I’m going to admit something here: I love a good nosey around other people’s spaces.

It’s true. That picture you put on Instagram? Secretly I’m peaking past the foreground of your photo, trying to work out what design your wallpaper is and if that table is an Annie Sloan upcycle number. Sorry.

I put it largely down to my interiors obsession of late. I say “of late”, I mean “of the past two years”.

Ever since we decided to save up to buy our own place I’ve had big plans. They mainly involve pinning ideas on Pinterest, reading interiors magazines and blogs and deciding which trends I like (chevron – tick) and which will be a passing craze not worth bothering about (clashing florals – bleurgh).

I’m also a fan of thrift. If you can upcycle it, do it, that’s what I say. This is why much of the furniture in my home is re-painted or re-purposed. It’s not just because it’s cheaper this way, but because I genuinely prefer older, unique and original pieces to the mass-produced stuff. (Unless it’s a Scandinavian brand, in which case I am a complete sucker for the new.)

Our kitchen is not the best room in the house. Although it has a lovely large interior window on one wall which lets lots of light in, the view outside the proper window is onto a yard area where our neighbours keep their recycling. Pretty.

The kitchen cabinets could do with being replaced at some point, along with the vinyl floor. But we have plenty of storage (a larder! An actual larder!) and it could be a lot, lot worse.

We have space to keep our upcycled crate shoe rack which cost the princely sum of… zero pounds. This was one of those ideas the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine wasn’t *totally* on board with when I came up with the suggestion. He’s grown to love it now though. Or, at least, he doesn’t make scathing comments about it any more.

We’re starting to collect a range of retro style items that my husband finds amusing (“You’re not living in the 1950s!”) and I find pretty (“I don’t care – it looks good!”), including this beautiful set of scales from Dot Com Gift Shop, sent to us for review.

I love this type of old-school look in the kitchen and it ties in with some of the retro style furniture and bits and bobs we have dotted around the rest of the house…

FYI – husband’s response to this cool retro style orange phone was not a positive one. “Why can’t we have a cordless phone! It’s not 1972!”.

I think he secretly loves it though.

 

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Thank you to Dot Com Gift Shop for sending the kitchen scales featured in this post.