Our new home by the sea....
Hi!
So, as I showed you our new home last week, as it was before I spent nearly 3 weeks...blood sweat and tears (yup...there was plenty of tears) , painting and decorating the place, today's post is a picture-heavy-bragging-tour of my decorating efforts so far....
There is no hocus pocus here....just tonns of white paint.... and a little grey (which goes to prove just how much difference a lick....or 4, of fresh paint can make to a place!)
(you can see the before pictures here)
I'm not going to lie, it was pretty heavy going there for a while, wielding that paint roller long into the night ....Doing up an entire (allbeit little) house on your own is NOT something I would reccomend...But now that it's done, I couldn't be happier with the result!
There are still plenty of things to sort out around here (to keep me busy) but I snapped these pictures the other week with my phone camera (as my proper camera is still in a box somewhere) hence the sometimes poor picture quality....apologies.....
Anyway....here it is: Our new home....in all its imperfect perfection....No styling...just a quick tidy up...a little make shift and slightly bohemian, I think you'll agree:
The kitchen
As mentioned in my previous post, the entrance to the house is through the kitchen, and I've updated this room by giving it a thorough clean, a good few coats of paint, white and grey..
and I've simply added some marbled sticky back vinyl to the worksurface and splashback by the sink to update these....
I actually love that the old cupboard doors squek a little when they shut....But not so much that the lower cupboard door, seen above doesn`t want to shut at all....like I said: Perfectly imperfect!
The hallway
It may seem a little odd that we don't use the entrance door to the hallway to get into the house, and come through the kitchen, but without having to explain too much: It just works better that way.
But the hallway provides us with a great little landing station, and space to store our coats and shoes...
And of course, it is the perfect place for a full length mirror, (which by the way used to be in the bathroom)....And that lovely old corner cupboard came with the house (I cannot open it as I haven't got the key...hehe)
In fact there is quite a few little bonus prices like that here....wich is perfect for me, as we didn't bring a lot with us in terms of furniture when we moved from England.
Upstairs
From the hallway the stairs go up to a landing strip space that is currently full of boxes and suitcases full of clothes...the plan is to convert one half of this space into a wardrobe area, and the other half into a workspace....but that's all for a future post....
For now I've just painted it white and laid down some cork flooring....
Little Miss Moo's room
The main room upstairs, and the largest in the house, is Little Miss Moo's room...
A deep clean of the old carpets and a little paint in the eaves is all that I've done to this space ....so far....
Again, those lovely old beds came with the house, providing ample sleepover space for Mia's friends in the future....as did this lovely chest of drawers, below:
Mia loves having all that floorspace to play on, and I must admit her room does NOT look this tidy on a daily basis....but I don't mind...this is HER space and she can do what she wants up here!
She also loves this little den-nook I've very simply created by hanging some curtains from an old broom handle....
The french-matrass-style floorcushion also came with the house, as a set of 3....just wait till you see how I used the other two....
But first, I want to take you back downstairs and show you my bedroom:
The bedroom
Again this room has just been painted white...I say "just" with some reluctance as this was by far the worst room to paint...5 coats it took, ceiling AND walls, to cover the previous dirty beige...
As you can see, it is very much back to basics when it comes to furniture and decoration in our new home, and the bedroom is no exception:
Mum and dad was kind enough to donate me one of their spare beds, and aside from that, the old swing chair (Love it) and dresser came with the house...
...that's all you need in a bedroom , right??
...well, maybe, except a huge piece of DIY art and some mismatched rugs on the floor....
And a mirror and some nice lighting, of course ...
Yes...that is the door to the bathroom you can see in the picture above, and although it looks miles better now than it did before, I unfortunately failed to take some decent photo's of the room, as the light is quite bad in there, and my phone camera just couldn't cope....so I've decided to wait until I dig out my good camera and get some nice photos to show you in a future post....
...I'm sure you`re all gutted (hehe)
So....my bedroom is located next to the living room, and was probarbly originally meant to be the dining room, so I've simply separated the two by hanging some curtains on the open doorway:
The livingroom
This is my favorite room in the house....mostly because of those windows: Not only do they let in the most amazing light pretty much all day long, but they also have THE MOST AMAZING VIEW OF THE SEA...and face west , so that in evening I can watch the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine...follow me on instagram to see!!
You may recognise my coffee table, a DIY I did back in England, and one of the few pieces of furniture we took over the pond, sitting pretty ontop of my ONE extravagant (Even if it was a bargain!!) buy for the house: That huge and fantasticly soft and shaggy Boucherouite-style Beni Ourain rug.
I've been wanting one for ages, and do not care one bit if they are going out of fashion....
As we had next to no furniture, I had to get inventive when it came to seating for the livingroom....but, as simple as it is, I adore my pallet sofa!! 4 pallets,8 wheels, a matrass and some cushions, and voila....a perfectly bohemian sofa! (I also love that I can store magazines and games underneath the seating)
And yes, those are the french matrass-style cushions that was here when we moved in: Perfect for making a comfy sofa back!! Don't you think?
Here's another couple of gems that came with the house:
That gorgeous vintage teak chair and the floorlamp.... I feel lucky just looking at them!
My DIY sidebard came across the pond with us, and now serves as a TV and Media console...
I actually love that the interior look of our new home is a coincidental mix of styles, naturally eclectic....and the little old fashioned woodburning stove, below, in the livingroom is one of my favourite things about this house....
Juxtaposed with the modern lines (although probarbly from the same era...?) of my Eames chairs, below, now situated around a dining table (another inhereted piece)....
that also serves as a temporary work space..
I was not intentionally searching for a new interior style when I decorated our new little house, and the look has come together quite organically....wich makes it feel authentic and real....
All I'm lusting after now is some more plants to bring the spaces to life....The one above (I do not know what it's called) was a housewarming gift from my best friend...Thank you Janne;)
It feels wonderfully bohemian and minimalistic knowing that the stuff in here is either stuff we love or need...no more... no less, all set for a simple life. And I look forward spending loads of time at the nearby beach, the lake in the woods or montains....with this little simple home to come home to in the evening....
idyllic, no?
