Make This Pom-Pom Cushion For Less Than A Tenner!

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Whenever I read an interview with a interior designer that I love, the thing that I pick up most from them is that texture and layering are key when it comes to styling a room. Texture comes from using different fabrics- wool, velvet, sheepskin; and laying means dressing the room to be visually stimulating. The easiest way to add texture and layer your room is with the home furnishings, so we are talking cushions, rugs, throws, curtains and so on....

Cushions are amazing as they can change the dynamics of an interior scheme, but are completely non-committal. You know how you can wear a different style outfit each day depending on how you feel? Well cushions act like your sofas clothes - you can add and remove them depending on how you want your room to look that day. Cushions also provide the ideal opportunity to add a fabric/print that you love, but can't afford to add much of in your home (like getting a sofa re-upholstered in a House of Hackney print, or curtains made in Sanderson fabric, which can cost from £50-£100 a metre!) You can buy cut offs, samples and fat quarters on Ebay and at fabric warehouses of expensive fabrics and make your own cushions, which is EASY! Trust me - you don't have to own a sewing machine, you don't even have to be an expert sewer, it's literally all about sewing a few straight lines together....

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Using paint to update furniture and add pops of strong colour

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Do you browse Instagram, Pinterest or interior magazines and ogle peoples rooms that they have painted a dark or a really bright colour? Are you wanting to experiment with these colours in your home, but need to dip your toe in first before making a big commitment? I'm a really big fan of strong colours - bright fushia pinks, inky blues, period greens, dark greys and deep teal colours are a favourite. Yet when it comes to painting a whole room this colour, like you may be, I'm hesitant! I think if it was just me on my own I'd take the plunge, but as the rest of the family have to live with it day in, day out, I just can't bring myself to experiment painting our sunny living room dark (for now, anyway.)

I've recently started painting furniture that I already own in paint colours that I love and want to feature in the house, but haven't yet plucked up the courage to paint the walls with. This is a win-win situation as i'm introducing pops of the colour into my interior scheme, saving money by only requiring a small amount of paint and updating existing furniture rather than replacing it.

If you have moved house and your old furniture doesn't look right in your new place;  perhaps you have brought a new dining table and need your old wood chairs to match; imagine what your existing furniture could look like with in a whole new colour? Or, if you love bright orange, imagine what an orange chair could do to transform your space and make it a focal point? It's easy and budget friendly to update what you already own with paint!

 

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Using Paint Or Wallpaper Inside Cabinets - My Cabinet Transformation!

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I'm really into the current geometric trend in interiors. I didn't think it would be my thing as it is so trendy and modern and my style is usually a bit more classic, but i've fully embraced it. I saw this cabinet on Instagram taken at the London Design Festival earlier this year and thought it worked so well, it totally inspired me to add together geometric brights and wood in furniture.....

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Before & After: Turning My Tired Balcony Into My Own Kitsch Rooftop Botanical Bar For Under £250

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When we moved into our current home last year, one of the great things about it was a balcony you accessed from the living room. As we live on a hill it has great views (especially on Fireworks night.) It is also a total suntrap, so I want to utilise it this summer.

Yet before it could become my evening wine drinking haven, this balcony needed some proper DIY love. Its decking was worn and faded, the paint on the balcony doors weathered, but the worst problem was something I couldn't do anything about - wood-rot and damage to the neighbours property that was clearly visible. The balcony needed a tart up, and I needed to cover the neighbours wall damage from view....

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Using Faux-Marble Contact Paper On My Drinks Trolley

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You can't move for brass drinks trolleys in interiors right now. They are all over interior magazines and the blogs. I decided that I would make like Zayn Malik (who apparently has his own pub in his garden) and have a drinks trolley as part of my balcony re-vamp (although, unlike Zayn, this was more to do with having a child and never getting out anymore, as opposed to being a millionaire popstar). I managed to win this gold number on Ebay (top tip: if you are also after a drinks cart, type in 'tea trolley' and you are more likely to get a bargain)...

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The Non-Gardeners Guide To Planting The Most Stylish Summer Flowers

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Hooray! My favourite part of May is here - Chelsea Flower Show week!!!! When I really got into interiors, I also found myself really getting into plants and flowers. A pot of flowers always adds to a room as the finishing touch, and I guess if the inside of your home is really important to you - why wouldn't you want the outside to be just as fab? I started really taking notice of what was growing in peoples gardens when I walked past, and poured over all the details that made up bouquets in the florist or supermarket. When I visited Chelsea Flower Show in 2012 and saw Nikki Tibbles' window box displays I was HOOKED. Her displays were just so beautiful, I wanted my outside space to look just like that! Nikki is still my absolute favourite florist (her Instagram account is worth a follow for the most opulent displays she creates @nikkitibbleswildatheart), although luckily I didn't discover her before my wedding otherwise I would have literally blown the whole wedding budget having her flowers everywhere...

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Summer DIY: How To Make These Geometric Hanging Planters With Plastic Straws, Garden Wire And Spray Paint

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I was window shopping in H&M Home recently when I saw the cute little hanging planter below. As I've previously mentioned, I'm currently doing up my balcony at home for the summer and initially thought this gold number would be a good addition. After contemplating it for a few minutes I decided this planter would not work for several reasons. Firstly it was made of glass, making it perfect for an inside terrarium, but a disaster waiting to happen as a hanging planter outside swinging against a brick wall. Secondly at £24.99 each they were far too expensive, especially as I wanted two of them..

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How To Style A Child's Nursery (So They Don't Grow Out Of It In 5 Minutes)

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Baby is on its way - time to turn that guest bedroom/home office/place you hang damp washing/dumping ground for the hoover and the ironing board into a proper bedroom that you will spend more time in than you ever imagined feeding/nappy changing/begging for your sanity. It will also be frequented by a vast stream of guests, as well as being your new little pals first bedroom where they sleep (hopefully) for their first few years in the world.

Before baby is even here it's hard to imagine them as being anything other than that - a baby. Yet give what seems like 5 minutes and your baby is a proper mini-adult and that pastel room with a farm animals mobile is looking dated and in need of redecoration. It is best to get it right first time round, so take a peek at my simple steps below on how to style a child's bedroom that will take them from age 0 to 8-10...

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A Library Wall Ikea Hack In East London

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A couple of weeks ago I popped by my friend Rob and his lovely girlfriend Olivia's new home in Leytonstone. They had moved there just over a year ago and had to refurbish the whole house. After spending a lot of money on builders to remove walls and replaster all of downstairs (and investing in a super nice marble bathroom upstairs) they didn't have much money left over to spend on furnishings.

Rob told me that he had always loved the 'library look' that often frequents an expensive home or a Soho members club, but employing a carpenter to create bespoke shelving was out of the question as new home owners. That's when he had the idea to create the look with an ingenious 'Ikea Hack' with Ikea's Billy Bookcase's, decorative mouldings and some lightweight duropolymer coving from the DIY store.

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Summer DIY: How To Make A Gold And Grey Planter

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I'm currently re-vamping my tired looking balcony (full reveal coming in a few weeks!) Since the sun has been shining in the past week (even though it's now pouring as I write this) I decided to get out and get some Vitamin D and work on part of the project which was to build a tall planter trough ready for summer flowers. To build and paint the planter takes no longer than a day, so it is perfect for a sunny Sunday DIY project. First stop was to get some load-bearing wood. My top tip if you are going to build a planter like mine is first check if there is anyone in your area selling used scaffold boards. Building regulations state that builders scaffolding boards have to be changed regularly, so you often get scaffold and building companies selling off their old scaffold boards for cheap on Ebay and Gumtree.

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How To Add A Bit of Spring In Your Home

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Spring is absolutely my favourite season. It's the sign that the miserable part of winter (all winter post xmas when there is nothing to look forward to) is over, and summer is well on it's way. Magnolia trees, cherry blossom, bluebells, daffodils, hyacinths, warmer temperatures, lighter evenings - spring is bloody amazing!

Because spring is so exciting, at this time of year I always want to reflect this season in my home. Bringing 'the outdoors indoors' is also a big interior trend for 2016..

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Review: Hemsley - The Own Brand Paint To Rival Farrow & Ball?

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A few months ago after having an internal door replaced, I went into Homebase to buy some eggshell paint to paint the new door with. Needing to buy an eggshell that matched my already existing heritage cream skirting, I begrudgingly headed over to the Farrow & Ball paint section. Even though I'm all about doing up your home on a tiny budget, I LOVE posh paint. I'm a die-hard Farrow & Ball fan. I have a box with about 60 sample tins of Farrow & Ball paint in under the stairs. There is no contest for me when it comes to choosing F&B over cheaper brands such as Dulux or Crown. F&B paint gives a beautiful depth of colour due to its high pigmentation and the chalky matt finish looks expensive and elegant. Cheaper paints do not have this depth of colour, they fade over time and glossy paint looks cheap. F&B do a wide range of interesting colours (132 to be exact - check out 'Charlotte's Locks', an intense orange, and 'Vardo', a 50's style teal). You can get any of these colours in different finishes such as eggshell and floor paint rather than just emulsion. The paint is thick, creamy and easy to apply. It is water based and has low VOC's, so it does not smell nor pollute your house with chemicals and it's simple to clean your brushes. It is made in England.

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How To DIY A Cheap As Chips Picture Ledge

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A favourite interiors trend of mine in recent years has been display shelving - shelves that are erected in the home not for functional use for storage (such as a book shelf) but for display. Often hashtagging online as a 'shelfie', shelves are used to support art, photos, magazine covers, ornamental objects etc, in a casual display.

Display shelves for photos and art cannot be your bog standard basic flat shelves - the shelves will need to be raised at the front to stop the propped-up artwork sliding down and falling off. You also do not want the shelves to protrude out too much, which would look peculiar when you are displaying thin items.

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Easter Weekend Special: How to DIY An Easter Wreath

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My front door is very visible from my street, so on holidays and occasions I like to DIY a wreath to hang out the front. It gives the house a lot more kerb appeal and they are always fun to make. Of course, you can buy seasonal wreaths in the shops, but they start from around £18 upwards for something 'decent', when you can purchase all the basic materials to put together an Easter wreath from haberdashery and craft shops for under a fiver...

 

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Lets Talk About: High Street Lighting

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For me, when styling a room the two most important base elements are the colour and the lighting. Statement lighting can transform a room and is the key focal point that often pulls the room together.

Interesting, contemporary lighting has been popular for a while now, and in recent years the high street has been absolutely killing it with their own ranges. Alongside their usual middle-of-the-road pieces have been collections inspired by current lighting trends and high end designers...

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DIY Bird Cage Lamp Shade

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If you are reading this post, chances are you've googled 'Graham & Green Bird Shade' after your jaw dropped seeing this quirky, brilliant shade in an interiors magazine or online.  Chances are that your jaw dropped even further when you saw the £375 price tag. For those of you who do not know about this shade feast your eyes on the original design here.

Obviously, as soon as I saw this shade, i wanted it BADLY! It's so original, a massive talking point and I'm a huge sucker for anything with birds on.  But £375 was just far too much for me to part with, especially for a 'shade' that doesn't actually have any functional use as it doesn't actually shade anything! I knew there must be a way to DIY this and so after some research I set about creating my own version. I have to say I have had this in my home now for a few years and visitors love it, more importantly, I love it, and it cost me around £40 in total to make...

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