KITCHEN: Makeover (hopefully) on the cheap

We are very fortunate that my Mum's cousins are ripping out their 20 yr old kitchen and have offered to give it to us and all we have to pay is the shipping cost!

The kitchen in our house is the cheapest of the cheap from the 1980s and has years of set in grime which I'm not sure that we'd ever get out.

The ones we're getting from my Mum's cousins are solid wood doors and nice and tall so offer lots of storage (I will post photos in due course).

I was wondering what look to go for with these cabinets, but I really think that we will be able to use them to their full potential if we sort out the walls and tiles and change the handles on the cabinets, and hopefully get some new work top too, which fits,  we will be able to get a look very similar to the following:

Cottage kitchen Wooden cabinets with gothic-style doors are the perfect choice for a country kitchen. Choose a wooden worktop and stone flooring to continue the theme and opt for white-painted shelving to display crockery and ornaments. Shop for the look: Plain English, The Cotswolds Company June 2009 - Quoted from Ideal Home Magazine Website.

Which I have to say I am completely in love with! Project for 2011 I think.

If we manage to do the Master Bedroom, Kitchen and Dining room in 2011 - I think we would have done very well indeed :D

Here are photos of the kitchen which my Mum's cousin is giving us:

MASTER BEDROOM: Beds

So glad I finally remembered the name of the website for beds which I saw about 6 months ago and completely fell in love with: The Sleep Room

Stunning beds, beautiful attitude to making, creating them and customer service - I know where I am going to go for my dream bed one day...

Their Story....

Having lost a whole Saturday trying to buy a bed, Charlie Marshall decided to set up The Sleep Room to make the process as quick and hassle free for you as possible. So two years, 187 mattress factories, four continents and some seriously comfy beds later, The Sleep Room was born in December 2008.

Since then we have sold several thousand beds and mattresses proving that, unlike his taste in cardigans, there are a lot of you out there who share the same love of great value, gorgeous things as Charlie.

We've found that the key to finding lovely bedroomy things lies in the amazing people we've met all over the world. We stumbled upon our beautiful hand-stitched linen as a result of a trekking trip in central Vietnam. And we met the wonderful Kapil and his father making stunning bone inlay beds when we were in Rajasthan. In fact, from Jasmin and his son in Croatia, to Cicy in Shanghai, and David and his family in London, everything we offer has a story and a person behind it.

None of this is possible without the great people who also work here in London - some of whose mug shots you can see on the right. We're always on the lookout for exceptional newcomers to come and join our ever-growing "dream team". So if you think you're soft enough and reckon you'd fit in, do get in contact. We'd love to hear from you.

Check out their website for more info.... 

and the beds I like the most @ Beautiful Beds

DINING ROOM: Main ceiling light

May 2011 (Update)

I really do love the pendant lamps which I have picked out below but I have decided to have a bit of a rethink for several reasons, we are on a major budget doing up the house as literally every space and every room 

needs doing and it is really starting to dawn on me that thrifty is the way forward, wherever possible at least. Also where the lamp is currently attached to the ceiling is not central to the dining table and therefore it will look silly if we had a pendant lamp in that position. Also long term we are hoping to do a back extension kitchen diner across the whole of the back of the property which will be done to our exact specification and so our choices will not be as limited, and when we do do this the current dining room will become part of the larger living room across the whole of the front of the property and therefore a pendant lamp would not be appropriate any more in any case . And finally, the ceiling is currently in pretty good condition so I don't want to be disturbing it unnecessarily to put in a pendant lamp which won't be right in there in a few years anyway - phew!

So where does this leave us... We had two identical cigarette stained ceiling grotty lamps, one in the dining room and one in the living room. We have taken the one down the one in the living room and replaced it with a far more tasteful Moroccan influence lamp shade and I took the old one along to the carboot with me to sell the other week. But as I was sitting there, watching it not sell, I began to think to myself, how could I upcycle it to make it better. I made the decision then and there that if it didn't end up selling I was going to do it up and make it better so that we could use it in another room when we were ready.


Here's how I went about it...

1. I removed the  glass light shades and put them through the dishwasher... I have got to admit I was blow away by the colour they came out!

I never even knew that the tops of the  glass were see through...thank goodness for dishwashers...they are so good :)

2. So then I was left with the frame...  so I got out my trusty liquorish sample paint and started painting...















3. Then, once it was dry, I put it all back together...

... and voilà! - up-cycled light complete! - Ready to be put up by our electrician.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've really fallen for this  Paris Pendant Lamp from Garden Trading:

 

@£45.00

Also like this Luther Glass Pendant Lamp from Next:

@ £22.00 - it's pretty good value for a shade made of glass

LIVINGROOM: Lighting options for the main light

We currently have this one:

So things can only get better......

I really like the white structural shades on the market at the moment like this IKEA one Knappa one which is quickly becoming a classic:

....and very good value also at just £13.31

Also really like this Habitat one:

Aperture@ £80.00

Just found a standard pattern one on the John Lewis website which could work really well too:

Jocelyn Warner Flora Lampshade, Slate @ £85

11" Ivy Leaf Faux Suede Lampshade / Pendant / Table from eBay @ £11.99


March 2011

I have finally found a shade which I just and was excellent value from TK Maxx @ £16.00. It also fits with the Morocan lamps which I was looking at at one point as it is oval in a brown metal with lots of little holes so it should let off a really pretty light. I also bought a standard light fitting yesterday from a little hardware store in the village where I work for around £7 so all in all I have brought in the cost at under £23.00 total which I don't think is bad at all.

(photo to follow)

DECORATIVE IDEAS: Beautiful ideas for January 2011

Love this idea for shelving from Ideal Home Magazine:

Make a feature out of living room storage by adding floating shelves into a wasted alcove space. Not running the shelves across the full length of the alcove stops the space from feeling cluttered and gives taller items more room.

Shop for the look: Homebase, Graham & Brown


Spring look shelving, again featured in Ideal Home Magazine:

Create handy display storage as well as an interesting feature wall by building floor-to-ceiling box shelving and decorating the insides of some of the cubbyholes with a patterned wallpaper. Select three wallpapers of similar tones and display pretty items in the papered shelves to distract from the less pretty things in the plain boxes.
Shop for the look: Jali, Ikea, Next

River Cottage Bedroom from Grits & Glamour blog:

Living room from same blog:

LIVING ROOM: Large Bow Lamp

Really want to get this Large Bow Lamp from Made.com to go over our large couch in the living room.

Real design classic statement piece and now it's reduced to £79.99. Might just have to go for it!

HOME PROJECTS: Button Box

I have recently become the very proud owner of my Grandma Jo's original sewing box. It really is a complete treasure trove of so many buttons, pieces of material, zips, silks, needles, pins and much much more, most of which have been taken out of old items of clothing, which just makes the all the more fascinating. 

 

I decided in sorting it all out the best place to begins was with buttons. I had previously also inherited my Great Grandma's button box as well. To make both sets into the most usable section I decided to categorise them into colours and then have a small box of ones which particularly appeal to me too. Such a fun project and so fascinating to ask every button really could tell a story. 

Once I sorted all the buttons into their colours the colours which I had lots of I put in old empty jam jars and the ones which I only had a few of I put in the mini resealable bags which most of the buttons were then it. I then delighted in labelling using my new Cath Kidston Sticker Book which my lovely friend Katie had very kindly got me for Christmas.

This really is an item which I recommend every household having. There is such a variety of beautiful stickers of all shapes and sizes to label and wrap to your hearts content!

Please find below my photos of this little home project:

The stunning little box which I found at the bottom of my Grandma Jo's sewing box which I decided to commandeer as my very own button box of my favourite buttons