Not that long ago, if you told me we'd own a chaise longue, I'd have thought you were mad. Not only would we not really have had the space - or the kind of house - for such an item of furniture,...
Interiors…
As much as we love our home, we love to travel, too. We like to seek out the unusual and we take inspiration from wherever we go. Following design blogs is not something which preoccupies us. We don’t want our home to follow the latest trends. That doesn’t mean we’re not influenced by what we see around us – we just know what we like, and if it’s not bang on trend, so what? It’s our home and we’ll do with it, what makes us smile.
Since starting this major renovation, we’ve become more creative, not only in what we do, but how we do things. We don’t have a bottomless pot of money – far from it. We still work full time – but luckily, as website designers, we can do this from the comfort of our home – and so we do need to be resourceful. Online trawling is one way we seek out new ideas, as well as recycling and upcycling what we already have.
Gone are the days when we’d throw something away, simply because it no longer suited. Becoming more conscious of waste and finances has made us think more creatively – and here, we’ll share what inspires us.
recent interiors blogs
window seat storage
Although we have a lot of space in our renovated house, one thing we are short on, is actual storage space. Apart from what is now a rather lovely pantry - another thing ticked off the wishlist -...
heating the house
We have no central heating in the house. We could have had it installed when the renovation was happening, but having experienced how the heat is retained over the spring/summer/into autumn months,...
fabricoat fabric paint
Yep. Another one of those things, like the butter bell, I had not heard of until recently. Fabric paint. Paint for your fabrics and furnishings. How this has passed me by, is beyond me, but here we...
hallway reno
Not all renovation projects need to involve demolition and mess and heavy tools and living with dust and dirt. I like to think that's all kind of behind us - at least for now, but we never say...
nuvolette : cole & son
In a previous post I wrote about our desire to eradicate the parts of internal walls which have not been plastered and are still the original Istrian stone. Some people would love the walls, but as...
best purchase of the summer…
For quite a while now I've been longing for one of these chairs. But, the garden has never been quite finished, so the idea of swinging gently, whilst sipping a cocktail, seemed ridiculous. We had...
six years on…
Looking back over photos taken when we came out to view the house in Istria, and stay over as guests of the owners, has been a real experience. I can remember, obviously, what condition the house...
les jardins de villa maroc : essaouira : morocco
It’s always great having friends in-the-know when you travel abroad, as they often give you top tips that you don’t find in guide-books or through internet searches. Because usually you don’t know...
lluna aqua hotel : sóller : mallorca
When we last visited Mallorca, one of the hotels we booked was the Lluna Aqua Hotel in Sóller. Housed in a traditional Mallorcan townhouse, which we were told had been empty for over eighty years,...
window shelving…
One of the things that we've always meant to tackle, but never got around to it, as there always seem to be other jobs which take priority, is the levelling of a number of our window sills. Some are...
decoupage doors…
Decoupage or découpage is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and other decorative elements. Commonly, an...
grey & white, with a woodland vibe…
We've never had so much space and shape to play with before, in any of the houses or flats we've lived in, and our stone house has proven itself to be a complete source of surprises. Each time we...
the living room : update 2
The living room, when we bought our Istrian stone house, was dark and oppressive. Walls were plastered in places, painted in places and in other places, the stone work was exposed. Window frames and...
fantastic faux…
I love fresh flowers. For the third year running, we've seeded up a few areas of the garden with wild flowers, because we believe that one day soon, these seeds will become something more than...
fifty shades of pink…
Pink has never been my colour. I think I've always associated the colour with being "girly" and so have largely avoided it. But, I've been wrong, Oh, so very wrong. And now I'm letting pink into my...
roxanich wine & heritage hotel : motovun : istria
We're suckers for stylish interiors. The kind of interiors that we maybe wouldn't be quite bold enough to go for at home, but love experiencing. And if anywhere does stylish interiors, it's the new...
les papiers…
Not long ago, who'd have thought you, or me, could have a piece of Jean Paul Gaultier in your own home? If you're a fan of the unconventional designer, you can now have a roll (or two or three) of...
seaham hall hotel
We were very lucky to be invited to the party of a great friend, held at the astonishingly beautiful Seaham Hall, on the north east coast, where, in January 1815, Lord Byron married Anne Isabella...