Wall murals and canvas prints: how to add personal touches to the home with Photowall

Wall murals and canvas prints are a great way to add personal touches to a home, in addition to painting rooms to your own colour palette, adding wallpaper, accessorising with cushions and other home furnishings.

I seem to be on an endless quest to find that balance with having objects like books to add interest and talking points to a space, while looking organised and somewhat minimalist. It’s a real skill to achieve the balance and one I am still learning.

I also absolutely love prints so when Photowall –a Swedish company with a passion for design and quality- contacted me and asked if I would like to create my own canvas print, I jumped at the opportunity.

Packaging & Delivery

It took a while for me to select the right photo from my collection that I thought would look nice blown up and made into a canvas print, but I went for this photo that I took at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show back in July.

All Rights ClaireySweetie

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Cushions: An Easy and Affordable way to Freshen up your Home

Hey Sweeties,

Hands up who else can spend hours reading interior magazines and perusing Pinterest for some home inspiration? Me! I won’t lie, I often have a bit of home envy when I see how some people manage to organise their belongings, and add those finishing touches to a room that creates a beautiful, relaxing space.

For me, it doesn’t matter how much I organise, I just cannot get a way from clutter. I am taking tips from Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, which is helping as I gradually work my way through my home getting rid of things that ‘no longer bring me joy’ but still, it’s hard when you have collected stuff pretty much all your life.

cushions

When you’re on a budget, having a Pinterest-worthy home isn’t always as achievable as you would like, but there are some easy ways to add those touches that freshen up a space… for me, one of those ways is cushions.

I love cushions, they are an easy, affordable way to transform and fresh up a space without too much effort; they are a functional as well as stylish accessory for the home. The one drawback I have is that my husband hates cushions and doesn’t view them in the same way as I do… but that doesn’t really stop new ones appearing in the home (hahahaha!).

My Love for Cushions

cushions

cushions

cushions

Cushions don’t just have to be used inside the home, they can be used in the garden as well.

cushions

A way around being able to switch up your living space with cushions, without taking up all your storage, is to just change the covers and there are so many out there to choose from, like this range from Yorkshire Linen*. I love the variety available; there is something for every home, style and budget, from different fabrics, patterns and textures.

Where are your favourite places to pick up new cushions and accessories for your home?

Until next time x

*This post was in collaboration with Yorkshire Linen. All opinions are honest and my own.

My Perfect Creative Space

Hey Sweeties,

While I am still in the midst of wedding excitement and planning gradually picking up pace, humming in the background is the house that, in the 13 months we have owned it, is still very much in a state of cosmetic development. I know what I like but interior design is a very personal thing and not something I have really tackled until now, developing my ideas as I go along.

While I love how visually, minimalist living looks beautiful, I for one like stuff which of course has its flaws, but I love rooms full of books, pictures on the walls and furniture, wallpaper and fabrics that create texture amongst the odd trinket, vases of flowers and such like. For a workspace though, I am all about storage and simplicity –I like to have things around me that inspire creativity and ideas, but I can’t work in clutter which is currently the state of the spare room/study and next on my list to attack.

So with that in mind, inspired by WeWork, a co-working company that builds communities to empower people to do what they love by creating beautiful co-working spaces across the US, Europe and Israel, I want to make my own beautiful space, right here in my home. I thought I would pull together my dream wish list for my ideal work space, with a view that it might encourage me to get on and actually make it happen for myself.

Creative work space

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How to Replant Succulents into Jars

Green fingers

Hey Sweeties,

Let’s start with some formalities… “Hi, I’m Claire and I love gardening” (all:) “Hi Claire”

Ok, so now that’s out of the way, I have no doubt I have alienated some of you because gardening is obviously something far too boring to comprehend. For the rest, let me share with you my garden as now it’s spring and summer approaches there will be more of these kind of posts coming your way! However, for this particular post, DIY lovers may also take an interest, particularly if they don’t have any outside space themselves.

To bring you up to speed, as you’ll remember last year Ian and I purchased our first house together (here) and with that a garden which I haven’t had access to since leaving the family nest eight years ago; some of my most favourite memories of my childhood are those playing in the garden and helping my Dad.

When we got the keys, this is how our garden looked…

GardenGarden

The grass, dead and the beds all overgrown with stinging nettles and while the weather was good we got stuck in straight away, managing to get the garden stripped back to bare before the winter. Now, aside from some light weeding needed, we’re good to begin creating (and enjoying) our outside space.

However, before we start filling the garden with flowers, shrubs and fruit trees… maybe even a vegetable patch, I had an inexpensive idea of how to bring some plant life into the house and making use of some old glass candle jars; an idea you have no doubt seen before!

You will need…

Succulents

An old candle container, or jar (you don’t have to limit yourself to just one!)…

Succulents

Some succulent plants -I bought these four from Homebase for a very purse friendly 99p each!

Succulent1 Succulents
Then with some compost/potting soil -a bag can cost as little as £3 from a garden retailer- arrange your succulents in your jar(s) and fill/top-up with the soil; it really couldn’t be simpler.

Succulents

Succulents are funny little things, the word ‘succulent’ even more so, particularly for a plant but essentially they are a bit like cacti where they hold water in their leaves and stems so need little maintenance and care. I don’t have a tendancy to kill things but for me this is a much easier way of enjoying plants in the house on a routine basis, although you can’t beat a vase of fresh flowers!

Until next time x

My First New Home Haul

Hey Sweeties,

So as my regular readers will know, in July Ian and I bought and moved into our first house together and although for the most part we kind of already have everything we need, a new home is still a new canvas for ideas and accessories so over the last few months I have been picking up the odd bit here and there so I felt it time to share some of the things I have got so far…

Coffee Table Tray

I’ve seen this idea a lot on Instagram so decided to replicate the look on my coffee table

Ikea Coffee table

Coffee table from Ikea

 

Cushions

Gotta’ love cushions!

 

Jars

Because you always need things to put things in…

Bedside Table

By my bedside…

My go-to places for home ware and accessories are: TK Maxx, Homebase, Dunelm, Ikea, Wilkinsons, second-hand furniture shops and charity shops -if you’re prepared to wait and hunt around there are some real bargains and interesting things to be found! As mentioned above, I also constantly browse through Instagram for ideas and inspiration and there are some great magazines out there as well, my current favourite is called Style at Home!

Of course we have bought other more grown up things like an incinerator to burn all our confidential waste and excess rubbish, garden tools, the odd bit of furniture and things like that but to be honest, I can’t see that being of much interest to you guys so I’ll just stick with home haulin’ accessories and (when appropriate) maybe some design and room layout ideas. Part Two/three/four etc. will go up on here over time as a house is never, fully filled and complete.

Any of you guys into gardening? no? …. well, just saying that come spring I might get quite excited when my new garden starts sprouting daffodils! Be warned!

Until next time x

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