In the Navy

I'm loving the recent trend of navy and black paint used in various parts of the house. Our hallway was a bit too stark for my liking so I decided to take the plunge into the deep blue paint sea. We still need to paint gloss on the chair rail and skirting boards but I really love the pop of rich color contrasting with the light!  Now we need to lay the carpet on the stairs to finish the look.

Before, testing paint colors

Hallway at night

Hallway in sunny daylight

Engrossed Memories of a Bulbous Past

Mark wrote the title of this post while I bought this ceiling light, which I absolutely love...

This isn't our house...but I also had to buy the print that's on the floor in this John Lewis photo!





The Great Crate

I've been trying to make a rule of not buying any new furniture or decorative items that aren't useful in some way.  I've always loved the look of vintage crates.  I've noticed recently that there are 101 different uses for these rustic (and beautiful) crates and I'm thinking they'd make really useful kitchen storage, on top of my cabinets.  Here are some other uses I've come across (I need to get back to that flea market for more!):

Bailey's Home & Garden

Christmas Crafting

Happy holidays!  After an absolutely lovely week in Newcastle with Mark's parents for Christmas, I've finally found the time to work on the mini wardrobe that I found on my walk home from work, way back in September.  Mark drilled holes in the back for us to use the cabinet to house the Xbox and new Apple TV in our living room.  I sanded the wood, primed and painted it, then applied contact paper in a chevron pattern.

I'm a sucker for stray dogs and furniture.

Lonely little cabinet abandoned on Girdlers Road

Sanded and primed

Applying the contact paper cut-outs to the doors

Finished!  

Floor-y, Part 2

Here are photos of the finished floors...

Floor-y, Floor-y Hallelujah!

Once again, Mark has worked his magic, this time on our hardwood floors.  We originally had linoleum in our kitchen and carpet in our hallway.  Mark pulled up the carpet to reveal what we think is 100 year-old pine.  Mark spent weeks and weeks sanding, filling, planing and wood dying these floors and they look amazing.  We chose Burmese teak as the dye; a rich chocolate colour that brings out the grain in the wood.

My job was to varnish them, which didn't go so well.  But at least they are now water-tight!  All we need is a bit of light sanding and a few more coats of varnish to make these floors look incredible, definitely a feature of the house.

 

 

The first coat of the wood dye goes on

Pillow Talk

It's amazing how pillows can instantly transform a room.  I initially ordered 2 beautiful pillow covers from a woman who sews her own on Etsy (ElemenOPillows) and when they arrived, I had to buy more.  Now if I only had more surfaces to put them on...

I just ordered this one..

These look great on our new sofa!