Decorating our spare bedroom

Today me, my blog and our spare bedroom have been featured on Wayfair, the online home store, in their Inspiration section - see How to Adhere Wall Stickers Like a Pro. Below is an image of the finished room, to see how I stuck the wall art, pop over to Wayfair.

It was quite a job getting the room looking so good. Not only had it become our dumping ground for just about everything, there was also a box we hadn't unpacked since we moved in nearly thirteen years ago (whoops!) and we'd had a bit of a leak above the window. Yes the leak was on our middle floor, but it's all fixed now thankfully - but it did leave us with an unsightly corner.

OUR UNSIGHTLY CORNER!

Those curtains too had to go - they were hung when we moved in, and had come from my bedroom in my last house.  You'll remember we got a lovely wooden venetian blind to replace them. Much, much smarter!  

Even with the wallpaper repaired there was still a way to go to get the whole room looking fabulous, and we also had to tackle the floor. We decided to go for sanded floorboards, so it was out with the carpet, the hardboard and the gripper rods.

Thankfully the floorboards weren't too bad and I spent a few hours pulling out all the tacks before the professional sanders came in. When they left, this is what our floor looked like:

What an improvement.

With the floor done and dried MOH's job was to add beading between the floor and the gap in the skirting board - a tricky cutting exercise with so many corners in one room. It took him most of one Saturday morning to complete - and in that time I'd painted three walls and done the seemingly never-ending job of cutting in, in Farrow & Ball's Skimming Stone. It's a colour we have throughout the house. This works for us as it brings continuity as you move through our rooms and it also means we have less tins of paint to store in the shed!  

The fourth wall - and the largest by far - is painted in Farrow & Ball's Dove Grey, which we've also used in our bedroom on three walls (in there we have wallpaper on the largest wall). With the painting completed it was time for the bit I was looking forward to, adding the wall stickers.

Here they are with MOH's 40th anniversary Naim posters which I had framed by Bernie at Bromley Picture Framing. He did a great job - at short notice too - and I'm really pleased with them and I'd go there again, especially for large pictures. We had planned to use IKEA frames and bought the Stromsby variety. However they aren't truly A1 size and so there was an uneven border of white showing around the edges, and then there was the small matter of not being able to get them to hang on the wall!

Seriously, one evening we spent more time than I ever thought possible trying to hang a very large picture on a single screw, which we discovered barely fitted the hole in the fitting.  Neither of us were convinced it was safe, even if we managed to get all three up on the wall - and it was a big if. And after trying to hang one picture for at least two hours, we gave up!

With the now custom-framed pictures hung (much more easily too), now it was time to unbox and start assembling the maze of cardboard boxes we'd stuffed into my Clio on the Friday night. We bought four Kallax units, a couple of drawer inserts and twelve door units. Let me tell you that's a lot of assembling. Each unit has twelve storage compartments - we joined a 4x2 and a 2x2 together, more on that another day though. One unit is for MOH's records, our DVDs and some tools.  The other one has been dedicated to shoes - mostly mine and it's glorious!

So that's our spare bedroom done - and another room ticked off the list. What dou you think? 

Thank you to Wayfair who provided the wall art stickers for this project.

The Green House - innovations for greener living

In almost my last post from this year's Grand Designs Live show in London I'm sharing some of the items I found in The Green House. It was a place that showed off the latest innovative gadgets and green technology and it was like all the best things interactive, so you could really see how some of these might become the norm for our houses.

Let's start with the Microgarden, which is as you might have guessed inspired by origami. It's a kit for a mini-greenhouse, made from a transparent waterproof material which allows you to watch the entire growing process.  You might be thinking what's so special about this, but after 10-14 days, without watering once, the microgreens are ready to eat. So it's a fun and innovative first step to growing your own food.

INFARM MICROGARDEN

The Urbancone by Electrolux creates healthy microclimates outdoors and it can purify the air around an entire city, as well as in our homes. It lifts up and flies in the air because of its ultra light construction and solar panel wings which when they're moving resemble a jellyfish. It purifies using the filters on the undersides of the wings and it's an automatic, radio-controlled smart device which can be used in areas that need greater filtration.

If you think it looks a bit space age, you're not wrong although I quite like the design of the concept that was on show, however with the RRP at £6,300 I think there's probably a bit more work to do yet.

URBANCONE

The Vektra Eco Kettle on the other hand is available now and it's the only kettle that can keep your water piping hot for 4 hours from just one boil. It uses vacuum insulation, like a flask and uses a low energy element to heat your water and then keep it hot. That means more cups of tea from one boil, which I can definitely see the advantage of. The outside stays cool to the touch and as it's completely sealed you could move it around the house with you too.  With a RRP of £75 it's probably more expensive than a lot of kettles, but it's a similar price to Dualit kettles, so I don't think that's excessively out of reach.  

VEKTRA ECO KETTLE

The EGO Smart Socket allows you to monitor the energy consumption of any appliance from your smartphone, as well as setting timers for automatic switching of devices. You can also eliminate standby time by setting it to turn off appliances which have been left on standby for too long.

Along with the Showertime it can help you reduce your energy use, save money and save the environment too.  The Showertime device show your current water usage and sounds an alarm when you have used your pre-determined amount of water. So overtime you have a shower you press the button and the device shows you how much water you've used.

SHOWERTIME AND THE EGO SMART SOCKET BY EFERGY TECHNOLOGIES

The ECOEGG Laundry Egg was born out of the lack of alternatives to chemical laden laundry products that were kind to the skin as well as being natural and effective. It's a complete replacement to regular laundry detergent and contains a scientifically forumulated, patented cleaning pellets.  It's these that are the secret to the Laundry Egg's learning power. Each one lasts three years, so that works out on average 3p per wash.  It's RRP is £19.99 so could be a real alternative to usual washing powder.

ECOEGG LAUNDRY EGG

The Mogees Pro is a novel technology that turns physical objects into unique musical instruments by converting the vibrations that we make when we touch them into sound on the fly. It's combined with a mobile app that detects and analyses the acoustic properties of physical objects and augments them to create music.

MOGEES PRO

Now PETE is clever. It's a way to recycle PET bottles and print your own clothes!  It really is a special kind of recycling bin and it'll be interesting to see how this develops. Clearly this is just a prototype and not yet available on the market, but watch this space!

PETE

And yes, this is a wall of old speakers. While it's visually interesting and unlikely to be something that we'd have in our main living areas, this display was all about The Vamp. There are many bluetooth speakers on the market, but none have matched the sound quality that proper speakers bring. The Vamp is about bring life back to millions of speaks which still exist in our homes and delivering great sound at affordable prices.

It turns any old speaker into a great sounding portable bluetooth speaker, with 10,000 speakers a month being sent to UK recycling centres there's potentially a huge market out there. The RRP is £49.99 which isn't that expensive when you think about it, and you're recycling an old speaker too.

THE VAMP

This one, like PETE before is a bit out there. It's called Set to Mimic and it's a set of smart kitchenware that recreates tastes and smells of your food to your preference. By placing a non-invasive transparent gel patch with a microchip on your head, the plate and glass communicates wirelessly with your brain, to make you experience a test or smell from the past by tapping into your memory. That way you can eat a carrot but have the impression that you're eating an ice cream or a steak, which it says makes it easier to lead a healthy life.

I'm not so sure, because if every meal tasted like steak or ice cream then surely you'd be fed up of eating the same thing. I also can't work out how texture comes into play here because carrots, steak and ice cream are all very different. Anyway I don't need to worry about this just yet as it's only a concept. A pretty weird one, but still a concept.

SET TO MIMIC

So there you go, a glimpse into eco products that are available on the market today and perhaps some that might be available us to in the future. Either way, there's some very clever thinking going on...

What I've read lately...

I've always liked books and reading - my bookshelves are testament to that - but I go through phases of reading a little and phases where I read a lot. Right now it's in the lot phase - and that's been prompted by signing up to NetGalley - so I thought I'd share what I've been reading recently with you.

There is one actual book in my list, but I've read the majority of these on my kindle. While I like the feel of a book in my hands, the thing is once I get going I don't stop at one book so if I'm out and about then the kindle comes into its own. During my recent Jury Service although there was a lot of sitting around waiting to be called, there was also a lot of opportunity to pull out my kindle!

1. The Other Side of the Bridge, Mary Lawson

This one's a re-read and I don't often do that, but it's a book I don't want to lose just yet. It was long listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, and was on Richard and Judy's Book Club List too, so it's not a new title.

It's about two brothers, Arthur and Jake, their differences and how their already uneasy relationship is driven to breaking point when Laura arrives in their 1930s rural community. And it's a book that lives up to the quote on the front: "a beautiful read, on every level"

2.  All the Stars in Heaven, Adriana Trigiani

This is for the most part set in Hollywood during its Golden Age. It's based on a true life event - Loretta Young's affair with Clark Cable and one that was never public during their lifetimes, despite the child they shared. It wasn't something I was familiar with before reading the book, but it was something I googled before I finished it as I wanted to know if was pure fiction or if there was an element of real life in it. It seems it was the latter. 

An interesting book, that I had to work to get into but by the end one that I couldn't put down so definitely worth a read.

3.  Drive Me Crazy, Portia MacIntosh

This was a modern love affair with twists and turns you don't imagine right from the start. It's a book that demonstrates that not all IT guys are nerds, although that's something I knew already! It's a fun entertaining read, I zipped through it because I couldn't put it down.

4. Secret Letters, Abby Bardi

The plot evolves following the death of their mum as the siblings sort through her belongings and as you might imagine discover some secret letters. The main character convinces herself the letters are from her father and she learns more about J. Fallingwater and his Indian heritage, opening a restaurant along the way which has shall we say, one or two setbacks. 

There's a twist as you'd expect and J. Fallingwater isn't what is first thought. This is one of those books where you feel part of the family and start to care what happens on the highs and lows of their life.

5. The Secret Widow, Sylvie Fox

Nari is a doctor and at a conference, she needs to forget two dates. She has a ritual for coping with those and the conference provides the ideal opportunity. This is a tender book where we follow Nari as she learns to trust and love again, while learning more of her story. This one made me cry, more than once and it's one you can lose yourself in. This is one of my two must-reads.

6. The Tea Planter's Wife, Dinah Jefferies

Set in Ceylon in 1913 the book follows Gwendolyn Hooper as she arrives in the country as a nineteen-year-old bride eager to rejoin her husband who she fell in love with in London. But on the tea plantation he's not the same man, he's wrapped up in his work and she's left to explore the plantation and her new life alone with little help from her sister-in-law.  She soon falls pregnant though and both are overjoyed with the news. In the delivery room she's faced with a terrible choice and buries a secret throughout the majority of her marriage. I'll not share the ending but this is my second must-read. This is the one that I read late into the night, wanting to know how it turned out. It was also the one that once it had ended I felt empty, because I wanted to know more.

Sometimes books get you like that don't they? You don't want them to end and it's true you're left with a book hangover!

And now? 

I've just started A Very Big House in the Country by Claire Sandy, so I'll let you know more about how I get on with that next time.  

What have you read recently?