Rich in colour and pattern

Today I'm sharing a room set from this year's Grand Designs Live and I expect it to be a bit marmite.  Everywhere you look there's colour and pattern, and colour and pattern on top of that.  It is an assault on your senses, and while I don't think I could live with all of it, I do admire it. 

I think I like the patterns individually, but it's rare that many of us would put so many bold colour-ways and patterns together.  But I think, along with the accessories, it gives the room a vintage feel.  One of the things I'm struck by is the flooring, with the geometric black and white pattern overlaid with carpet which has an almost chinoiserie-like feel to it, and somehow it works.

The wall art also contributes to the eclectic feel, with its butterflies forming a wreath complementing the big cat on the wallpaper.  I didn't spot that to start with either.

In fact the table lamps are probably the most staid item in the room, or the shades anyway.  The lamp bases with the glass (crystal?) blobs bounce the colour and pattern around the room, and the jade green oyster chairs bring yet another burst of solid colour.

I think the chairs needed to be a plain colour, or it would be a pattern too much.  But how many is too many?  I think the boundaries may just have been pushed with this room.  The bed too is reflective of the room, and full of colour, with even more pops of colour added above the headboard.  It goes against what we expect for a restful bedroom doesn't it?

Even so though, it's a room that's been cleverly put together, and one that while I admire I fully recognise some might need sunglasses to enter, what do you think?

Living with a spiral staircase

One of the main and most obvious features that you see as you walk into our house is our spiral staircase.  It certainly has the wow factor, and now I wouldn’t have it any other way, but to start with I wasn’t so sure.  In fact I wasn’t even sure about viewing the house as I didn’t think I was keen on spiral staircases.

That went back to growing up and being afraid of falling through “slatty stairs” as I called them.  I remember the Whitgift Centre (a 1970s shopping centre in Croydon where I grew up) had these and I’d edge up them cautiously to get to the upper level.  Pretty crazy, huh? Especially as there was no way I’d ever fall through that gap as a teenager.

But anyway, back to viewing our house.  MOH couldn’t understand why I wasn’t keen to see it as otherwise it sounded perfect, and so he said he’d view it on his own. Err, hang on, I don’t think so were pretty much my exact thoughts.  I wasn’t sure that this was a decision that could be made without me being present, and so off we went, together.

It was just as well I went, as even on that first visit we were mentally placing our furniture in the house.  And you know what, somehow it didn’t matter about the stairs at all.  Now some fifteen years later we’re very much used to them and forget that others see them as something more unusual.

But are they unusual?  I don’t think so, maybe I’m just in tune with spiral staircases whether they’re wood and steel like ours or the classic steel spiral stairs that you most probably thought of when I mentioned a spiral staircase.

If like me you’re a fan of the many home shows on TV, such as Grand Designs, Building the Dream and The Restoration Man and many more you’ll know that staircases no longer need to be purely functional.  There’s plenty of options to buy beautiful and stylish stairs online in the UK of all designs, and no doubt you’ll be spoilt for choice.

I’d never have guessed how much our spiral stairs would feature in and embody life in this house, but they have, in ways I’m not sure either of us would have predicted.

They were decorated with flowers, which matched my bouquet and table flowers, for our wedding back in 2007, and last year were very much a part of the paper cut that told the “story of us” to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary last year.

WEDDING DECORATIONS

THE STORY OF US

So ultimately there’s a life lesson here, don’t rule things out because of an irrational fear or because you’ve no experience of them.  Give things a try, and like me, you could be pleasantly surprised.

* This is a collaborative post but all views are my own.

What a load of rubbish

Actually this post is the exact opposite of its title, it demonstrates how rubbish can be repurposed and with some inventiveness can be incorporated into our gardens, without looking like a pile of old rubbish in the corner.  And if you' haven't already worked it out from the pictures this post is another from Gardeners' World Live, and another of the Beautiful Borders. 

You'll quickly spot the purple theme too.

I’m a fan of the bare lampshade which would be great with plants grown through it.  It's a great way to add some height to a garden in a funky and unusual way.  I think I'll have a hard time of it persuading MOH we should do this though.

I'm also not sure he'd be too impressed if I gave his bike this treatment.  It is a “proper” bike though isn’t it, complete with basket.

Herbs are great for growing in containers and both of these photos demonstrate that, I particularly like the thyme tea below.

And of course for a cup of tea you need a kettle.

The purple and rubbish theme continued throughout this border with the red-purple lettuce in a vanity case.

I was impressed with the alliums, they're a favourite but mine anyway and mine have long finished, so it felt like a treat to see more in full bloom this year.

The purple gnome made me laugh - and in case you're wondering I don't want one in my garden - but his plant pot, complete with seedling, is fun (I still don't want one).

Most of the borders in this part of the show were densely populated and that's something I admire and aspire to, I'm sure it's a way of suffocating the weeds too, so an added bonus!

SAGE REFLECTING IN THE GLOSSY BLACK CONTAINER

A KNITTED POT WARMER, OF COURSE

The lettuce, another of my favourites - I really should grow some of this - in the fish tank seemed a good idea, although I'm sure mine would have silvery trails of snails and slugs all over it.

What do you think, rubbish or not?