Living for the Good Life: interior design

Showing posts with label interior design. Show all posts

If you read my last blog post, you'll know that I've been pretty stressed recently and life has been, well, challenging for me. Not challenging in the typical sense of the word or I guess what most other people would see as challenging, but for me it was my version of challenging. Not having my own space was a real struggle for me, as I'm one of them people that really like my own space when I want it, and not being able to suddenly retreat to my bedroom was really frustrating. Anyway, to stop babbling, I have my bedroom, and thus my sanity, back!! A month and about three weeks later, but hey, it's back! I have a new carpet and new ceiling, and it's much improved. The day it was completed I literally power-walked back home to put all my furniture back together and in place and spent the evening decorating. I thought I'd share some pictures with you, because I'm just so pleased with it and so happy to be back with my own space.

I'm unashamedly a bit of a property nerd in the sense that I get overly excited at anything to do with property selling, renovating, and particularly interior design.

Sit me down in front of Homes Under the Hammer, 60 Minute Makeover, or Escape to the Country and I'm happy as larry. But most of all, my not-so-guilty pleasure is flicking through home magazines, especially 25 Beautiful Homes, and cutting out my favourite looks and sticking them into what I've made my 'Home' inspiration scrapbook. The plan is to keep this book until I own my own house and can truly bring to life the looks I've cut out and kept, but for now it serves as good dreaming material and I thought I'd let you have a sneek peek into it...

Just to make it even more nerdy, I categorise it into rooms and areas, such as kitchen, bedroom, living room, and so on. I even have baby room and conservatory...the geekiness is real...

As you can see above, I even add little notes alongside some of the images.

Like I said, 25 Beautiful Homes is my all-time favourite magazine to use for this - it's literally house porn.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've recently moved and so it's been a dream for me being able to decorate exactly how I want. There may or may not be a bedroom tour post coming up in the near future so see if you can spot any inspiration or overall themes and tastes that I've nabbed from my scrapbook.

The other day when I was milling around the house I suddenly remembered a long time ago being inspired by HRH Collection's hanging pictures that I'd seen in the background of one of her YouTube videos. They were a mix of designer paper bags and designer dust covers that had been framed and I loved the look of it. I realised I had a Mulberry bag lying around that would work perfectly and so I headed into town, grabbed some supplies and immediately got to work.

The simple supplies you'll need are as follows:

- Scissors

- A hammer

- Picture hanging nails

- A suitably sized photo frame

- Your designer bag of choice

- Optional - Ribbon to hang the picture on if you can't hang it by the frame alone. Luckily I had some Mulberry ribbon that matched the bag - even better.

It really couldn't be any simpler.

I cut the bag in half, and then cut the half I wanted to use down to the size of the frame I'd bought, popped it into place in the frame and then tied the ribbon around one of the clips on the back of the frame. Next, I chose the location on the wall that I wanted it to hang from (which I would later change about 3 times and leave multiple holes in the wall), hammered in a picture nail and hung it.

As you can see in the picture above, I got over excited and wanted to make more so I found a note that had come with my Mulberry clutch which I thought would look beautiful framed, and so did that as well. I think it turned out rather lovely.

It's a really simple way to add a bit of unique designer chic to your rooms, and it couldn't be any simpler to do.

Like I said, I've seen it done with dust covers also, but you'll probably get a better effect with the bags due to the sturdiness of them and the cleaner effect they give.

So, if you have any old designer paper bags lying around, definitely give it a go. It literally takes around 5 minutes, if that and it's really satisfying to make something so pretty and luxurious-looking yourself, for only a couple of pounds!

This weekend just gone I spent some time at home with my family and we decided to have a day out on the Sunday. The weather didn't seem too promising so we opted for an indoor activity and settled on Penrhyn Castle, located in Bangor, Wales, which I'd never visited before.

Penrhyn Castle is a 19th century National Trust property that was originally a medieval fortified manor house. So basically, a stately home type thing. You can walk around the property, as well as explore the vast surrounding grounds, but due to the weather we just stuck to exploring the incredible rooms inside.

You might want to grab a cup of tea for this one, it's a long 'un!...

In the entrance hall there were some incredible metal grid decorations in the floor which, if you look really closely, you can see that people have used them like wishing wells and have thrown money in!

The great hall had stained glass windows that were filled with horoscope zodiac signs.

We then strolled into the dining room, which was set out magnificently. Imagine the dreamy dinner parties that must have gone on at this table.

In the breakfast room hung a painting of Henry VIII - I wonder whether he ever visited Penrhyn himself.

There were some beautiful monogrammed stationary pieces in the various living rooms.

The stairways and hallways were incredible, covered in the most intricate plastering I've ever seen, particularly the ceilings.

The bedrooms featured some gorgeous patterned wallpapers, which reminded me of contemporary Laura Ashley wallpapers and prints.

Inside the castle's chapel lay more stunning plasterwork and stained glass windows. Notice the chevron plastering on the pillars - how on trend.

In one of the studies lay this book, which I was desperate to flick through, but followed the 'do not touch' signs and resisted.

I absolutely love interior design and anything to do with houses, so exploring stately homes really ticks my boxes. Penrhyn Castle was a lovely day out and if you're in the area any time I'd definitely recommend taking the time out to visit it. If you do, make sure to sign up for the free tour of the lounge area that is otherwise closed to general visitors. We did so and it was a lovely addition to the day, and we were told many facts and quips about the place and the history of it that we would not have known otherwise. I'd love to go back and explore the grounds on a sunny day.

For more information on Penrhyn, click here.

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