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. ♥

Packing Up: Useful Storage

Moving day is getting closer, so that means that all storage is useful storage, whether it's cardboard, or something a little more fancy.


When I was sent this cute storage bag from Room to Grow it couldn't have come at a better time. I'm always on the hunt for receptacles to put things in but due to being semi-mid-move it was a bit hard to place this at the exact moment that I wanted to get the photos ready.



Room to Grow predominantly caters for pretty bespoke children's bedrooms so I have a pretty strong feeling that this is designed for toys or other child-related miscellanea. As a little person is nowhere near on my horizons yet, I can afford to be a little selfish and I reckon this is going to come in really useful for things like bed linen, towels and maybe extra cushions (which I've some how accumulated).




The bag itself is fairly sturdy and even though you do need to have something in it in order to hold it up, that's makes it pretty good for storing away when it's not needed - ideal for someone who's trying to cut down on clutter.