My top 10 posts of 2018

Today I’m taking a quick look at the top posts from this year, and in a slight change from last year there’s two lists. The main part of the post focuses on the popular posts which were created this year, then finish with a list of the top posts created anytime, pleasingly some of my 2018 posts are on that list too.

And yes, the IKEA hack post features again - but despite my reminder to myself in last year’s post I didn’t manage any more this year. So, let’s start with this year’s posts.

1 A map on my wall

I’m pleased this post tops the list because it’s high on my list of favourites too, so you’re likely to see it on that post too. I’m not apologising for that though as the mural wallpaper has transformed the room and I still catch myself heading up there for a peek, and perhaps a virtual stroke. It’s also been quite a hit with our visitors too, even if the decorators were slightly less than pleased when they learnt it was destined for our curved wall.

OUR GLOBE-LIKE MAP

2 Blinds and shutters with Thomas Sanderson

I’m surprised this post is so high up the list on views, but then again Thomas Sanderson is a well established and well respected company. From talking to their people on the stand at Grand Designs it was clear they have a passion, and plenty of knowledge, for window coverings and they’re worth a look if you’re after blinds for your conservatory, they have more than you’d think and the technological advances are amazing.

3 Our space in space

This Beautiful Border at Gardeners’ World Live in Birmingham had more to it than first met the eye with its connection to the Voyager mission in 1990. And the Dr Who tardis, is the blue dot that’s home, that’s us - you’ll have to check out the post for that photo, because I couldn’t resist sharing some bright green succulents against the grey of the slate.

4 A great summer to enjoy our redecorated conservatory

We’ve only managed two house projects this year, the wallpaper which is at the top of this list, and the larger conservatory revamp. 2018 has been a tricky year, but having this work done has made such a difference to how we use this space - and it looks great too! It’s no surprise then that this project features more than once on this list, but reassuring that the “after” is the most viewed.

BI-FOLD DOORS AT EITHER END OF OUR CONSERVATORY HAVE MODERNISED THE SPACE

5 Adding flexibility - and stools - to our dining table

What’s more is that now our revamped conservatory now matches the style of the rest of our downstairs, which while we’ve a house that was built in 1890, is much more modern. I’m keen that our furniture complements our style and each other, but doesn’t have to match exactly. That’s what I liked about these stools, they work at the dining table, but they also work in other rooms including the study, which is where they’re more usually found and brought out when we need that extra seating.

6 Hello February!

Perhaps another surprise to the top viewed list, but then again this pop of colour in February could be just what everyone needed. This post showed the contents of my February stationery subscription box, which was a gift that I very much enjoyed and I’m still making use of.

7 Our conservatory plans

This post captures some of the before shots - note the ice cream tubs above the doors top left in the photo below, catching water from an ever increasing leak, and while it’s not the prettiest of posts, I’m glad I captured it. As well as setting out our plans, it also shows what it looked like before the work started, so it’s easy for you to see how much of a difference the bi-fold doors made, especially if they’re something you’re considering yourself. We’d come to love this conservatory, and making the change was a big one for us, but we’re so glad we did as we love it even more now, and it’s a much more usable space.

THE ‘BEFORE’ SHOT

8 Those pom poms in the Botanical Bedroom

You know how much I like a show, so it’s good to see one of the room sets from this year’s Ideal Home Show in this list. The other big shows I visited this year - Grand Designs and Gardeners’ World Live - also appear on this list, so it seems you like a show as much as I do. The big thing in this bedroom was the pom pom edged throw, and I noted that they were one of the things that I saw everywhere at the show. I’m a confirmed pom pom lover, so that was good news for me and some pom pom edged cushions have snuck into a couple of rooms at home too - I’ll share more of those shortly.

9 Conservatory news - and progress!

Yes, another from the conservatory revamp - this one and in progress post, and where we had quite an open feel to the back of our house, once the oak doors had been removed. It was like this for longer than I liked as there was a mix up with the door and window delivery, which meant that I delayed posting real time updates, because, well we didn’t have a back to our house. And while it was perfectly secure, or so the builders and MOH told me, I felt much better when the doors were on. Although we did get quite used to just wandering out into the garden!

THE OPEN PLAN LOOK

10 The final push

Despite what it looks like in the shot below, it was almost there, there was just the tape to come off the doors and skirting and the floor to be sanded. Like all projects though - including a good sort out - it got worse before it got better, but it was so much better (see above!)

So looking back it’s a good reflection on our year, the new additions and building work featuring heavily along with a post from each of the big shows. No posts from our garden though, but then again, we’ve hardly found time to do much there this year either, which wasn’t quite our plan but other things needed to take priority. But I’ll share more from our garden, and the gardens we visited, in my gardening year round-up post next week.

And the second list

This list is posts created at any time but viewed in 2018, the year in brackets is the year the post was originally posted, as I do like a bit of detail

1. Ikea hack: storage table to laundry basket (2015)

2. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

3. Let’s talk Edwardian house decoration (2017)

4. Softening our gabion seating area with plants (2017)

5. Tintagel castle and 148 steps for starters (2015)

6. A map on my wall (2018)

7. Making cute pom-pom Easter bunnies and chicks (2016)

8. Blinds and shutters with Thomas Sanderson (2018)

9. Exploring the RAF Oulton Museum at the Blickling Estate (2017)

10. Our space in space (2018)

And looking at the stats, it’s going to have to be a pretty special post to knock the Ikea hack off top spot, but who knows maybe my wallpaper will do it, or maybe there’ll be something else. We’ll just have to wait and see - but in the meantime I’ll be sharing some of my favourite posts of the year split into two parts again, as you know I have terrible trouble choosing just a few!

Our space in space

When I saw this at Gardeners' World Live I hadn't fully appreciated the concept as I have a terrible habit of taking a snap of the bumph alongside things to read later, simply enjoying the garden (or whatever) for what it is on face value at the time.  Not always a bad thing, as how often are we 'told' to live in the moment, but sometimes (and for me often afterwards) you realise the intentions had a much deeper meaning and purpose, and this Beautiful Border is one of them.

On the face of it, it's a pretty space and totally worthy of its inclusion in this part of the show, but at the time I couldn't help but notice its starkness, and stripes in comparison to the other beds.  I did spot the blue tardis though.

And I really enjoyed the almost lime green succulent 'balls' around the green phormium and against the grey pebbles. Striking aren't they?

What I hadn't realised was the greater significance of the blue dot - or tardis - and the connection to the photos taken from Voyager on 14 February 1990.

Look again at that dot.  That's here.  That's home.  That's us.

- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A vision of the Human Future in Space

Which in my book makes it a very clever - and bold - garden, which clearly works on a number of levels. And who knew that a garden could be so deep? And educative?  Certainly not me, but I'm glad it has.  Talk about inspiring. 

But not only on that deeper level, but also on the planting.  Just look at the succulent, and what looks to be a coleus and a heuchera with its lettuce-like leaves against the dark pebbles.  It's certainly striking, that's for sure...

A map on my wall

It's been a little while since my post on loving maps, and the fear of wallpaper but the good news is the map is on the wall, and I love it.  Things didn't turn out quite as I planned for the actual putting it on the wall part, and so I didn't have to face my fear of wallpapering after all.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly my Wallsauce mural arrived, in fact I couldn't believe it was here just a few days after I'd made my choice, they most certainly don't hang about.  It arrived well packaged too, in a sturdy cardboard tube within a wallpaper sized cardboard box. There was wallpaper paste too, and as I discovered a visual plan as well as some written instructions, which are also available online.

THE MASTERPLAN

But because life happens we needed to change our plans of tackling this ourselves. I'm certain we made the right decision as not only were we nervous wallpaperers but our attention, and time, has been taken up by those life events I mentioned on Monday, and neither of us wanted to ruin, or even slightly mess up, what is quite honestly, beautiful wallpaper.

And so we asked our conservatory builders to do the job for us, or the decorator anyway - I use builders as a generic term, and were confident they were up to the job, I wouldn't have asked otherwise.  They were just as keen as us to see what was inside the package that arrived, and so we peeked.  My first view was of Alaska (from Panel 1 of the plan above), and I was smitten, although in truth I think it could have been anywhere and I'd have had the same reaction, because as I said in my first post, because, well maps.

Now the builders had seen the wallpaper, they were keen to see the wall it was going on, which was the tricky bit, as we'd yet to tell them it was the curved wall around our spiral staircase.  Their faces were a picture, and while they might have been a little incredulous they were soon checking the wall for what prep needed to be done.

I know from dad that it's all in the preparation, so I wasn't surprised to come home to a wall with some extra filler.  Actually it was great to see tradesmen taking pride in their work, reading the instructions that came with the wallpaper, consulting with us and confident in their skills to do a job well, that we'd all be happy with.

FIRST THE FILLER, THEN THE DUST

But of course where filler goes, dust follows.  Luckily I'd thought this through and moved the duvet and as much as I could out of the room.  The room was covered with plastic sheets and dust sheets, but my reasoning was if it's not there in the first place it's not going to get dusty, is it?  And that's something I'd recommend, even if a builder says there'll be no dust.  As it's likely your definition of no dust will be different to theirs!

The result which wowed

I'd been keen to follow progress as the paper went up, and cups of tea were made, proffered and gratefully received so I could keep a bit of an eye on proceedings.  And progress was quick, relatively speaking (and definitely much quicker than I would have done) and the paper, and the design got the thumbs up from the builder too.

Even among the dust and detritus it was clear this was something spectacular.  I hadn't thought how having a map on a curved wall would give it a "globe" effect, but of course now it's been pointed out I'm going to claim that as the idea all along, what do you think?

In my first post I shared my potential choices from the world map wallpaper section on the Wallsauce site, but didn't share which one I'd chosen.  This is the Antique world map and is the perfect choice for our room as it tones well with the wardrobe, and as both are things that I expect to be around for some time, that's a good thing.

The more eagle-eyed among you will have already spotted that Australia and New Zealand are missing (sorry guys!) - my wall just wasn't big enough to get you in and I chose to include all of the Americas, rather than cutting that off of the final design.  It's nothing personal, but as we're more likely to travel to the States it made sense to have that on our wall, as I'm pretty sure this wall is now going to become a key tool in our travel planning,

I wasn't expecting to be able to choose where to make the cut on the design, but thinking about it logically it makes sense as not all walls will be the same size, and not all images work if stretched to peculiar dimensions.  In fact the customisable-ness of the image size and position is one of the pluses, and imagine how this could work if you chose your own image. It was also easy to do on the site and to check your design.

You'll see that our map has a textured effect (look to the right of the text South Atlantic Ocean in the photo below) and that's in the wallpaper design rather than actually being raised, and it's very effective and I think adds to the overall result.

I mentioned that we would most likely use this while planning our trips, but it's already had its first use when at the weekend I looked to see where England's game against Panama was taking place in the World Cup.  You can clearly see Nizhniy Novgorod to the right of Moscow in the photo on the left below, and my light switch in China in the photo on the right.  

There's going to be many happy hours poring over this map, which has entirely transformed the room.  You've probably worked out I'm completely thrilled with it already and impressed with the quality and service I received - and I am - but I'm keen to know if you have, or would consider mural wallpaper in your house, and of course what do you think of my wall.

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