Ginger Bisquite

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Mid Century Dining Room – Stylish Sunday

November 17, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 4 Comments

So now the nursery is finished and off my radar I have moved my attentions towards the kitchen / dining room and Neil and I have decided that we would like to go for a mid century style.  Our new house has a lovely big kitchen dining room that is furnished in a inoffensive neutral way.  It was a shame to move out of a house where we have designed every inch of the kitchen but this one is far bigger and feels somehow more grown up.  Of course there are things I would love to change but at the moment we are trying to personalise it decoratively rather than splashing out on new tiles, kitchen doors.

Here is the a picture of the kitchen as it was on the day we got the keys.  I failed to take a picture of the other side of the kitchen (on the right hand side of the picture).  It is purely an empty space with a cream wall and grey floor tiles just the same at the kitchen.

Kitchen Before

We started thinking about how we wanted the room to look when we realised that our previous kitchen table and chairs were too big (and getting a bit rickety) i.e we lost a screw from one of the legs…  When I eventually gave in to the idea of a new table and chairs we immediately agreed that we would love a mid century dining room.  I was quite surprised that we agreed so quickly on the style we would like, especially as it is dramatically different from our previous country kitchen look.  The good thing is, I knew that we would be able to get a lovely solid table and chairs for a reasonable price either on Ebay or at an auction house.

Mid Century Dining Room

In the end we won a lovely extendable teak table and 4 chairs on Ebay for less than £30 and I used the wonderful Shiply courier service to get them here. All together it came in under £100 which I don’t think is too bad for a set of solid and stylish table and chairs.  When I put my moodboard together on Polyvore I tried to find something similar to show the kind of look we were going for and the table alone is over £1000!  So after we got the table we found some Marimekko kippis wallpaper on ebay for £30 and I’ve designed everything around that for now.  We’re still deciding on the colours but I think I good lick of bright white paint will be a good starting point and a marked improvement on the lovely shade of cream we’re currently living with.

Mid Century Dining

The first job we have to do is to recover the cushions on the dining chairs as they are far from Nye proof.  I am planning to cover them in a child proof vinyl, but still on the search for something that compliments the wallpaper.  So far these geometric triangles are my favourite but I haven’t committed to it just yet.  There are loads of tutorials for recovering dining chairs with vinyl online.  I’ve pinned lots for inspiration on my Board as well as lots of other nick nacks and gorgeous style inspiration.

What do you think of the look so far?  Got any dining room renovation plans of your own?

Nursery Reveal

November 15, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 1 Comment

Nursery Reveal

I am very pleased to finally share our baby girls nursery reveal.  It’s less than a week to my due date now and I am gradually working my way through my to do lists (catching up on blogs I need to write being one of the items on my list).  I’d be happy for the baby to arrive any time now but equally I am not feeling so uncomfortable that I am getting irritated.  Who knows how long I’ll be feeling calm, but as the baby moved further down I am feeling more able to breath and eat!

Nursery Reveal

As you can see above, when we first moved in, the nursery was a beautiful shade of pale pink.  Perfect for a baby girls nursery any normal person might think. ( Truth be told, it is such a pale colour I hadn’t even realised it was pink until I got the keys.)  Needless to say I wouldnt normally be one to choose pink for a baby girls nursery anyway.  So, initially thinking the walls were white, I set about finding the perfect paint colour for the room and was set on having a light turquoise. (I wrote about my ideas for the nursery a while back.)  It didn’t occur to me that a blueish tone would be odd for a girls nursery but as I hope you can see I think it has worked out beautifully.  In the end I chose a gorgeous colour called Lucy Locket made by the Nursery Paint Colour.  I find choosing paint colours really difficult and daunting so I trusted that a company that makes paint for nurseries would narrow the choice down for me, whilst also meaning that I could do the painting myself as the paint is VOC free.

Nursery Reveal

The room is quite a small one so it has been difficult to give an overview of how things look altogether but I hope that the details will show off what we have been able to do.  Realistically I think having a small room as a nursery is nice as it can be cosy and compact, but it is much smaller than Nye’s room (which I am yet to tackle style wise).  Even this small room allows us plenty of storage, including a changing table, nursing chair, cotbed and bookshelf.  We have re-used lots of things that were Nye’s when he was a baby but also added a few new things to add the finishing touches and give it a more feminine touch.  All the furniture apart from the shelving we already owned.  One of my favourite items have been the vinyl cloud decals that I bought on ebay.  These ones are inspired by toy story but I personally liked them because each set had 2 sizes of clouds to give a bit of variation.  I was going to measure them out so they looked nice and neat but in the end I arranged them horizontally by eye and so far lots of people have thought it was wallpaper so I obviously didn’t do a too bad job.

Nursery.6

The clock is from Ikea although they don’t seem to sell it online anymore, I wasn’t sure about it at first but I really love the contrast between the blue and pink, especially as it works so well with the print we were kindly given as a wedding present by some friends.  I also love how fantastic the curtains look in this room, I actually bought them about 6 months ago in a charity shop hoping I’d have somewhere to hang them once we moved house.  Thankfully I then found out we were expecting a girl and they have brought such a unique vintage feel to the room.  The curtains themselves arent lined but are the perfect length for the window (that’s fate for you.) We’ve also bought a blackout blind to make sure we can create a nice space for naps in the day time.  We’re yet to hang it, but I really loved the owl pattern and the blue and pink colours should bring everything together.

Nursery Reveal

Ta-da that’s our big nursery reveal.  We are finally at a point where everything is organised, the nappy bucket is deep cleaned, the re-usable nappies have been stacked and the blankets have been laid out.  We can’t wait too meet you little one!

Source List:

Cotbed – Freccycle (originally John Lewis)
Changing Table – Freecycle
Cotbed Matress –   Coir and Wool Mattress
Expedit Bookshelf – Ikea
Pine Shelves – Wickes
Blue Paint – Lucky Locket by The Nursery Paint Company
White Paint – Crown, Pure Brilliant White
Pink & White Pom Poms – Ikea
Pink Clock – Ikea
Floral Storage Baskets – Ikea
Love is All You Need Print – Not on The High Street
Crochet Blanket – NCT Nearly New Sale
ABC Pillow – Primark
Floral Curtains – Salvation Army Charity Shop
Bunny Mobile – Flensted via Ebay
Cloud Vinyl Decals – Ebay
Felt Lampshade – The Modern Baby
3 Plane Storage Boxes – The Modern Baby
Cloud Mosquito Net – Ikea

This gallery contains 6 photos

Creating a peaceful nursery – stylish sunday

September 29, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 2 Comments

Our house buying is almost complete and now it is time to think about creating a peaceful nursery for our new arrival.

I love vibrant colours, which is why I painted the nursery in our last house a wonderful bright yellow.  This time around, with one child already and my due date looming in November, I’m seeking out a more peaceful vibe to try and calm my new baby nerves.  I love the idea of white walls but I actually think they can sometimes feel a bit stark and bright, by adding a little colour this should help soften up the room.

Taking Inspiration:
I was inspired by some other nurseries I noticed on this morning so I’ve made a collection of my favourite UK paint samples and style ideas on the polyvore board below.  I’ve also included the vinyl decals I bought this afternoon on ebay which I’ll be adding to the turquoise wall to give it a more fun look.  I used quite  a large vinyl decal of a tree in Nye’s old room and have heard good things about smaller ones so I’m looking forward to give it a go.  Although I love wallpaper, the cost of it soon adds up, even in a small room so I’m hoping these clouds will be a good alternative. (I’ve got to admit, I fell in love with them a little bit here.)

mint moodboard inspiration

Then once I had chosen my colour and feel I decided to put together a few of the items we already own with a few new things too.  I bought the amazing felt lampshade from Modernbaby in the sale for £6.  I probably do have a spare shade nocking around but I thought this one was too cute to pass up.  The cot bed is just an example though (although a very reasonable £99 from John Lewis) as we are reusing Nye’s old cotbed which we sourced via freecycle.

Peaceful Nursery

Selecting complementing products
I really think the nursery above has a traditional yet modern feel.  The mint colour could easily look babyish but I think the use of monochrome really makes it feel a bit more unique.  I know it’s quite blue-ish but I actually see it as a really girly room.  That said, I still think it would look awesome for a baby boy.
Creating a sense of peace
Thinking back to when Nye was a newborn we were very lucky to be sent some amazing gifts and I was particularly grateful for a fantastic room fragrance.  It really helped me to enjoy those evening feeds.  I have no idea if it helped Nye to have any kind of understanding of night time but I enjoyed it, and as they say, contented mum means contented baby!

Getting the right lighting can also be helpful when creating a peaceful nursery.  I recently took a punt on a Cloud B Tranquil Turtle which I found in the Zulily sale for £20 which we love. (Zulily only sell items for limited periods so I have linked to the amazon listing)  The turtle acts as a fantastic nightlight and gives out a mesmerising blue wave effect that moves like waves across the walls and ceiling.  There are loads of settings, moving waves or static as well as two different sound affects, waves and waves with calming music.  It’s a great addition to any room and I think Neil is debating getting one for our bedroom we find it so relaxing.  So, for setting a bed time routine for a baby I think this will be awesome.

DISCLOSURE
This is not a sponsored post, I have selected all the items in the post myself and purchased, love and use many of them already.

June 16, 2013
by Jenni Clutten
0 comments

Home Accessories – Stylish Sunday

Here we have a lovely collection of home accessories that I have been eyeing up at Tiger, an amazing shop we have near us.  Their website is limited , so I haven’t been able to share with you anywhere near … Continue reading →