5 easy ways to improve your Apartment

When I first came over to the UK I lived in Edinburgh, a city I absolutely adore. What I always loved about the city was all the beautiful old flats above the shops right in the heart of the city and I was over the moon to find a wonderful two bed flat only 15mins walk from the hughstreet which I rented with a friend. Since then I have rented a few different flats and apartments and as we gear up to sell our house apartment living is still not out of the question as there is something really appealing about living right in the heart of the city in a stylish flat. I thought I would share a few tips about styling and apartment and that interior decoration doesn't have to be overly expensive. 1. Declutter    As apartments are usually a little smaller than houses the first step you should take is to bring down the clutter and simplify every room. Get rid of all trinkets and unneeded paraphernalia, and bring accessories down to the basics before trying to come up wit......

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Loft living inspiration

How amazing is this Loft inspired room at the Wythe Hotel As with most things in my life, I take inspiration from different countries, cities, places visited, cultures experienced and try and inject the things I love into my home and life. Both John and I like the idea of living in a loft, or artist studio or disused factory such as the amazing rooms at Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn and although in Wales properties like this are few and far between that doesn't mean we can't take the vintage and retro elements of a loft space and bring in to our own home. We both love the industrial feel that combines materials such as metal, brick and wood and even though we are not sure what kind of property we are going to move to next we would love one that would suit a feature exposed brick wall in either the kitchen or bedroom without it seeming to out of place. Although you don't have to go to such lengths to get a little bit of loft living style in your daily lives and living spa......

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Room for change

We are finally nearing the end of our current property journey - the house we bought two years ago was always going to be an interim project, not a full renovation like our last home but a project none the less. To be honest even though the proportions of the house are good it's never been our taste of property and we have done what needs to be done to sell and get the best price we can and have managed to detach ourselves from getting to personally involved.  Being an interior lover this has been at times hard to do as I am now really looking forward to moving onto a more long-term project and home that will see our personal tastes come into full effect and my mind is already racing with ideas. In the ideal world we will be able to purchase a bay fronted Victorian property with exposed wooden floors and original features that we can inject some Scandi style and simplicity into as well as our love of travel and have taken inspiration from various places we have stayed ov......

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Give Your Home a Makeover this Spring

As the winter months come to a close, spring is just around the corner. It's time to think about refreshing your home and breathing new life into your living space. You'll begin with a thorough cleaning, clearing out the dust, shampooing your rugs, and scrubbing the entire place from top to bottom. It's also the ideal time to give your home a facelift. With some simple changes, you can really liven up your haven. Shake Things Up As you're running through your home, tidying up, consider ways that you can experiment with your furniture arrangements. Bring down that treasured piece from the attic and pack others away. Consider buying that wicker patio furniture you've been eying. Trade your furnishing from one room for another. They say that change is good. See what it can do to revitalize your home. Change Your Color Scheme If you're tired of looking at the same colors on your walls, give your interior a paint job. You can go with bold cont......

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Protecting your belongings when moving house

The two boys enjoying our little seating space in the garden As some of you may already know we are planning to move home (again) as we bought our current property as a bit of a project and we are coming to the end of doing it up, it's not finished but we are getting there and are aiming to put it on the market in summer. This will be the 3rd move for Mr A, although we are planning on getting a slightly longer term project next time (still a project though)the thought of packing everything up comes straight to my mind. It's a strange thing packing everything you own and through it you realise what is really important to you. With every move we get rid of things we don't really need as well as take great care in protecting those things we do love. Our living room is finally coming together When you make an important or expensive purchase, regardless of what it is, you do your best to take good care of it when it's in use. You don't type on yo......

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Enjoying some sofa time

Really want to cosy up on this stylish sofa ( image) I have to say coming into my 35th week of pregnancy I am really starting to slow down and the energy levels have really seen a drop of late. I have up until this point felt fairly fit and active but the time is coming that I really want to curl up, watch some TV or read a book on a big comfy sofa and embrace a moment of calm before the chaos. Perhaps this more lazy approach to the start of the year is not the best but I am going with it as it's what my body needs right now and I am letting myself enjoy everything that this "down time" has to offer these cold evenings as well as relaxing to some of our records in the record nook. Relaxing in our record nook So for this once I am not going to be beating myself up about not totally keeping track to my New Years resolutions and to be honest I think sometimes we all need to give ourself a break as well as approach things in a realistic manner and with ......

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A few home truths

We knew buying our current property that we were taking on a bit of a project. It was in better condition than our last (a total renovation) as some of the rooms had been "finished" but as we delved deeper and had a better look we came across some very interesting takes on DIY. Our first stop was removing all the bad Artex on the bedroom ceilings - who ever thought Artex was a good idea I don't know. Unfortunately the floorboards upstairs simply could not be stripped so we opted for re-carpting throughout which was already a huge improvement on the tired and stained carpet which was there when we moved in. What we noticed along the way though was not only had all the doors only had one thing coat of undercoat but where all also on the wrong way! In the living room we have two Alcoves, when we moved in they had awful wooden boarders that didn't fit properly and one of the alcoves had shelving which we used for books for the first few months before getting aroun......

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Celebrating family in the home

I love an array of different sized frames to display family portraits ( image ) Capturing the special moments in life and the people you love has always ranked highly on my favourite past times, time flies so quickly especially when you have children and if you blink they look older than they did the day before so collecting a few beautiful portraits and moments is an important way to document your life together. What a lot of people forget is how lovely these images can be hung up in the home and while we are still working on our house by simply framing and hanging our favourite moments can transform a once boring room into something special and really makes a house a home. Its important to get a good balance of simplicity and not been over cluttered as above ( image ) A few years back I had a home studio and got a few lovely images of John and Mr A which we have turned into a canvas but if you don't have access to a professional camera or lighting it may be ......

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The Many uses of Velvet Fabrics

Velvet is one of those things that cannot help but conjure up thoughts of luxury in our minds. Like gold and marble, the use of velvet around the home has long been regarded as an indication of personal wealth and class. This status comes from the early 19th century when it was only the very rich that could afford such luxuries and this image of opulence has stayed with us ever since Pale Grey Velvet worked really well in this stylish and simple room ( image ) Over the years there have been many uses for  velvet fabrics . From dresses to upholstery fabric, velvet has adorned such an array of things that it can be difficult to know where to start. Embossed velvet used as upholstery fabric is still hugely popular today and embossed velvet is also enjoying a renaissance in many areas as a wall covering too. When using velvet fabric UK homeowners are no doubt searching for that image of luxury that was afforded to the upper classes back at the turn of the 19th ......

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