Painting an old radiator is a great and easy way to help it blend into your décor, creating a seamless and coordinated look on a budget.
As we have never been blessed with particularly pretty radiators - think dated and grubby with the previous owners’ old knickers found behind them kind of radiators - I love to colour match them to the walls so they ‘disappear’ and let other design features in the room stand out.
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As we’re well into our third lockdown, this project could not be anymore timely as we all try desperately to find a corner of peace within our own homes. Our kids absolutely love playing in here, and whilst it is currently the only corner of the whole home that actually looks decent, you’ll probably find me hiding in here too - most likely with a sneaky bar of chocolate before they find me!
Thankfully this room already has a lot of built in storage so whilst the girls are still young, and they’re not fighting over wardrobe space, it made sense to turn this area into something more fun. The doors were warped and didn’t close properly so they would have needed replacing anyway. This felt like a much cheaper and immediate solution.
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When my brother was younger, he was gifted a stash of second-hand Subbuteo from a friend. After laying dormant for a while, my Dad suggested he try selling it at our local auction house. I tagged along to watch the bidding, my eyes wide from the spectacle. A room filled with furniture telling a hundred stories, previously prized gold trinkets sparkling in glass cabinets and pictures or mirrors adorning every inch of wall space in the large draughty room. The smell of coffee and smokey bacon sandwiches from the café intertwined with furniture polish, musty upholstery, and the scent of a small dog, sitting peacefully underneath a gilded chaise longue.
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I recently found screen shots of all the old estate agent pictures and thought you’d be interested to see how far the house has come!
I personally know people who viewed this house before we did but were put off by the lime green kitchen. I hope these before and afters will show you how a little bit of vision (and a lot of hard work) can get you a long way!
Just click on the images to scroll across to the afters.
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Have you ever wondered how much a full house renovation would cost? Or look at squares on Instagram and wonder how much money went into making it look that way? In this long overdue blog post, I am taking a deep dive into the finances of our renovation, how we afforded it, how much everything cost, where we saved money and where we were ripped off.
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Kitchens are an expensive room to renovate and more often than not, we need to find solutions that make what we already have work for us. One inexpensive way to do this is to install a curtain to hide any ugly appliances or clutter you may have on show. Our utility room sits right next to our kitchen and is used as a part utility/part kitchen with our fridge/freezer, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine in there alongside a utility cupboard, coat storage and boiler. The previous owners didn’t have a dishwasher, so we had to make space for both our appliances by cutting out the cupboard that previously sat where the curtain now is. Thankfully the worktop was supported by brackets above, so it was a simple job completed with a circular saw and a lot of noise (it also made the fire alarm go off!) whilst the kids miraculously stayed asleep one evening.
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