Making a House a Home: Our New (Old) House

Those of you who follow me on Insta and Twitter would have already seen a deluge of posts about my husband and I moving house.

(The day we got our keys)

 

After two and a half years of looking for our future family home and feeling pretty disillusioned we finally had an offer accepted on a house in a completely different area in July. We felt that it was a sign and decided to take the plunge and move south of the river for the first time!

(Our entrance now)

 

The following months were pretty stressful with mortgage brokers, banks, solicitors and contractors being exceptionally difficult and ignoring all deadlines. Unfortunately, blogging had to be put on hold (along with the rest of our social life) while I redesigned the house, packed, chased builders and furniture deliveries.

 

However, I am very happy to say that we finally moved into our new (old) house at the end of November!

 

Now that most of the boxes are unpacked I am really excited to share with you some of my interior design ideas, as well as tips and things I learned from taking on and managing a refurbishment project. Please let me know if you have any particular requests, but as the house slowly comes together I am looking forward to sharing it with you and getting more inspiration on the final touches!



Home Improvements: Making a House a Home!

Over the last year I have updated our home to make it a little more modern and a lot more reflective of my current tastes. After five years I felt like my living room definitely needed an upgrade!

Here is a little before photo (taken on the night hubby proposed, but it gives a good feel of the room - very brown and a lot of leather).

 And the after...

The first thing I decided to change was the colour scheme and feel of the room. I have become obsessed with grey furnishings and wanted to balance out the muted grey tones with warm blush pinks and a touch of cream.

 

I purchased two Chesterfield sofas in a rich grey and added a little texture and colour contrast with velvet cushions and a grey faux fur throw. I kept the rest of the furnishings, including the side tables and coffee table, in ivory.

I also added an ivory sideboard that worked perfectly with our new Vera Wang photo frame, cacti and the bonbon holders that we had left over from the dessert table at our wedding.

The last part was our dining table and chairs. Both were purchased from Made.com.

I love the lacquer table as it not only looks simple, modern and stylish, but is also extendable and super easy to clean.

For the table settings I used our old plain black glass settings and covered them in marble contact paper to make grey marble placemats and coasters. The napkin and napkin rings were purchased from Zara Home.

Let me know what you guys think! The photos aren't quite Instagram worthy, but I have really enjoyed researching and putting different pieces together!