Gosh it’s hard work trying to keep a house clean and tidy when you’ve got a two year old trampling mud in from the garden and flinging books everywhere! That really sums up what I’ve tried to achieve in my home – making it comfortable and pretty yet practical and toddler-proof. 

At the back of the house is an open plan kitchen/dining room/playroom. In my post a few months ago I talked about the second thoughts I was having about the feature wall that I had created using wallpaper in this room. You lovely readers came up with some excellent suggestions which I took on board. I moved the jute rug into the hallway and replaced it with this grey pebble wool one. I also relocated the black lampshade and cushions – it’s not the brightest room in the house and the black accessories were just making it even darker. I swapped them for pastel pink and grey ones – the cushions were H&M bargains, the concrete apple and pear were from Cox & Cox, and the lampshade was a Tesco special. 

And I’m now much happier with the space, however I’m still not keen on the wallpaper. I reckon at some point it’s gonna have to go. Adam has done a good job of making it look halfway decent though!

In terms of the furniture, my beloved sideboard was from John Lewis (they don’t stock it any more but Maisons Du Monde do a similar one), the sofa was from M&S (bought circa 2007 and still going strong, despite the fact that our cat Millie uses it as a scratching post), the dining table was from Habitat and the chairs were from Ikea.

Although it’s a new build house, we didn’t get to choose the kitchen which I was a bit sad about because I would have preferred simple, modern white cabinets to the cream shaker style ones that were here when we moved in. However I have added a few pastel accents – the porcelain vases, bamboo tea and coffee canisters, and lamp (idea stolen from Lauren’s master bedroom), and I like the way the muted tones work with the cream. Having spotted this recent post over on Coco Kelley I am also tempted to swap the existing silver hardware on the kitchen units for some brushed brass pieces.

Other next-steps for the kitchen are to tile the walls and hunt down some blinds or I’m even considering shutters. I love-but-hate the fact that my house isn’t finished…although I want it to be perfect NOW, I also enjoy the journey of making it look nice.

And now I would massively appreciate your advice again. Do you have any tips on the colour or style of tiles that I should go for in the kitchen? I’m thinking perhaps matt grey metro tiles…?