Redecorating the House

During my time off I started redecorating the house.  We have been in our home for five years now and the rooms are all starting to look tired.  There are nasty paint scars left from wall stickers in the girls rooms, covered now by postcards and prints.  Whilst the hall and lounge walls are starting to look grubby and the boys would like a new colour on their walls having recently changed their furniture to create a more grown up space to accommodate them through the latter part of their teen years.  However I chose to start with the bathroom as I felt with all these big rooms to be painted I wanted to build up to it and started with the smallest two rooms of the house.  But now I have painted these rooms it has highlighted that the floors are in desperate need of an update!  So when Carpetright recently contacted me to discuss flooring options I was interested to see what they had to offer.

            

Obviously I am looking for something suitable for the bathroom and toilet, so that it is not going to be spoilt by water splashes.  Andy and I had been considering laminate or vinyl, the latter being easier to fit in a small space and to be cut to size.  Having been disappointed by a large diy stores selection of vinyl flooring I was interested to see if Carpetright offered a better choice.  Well I was not disappointed!  Firstly you can chose which room the vinyl flooring is for to make sure you get the right finish.  Secondly the choice was vast, with over 250 options of vinyl flooring for the bathroom alone!  Spoilt for choice I decided to take a look at the buying guide to see if it helped me narrow down my ideas, as I liked both the wooden and stone tile style. This would also prove very handy when it came to measuring up to avoid gaps.  

Still undecided about the style we want Andy and I have narrowed it down to four options and ordered some samples.  Hopefully this will help us decide! In the meantime I'm planning the next room to be redecorated.

Until next time, take care.
Zoe
xo

Growing Into Our Home

I know people tend to say that you need to grow into your house, before making it a real home.  Well we have certainly done this.  Having moved here three and half years ago, we whizzed through, making quick updates to a very tired old decor, replaced the kitchen and had central heating fitted.  Then we stopped, not quite sure what to do next.  Slowly we have changed different pieces of furniture to better fit this house, made plans for different rooms.  But in the past couple of weeks, perhaps as a distraction from my huge workload, Andy and I have been thinking hard about how to make our home work better for our family.  The children are getting older and over the next few years we will be waving them goodbye as they head off to uni and then to grown up lives of their own.  This is quite a scary thought, my babies are not little anymore.  

However this has had an impact on our decorating ideas, on how we plan to utilise the space we have.  Whilst I hate thinking about my little birdies leaving the nest it is also quite liberating to know we can choose furniture that doesn't have to be toddler friendly.  For years we have had a lovely leather sofa, partly brought due to the easy cleaning option, but now I find myself looking wistfully at fabric upholstered sofas and chairs when we visit the huge Next At Home store down the road in Martlesham.  

We know our plans will take a couple of years to come to fruition, time and money restrictions slowing us down.  But this also means we can indulge in the planning stage, so I am sure I will be adding plenty of inspiration to my Pinterest boards over the coming months!

Are you busily planning a revamp in your home, making small or dramatic changes? Exciting isn't it?

Until next time, take care,
Zoe
xo