All about the exciting (terrifying) world of buying a flat in London and other interesting distractions.

Thoughts, ideas and little bits of inspiration.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Re-use, re-design, revamp

Have just had inspiration for future revamp project...
I know of a unloved and underestimated piece of furniture very similar to what this looked like prior to Jenny of Little Green Notebook working her magic...

Thursday 25 November 2010

I hate house hunting...

I hate it. I hate it even more now that we have to start doing it again! Grr... So our sale fell through and we are back on the hunt. Cést la vie.

In the meantime I can continue to fantasise about stuff to put in the hypothetical new place.Current favourite idea inspired by Compai Creative via Design*Sponge, alternative uses for old typeset trays.



I had a hunt around and found you can pick them up fairly cheaply on ebay. Genius. I'm thinking this would be great for storing all kinds of random tiny stuff in.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Interior compromise

Okay, so I may not be contemplating arrangements for the new place (the damp saga continues), but I have been thinking about bedside tables for a while, so this doesn't count. I've been considering them partly because the old filing box currently serving as my b.s.table is bowing a bit under the weight of half finished books... and also because the boy does not have one on his side and it drives me mad how often I trip over his water glass in the morning when I go to open the curtains... grr

As bits of furniture go, it seems a bit excessive to spend a lot of money on something so small, and since the filing box served its purpose (until now) I concluded that I could find other suitable alternatives to that which Ikea and the like offer. Then I saw these posted by the always useful Design*Sponge, and promptly decided alternative side tables were definitely the way forward.



Since books are not something I am short of, this could work! Though I would be likely to have to keep rebuilding the stack when I wanted one of them... and perhaps not best considering my track record for knocking over cups of tea in the morning. (this = tea stained expensive hard back books)


Then there is this plant pot table option. Quirky. I like it.

Only problem with these is lack of storage. I do like having a draw or something. More ideas to think on at the very helpful Planet Green...


Tuesday 26 October 2010

When we move...

...'when' being the operative word. Wondering now if these people actually want to sell us this house they are taking so long to do anything about it! It was stressful enough before the surveys pulled up the dreaded 'damp issues'. Now it is so stressful it hurts. The thought of being in by Christmas is a distant memory. Nothing annoys me more than waiting, except perhaps the time wasters who are causing the waiting. AAArrgh.

Cannot bring myself to think about pretty things to put in our new place. So sad.

If I were a cat, this is what I would look like right now. UN-IM-PRESSED.

Monday 18 October 2010

Interior compromise

White bed linen - so clean and inviting and crisp. However, I am useless at keeping white things white ('Hello white skirt, meet my friend vin rouge' and 'Yes darling, maybe you should have separated those new indigo jeans from the white TShirts before you washed them...'). I am fairly certain white bed linen in our house would not stay white long. Grey therefore seems like the way forward. I also think it would be a good colour compromise for the master bedroom.


Love the grey here, but not a fan of the pink...

Like this, but too masculine I think. A combo of grey and whites could be perfect though. Could it be cold without some colour though?? Hmm.

Friday 15 October 2010

when we move...

It has just occurred to me, that all being well, we will have a garden to play with soon! Last week I bought some lovely Alium bulbs for some good friends of ours (having just had a baby I thought there house might already be full of cut flowers and figured this way they would have some flowers to look forward to in the Spring). Now I realise I could fulfil my own dream of having a garden full of oversized floating purple ball amazingness. Bring it on.


Wednesday 13 October 2010

Shoe love

Recently the boy counted 9 pairs of my shoes abandoned in the living room. This led him to ask how many more pairs there were in the house. He didn't like the answer much. On reflection I think I might have to lie next time he asks.


I wanted to steal these shoes/slippers from the lovely place we stayed in in Tangier last month.


In the end I was content with becoming the owner of these beautiful hand embroidered leather beauties. New shoes = happy Mason. Alas, they are not autumn/winter shoes, so for now I will just have to admire them regularly.

Genius idea

I saw this idea in a house we went to view, in fact in the house which we are now buying! At the time I thought it was so clever I was determined to steal it and use it in wherever we actually did buy. Who needs a pin board when you can magnet paint a whole wall and then blackboard paint over it.


This pic isn't actually of our new place to be, but is a great example.  I'll upload some pic of our version when we eventually get the keys.

In the beginning

... there was a girl. She met a boy. They lived apart until they got tired of commuting between two cities every weekend. The girl was offered a job in the big city. She upped and moved and happiness ensued. Well, for about 5 minutes, until the boy's job meant he was out of the big city all week... so now the girl lives on her own in an empty flat during the week and has a few too many spare evenings to fill.

At the weekends, the boy comes home and finds that the girl has moved everything around, changed the wall colours, bought furniture, baked a cake, knitted a scarf, drunk all the wine (okay, maybe not quite all the wine), bought more shoes. 

So now the girl and the boy have made an offer on a flat of their own and the girl is giddy with ideas for making it feel like home. However, being a practical and level-headed sort, she is just about keeping her excitement in check whilst the lawyers and mortgage people make things happen.

In the meantime, this blog will become her virtual scrap book.