with, unfortunately I can't remember the exact price but I'm sure they came from a seller in the States and that they cost less than £20 overall for about 12-15 knobs.