My Home Office / Guest Bedroom Plans

I like beginning the year with a good tidy and cull, starting things fresh with a relatively organised space and good habits that keep our home life running that little bit smoother as the weeks progress.

About a month ago, I decided I could not put things off any longer in our study.  It had become so much of a dumping ground that the floor was barely visible and I'd taken to keeping its door shut most of the time to hide the mess.  It was an embarrassment, but something I nevertheless kept pushing aside to the bottom of my endless ‘to-dos’… a project hanging over my head, causing ‘metaphorical clutter’ as Gretchin Rubin describes in her book ‘The Happiness Project’.  And so, fed up with being unable to locate anything, something inside me snapped and one Sunday afternoon back in January, I stopped procrastinating and began to tackle my mammoth task. 

Since then, HUGE progress has been made.  Not only can I see our carpet once more, but furniture has been shifted around, heaps of no longer needed items have been tossed and our existing pieces are all set to be listed on Gumtree so that our combined home office and guest room transformation can shortly (fingers crossed) begin.  Over the past weekend, my focus was on the built in wardrobe in our study.  I emptied it out completely, found new homes for things such as winter jackets, Paul’s old motorsport suits, a picnic hamper, boxes of keepsakes and our Christmas tree and managed to pretty much halve the contents of what we had.

At the same time, nights have been spent pouring over interiors magazines for inspiration and browsing on Pinterest for ideas.  It's been a long process but finally, I have a vision for what is set to become our combined home office and guest room.

I'm picturing a light and bright room with a combination of white and natural timber furniture, bed linen in a myriad of blue and white prints, shelving for child friendly access to craft supplies, baskets for textural interest, a pin board to display all things inspirational and a low maintenance indoor plant to add a splash of greenery.  A filing cabinet will double as a bedside table for guests and artwork will be simple but thoughtfully chosen.

Progress is slow in our home, but it is finally happening…

Image #1 Red Brick  Image #2  Remodelista

Image #2 (clockwise from top-left)  

The Cane Factory & Upholstery Shop / Ikea Gregor Swivel Chair / Ikea Liatorp Desk / Bedding from abc Carpet & Home Paisley Collection

Image #3 Tinkerlab

Drawn To Pink

Image via French Knot

Since this time last year, I have been looking to make some changes to our living area to 'finish things off' in what has for too long been a half completed part of our home considering we spend most of our time there. With a grey and white base and some touches of blue, I had been deliberating over a final colour to add some contrast. For a while, I toyed with the idea of adding yellow. However, without any yellow elsewhere in this area, it didn't seem like the right choice.

Over the last week, turning to two prints we have hanging in this area, I found my answer... pink. I won't be going overboard and adding pink items everywhere, just a few subtle touches as the pink will be more of a 'surprise colour' in this room's colour scheme.

I never used to be a huge fan of the traditional girly pink shades. As a little girl, my room was decorated in apricot (not that I had any input into that) and my favourite colour was purple. In high school, this changed into a love of all things blue, a colour which made its way into our first home and is still one I am drawn to today.

However lately, I've developed an appreciation for pink. I've been admiring some soft pink pieces to add to Grace's white and yellow room, the flowers we bought recently to add some colour to our back garden are all shades of pink and I even bought a pale pink top recently on my shopping spree (a colour which I've never had in my wardrobe).

Which colour have you found yourself drawn towards lately?

Great Read: The Crafty Minx

A little while back I was reading through Kelly Doust's great book 'The Crafty Minx'. While it is a book filled with inspiring creative projects, the parts I liked even more were Kelly's introductions to each chapter of the book (which is arranged by season) in which she provides insight into how each season impacts upon homely life and how we can translate this in a practical sense into everyday living. The two quotes below stood out in particular to me...


"Homes should reflect the personality of their inhabitants and provide a space for them to be surrounded by pieces that 'speak' to them."


"To my mind there's nothing more stylish or comfortable than a home lovingly furnished with pieces that have been acquired over time. Trinkets picked up on foreign holidays, handmade anything, the occasional ultra-modern design piece saved up for and bought and items scoured from auction houses - all fleshed out with flea market finds and an affordable storage solution or two from Ikea."


These quotes sum up the type of feel I am gradually aiming to create in our own home. Here are some images from my inspiration folder that I believe truly demonstrate Kelly's definition of a 'home'.

For more of Kelly's inspiration, visit her blog here or see her own home here on Design Sponge.

Image sources: #1 and #4 #2 #3

Standout Staircases

When I was a little girl, I used to envy anyone who had a set of stairs to run up and down. Nowadays, I'm more than content with our single storey home but here are some different staircases which have nonetheless caught my eye lately.

Which set do you prefer?

Image sources:

#1 and #7

#2 unknown

#3 #4 #5

#6 and #8

Family Friendly Living Room

It has been such bliss sitting in front of our 'fireplace' the last few nights. It really does create a warm and cosy ambience and heats up our living area beautifully. As part of our living room mini-makeover, I want to make the space a bit more ‘family friendly’ and a lot lighter and brighter. Down the track, we’ll look at getting some white in-built cabinets and shelves on either side of our new heater which will really lift this whole space but for now, we’re going to focus on the following smaller changes…

• get rid of the feature wall and re-paint the same as the other walls
  
• replace the dark grey rug with something lighter to contrast with the sofas and make some big floor cushions to provide a comfier play space for Grace
  
• add a few little pops of colour in the form of cushions and accessories
  
• remove the chunky coffee table so Grace has more room to play (one day we will get a less obtrusive one)
  
• replace canvas above fireplace with something else (possibly a family portrait)

Before I had Grace, I always thought I’d keep the kiddie clutter to a minimum. I now realise this is difficult to achieve and I actually want bits and pieces around our home to make it more ‘family friendly’, afterall, it is a place for all of us to enjoy. As Grace gets older, I’d like a little wooden table and chairs or toy kitchen around, little reminders that there are children in our house.

Here are a few images I found in my inspiration folder that hint at being family homes…

Image sources: #1 #2 unknown #3 #4 #5

Sunny Yellow

Like many others, I’ve found myself drawn to yellow lately. Here are some images with little bursts of this happy colour to see you into the weekend…

Image sources: #1 & #2 #3 #4

Aqua Attraction

While blue has always been a favourite colour of mine, lately I've been finding myself drawn to shades of aqua and turquoise. I'd love to introduce some of this colour into our house. Here are some images that have recently caught my eye...

Image #1 via simple tess

Image #2 and #4 via sfgirlbybay

Image #3 source unknown

Image #5 via Little Glowing Lights

Image #6 via House of Turquoise

All You Need Is Love

For a little bit of Valentine’s Day inspiration today, here’s some of my favourite images of all things ‘love’ related. Hope you have a lovely day.

Image sources: #1 here #2 here #3 unknown #4 here #5 here

Homelife Website Inspiration

I don’t know how it is that’s I’ve not come across this fabulous website before, but now that I have, it’s a definite favourite. Homelife is full of some great interior inspiration. I’m sure you’re all already familiar with it, but if not, head over there for some great image galleries, ideas, creative projects and 'how to' tutorials. Here are a few of my favourite images from the site...

All images from here

P.S If you left a comment on my last post and it didn’t appear, I’m really sorry… I accidentally deleted them :( Was too quick clicking the mouse and before I knew it, I’d pressed the wrong button... oops!

Heavenly Holiday Houses

A while back in an old issue of Notebook magazine, I was awe-struck by a beautiful property featured. It was one of the retreats on the Black Barn Vineyard in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. After some browsing, I found that all of the properties listed on the Black Barn site have been beautifully decorated, taking advantage of a neutral colour palette without compromising on character. Here is a collection of my favourite Black Barn images...

All images from here