50 Shades of White

Maybe it’s because I’m Swedish, but I have a real soft spot for the Scandinavian design aesthetic when it comes to interiors. Pale wooden floorboards, white walls and furniture mixed with grey and other neutrals and perhaps a few accents of stronger colours such as red or blue. Mixing old and modern pieces also makes for a unique home and I love the contrast it creates.

Here are some inspirational images from my Pinterest board ‘My Dream Abode’:

vardagsrum

{I love the positioning of the sofas in this room. Having them facing each other adds a cosy vibe which is offset by the grandeur of the stunning chandelier.}

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{White doesn’t have to mean stark. Layering different shades of whites and other neutrals creates a warm, inviting space.}

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{I love the tiles in this kitchen and the open shelves.}

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{This bedroom looks so calm and inviting.}

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{Using books as bedside tables is a great feature that doubles up as storage if you don’t have enough space for another bookcase. I also love the picture shelf above the bed.}

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{A practical and beautiful centerpiece filled with lovely cashmere. This picture makes me want to paint our floorboards white.}

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{The tiles, the lights, the bathtub – I love it all.}

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{If my boys shared a bedroom, this is the bunkbed I would get.}

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{This room is all about the details: the bunting, the Maileg bunnies with their own little matching bed, the practical blackboard…}

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{I wish our ceilings were high enough to carry off a chandelier on this scale. Oh and that my husband wasn’t allergic to cats!}

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{This room really makes the most of the natural light and I love the white letters on the wall.}

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{Another view of room number 9 which shows how effective a pop of colour can be in an otherwise all-white space. Mixing new and old furniture, such as this cupboard, in the same colour creates an original but cohesive look.}

Let there be light

Lanterns Collage

When we get back from our holiday it will only be a matter of weeks before autumn is upon us. Hopefully there are still plenty of warm days ahead but as the evenings get darker, these lanterns from Nordic House will add a soft, romantic glow inside or outside.

In the picture: Big stainless steel lanterns from £135; Nautical hurricane lamps from £26.95; Numbered glass hurricanes from £19.95,; White willow hurricane £29.95.

About the return of the heatwave and the trauma of a leaking pipe…

From this…

Wearing our wellies to take the boys to tennis camp on Tuesday

Wearing our wellies to take the boys to tennis camp on Tuesday

to this in just a couple of days:

Cooling down with some water play

Cooling down with some water play

Seeking shade in the playhouse at the bottom of the garden

Seeking shade in the playhouse at the bottom of the garden

Today saw the return of the heatwave after a few days of rain and thank goodness for that! At least Clemmie and I can spend time in the garden as our house is taken over by builders and covered in dust and debris. And there won’t even be a lovely shiny new kitchen or extension at the end of it, as they’re here to fix a leaking pipe buried deep in the wall of our downstairs cloakroom.

We need to get it fixed before we go on holiday as the consequences if it ruptured even more while we were away do not bear thinking about. Once the leak has been repaired all the walls and the ceiling have to dry out which will necessitate moving our fridge freezer and two large kitchen cupboards into the dining area (as that wall backs onto the cloakroom) which is not ideal when you have three kids and an already cramped kitchen…

But every cloud, as they say, has a silver lining. At least the downstairs loo was on the list of rooms we hadn’t decorated since moving here six years ago, so I’m trying very hard to see this as an opportunity to replace the wood-effect laminate floor and pink walls with something more tasteful.

From this…

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to something like this in a couple of months if we’re lucky

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If money was no object…

…my dream home would be furnished with these items.

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Furniture Collage

Vivienne Westwood Squiggles rug

Louis Ghost chair by Philippe Starck

Super Elliptical table by Fritz Hansen

Eames rocking chair and Liv tulle lamp by Jonas Bohlin;

 

All pictures from my Pintrest board My Dream Abode

A Room of One’s Own: Inspirational Workspaces

One of the (very minor) sacrifices we had to make when we had a third baby was to give up our home office and turn it into a nursery. I know we’re very lucky to have the space that we do, and we could have put the boys into the same bedroom but we decided that would be a surefire route to even less sleep.

While I do have a desk in my bedroom, I would love to one day have a separate workspace again. Not least so that we would have somewhere to keep our books and all the files containing important documents and other things I want to hold on to, like school reports and the children’s art work. As we only have one small bookcase at the moment, we have to be really ruthless about which books we keep – paperbacks go straight to the charity shop once we’ve read them and I try to borrow books from the library rather than buy new ones. Other essentials in my dream office would be a nice big desk and a large noticeboard for  inspirational pictures and important memos.

Here are some lovely images of inspirational home offices from a board I just started following on Pintrest called My Future Home (find it here) I love the first picture and I think my ideal office space would incorporate elements from the top four images. Which one is your favourite?

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Bring some Nordic style to your home

I love my coffee mugs and lanterns in white & taupe from Nordic House

I love my coffee mugs and lanterns in white & taupe from Nordic House

One of my favourite online shops for home accessories is Nordic House. I love their simple but stylish Scandinavian inspired pieces, from candle holders and lanterns to cushions and tableware. I bought a set of  three rustic looking lanterns earlier in the year and they look equally great in the garden for al fresco dinners and indoors where add a cosy vibe when the evenings get darker. The white and taupe mugs are another great buy that always attract lots of compliments when friends come around for a cup of tea or coffee. At the moment Nordic House has a Sale with up to 50% off so it’s a good time to grab yourself a bargain. Here’s a selection of my favourites:

Clockwise from top left: Pierced Tealight holders now £3.57 for medium and £4.77 for large; Bamboo tray now £29.96; Summer Hurricane Lanterns now £6.48 for a set of three; Vintage Graphite Love Cushion now £17.97

Clockwise from top left: Pierced Tealight Holders now £3.57 for medium and £4.77 for large; Bamboo Tray now £29.96; Summer Hurricane Lanterns now £6.48 for a set of three; Vintage Graphite Love Cushion now £17.97

Currently Coveting # 3

AVF Vanity Tray Clear Front Pefume

I love these trays by California based designer Alexandra Von Furstenberg (daughter-in-law of wrap dress queen Diane von Furstenberg). Made from high quality acrylic, they come in two sizes and are perfect for displaying perfume bottles or as a kitsch bar tray filled with tumblers and beautiful decanters. My favourites are the mirrored tray in the picture above and the Zebra one below. I would like one on my dressing table for perfumes and make-up tools and another one on the coffee table in the sitting room for candles, small vases filled with flowers and perhaps a magazine or two.

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Patience is a Virtue (that I do not possess..)

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They say that practice makes perfect and, while I’m certainly not an accomplished gardener or photographer, I love learning (probably the reason why I have two degrees and a postgraduate diploma – staying in full-time education was much more appealing than getting an actual job!). My downfall, however, is my lack of patience – I want to do everything now and fast. But sometimes, especially when you’re doing something new, it’s better to take your time, think about it and have it all mapped out in your head before you actually do it.

Take these flowers I planted today which go by the rather impossible name of Osteospermum. I saw them in the garden centre and was drawn to them because they look like daisies which are my favourite flowers. Knowing I had an empty pot at home, I bought four and rushed home to plant them only to realise that I didn’t have enough compost so back to the garden centre I went to buy some more. Then, instead of waiting until this evening when I would have more time, I just had to plant them straight away even though I only had half an hour until school pick up time. I think they turned out OK but I can’t help thinking that if I had spent more time on the preparation and planting, the end result would have been prettier.

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Both photography and gardening are skills that require patience and a steady approach, stopping to think about the composition of a photograph before you press the button or making sure the flowers are positioned correctly before adding the layer of top soil. I think if I could just slow down I would enjoy it more and as a result improve my skills faster. I’m impatient by nature and it’s an aspect of my personality that has been honed by years of working in a fast-paced newsroom where the next deadline was always looming. Perhaps if I could teach myself to slow down that would the greatest lesson of them all.

I had lunch at the garden centre with the loveliest companion.

I had lunch at the garden centre with the loveliest companion.