Scarlett’s new room was pretty much perfect for her before we even moved in. Painted in a very similar pink to her old room, with hot pink roller blind and lampshade, huge mirror for pulling silly faces and watching herself dancing (some of her favourite things to do), and built-in furniture, we’ve been lucky that there’s really not a lot we’ve had to do to it.
Author: chellemillar
Timber!
There’s a big (sycamore?) tree at the bottom of the garden which overhangs Barry’s office. A blustery night just after we’d moved in sent a huge branch straight down over the fence that separates us from the church and we didn’t want the same to happen with the one directly over Barry’s head.
Foraging for fruits
I’ve already mentioned that we have quite a lot going on in the garden fruit-wise. OK, it’s not really foraging when it’s in your own back garden, but hey. It is when you didn’t plant them.
We have raspberries, redcurrants, gooseberries, and loganberries, all of which seem to be favourites for the birds too, so we’ve had to throw a net over them. We’re also having to stop Scarlett picking and eating every berry she sees before she makes herself ill. Not sure which is the greater threat.
Hurts my eyes
One of my takeaways when we first came to see the house was that the extension had been done very seamlessly from the outside, but has a very modern feel inside compared to the older sections of the house.
Getting a handle on it
Our wardrobe in the old house was procured (IKEA, of course) when we bought our first home back in 2006, and we knew it would probably disintegrate if it had to do another move, so we put it on eBay before we even moved, and the matching drawers and bedside table have just gone too.
We’d have loved to look at some proper, solid bedroom furniture, but it just wouldn’t make it up the turn in our little stairs (plus, we’d rather put that money into the living room which we all use), so we’ve ended up with a couple of furniture sets from Argos, of all places.
We were a bit worried about the colour before it arrived (described as “putty”) – it looks pale grey on some of the promotional photos and has a yellow tinge on others, but we thought we’d risk it because it was on offer. It’s fine, they’re grey. One set was a wardrobe, chest of drawers and bedside table, and the other was a wardrobe, dressing table and bedside table.
To make it a bit more special, I ordered handles from www.theseplease.co.uk, plus some pink ones for a chest of drawers I’ll be working on for Scarlett’s bedroom. I’m very happy with the results – I think they’ve transformed the furniture.
We also got a new bed to replace the IKEA one that had been hacked and painted… the blind on the top of the stairs got wiped out by the lads valiantly trying to get a superking mattress up our cottage-sized stairs. That took some doing!Don’t it make my brown walls blue
I told you that I’d settled on a blue paint for the living room… well, Barry’s painted it! Not the whole living room, just the blue bit. In all honesty, we should have started with the antique white (which is supposed to be covering the cream), because I’ve got a feeling that may never get done now.
It’s made a huge difference to the feel of the room, and it looks slightly different depending on the time of day and how the light hits it. I’m really pleased with the whole effect.
Living room finds
We’ve steadily been updating the furniture in the living and dining room. The furniture from the old house really doesn’t fit in the style of our current house, so we’ve been selling bits that we won’t use to fund new finds.
Our old corner sofa is temporarily living in the other half of the kitchen, which we’re kind of turning into a play area for the kids. Ain’t nothing that sofa hasn’t seen, it can take it.
Up front
The front of the house is looking a little overgrown now. Well, a lot. I’ve been meaning to take photos before anything dramatic happens so that we have a true record of how it evolves, but we moved in five weeks ago now, and stuff just keeps on growing! No regard for the fact that we have a baby, tsk.
It’s a real English country garden, with blooms of all colours, and a path leading through them which you now may or may not be able to see.
I got the blues
These are the estate agent photos for the living room. As you can see, the colour scheme is very brown, lots of wood, brown and cream paint, brown carpet, brown in the curtains… a very neutral, natural colour scheme. Not for me though. I’m definitely more of a grey girl when it comes to neutrals.
In an English country garden
I’ve been thinking about how best to show you our new back garden. Because of the layout, it’s a difficult one to show – it’s been created with many different areas which lead one onto another – so I’ve taken a mixture of standard and panoramic photos along with a typed walk-through in the hopes that it conveys the journey a bit better than my usual snaps. Brace yourself for a lot of photos!