{Home Inspiration}

I'm starting to run out of home projects for Cat's Making It Home linky as I've already posted about my garden, my dining room and my kitchen. This week, I thought I'd share a few items that I love that I've 'stuck' to my pinboards in Pinterest. I'm a major fan of grey at the moment, and last year I posted some inspiration photographs from Pinterest here. I'd love for my house to look like these pics!

Anyway, here are the home accessories and pieces of furniture that I'm loving right now. Perhaps one day I'll be able to buy some of them and continue my home transformation....

Mayfair Console Table, £349.00 from Marks and Spencer (for the hallway):

Classic black console table

Sandringham mirror, £179.95 from Home Accessories by Lauren (for above the console table!):

Contemporary mirror in silver

Mathilde chest of drawers, £525 from Loaf (for my bedroom):

Ornate chest of drawers in French grey paint

Mirrored side table, £70 from Next (for my bedroom):

Side table, far left

Tripod floor lamp, £179 from Graham & Green (for the living room):

Impressive floor lamp for some mood lighting

Abingdon Modular Corner Sofa Group, £1249 from made.com (for the living room):

Versatile sofa made up of units that can be swapped around as the mood suits. In grey of course!

{My Garden}

I had planned a post on my garden and some of the new accessories I had bought to make it a bit more homely, but with the rubbish weather I'm not sure it's relevant at the moment! I had thought I would have been in the garden lots this month, but unfortunately the weather hasn't been great and we've not been able to make as much use of the space as I would have liked.

Anyway... I'll go ahead and post the details and hopefully it will prompt the good weather to come to Glasgow *crosses fingers*

I have two garden spaces. An area to the front of the house which has a paved circle and some pebbles, and a larger space to the back of the house with some decking, bit of grass and some more paving. Both are relatively child-friendly. The back garden in particular is enclosed and safe (although the steps are a tad steep, but toddler has gotten used to these fairly quickly!).

The garden has been very bare i.e. no plants except from the hedges and a couple of bushes. One of the bushes had thorns and wasn't child-friendly at all, so I had it removed.

Over the last few years we have added a wooden playhouse, which I painted sage green, a swing and the most recent addition has been a trampoline. The garden is now definitely a fun place to be for the kiddies.

Toddler having fun on the trampoline (TP Toys, 8ft trampoline)

Daughter playing on the swing (TP wooden swing with baby seat)

In addition to the garden toys, I wanted to start thinking about adding some more plants. So off to B&Q I went... absolutely clueless about gardening and not knowing where to start! The staff were brilliant and couldn't have been more helpful (one of them even helped me pack my car with all my new bits and pieces - was very impressed with their customer service) and I very quickly managed to pick out some plants that would be low maintenance. We also chose some herbs that the toddler and I could put into a trough. 

My feature plant in the front garden, in memory of my mum.

New pots and plants for the front garden. 

Plants all from B&Q. Grey pot from B&Q. White pots from Ikea.

New pots & plants from B&Q in the back garden with the fence before it was painted.

The playhouse, plus trough full of herbs that toddler and I planted (from B&Q again!). I used Ronseal Wood Sage paint for the playhouse and love it. Would highly recommend... unlike the Sadolin paint I used for the panels below...

The back garden fence.... I have had major issues with the Sadolin paint I selected. Each tin was a slightly different colour despite being the same batch. Very annoyed and I'm going to have to paint it all again. It was supposed to be a grey colour, but some panels are blue/grey and others are green!?! (you may or may not be able to see the difference in the panels in this photograph, but in real life it's very obvious and it basically looks a bit of a mess)

So the kids are sorted, the plants are well underway, but what have I got in terms of furniture for the grown ups? I do have a table and benches from Next on the deck area, but they have seen better days and they haven't been cared for properly. I'm hoping to tart them up a bit and give them a lick of paint. In the meantime, I've also bought a set of table and chairs (yes, from B&Q!) for the paved area near the playhouse. I purchased wisely (I hope!) and made the most of the 20% off promotion at the holiday weekend.

Blooma Java Garden Set

I'd ideally like to get a parasol too as our garden gets the sun all day (when it's shining, which isn't often!) and when it is sunny, it's far too sunny for the little people. Once that's in place, I'll nearly be sorted (well, the decking needs treated, the fence panels need re-painted, I've got a border of soil down the length of the garden with no plants... but I'm getting there!!). 

I just need some sunny weather now, and perhaps a wee glass of wine :-)

This post has been for the Making It Home linky with Cat from Making It As Mum.

{My Dining Room}

I'm linking up again this week with Catherine from Making It As Mum for her weekly Making It Home blog hop linky.

The Dining Room

Way back in November last year I shared some photographs of my ongoing DIY efforts. It began in the dining room, but rapidly grew arms & legs, and soon enough I was updating a number of rooms in the house!

I made cafe curtains myself and I used the colours in this fabric as colour inspiration for all four rooms at the back of the house - the kitchen, dining room, back porch and the WC.

Dining room cafe curtains

I painted a feature wall in dark grey and the remaining walls I painted white.

Dining room, painted white

Dining room, feature wall painted dark grey

Dining room, feature wall painted dark grey

I purchased some lime green oilcloth for the dining table, and I sourced an amazing mirror for the feature wall from Home Accessories by Lauren. I stumbled upon some grey fabric place mats from Ikea and I already had some turquoise tealight holders from Next.

I also found some prints on Etsy that matched the colour scheme and I framed these in some black frames that I already had kicking about. I also moved two of my own photographs that matched the colour scheme into the room.

Prints from Etsy by yumalum

My own photographs

Glass tealight holders

My feature mirror - love it!

I've still to paint the woodwork white, and ideally I'd like to change the light fitting, but these are not urgent tasks.

The Back Porch

Back porch area (not sure how to describe this room!?), before shot.

The cafe curtain I made myself, using the same fabric as the dining room. 

I painted the walls in a light grey colour with one wall painted dark grey (same colour as feature wall in dining room).

Back porch, painted grey 

I primed and painted the mirror which I removed from the WC. It was originally baby blue and is now a dark grey.

I painted a set of wall hooks and a toy box turquoise. I then hung the hooks onto the wall for storing outdoor jackets etc. The toy box is used for storing outdoor toys.

Toy box and hooks painted turquoise

I sourced two prints from Etsy which tied in with the colour scheme, and I moved a canvas from another room in the house into this room. 

I also hung a wooden bird house from the ceiling using invisible thread.

Hooks, from a while ago on eBay

Cafe curtain, toddler's kitchen and the hanging bird house

Prints from tree hill cloud on Etsy and my painted toy box

Painted mirror, relocated canvas and the toddler's easel

The WC

WC, painted grey and one wall turquoise

I removed two wall cabinets and a mirror, filled the holes (as best as I could!) and sanded any imperfections.

I painted walls a light grey colour (same colour as back porch) with a turquoise feature wall behind the sink. 

I made a pelmet for the window out of fabric from the same range that was used in the kitchen, dining room and back porch. 

I painted the bathroom cabinet dark grey and replaced the handles with some more modern ones from B&Q. 

Priming the old Ikea cabinet (it was originally a baby blue colour)

Nearly there...! That's me in the background in my painting gear!

I also replaced the bathroom accessories with a towel rail, towel hook and toilet roll holder that I purchased from Sainsburys.

I also bought some new turquoise hand towels from Sainsburys along with some new handwash and lotion that matched the colour scheme!

Sink area with new accessories

My new pelmet

My painted cabinet.

In this room I've still to paint the woodwork white (this has been ongoing for some time now!) and I've to find two prints for some Ikea frames that I've bought. 

If I can borrow someone's wide angle lens (Becky or Ali??) then I'll get some better photographs taken to show the transformed rooms.

It's taken a number of months, but I'm nearly finished!!!

{My Kitchen}

I'm linking up with Catherine from Making It As Mum for her weekly 'Making It Home' linky. This week Catherine has shared some ideas for planning a small family friendly kitchen, and I thought I would share some of the updates I've made to my kitchen to freshen it up!

My kitchen had a fitted seating area which was really inflexible and took up a lot of space. So, I decided to remove it!! My dad's wife Jo and I were out with the power drill one evening and demolished it!

During

After

There were a couple of really large screws that we were unable to remove ourselves, and there were also a few holes in the wall as a result of removing the benches, so I decided to get a joiner to come and panel the area, which is in keeping with the hallway and living room of the house.

Finished panelling and a temporary table from Ikea that was previously in another room

The other side of the kitchen

And again from a different angle

I couldn't resist trying out the paint!

Painting in progress...

My new kitchen table from Vertigo Interiors and 

my 3D frame for displaying the kiddie's artwork from Cox and Cox.

The new chairs I have ordered from made.com

Unorganised shelving!

The curtain I made to hide the recycling. Material from Remnant King Curtain Warehouse.

A bit untidy, but you get the idea! I still need to get trunking for the cables for the TV.

A lick of paint on my blackboard to tie it in with the fabric, and the red clock is from Sainsburys.

Brown faux leather bar stools from eBay. 

They have a back so are more suitable for the toddler to sit on (under supervision of course!)

The open shelving.

So there you have it... a lick of paint, a new table and chairs and some new accessories and my kitchen is looking great (if I do say so myself). If I can be bothered, then I might attempt to paint the units and change the handles, but I'm not sure it needs it now. 

Once it's completely finished (and tidy!) I'll take some more photographs and post them for you to see.