Wednesday 24 April 2013

Like so many things in life - Size DOES matter!

When Tots100 posted about a competition to win a new bathroom, it got me thinking.

Why are bathrooms always the smallest room in the house?  


My dream bathroom would be HUGE, at least as big as my bedroom.  Well, ideally, I'd have two bathrooms, one family bathroom (still a good size) which would be full of the kids toys and paraphernalia, and one just for me.

I want my bath next to a huge picture window overlooking meadows, and there to be a Velux window in the roof so that I can stargaze when having a candlelit bath at night.  The bath must be big and comfortable and DEEP, which means that I'll need a BIG water tank to make sure there's always plenty of hot water, there is nothing worse than a half depth bath or running out for a top up!  There will be a small elegant table by my bath which will hold my book and a glass of something chilled.


Bathroom with a view
The shower must feel part of the room with just a glass partition to separate it, with the drain directly into the floor - I have an aversion to shower cubicles, especially small ones!  There will be two shower heads, one a rainshower and the other handheld and adjustable.  

Underfloor heating would be a must to keep my tootsies warm at all times.  I'd love a big, funky modern heated towel rail to keep my towels toasty and ready to envelop me after my bath or shower.  Adjustable lighting is key, sometimes I might need a bright light to pluck my eyebrows, sometimes I'll want a romantic ambience.  There will be discrete shelves for candles too.

I'd like coloured glass walls (easier to keep clean than tiles with all that grout!).  Elegant storage is important - I don't want to see lots of clutter or bottles of lotions and potions.  A small comfy chair will be required to to ensure I have somewhere to sit to apply said lotions and potions.


Ah, I can but dream, but if my dreams were to become a reality, I would base my dream bathroom design around this beautiful elegant suite from Bathshop321


They even have the same idea as me to have the bath right in front of a huge window! And look how inviting the bath looks when filled.


In my bathroom dreams, size really DOES matter!

Friday 19 April 2013

Home Love

When Fashion for Home asked people to show their favourite place in their home in their Home Love competition, I knew straight away what I would write about.

It's what I call my "treasures display".  I have several items that mean a great deal to me and wanted to display them in a meaningful way so that each one is highlighted but that they are also all together.  None of them are valuable, but had been given to me as presents or I had bought as memories from amazing foreign travels.

I had scratched my head for a long time about how to achieve this display conundrum and my treasures languished sadly on three cabinet tops.  I finally came up with the solution when I went to visit my sister and she had all her CDs and DVDs neatly arranged on racks.  Bingo!  Each compartment would be the perfect size for one of my treasures, they would each get their own "identity" and yet they would be kept in a group together.  And best of all, this was an off-the-shelf solution so wasn't going to cost me a fortune in carpenter's fees.


Treasures Display
To make the display more visually appealing, I indented each successive unit and I love the final result - it truly is my favourite spot in my home.


What's in my bedroom....

A recent post on blogging edge got me thinking about the room where I sleep.  Your bedroom should be your sanctuary, yes?  Peaceful, cosseting, somewhere you can go to relax, where you can get a great night's sleep and feel rejuvenated the next morning?


Urgent attention needed!

Hmmm - I'm not sure that my bedroom meets those criteria just at the moment.  It's desperately in need of some TLC before it can dispense any to me.  It suffers from damp - not of the rising sort, more the creeping-through-the-walls sort (250 year old house by the sea doesn't exactly help). Bubbling plaster like this does NOT a sanctuary make.  

The delightful built-in wardrobes that we inherited with the house, whilst very practical and capacious, don't exactly scream luxury do they!?

Great (but ugly) storage
  One definite keeper in the makeover will be my late Mum's lovely walnut dressing table - my parents bought it when they got married in the 1940s and it holds lots of happy memories for me.
Hurray! Spring is here!

Spring is finally in the air (hurray) and at last we can throw open the windows to let our bedroom air thoroughly before tackling that plasterwork.  It's time to bite the bullet and completely redecorate our bedroom and make it into that luxurious bolthole that I've always dreamed of.   Now this may be where my problem lies - procrastination and indecision......should I go for a chic "moody dark" hotel style, or perhaps a sexy boudoir?  How about cool contemporary minimalism (although I fear that looks lovely on paper, but falls apart in practice when your husband is known for leaving his clothes lying all over the place!)?  One thing is for sure, I have to inject some colour into the room, plain white walls (which is what we have right now) are just too clinical for a bedroom.  

I read this post by emoov.co.uk about home staging to get an idea on how to update my room even though I'm not in the processing of selling at the moment.  I now know that the clutter has to go and that everything needs freshening up.
Lighting is SO important in the bedroom.  I have a whole host of requirements;  low lighting for romantic ambience, task lighting for reading in bed (check out my current solution!),

Practical for reading...
a way of reducing the bright light of early summer mornings to help us sleep longer, and enough light to be able to see what I'm wearing in the dark winter mornings so I don't wear mismatching clothes (unfortunately, it has been known!).


I bought this gorgeous throw in the souk in Muscat, Oman and have decided to use it as the starting point for updating our bedroom.  I can pick out a couple of these warm co-ordinating colours as the basis for walls and accessories.
Great place to start for colour scheme



We can't afford to replace the carpet, and anyway, it's a neutral oatmeal colour so shouldn't impact the overall scheme.  Along with blackout blinds (see lighting above), I'd like some opulent curtains to draw in the winter to make the room feel super cosy.  I have a comfy wing chair that I like to curl up in and would love to get recovered using one of the key colours of the throw (I did manage that task once a few years ago at a night class in sewing/upholstery, but pretty sure I couldn't repeat it without the help of the teacher and we've moved 200 miles away since then!).  And those wardrobe cupboard doors have to go, ideally to be replaced by something swish and modern, but in keeping with the walnut dressing table.  A luxurious big headboard (none of those metal ones for me - I like to sit up to read in bed) and high-count bedlinen are must-haves.

Sometimes it's the small touches that can make a big difference - I would love to replace all our mismatched hangers with gorgeous wooden ones and invest in one enormous abstract print to hang on the wall taken from one of my own photographs so it's really personal and unique.

Better crack on now I've got all these ideas!