A wow shower in the wellness room set

There seems to be a water theme to my recent posts, with one on Poolside at John Lewis and showing you my new swimming costume in yesterday's post, so today completing the three I'm sharing photos from the Wellness Bathroom, one of the room sets at this year's Ideal Home Show.  Often I think the bathroom room sets are uninspiring and quite unrealistically large. 

But not this one, one element had me completely wowed.

It wasn't the free-standing bath, nor the sauna in the corner of the room (just visible in the photo above), but the shower wall.  It's quite simply like nothing I've seen before, and you'll never believe me when I tell you it's wallpaper.

It really is.

It's waterproof wallpaper, the wet system technical wallpaper from Wall & Deco which combines the waterproof-ness of liquid membranes with the patterns of wallpaper.  And I think the results are stunning.

So much so, that in pretty much every photo I took of this room set I've managed to sneak it in somewhere.

Not even the sauna, which I'm a fan of, can overshadow it.  Although if I had a bathroom this large I'd seriously be considering adding an infrared sauna, but luckily for my purse, or rather MOH's wallet, we don't. 

The other striking feature in this bathroom was the size of the mirror (and yes, even that shot managed to capture the wallpaper), but I guess if you've got the space then, why not? 

So what do you think?  And would you go for this kind of wallpaper in your bathroom or shower?

Garden inspiration mood boards

April sure is a funny month isn't it?  There's been highs and lows of temperatures and let's hope they're back on the rise again soon.  But a glimpse of sun, or rather a lot unusually as was the case, and it doesn't take much to convince us that it's here to stay, and we're going to have the hottest summer ever (again).  

Only for our hopes to be dashed when overnight the temperatures plummet to single figures. But that's the 'joy' of the English weather, and it doesn't stop us enjoying our gardens does it?  With the early glimpse of sun, I don't expect I'm the only one making plans to enjoy my garden. There's quite a bit of work to do before I can pull the sun loungers out though, but for now, let's get some garden inspiration from these mood boards which use items from Wayfair's Outdoor range

Knowing me and colour, you'll not be surprised to see my first three boards contain bright colours, but even I don't do full on colour all of the time, so I've also included a couple of calmer boards too, and all of the boards contain items I love and think you will too.

brights + stripes: Virrat chair | Stockholm lantern | Crystal plastic drinking glass | Monza plant pot (set of 3)

That pink chair!  I'm a fan of this style of chair and have seen it increasingly this year - my fear though is that it'll be much harder to store than the traditional deck chair shown below.  I've a suspicion that it won't be too long before I've found a way around my dilemma - did I mention that I've scheduled in a clear out of the shed for next weekend?

modern traditions: Cold Summer folding deck chair | Askö Bar Serving Cart | Giant Dominoes

A drinks trolley is also on my wish list. I know I said I wasn't sure if I was keen or not, but I've talked myself round and MOH is keen too.  And, that means when he makes drinks, he'll be out of my way as he'll have his own drinks making space.  I know that in reality, he'll use this space and the space he previously used, but the fine will be to make me more cocktails, so I think that's a win!

For me, summer isn't summer without a barbecue, a picnic or an ice lolly or too.  Adding these all together really do bring fab times, which of course is a classic whichever way you look at it.

fab times: Salida charcoal barbecue | Sweet Summer days ice lolly plastic drinking glass | Outline insulated picnic tote bag

I told you that the first three boards were colourful, but I hope you'll agree full of summer fun.  There's times - and gardens - that call for something altogether calmer, and dare I say it, more elegant. The metal tree seat is an absolute classic, but sadly wouldn't work in my garden, we'd be sitting with at least one foot in the flowerbeds.  

english garden: Varda metal semi-circular tree seat | Artificial Daisy /Hydrangea wreath | Snuffle vintage planter box

I'm much more likely to have zinc planters, in fact I'm always on the look out for zinc planters and I'm convinced I'll find some in the junk shops of Norfolk. I keep looking, and with no joy yet, so maybe I'll given in soon and treat myself.

My final board is a nod to how our gardens can calm us, how they can be places to sit and watch the world go by. Whether that's watching the wildlife go about its business, watching the temperatures (hopefully) soar, or to relax watching the dancing flicker of a flame late into the evening.

calming elements: Dragon fly garden wall art | Garden wall thermometer | Insect, butterfly, bee cottage, hanging bird house | Burn stainless steel propane gas fire pit

So there you have five different mood boards providing garden inspiration, which inspires you?

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

Corrugated colour and flip flops

From the vibe of the decor in the restaurant which billed itself as serving Rio street food I had high hopes for the decor in the loos in Cabana. As I reached the staircase, made of scaffold poles and planks for the treads I started to think I could be right, but I had no idea what I was to discover.

It was quite a trek down, and on reflection the ground floor was a light and double-floored space so perhaps that shouldn't have been such a surprise.  When I entered The Loos, as they were signposted, this is what I was met with.

It was as if I'd walked into one of those storage containers, albeit a pretty pastel rainbow one.  Showing how pre-programmed we are, and conforming to type, I headed left to a door with pink flop flops nailed on.

As I had the space to myself I took a peek behind each of the pink doors.  The decor behind each door matched its place in the rainbow, but all of them had these funky, beaded oversized lampshades.

LILAC

CANDY PINK

CERISE PINK

But it wasn't just the paintwork or the corrugate finish. The mirror and sink also stood out - and behind the mirror there was a tame hand dryer, with a more ferocious one out in the lobby.

The tap almost looks out of place, but I coped.

Fun isn't it?  And totally in keeping for the restaurant's vibe, but also far from what I expected when I opened the door.