Ideas to update our bedding from Julian Charles

March 1, 2016

Recently we had guests stay over and while I was making up the futon, I realised that our bedding had seen better days. But as it was just before our guests arrived there was little I could do about it. I guess (hope!) that like much of the spare room bedding out there, it's bedding that has been passed on from the main bedroom, when newer items have arrived there.

Please tell me I'm right, or else I'm going to feel quite bad for our guests, and I guess most of you won't agree to come to stay either...

So when I saw that Julian Charles were inviting bloggers to put together a post detailing how their products would enhance my home, I knew just which room I'd focus on - our spare bedroom which we decorated last summer. The main wall is painted Dove Grey with black wall art and some large modern pictures, so this Ashford Silver Luxury Duvet set would be just the thing.

I like its pattern, and think the detail provides texture and interest without being overly feminine. And every well dressed futon needs a throw, especially for those colder nights and the Darla Grey Luxury Quilted Throw looks a good match for the bedding I've chosen.

While I'd love to show you more of the bedding sets on the site, to make my spare bedroom more welcoming for my guests I have to go back to basics. Because a fancy duvet set isn't much use without something to put inside it. And I don't know about you but I think it's such a treat when you stay in a good hotel with good bedding, and that's the feeling it'd be great to reproduce at home for our guests.

So my last three choices would be:

5 Star Luxury Super Soft 10.5 Tog Duvet
5 Star Luxury Super Soft Pillow - Medium Support
Luxury Quilted Pillow Protector - because let's face it, with such fab bedding I'll be having lots of people over and no-one really wants to (or needs to) share pillows do they?

I think if my spare bedroom was kitted out with this bedding I'd be welcoming more house guests, so I'd need one of my many empty notebooks to keep everything on track and make sure I didn't make any double bookings!

And you really can't beat new, crisp bed linen can you?

* This post is my entry into Julian Charles' Best Dressed Interior 2016 competition

Fabulous outdoor planters (and more) from Cox & Cox

February 27, 2016

Now that the evenings are getting lighter (yay!) and Spring bulbs are bringing colour to parks and gardens, I'm starting to be tempted out into the garden again. I've shared the plans I have for our allotment and my seed order is being finalised, but what about my garden?

I've mentioned before that our garden is a mature one, with lots of shrubs and so it's predominantly green. The challenge I have is to introduce colour to keep MOH from wanting to rip the whole garden out and start again. But because the trees and shrubs are large traditional bedding plants aren't always that successful, and let's be honest sometimes they have that municipal feel, don't they?

I've found though that pots are a great way to introduce colour, as not only can you control the soil (and not dig into a tree root) grouped together they can bring height and interest into the garden.

And the pots don't have to be boring either. Just look at these, which are just a selection of the new range from Cox and Cox:

BIRCH EFFECT PLANTERS, PHOTO CREDIT COX & COX

RUSTY NESTING PLANTERS, PHOTO CREDIT COX & COX

The three above aren't quite what they seem either. They're not stone as you might think, but fibreglass so they'll be easy to move around the garden, even when they're planted. The finish of these emulates silver birch, and I like the texture and age that gives.

GALVANISED FLUTED TROUGH, PHOTO CREDIT COX & COX

Or there's the rusty planters, aren't they a gorgeous colour? For me they also prove that a simple design is a winner too.

Troughs to edge a path

I have a small path alongside my greenhouse and I've been on the lookout for some low-level planters to help soften the edges of greenhouse. But I don't want something so big that it blocks the light to my seeds and plants busily trying to grow in there.

My plan is to grow herbs here so when I brush past I'll catch their scent. Again I'm drawn to the simple design of this zinc trough. They'd look equally good with cheery spring bulbs in too, and as window boxes.

AGED ZINC MILK CHURN, PHOTO CREDIT COX & COX

Definitely not boring

Remember that I said your planters didn't need to be boring?

Well, how about a milk churn - I think it'd look great with some cheery daffodils sprouting from the top.

It'd certainly bring a smile to my face. Although it's too late to plant Spring bulbs now - usually I plant mine in the autumn using the lasagne approach - it's not too late to add some Spring colour to your garden.

You can pick up ready grown bulbs relatively cheaply in the supermarkets and garden centres. My bargain hyacinth last week cost just £1.49.

Or you could think a little further ahead and plan some fabulous summer displays.

AGED METAL BIRD CAGES, PHOTO CREDIT COX & COX

And just because...

I couldn't resist sharing these metal bird cages, while they're not planters as such they're definitely on my wish list. I know though I'll have a job to convince MOH we need them.

Sigh.

His argument, after the what are we going to do with those, would be where would we put them? And he'd have a point. I'd love to say in the conservatory, and to have that kind of conservatory. You know the airy sort that you see in stately homes?

Our conservatory has a little way to go - we're currently using ours as a bike store and general dumping area, so it's a campaign I'll leave until I'm on stronger ground.

But who knows, maybe one day...

This is is a collaborative post with Cox and Cox, but all opinions are my own

Adding the finishing touches to our porch

February 24, 2016

Usually when people talk about decorating their smallest room, we all know which room they have in mind. But for us our smallest room isn't that room at all, but our porch. It's so small that I doubt many people take more than two steps in it at a time, you can reach both the walls without having to stretch your arms hardly at all, but it does provide a bit of a buffer between our main living room and the busy road outside.

It's also a functional space holding our fuse board and electricity meter along with our recycling, a few pairs of shoes, my wellies for the allotment and an umbrella or two. What it hasn't been for quite a while is pretty. But on Sunday afternoon that all changed.

Hanging the pigeon shelves

In an unexpected spate of activity we hung the pigeon shelves which we'd bought a while back from Dormy House. We'd bought them unfinished in the sale, unfinished because we weren't certain what colour to choose and because they were significantly cheaper that way. My reasoning was if we bought them painted and then changed our minds it wouldn't be so cost effective, and as there was a strong likelihood that we would change our minds we (the Royal we, that is) might as well paint them to start with. Completely sensical, yes?

Well MOH needed some convincing, but he dutifully set about painting the units - we bought two sets, and my original plan was to hang them both in this small space. That's the bit that changed in the end, but more on that later. With one set of shelves painted MOH was keen to get it hung on the wall and out of the way in the Conservatory, which had turned into his painting studio for the duration.

In the end we chose Farrow & Ball Old White for the shelves, which is the same colour (and paint type - so not another tin of paint to store) we'd used on the bookcase and radiator cover in our main living area. The walls are Farrow & Ball Skimming Stone, so all very neutral and purposefully so. The only problem was that it was, well a bit beige. Or grey, depending on your viewpoint.

I didn't mind that so much as it's not a room we spend much time in, and having these neutral colours means it's relatively easy to keep clean. And with it being so small, let's face it it doesn't take long to give it a coat of paint. It is probably the most painted room in our house!

Adding some colour

A while back I'd been gifted a selection of Prestigious Textiles' new Java range, well looking at it again I realised that it matched quite nicely with our updated colour scheme now we planned to add Ocean (blue) and Mustard (yellow) chairs to our downstairs space. So I set about making a faux Roman blind with one of the fabrics.

I've mentioned it before but the sewing in this blind was minimal. Instead of being challenged by the sewing, as expected it was two of my other loves that came into play - ironing and maths! And if you're wondering why it's a faux Roman blind, we never pull the blind here so it didn't need to cover the window, it just needed to be deep enough to dress the window.

It looks quite good, I think. And does inject some much needed colour into the space. I still need to get a cleat and find something suitable to act as a toggle for the blind cord, but all in good time...

So with my Roman blind hung and my pigeon shelves on the wall, it was time to collect some of the items I've been saving to store in them. My aim is to add colour to the porch with the items we store here, but to keep it functional and as cohesive as I can too. The black treacle tin has used stamps, while the golden syrup tin is holding the batteries we need to recycle. I love these classic tins and giving them a new use, but I think I'll have to keep my eye on them in case they just happen to fall into the recycling basket below with help from MOH when I'm not looking!

The Indian Tiffin set was a birthday present and I knew it'd look good here. I haven't worked out if I'll use it to store anything yet, but it does make me smile each time I walk past.

The other purpose for the pigeon shelves was to store some of our cycling gear - we knew they wouldn't be large enough for helmets, but I've an idea for those (not yet implemented, of course).

I've added the mini cool bag I use when we take lunch out cycling, and inside there's a flask with the same pattern. Some pretty tins, and some notebooks, you know the sort of stuff.

MOH has added a saddle bag and a pump - can you tell which of us is the less frou-frou?

Ah well, they're supposed to be functional too - but perhaps I could make a little curtain for the less pretty sections...

So it's been quite a while coming together, but finally I think we're there. Our porch - our smallest room - is starting to add prettiness to its purpose.

And that second set of pigeon shelves?

Well they'd be perfect in what I call my craft room and what MOH still calls the study. There's only one wall they can go on in there, so I need to work out how to make it work - and choose a colour, because I'm not sure this colour would work so much, and I might need to repaint some of the walls too, to get it just right.

But I'm starting to plan, and starting to be quite excited about filling it with craft supplies. MOH will no doubt roll his eyes and not understand why I need all that stuff, but I'll remind him he can call the spare room with his records and dart board his own, I think...