Home inspiration ~ grey & white

I love this quote by William Morris & I really wish I could apply it to my home as it's always just so crammed full of, well, just stuff.  I long to have a home where every single thing has a place to live, somewhere to be put away but you know, I have 3 children....and a husband....it just doesn't work!!  But this year I am determined to re-jig my house to make it work much better for everyone - but mainly me, so I don't want to cry in despair every time I look around!

I get severe Instagram & Pinterest envy looking at some of the beautiful homes around & even though for as long as I can remember, I've never liked white in the home as I've found it too cold, at the moment, I'm really loving it, especially when teamed with pale grey.  This sudden love of grey & white has really shocked me as I've always decorated in really warm earthy tones but after seeing some of the photos on t'internet, I've realised that this palette can also look cosy - and that I'm going to be re-decorating a lot this year......

Here's some of my favourite Pinterest looks at the moment.

Offtt, so lovely....

I've definitely decided to do Alfie's bedroom in grey with white & mustard accents but it won't be done until summer as one wall needs replastering.  The girls' bathroom needs updating too so I'm veering towards all white - although they really want godawful sparkly bright fuchsia pink & lime!  Erm, no sorry girls, that's just not going to happen!!

The whole exterior of our house has to be rendered this year in order to have the extension signed off & we've always said it would be white with pale grey cladding & front door so that's a good start!

What do you think of these colours?  Could you live with them or are you more a warm palette person?

House revamp - living room media centre

We've been in our house for 4 years now which is generally the time at which I feel the need to redecorate everywhere but our living room is a new addition that my husband built (single-handedly!) only 2 years ago.  It's a lovely, spacious room with a big set of bi-folding doors leading onto the decking & a woodburning stove - these were my two must-haves when we were planning it!

However, over Christmas I was looking around & thinking to myself that it was missing 'something'.  My initial though was that I just need to put more photos/artwork on the walls - which I do - but I realised that I wasn't entirely happy with the long wall where the tv sits.  It's a bit too empty.....

The photo makes it look a lot smaller than it is but as you can see, apart from the tv & tiny wee chest, there's nothing.  So I did what I always do in these situations - I turned to Pinterest!  I spent a happy couple of hours trawling through endless photos of living rooms & the one thing that I kept on pinning were images of media centres.  Admittedly, they were probably all nabbed from American homes but I just knew I could make it work in my room.  This is the sort of thing I'm talking about.

The more I look at them, the more I know this is what I need.  I hate that the tv is the main feature on the wall, this would take the focus off that & on to the piece of furniture itself.  Oh & the extra storage & bookshelves would be great!  I could finally hide the Wii & all the Skylanders gubbins that it currently entails (if you have young boys, you'll probably know what I'm talking about here!)

However, this year is going to already be quite a 'spendy' year as we have to completely render the exterior of the house, add new timber cladding to the gable, install a downstairs shower & do the driveway in order to finally get the extention signed off so spending oodles of cash on something made to measure was never going to happen.

I remembered seeing a similar set-up in Ikea last time I was there so I looked it up online.  They have this one, which is gorgeous, but unfortunately is just a tad too wide as we've yet to install the double doors in the room & the door would knock it when opened.  But the style & storage are great.

This is the Liatorp range & this combination comes in at £820.  However, because the room is decorated in warm, autumnal colours, I don't think white would be quite right anyway.  Ideally, I'd like something in a warmer taupe/grey shade.

Then I found this one, again from Ikea.

This Hemnes combination is significantly cheaper at only £420 but is very plain in comparison.  When I showed it to Hubble, he suggested adding a decorative plinth & cornicing round the bottom & top of the unit to give a similar effect to the Liatorp combi, which would work but then means the whole thing would have to be painted.

He jiggled some figures around & has worked out he could make one around £200/250 so it would then fit exactly but time is the issue here, gahhhh!!!  He could make it no problem, but he doesn't have time to do it at the moment *pouts like a stroppy child!*

So we've decided to take a trip through to Ikea on Saturday to take a look at them & take it from there.  The only certain thing is, is that I definitely want one asap - even Hubble agrees (for once!)  Pinterest is fabulous - and terrible at the same time as there's just too many bloody gorgeous rooms on there!  I've always disliked white decor as being too cold & uninviting & have therefore always used warm colours to decorate with.  Now, however, I'm hankering after white everywhere, look at these...

*Sighs* how lovely!!  It would stay for approximately 2.5 minutes with my mucky bunch though!

Anyway, sorry for the lengthy rambling.  Is anyone else planning a bit of redecoration this year?  You can find me on Pinterest here.

New hair & Pinterest addiction!

As some of you may have noticed from my wee profile picture, I had an awful lot of hair lopped off at the beginning of July - about 16" in fact!  My hair is naturally thinning at the moment (see this post) & teamed with a disastrous haircut back in April when my stylist did not stop cutting & thinned it out far, far too much leaving it thin & straggly, I decided to cut it all off & start again.  That's the problem when you wear glasses & have to remove them at the salon, you can no longer see how much is being taken off until it's too late!  I've since found a new stylist....

At this point, I decided to start lightening my hair too as although I adored the colour of my hair, touching up my white roots every 3 weeks was becoming a real chore.  I thought by going lighter it would disguise my roots for a bit longer.  But I'm still not quite happy with my barnet!

This is what I started off with.....

Actually, this is quite an old photo, it was even longer than this!  When I first had it cut off & had the first lot of highlights, this is how it looked....

....and a couple of months down the line with even more highlights in, I'm now at this stage.....

(Apologies for the photo, it was late & I'd had a glass or 3 of vino at this point!!!)

You can see how much it's grown in just 2 months & I'm now having a cut & colour dilemma.  Do I keep it shorter like in the first photo, which I like the length of but involves much more styling than I'm used to or grow it to about shoulder length, so I have the option of tying up? (I do miss being able to have a messy bun!!!)

I'm also torn with the colour aspect of it.  I can't go back as dark as I was due to the shocking white roots problem but I'm still not entirely sure being blonde is 'me', if that makes sense!  I do like it but at the moment, it's just too in between. It either needs to be significantly blonder like these.....

....or I'm rather liking the balayage effect at the moment too.....

Or I could go to a golden light brown keeping the front blonder (as that's where my hair is now at it's whitest!!)

If it wasn't for the fact I'd get horrendous root glare, I'd be going this colour again for autumn!

So help me out please, do I keep it shorter or grow longer, blonder or more golden?  Seriously, I need help, I'm back in the salon on Thursday for the colour to be done again & I'd appreciate honest opinions!!!

You may have noticed that all but one of the images are taken from my Pinterest board (addicted much?!)  If anyone wants to have a nosy at my other Pinterest boards, you can find me here!