After two years of living in a small and cluttered rented flat, we are counting down to September when we can start afresh and settle down somewhere that is truly ours. I fear I have fallen into the trap of believing that our lives in our new home are going to be picture perfect fabulous!
In my dream to create our perfect home I find myself pretty distracted on a daily basis with my thoughts constantly turning to furnishings. A quick browse on the web finds me lost for hours admiring beautiful interiors on Pinterest and even our weekly shop sees me forgetting to pick up the milk because I've been too busy looking at pretty homeware in Tesco.
Having lived in rented homes for my entire adult life I unfortunately don't have a clue about where to start when it comes to decorating a new home. All I do know is that having just blown a small fortune on our house deposit, solicitors fees and expenses we don't have a great deal of money left to spend on furniture.
So at the moment I'm focussed on one room at a time, thinking about how I can make us a comfortable, clean and chic home on a limited budget.
I spend most of my time dreaming about our new bedroom. We hate our current sleeping space with its shabby carpet, dark walls and limited space and I'm very excited that our new room is going to be far larger with white walls and gorgeous skylights to keep the room nice and bright.
I'm desperate to create a relaxing and comfortable environment so have decided to keep things simple and fresh by decorating our new space white whilst adding a few details in gold to create a feeling of opulence.
All of our bedroom furniture is going to be white so we're on the hunt for pieces that are going to look great but are friendly on the bank balance. I'm also keen to have a good amount of furniture so that everything has a home. No more using rooms as dumping grounds!
I've started looking out for pretty pieces in gold that we can use to decorate our room. I quite fancy a gold lamp for our bedside table and a white bedding set with some beautiful gold features. We are also keen to use artwork by local artists to decorate all of the rooms in the house so will be looking for some beautiful drawings to add to the walls in our bedroom.
We are currently a little guilty of dumping our clothes on the floor of our bedroom so I'm thinking about getting a chair for the corner of the room, I like to pretend to myself that I'll relax in the chair with a good book but I think the reality will be that that's where the pile of clothes goes (neatly folded of course!).
The thing I am probably most excited about when thinking about our new bedroom is that I will finally have my very own grownup lady dressing table. The perfect place to store my cluttered collection of makeup and somewhere for me to get ready in comfort.
With my limited knowledge I am relying on bloggers with beautiful homes and amazing tips and have even found myself eyeing up a few home furnishing books.
I'd love to hear how you've decorated your bedroom, give me some ideas!
Oh I'm so jealous. Whilst we've been able to do a fair bit to make out lounge feel like home (paint, add furniture, etc), our bedroom is so much trickier to do anything with because it has carpet and heavy wardrobes and bookcases, so we've had to leave it and I hate it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going all over white then Milk Bubble Tea (http://milkbubbletea.blogspot.co.uk) would have to be your inspiration. I'm not sure if she's done a bedroom styling type post but her photos are always so white and light.
I can't wait to see the result.
Lisa | Not Quite Enough
Ah yes! That's a good tip! I almost know what I want in my head but I don't have an artistic bone in my body, so I'll struggle to get anything out of my head and into the room!
DeleteSuch an exciting time, pinterest is perfect for stuff like this. When James and I first moved in together we were skint and most of our furniture was donated from friends and family, nothing matched (and to be honest, 8 years later it still doesn't!) I think tackling one room at a time is a great idea! Check out ebay for great bargain finds and also the fenwick warehouse sale in killingworth is worth a visit too! Good luck x
ReplyDeleteSo exciting to be moving in to your own place! I'm sure it'll be lovely! I've just come across Coastal Style Blog. It's full of light colours and everything looks amazing! Would definitely recommend a look on there!
ReplyDeleteThat Adventurer
SO exciting! I can't wait to move out for this reason alone! I've been working in interiors for the last two years, so should you have any questions please just shout :) I have so many gold lighting (gulp!) that I've stashed away in my parents attic, I should loan them out!
ReplyDeleteI'm all for searching eBay (as Rachel mentioned above) or second hand charity shops (we have furniture ones around where we live) and giving them a lick of paint yourselves (love the Annie Sloan chalk paint!). In terms of insp., I love Will at Bright Bazarr and I'm pretty much addicted to Ideal Home magazine. It has really informative features and showcases the best of the highstreet picks.
Obviously, sticking to a budget is a must but always try and invest. Ikea is great, but sometimes M&S have some cracking offers on bedlinen that should / and will be better.
Some online places to have a nose are Made.com, West Elm, Oliver Bonas - but I find super good bargains in Wilkisons, Tesco (amazing! I save up all my points and splurge) and even Homebase.
Please can I come help you decorate your house? :) xxx
When we bought our flat I spent hours on Pinterest searching for inspiration. I've painted our bedroom a really pale, soft grey, with a white wooden bed, white wooden bedside tables, silver and white lamps, and then a few different art prints hung on the wall in white frames. It's a lot of white but the soft grey of the walls and the pops of colour in the art add more interest to the room and stop it from looking bland.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your new home!
x
I tend to store most of my clothes on the floor/a chair too - - I keep telling myself it'd be different if I had a new house to start afresh in but I don't know how accurate that actually is! :p
ReplyDeleteLove the colours you've chosen- My advice would be to look in Sainsburys for bedding and decor items. We've got a lovely cream bedding set from there with chocolate and gold embellishments on it and it was only £12 for the sheet, duvet cover, pillow cases, and bed runner.
ReplyDeleteWe've been doing our house up a little bit recently- I've mentioned it briefly on the blog. It's so nice to finally be getting rid of some the rubbish we've been making do with since we moved in 5 years ago!
Our bedroom is teal, chocolate and a pale fawn colour. It's a bit dark, but we loved those colours! We brightened it up with lamps, colourful patchwork bedding, etc. Just bought a new bed recently from a fantastic clearance bed place nearby- Got a great deal on a gorgeous divan bed in chocolate brown with a memory foam mattress and matching headboard... Check for local shops which may not have proper websites (Facebook pages and such...)... That's where we found our deal!
Art has been the biggest sticking block in our house- We have differing opinions on what should go where! If you can't find pictures, etc, that you like, make your own! I've been after a beachy print for the bedroom since we moved in, but couldn't find one we both liked. I've made something instead with a string of hanging glass bottles, a beach hut hanging decoration, a seagull 'inspirational' plaque ("Today I will be happier than a Seagull with a stolen chip..." Made me laugh anyway!), and hanging silver fish. It's not quite a sleek canvas, but I love it!
I'm also a very recent convert to IKEA- Wish we'd gone there in the first place! The furniture is so much better than most of the rubbish we ended up getting, and it's much cheaper too! Our original bed and mattress were from Argos and were knackered after 6 months, and the bookcases from Homebase are alright, but very overpriced when you compare them IKEA's Billy bookcase (Which is much more sturdy!).
Ooooh- My other big love at home is my wall decal in the hallway. We got it from a printing company on ebay- It's a tree with leaves and birds. I stuck the tree at the bottom of the stairs, then arranged the leaves and birds to look as if they were being blown/flying up the staircase... It's a feature most people comment on and love, but it was well under £15!
Right, think I've been mouthy enough with my 'hints and tips'... ;)
Eats x
PS: Love the idea of a chair in the corner to dump clothes on! Wish our bedroom was big enough for that!
Obviously head straight for Pinterest and then Google your butt off to find it all cheaper (probably in the supermarket!)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new house, it's so exciting! The only way I stayed sane though was by doing one room at a time, in it's entirety, before moving on. I was adamant I didn't want to live in a building site.
Good luck.
M x
Oh and I'm well jel of your grown up lady dressing table, need one of those in my life.
DeleteX
So happy and excited for you both Chloe. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's good that your planning and at the very most importantly, agreeing on decor.. we 'quickly' tided up our home before our little boy arrived and I wish we'd taken more time to do it, as although it may of taken more time, we may have saved money in the long run, as we're currently going from room to room changing everything!!!!
I love you idea of local paintings/drawings, I feel this is very you. :) Look forward to seeing some mood boards/ideas.. :)
Caroline.x
notesfromcaroline.com
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