Kate unleashed her interior design passion when she decorated her Edwardian semi, so much so she’s now a fully fledged interiors blogger. We nipped round for a home tour of this stylish pad and found out what’s going on over at Kate’s…

We finally got the keys to our house almost a year after we made the initial offer. Just about everything that could go wrong in the process of house buying did for us – and then some, but as soon as we had the keys it all seemed worth it.
We were excited about buying somewhere that needed updating and that we could put our own stamp on – but that wasn’t going to be too huge a project as neither my husband nor I are particularly handy around the house. The plan was to do the house up gradually, over a few years as it was liveable, just not to our taste. However, as soon as we were in I became impatient and wanted to get it all done straight away.

The first project was our kitchen renovation as we decided it would be best to get the most major bit out the way first. Plus, the kitchen was by far the worst room in the house. If felt small, dark, and very dated. We decided to knock the kitchen and dining room into one to make a more sociable, open plan space as we love having friends and family over. I’m so glad we did as it’s made a huge difference – now the space feels light and bright. We chose pale grey units from Howdens and paired them with real oak worktops. My favourite part of the kitchen is the Rangemaster – I’ve always wanted one. It’s really great when cooking for lots of people, but I’m not going pretend I bought it for practical reasons…It’s just so pretty!
Once the kitchen was done we moved onto the dining room. I had always been a neutral girl until it came to decorating this room. I had my heart set on a dark, bold grey/blue shade and after getting through a lot of tester pots we opted for Little Greene Juniper Ash. I love Little Greene’s paints! The dining room was dark red beforehand and I thought it would take a lot of coats to cover it but it only took two. Most of the accessories in this room were from The Little House Shop or Mia Fleur.

I went back and forth with what to do with our living room, it’s not like me to be indecisive but for some reason I couldn’t settle on a scheme for this room. It wasn’t until I came across the vintage map that I finally decided. We chose Farrow and Ball Moles Breath as we thought it would act a good backdrop for the map as well as the tiles in the fireplace. We paired the grey with Crown Aged White which is a nice soft cream that isn’t too yellow. I really wanted to create a cosy space in this room so I’ve tried to add lots of texture through rugs, cushions and wall hangings. I still feel like I need a few more bits for my shelves though. House Envy is one of my favourite places to shop for knick knacks – they have so many lovely, interesting things so I’m planning a big shop soon.
The hall was decorated on a bit of a whim. Eventually we plan to tile the hallway in original Edwardian tiles (budget permitting of course!) so we agreed that we wouldn’t decorate this room until we had done that. However, armed with a spare weekend and a lot of left over paint from the living room, I went for it. I painted an old dressing table in the same grey as the walls and put up a mirror that I had originally bought for the dining room but had decided wasn’t quite right. The only thing I had to buy was the gold frames for the gallery wall – and they were a bargain from eBay. The whole hall was decorated for £15 – not bad really!

The bedroom is still a work in progress. I really couldn’t decide whether I wanted to go for soft pastels or a more eclectic and colourful boho look and think I may have ended up combining both! We haven’t bought any new furniture for this room yet but I’ve tried to update our old furniture by covering the headboard in pink fabric and making our wardrobe into a giant moodboard.
We still have lots of work to do, and knowing me by the time we’ve finished I’ll want to start all over again. I love planning projects and always like to have something on the go – much to my husband’s dismay!

{STEAL THE STYLE}

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