Life: Making a house a home on a budget

Life: Making a house a home on a budget

Saturday, 26 May 2018

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Moving into a new house definitely comes at a cost: when Richard and I moved into our house just short of three months ago, we knew we had a lot of work to do. The house was a bit of a blank canvas, which was great as it meant that we could just furnish and think about decorating further on down the line. In spite of this, we’ve quickly realised just how expensive furnishing a relatively decent sized space is, especially if you have a specific idea of what you want the space to look like. Richard and I have very similar taste when it comes to interior design so we’ve agreed on most things, but I’ve found it incredibly difficult to accept that we’re going to have to make cuts and take our time with things. I decided to sit down and come up with ways of furnishing our house – and ultimately making into a home- on a budget. Here’s what I came up with: 

BUY SECONDHAND FURNITURE

Whilst we bought a few things new – a gorgeous new coffee table and TV stand from Oak Furnitureland for example, as well as a new rug for the lounge- I’ve finally accepted that buying things second hand doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s less impressive or nice. This week alone we’ve managed to pick up a gorgeous mirror- practically brand new- for £15 from Gumtree. I’ve been looking out for other titbits to add an element of antique to the house, as well. 

ACCEPT THAT YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE

Moving into this house has taught me lots of things. Mostly that everything will run smoothly and then collapse all at once and that furnishing a house is very expensive. We’ve started to realise that actually, adding small touches here and there and making the house look homely and cosy is a much better use of our time and money at this stage than blowing it all on one piece of furniture. Little touches, such as a bouquet of beautiful flowers in a sophisticated looking vase such as this one from Kilneradd a much needed dash of colour to the place, whilst also giving it a certain much needed element of comfort. Kilner is a brand that I’ve grown to love over the years- their jars feature in abundance around my kitchen and I really feel that they add a touch of class to a small space. I am a bit of an organisation freak and love things to look pretty and organised so Kilner* products are ideal for me: sorting out my different types of pasta and rice and displaying them in a way that makes them easy to access has made for a much more organised pantry space. I also have trays lining the bottom shelves of my kitchen cupboards for stock cubes, spices and other little foodie bits and bobs. Having everything organised in this small space makes cooking much more enjoyable and much less of a chore. 

UPCYCLE WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

When I had my little flat, I bought basic furniture and just put up with it, telling myself that I’d upgrade it as and when I could afford to do so. Moving into the house, most of the furniture WAS replaced and upgraded but what I’ve kept I’ve decided to upcycle and give a fresh lease of life. I’ve turned a cheap, garish white bedside table into one with a chic style that’ll fit perfectly into our bedroom, with a simple lick of grey paint and a beautiful new handle. Rich’s mum gave us a lovely stool that I’m going to sand down and repaint and I’m looking out for other pieces of furniture that, with a bit of TLC, would look at home in our home. I’m also planning on upcycling a plain old kitchen trolley for some handy bathroom storage! 

SHOP AROUND

I had my heart completely set on the most gorgeous ladder shelf unit from Next that would set us back a tidy £175. Whilst not the most expensive piece of furniture I’ve ever purchased, I knew that I’d probably be able to find something similar for a fraction of the price and I wouldn’t feel sick afterwards. After a lot of googling and searching around I ended up picking up something that was incredibly different from my original choice, but that I actually have ended up liking just as much. It fits in better with the colour scheme we have going on in the lounge and at £50 was an absolute steal in comparison.

There is still a lot left to be done. There are still so many things to buy. However, our house is finally starting to feel like a proper home. 

(* Some products mentioned here were provided free of charge for review by the brand. All opinions are honest and my own.) 

Life: Making myself feel like 'Me' again

Life: Making myself feel like 'Me' again

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

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Over the last few months, I’ve not really felt myself. I’ve been feeling a little bit down in the dumps, I look tired and there’s been a serious strain on my social life. A lot of this – primarily the tiredness – is linked to the fact that I work A LOT and my job is incredibly demanding, both physically and emotionally – but I have really started to feel like enough is enough and I’ve put a number of things in place to ensure that I start feeling less like my current self and more like the happy, energetic, old me.

SELF LOVE:

Showing myself love has always been something I’ve found a little bit difficult. I find it hard to see the good things about my appearance and treating myself has always been a bit of a no-go because there’s always been something we’re saving up for, whether that be for the house, a holiday or just bills that need paying. As a consequence, my confident has dropped even more than usual and the ability to feel good about myself is proving impossible at the moment. I’ve made a sort of mid-year resolution to look after myself a little bit more and show myself the self-love that my body needs – whether that be with a relaxing bath at the end of the week, whacking on a little bit of fake tan to perk myself up or else just applying makeup for the hell of it, rather than because there’s a specific event going on. I’m going to start treating myself to massages when I’m feeling worse for wear and getting my brows and lashes done to perk myself up when I’ve had a particularly long week. Showing yourself self-love is never a bad thing; who’s going to love you if you don’t even love yourself, after all?

DOWN-TIME:

As a teacher, my evenings are usually spent prepping for the next day’s lessons, printing off worksheets and marking the day’s books for the next day. I usually leave school around 6pm having marked the vast majority of the books and then spend the next few hours going over lesson plans for the next day, planning for the next week and marking any books I didn’t get around to at school. With 58 English books, plus afternoon books to mark each day, my evenings are pretty packed and having down time usually comes at a cost. My new rule will be no work after 9pm and between 9pm and 10pm I’ll get stuck into a good book and try and stay away from technology as far as I can. Having this time to myself can only be beneficial to my happiness so I’m excited to see how I feel in a few weeks time.

DATES:

Having the time to go out and have a date night is something that Richard and I are struggling to do at the moment, with both of us working on different schedules and having different days off. We do have the benefit of having a home together, which means we can have time together whenever we’re both in, but we’ve decided that sticking to a routine and making plans to go out is something that we’re going to start doing more of. We have a few trips booked over the coming weeks and months, including a little break down south this week, so we’re definitely starting as we mean to go on.

TRAVEL:

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t book spontaneous trips here there and everywhere. I’ve booked a surprise trip for Richard’s birthday in May (the surprise being that he doesn’t know where we’re going) and we’ve booked to go to Amsterdam in August and are going back to Nuremberg in November to see friends (said friends are coming to us at the end of April.) I want to get back into a habit of being more spontaneous and just deciding to book a flight somewhere bizarre, with time to deal with the finer details further along the line. I’ve missed travelling and this is definitely one of the things that make me feel like myself.

What do you do when you’re feeling a bit down and out of character? Let me know in the comments!

TRAVEL: A trip to London (in Pictures)

TRAVEL: A trip to London (in Pictures)

Friday, 9 March 2018

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Life: A little (Oliver Bonas) filled homeware haul

Life: A little (Oliver Bonas) filled homeware haul

Saturday, 17 February 2018

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If you follow me on twitter, you’ll be aware that I’ve been packing up my teeny tiny flat to move into a beautiful brand new 2 bedroomed house. It’s now a week away from moving day and I’m driving Richard absolutely crazy with homeware hauls and links to different bedroom sets. All of this in mind, I’ve put together a little ‘wishlist’ post of a few things (mostly from Oliver Bonas) that I’ve come across recently that I know would make an amazing addition to the new house. 3 Oliver Bonas goodies, and one VERY unrealistic homeware item that I would do SO MUCH to get my hands on!

Pillows are always a tricky one with me. In my flat, I had beautiful sequinned rose gold pillows that went perfectly with the grey-blue sofa. However, they left a trail of sequins in their wake so I’ll be on the lookout in the coming weeks for some new pillows to jazz up the sofa and make the living room a little bit more cosy. I found this gorgeous sheepskin cushion in Oliver Bonas that I’d love to buy as a ‘statement’ cushion, to add a bit of oomph to my sofa and spice up the action a bit. I love the beautiful stone colour of the cushion as well – I would just love to be cuddled up with this on my lap!

We’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks choosing prints to put up on the walls throughout the house. I say we – I must admit I’m very particular about what goes on the walls and Rich has had to run each of his choices by me in a very ordered and controlled fashion. I love lunar prints and this one from Oliver Bonas is particularly special- the different phases of the moon look so stylish and would make a beautiful addition to one of my gallery walls.   

I have a lovely, albeit plain, lamp in my lounge at the moment that I picked up from John Lewis. However, it’s more than due an upgrade and there are quite a few different lamps that I’ve seen that most definitely would fit beautifully in my lounge. One that I love especially is this beautiful angled floor lamp. The copper tone would go beautifully with the furniture I already own and it gives a more rustic vibe to a modern setting. It is a little on the higher end of my ‘lamp budget’ but I think it’d definitely be worth the investment.

A dream that I have is a beautiful room, filled with books and a log-burning fire with the most gorgeous armchair in the corner – the perfect room to snuggle down and read with a mug of hot chocolate, a blanket and a fluffy pillow. I have the room- naturally, I have the wall of bookshelves filled with books – but I lack the armchair. This beautiful armchair from Houseology is probably the armchair of my dreams although the price of it makes me want to cry a little bit. The colour is just spectacular and I love how deep the back goes- you could definitely get snuggled right in there. Whilst completely unrealistic at the moment, I’m going to keep this chair on my list in the hope that someone takes pity on me and throws me the ££ to make this purchase. It is honestly absolutely spectacular.

Where are your go-to shops for homeware? Any pieces taken your fancy lately that you think I should take a look at? Let me go!