Living Room: Before + After

When the lovely people at Ocean Finance got in touch with the challenge of making over a room for £50 or less, it couldn't have come at a better time.

Working on making our house a home has very much been a marathon rather than a sprint and a few weeks ago we finally got around to painting our living room. Our friends Richard and Fran were on hand to help and it was pretty amazing how quickly we managed to get things done, they were even sneakily up early to finish up the trim, we definitely owe them more than one.

[Before]
So, obviously it didn't look like this all the time but it should give you an idea of what a blank canvas this room was.



We are planning on putting a fireplace at some point but for now a makeshift radiator cover - what was left to us by the previous owners - will have to do.



Repainting things white never fails to make me feel a bit uneasy. Funny how your eyes can trick you.


So, the deal was that once we got this room painted we would be able to get curtains, put pictures up, finally pick up a dining table and basically just make the room feels like it was more 'us'.

Ocean sent over a voucher for Dunhelm to see what I could find to makeover my chosen room. Dunhelm has been one of my savior shops since we moved, all our curtains have been from there and I just think it's really good for everyday bits and pieces at a great price, it's definitely up there with Wilko as somewhere I'd recommend for general house things.


Pro tip: radiator paint is awful.


In need of so many more house plants!


After we'd tried to put things back to normal post-putting the curtains up.
Now I've had practice with a lot of other rooms in the house, I feel making a room over can be as simple as a lick of paint and a few personal touches, so I wasn't going to go too far out of my comfort range with my £50.




Every meal I've eaten has been here since we put this up on Saturday afternoon. ♥


This little ladder shelf was a TKMaxx find, just what I was looking for and much nicer than the MDF versions I'd been watching on eBay. Now we just need to work out what to put on it...




Most of the voucher went towards the map blind, I chose them because they're a little different but neutral at the same time. I didn't want another set of curtains as we got long curtains for the patio doors and because they're pretty close together I figured it would look weird to have different lengths next to each other. The rest went on curtain rings and picture frames (which we're yet to put up).





This 65daysofstatic poster has had a little re-frame and is looking much healthier now it's out of a bendy clip frame.



We used to have this poster in our bedroom in our flat but it's been promoted to living room since the space above our bed is a little too small for it. I'm pretty happy to have it more out on display now anyway though.


This mirror was one of our first Dunhelm finds, I love the wood.


My mum treated me to this Atlas Moth a few weeks ago when I was in Covent Garden with her. I'm actually a little obsessed with insect taxidermy recently.






I picked up this table on Saturday to match the other one we got when we first moved in. I'm so pleased that IKEA still had them as they're one of my favourite IKEA purchases - they're actually meant to be plant stands but they're the perfect shape for what we need as they don't take up much room.





I guess I'd have to admit that because of all the other things we picked up at IKEA at the weekend, as well as our new dining set (with IKEA bench), making over the room for £50 was a bit of a failure but I think you'll agree that I've certainly managed to put our stamp on it, even if it's from a few different places.

After 7 months of a combination of hard work - and being a bit lazy - we're actually pretty much there with this whole 'nestmaking' (not in a baby way) things and I feel much better about the prospect of hosting our first Christmas, our next milestone.

Would you be able to makeover a room for £50? Which room would you choose?

Sage + Mint.

*and how to easily spend £40 on candles and disappoint your boyfriend.


You might remember back in June when I visited the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair that I was head over heels with Produce Candles and their beautiful packaging. Well, knowing that winter is on its way and that once it gets to this time of year as soon as it's time to turn the heating on and the living room gets darker, it's time to light some candles and start hibernating.

After my sweet friends Kirstin and Dan picked me up a rhubarb Produce Candle to warm our house, I felt confident that Produce Candles really are as good as they look.




A beautiful trio - and I'm sure I can do something fun with the jars once the candles are used up.
So far, despite burning for over 8 hours (and other things candle bloggers say), they're less than 1/3 way through and by the standard of the kind of scented candles I usually buy, I'd say that for their size, that's pretty good.


It's very simple, but I love that they sort of keep with the gardening theme and package the candles with straw-like padding.


Another nice touch, for the record, tomato is delicious!



I Love Produce Candles stocks the whole range of candles, and they're actually also the company from the stall I saw at Wealden Times all those months ago.


The main touch that I love is the tips for growing the plant that your candle smells like. I already have mint and sage growing from plants in the garden but this is good stuff to know for next year's plants.


There are so many to try, but I went for sage and mint as they're my two favourite herbs. I'd be really interested to give radish and carrot a go and I'd love fig if this winter lasts as long as it's supposed to - still, I'm slightly on reserves given that they are pretty luxury. That said, I'd definitely say they're worth it, not only do they smell great but they're made from natural soy wax, which burns much more evenly and slowly than beeswax, so you get to enjoy them for longer. ♥

JOYFUL.

[Oola Blue Fish Dish* c/o JOY]
As time goes on, I'm becoming really aware of lack of room tours and homeware hauls. I just bought a house, it's exciting and it's something to write about, right? Well, yeah, but also, it takes ages to get ready. It still feels like there's always something to do and over half our stuff is still packed up in boxes in our front room - which I guess explains why we have SO MUCH storage space.

I've been watching llymlrs' moving vlogs and even though she's still sitting on the floor, I'm pretty astounded that her new place has come together more so in a few weeks than mine has in months. Comparison is a killer, but I'm working on it.

When we moved, we cleared out a lot, I think it's a good thing but it meant that we spent a lot of time asking ourselves whether the thing destined for home, charity shops or the dump was useful to us. Now we feel very much clutter-free but as as before, I'm still on the lookout for cute homewares to make my new house a home - we've still yet to put all our pictures on the wall!

When I was contacted to do a little chat about Joy the Store, I jumped at the chance. It's one of those quirky 'bit of everything' shops that I really like and would buy everything from if my pockets were deep enough. Full of useful but pretty (and less useful but still pretty) items, it holds the same place in my heart as the wonderful Oliver Bonas.


From pug vases to sweet trinket boxes and a washing up sponge after my own heart, as well as a range of books, mugs and photo frames, there are all sorts of things to choose from. I opted for this beautiful fish dish, knowing that it would match another fish dish I bought a few years ago and that Moon is always pleased to see nautical things.





I like to have various bowls and trays round the house as receptacles for things like keys and money, we have a couple with potpourri in (because my mum gave us the biggest bag of potpourri as a moving-in gift and I actually don't know what to do with it). So bowls are just useful things to have. I'm still undecided about this one because it could work for a fancy serving dish or, as we're using it now, a fruit bowl, or another clutter collector. Whatever form it takes, there's no doubt that it's as useful as it is pretty and I'm pleased to have another sea-themed item in my home.



Joy is a shop I'll always pop into if I see it and I get a feeling that now I know about it, their website will be one I'll visit regularly too – especially because I need to make that Buddha butter dish mine.

*This is a sponsored post: I was sent products by Joy to promote for this post, all opinions are my own.