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. 

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A couple of months ago I invested in a new floor lamp. The day it was delivered, two other lamps in the room promptly broke. With much of our stuff still in storage since our move to South Devon a few months ago, I couldn’t find one of the hundreds of strings of fairy lights I know we own. So, we are currently flitting between hospital-like bright lights and sheer darkness. 

We are hoping against hope to move house very soon. I have everything crossed that it will happen before Christmas (it’s making walking tricky, I can tell you). Every spare second I have seems to be spent scouring Pinterest and the vast hallways of the internet, looking for homey stuff. Lights are top of my list – there’s only so long I can put up with a lack of cosy lighting.

In my quest for attractive lights (and I use the word “quest” in all seriousness – it has become a Very Important mission) I stumbled across these examples of wall lighting that made me go all dreamy. Tragic, I know, but I can’t help myself.

Anglepoise Wall Light, Daffodil, £93.

Hector Bibendum Wall Light and Plug, £129.

Anglepoise Wall Light, Blue, £93.

In my head, I am picturing a white room with bright splashes of colour in the form of these lamps, coupled with throws and cushions and rugs. I am ignoring the inevitable mess from toys, discarded socks (they get everywhere in our house) and half-read newspapers.

Of course, also in my head, the room is also lit by the soft glow of a Christmas tree with gently twinkling (white) fairy lights. Because, in my head, we will be in the new house before Christmas. My head is a very optimistic place at the moment.

What were the first things you bought when you moved into your home?

Disclosure: This is a commissioned post. Please see my disclosure page for more information. 

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Anyway, recently my eye has been drawn to all brands interior. I am lusting (I hate myself for saying I’m lusting over a candle, but it’s true) over cushions and candles, jars and jugs. I can’t help it. It’s the house moving / buying / settling thing.

Like lots of other families, we’re constantly looking for ways to save money. I actually prefer upcycled furniture in the main, so I’m happy to buy second hand and this is a decision I make regardless of money. But when it comes to candles and pretty things, I don’t mind splashing out a bit to finish a room off.

Here are the latest things I’ve been after, depending on my mood.

Every item on this board costs £30 or under. Bargain. And they’ll all add a touch of character to a room, alongside the bits of furniture we already own.

Which is your favourite?

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As an ambassador for Shopcade, I get reimbursed for sharing the love on this blog. So this is being marked as a commissioned post. 

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It’s been just over two weeks and we are finally unpacked and organised in our new home. Although we probably won’t be here for too long (it’s a temporary stop-gap until we hopefully buy a place), it’s still important we make it feel ours.

Part of that process has been choosing a few new pieces of furniture to replace tired or broken bits that we no longer had use for. First on that list was a new desk for Frog. 

Her old desk was a little table and chairs from Ikea, that I painted in bright red. The thing is, our current place has less room downstairs for a full table and chairs set, so it stayed outside and got damaged by the rain. In its place, we now have this gorgeous wooden desk from Wooden Toy Shop, which also doubles up as a storage box.

At three years old, Frog is becoming ever the independent diva (always has been, actually), so this desk is a great way to encourage her to get her own toys out and put them away again once she’s finished playing. With pistons on the hinges to stop the lid banging shut, it remains open when Frog is rummaging around for a jigsaw puzzle or colouring book.

The desk lives in the corner of our living room and – I’m pleased to say – it doesn’t take over the space at all. With bright colours and fun dinosaurs, it’s pretty enough not to want to hide away in a playroom. Plus, the storage element means the toys are tidy and not constantly cluttering up the rest of the room.

With a large surface area, the desk easily houses Frog’s pens and pencil crayons and provides a big enough space for even her largest of colouring and sticker books.

I’ve written before about how I’m a sucker for wooden toys and think they’re often a better buy than much of the plastic stuff on the market, and this desk is no exception. In fact, I was checking out the other items on offer on the site and came across some brilliant wooden play food which I’ve already marked as a possible Christmas present. The range is very impressive – and all at a reasonable price.

It goes without saying, Frog is delighted with her new desk and is currently sitting at it, drawing, as I type!

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This desk comes from WoodenToyShop.co.uk and retails at £86.95. There’s a range of different colours to choose from, including a Union Jack and flower design.

Disclosure: The desk featured in this post was provided for the purpose of this review. All opinions remain my own, naturally. 

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It turns out moving house is quite a different experience when you throw kids and work into the mix. In my overly optimistic mind I thought it might be as easy as chucking a few clothes into a suitcase and bunging them into a van. I wish.

After going through the hell that is moving with a family, I thought I’d bring you some tips for what not to do, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

1. Do your own packing

Packing everything yourself is really fun. No really, it is. You get to rediscover things you thought you never had. Plus, the process takes absolutely ages, so you end up living amongst boxes for at least a week.

It means your house turns into a cross between an assault course and a campsite – fun! Also, you get to spend all that money you’ve saved by doing the packing yourself, on takeaways and pub meals. So, by the end of the moving period, you not only look haggard from exhaustion, but you’re at least a stone heavier too. Result!

2. Do not prepare food for moving day

Sensible people prepare things like sandwiches and salads the day before a big move, realising that their fridge will be out of action. But we’re not sensible, we’re fun, live-on-the-edge type people. Plus, we’ve been too busy packing to think about food.

To do moving the fun way, forget about food until everyone gets really grumpy and you have a big family row, then dash to the nearest supermarket and spend £20 on three pre-packed (unhealthy) sandwiches and some crisps. While you’re there, forget to buy food for when you eventually arrive at your destination, offering your family the delight of yet more sandwiches and crisps for their tea.

3. Move house on the hottest day of the year

Moving house is fun, but a little too easy. To make it more challenging, plan your move for the hottest day of the year. Then pack all of your summer clothes so you are forced to complete the move in thick jeans and a long-sleeved T’shirt. More fun still, move to a house 200 miles away and make sure your car’s air con is broken. Driving in a hot car, wearing thick jeans, with a grumpy, hungry family makes for lively and spirited conversation en-route!

4. Ignore all the good things about your new home

Ignore the beautiful views and the stunning location. Do not even think about discussing all the other benefits, like cheaper house prices, proximity to family and lower living costs. Instead, focus only on the negatives, like the smaller front room and unsightly carpet. This will lead to yet more lively conversation, as above.

5. Continue to work

Do not take any time off work for moving. Instead, cram the entire move into one weekend, dismissing any unpacking period as for “wimps”. It leads to increased blood pressure and a week on a friend’s floor as you complete your last week of work before the school holidays. My husband tells me that this is good for stamina and a test of the endurance of a relationship.

If you have any other tips for how not to move house, please do share!

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As ever, Shopcade has been useful. If you haven’t come across this site yet do take a look. It’s like a cross between Amazon and Pinterest, in that you can easily browse through pretty much any category of shopping product you want (fashion, interiors, gadgets, books etc), but it’s social, meaning you pick up points as people “follow” the lists of wish items you create, which lead to free stuff. Genius really.

Obviously we don’t want to spend a fortune, so I’m keeping any purchases to around the £15 – £25 mark, unless it’s for something I know we’ll want to have for a while (a new bed, for example). So, here are some of the ways I’m planning to make our rented house a home, without knocking anything down or painting any walls.

Wall stickers and prints are a quick and easy way to add colour to a bland magnolia wall, and they also mean you don’t need to hammer hooks into the wall to hand blackboards or signs.

Accessories like letters, fun noticeboards and clips help add your own unique style to a property that’s been decorated with a faceless tenant in mind. And glassware gives you another opportunity to make the most of the light coming in through windows (it’ll reflect off the glass and make pretty patterns on the walls) to stamp your own taste onto a room without painting it.

It goes without saying, cushions, rugs and throws are another staple of choice when it comes to putting a mark on a house and making it feel like your own.

Have you got any other tips to ahare? Now’s the time to tell me – we haven’t actually moved in yet!

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Disclosure: As a Shopcade ambassador, I get sent monthly goodies for flying the flag for the site. For more information please see my disclosure page.

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