Gavin and I have bought our first home. All the party emojis!
Lauren and I were chatting about it over email and I jokingly called it ‘The Uncool House’. It’s a three bedroom semi-detached 1976 build in a well-established housing estate. Not the usual Instagrammer fodder. And to be honest, not exactly what I had in mind to buy either. But I’m in love with it. And I feel like we’ve made the perfect purchasing decision for us.
When we moved back from Australia and decided to buy, I had all the visions of a Victorian or Edwardian home with quirky character traits (stained glass window and strangely placed wall cupboards please!). In fact, most of our initial search covered this kind of much coveted home. But the only period properties we could truly afford in our area required renovation and that left us walking backwards with our hands in the air. Gavin’s not the most DIY of men and I just don’t have the patience for that investment with a four year old and a baby on the way. So we did something perhaps a little odd and wrote down the lifestyle that we wanted instead of the house we wanted. It turns out, a period property… Although stunning, just didn’t jam with our current priorities.
Here’s a peek into our deciding factors that lead to buying our 1976 semi.
Building Quality & Manageability
Gavin’s family own houses in and around our area so we know that they are solid, well-built houses. We had a rough idea of the history of the house owners and knew what were the original features of the build and what had been worked on. Obviously, there are often surprises and unwanted repairs etc. when buying any property, but we felt a bit more reassured to know the standard of the build and any impending works that would need to be done (like replacing the flat roof over the garage).
Warmth
I am hella cold-blooded and require a room to be at the very least ambient temperature for me to be in any way comfortable. And even then I’ll have piled on the blankets and jumpers. All of the older properties we viewed were naturally cold. They would require some adjustment and/or a huge amount of money invested into a heating system to be warm enough for me. The house we have bought is small enough and has decent enough radiators that even during the snow, we’ve not had to have the heating on 24/7.
Area
This was probably the second biggest deciding factor for me. I love the area. The estate is a mix of older folk and young families and everyone I’ve met so far is a gem. The local school that Ethan goes to is a 5 minute walk around the corner and has a great reputation. The motorways to both Edinburgh and Glasgow are just up the road meaning I can be in either within 45 mins. There are tons of close by national parks and beauty spots. And we’re rural enough to have plenty of country walks accessible from the end of our street, but urban enough to have supermarkets etc. within a 10 minute drive.
Cost
The biggest deciding factor for us was cost. We knew that the older properties we lusted after were excellent long-term investments, but any that we viewed required a lot of money, time, energy and attention invested in them. For a first house and a young family, this wasn’t the adventure we wanted to choose. We wanted a base. Somewhere we could afford to own and operate solely on one wage. Somewhere that we could afford to upgrade and maintain whilst still having time to spend with the kids. Somewhere with a low enough mortgage that we could travel, save and do other things with our time and money. Many years ago, just after the recession, Gavin and I put everything we had into clearing some debts we had mounted up in our 20s. That experience was hugely liberating and has left us both with a scrutinising nature about financial choices. So we try to operate well under our means where we can and realised that we wanted this for our mortgage too.
Space
We simply felt like we didn’t need that much space. Some of the older houses we looked at were just beautiful in terms of layout and structure, but it did leave me wondering “What on earth would I put there?”. Having travelled and lived on the other side of the world for six years, we didn’t accumulate a ton of things. Yes, we have all the essentials and some treasured items, but the three bedroom semi-detached we’re in has more than enough space for us as it is. We’re not really ‘things’ people. So it seemed a bit silly to pay more for a bigger house, to then go and buy more stuff.
So that was the thinking that lead us to our current find, which we are so unbelievably happy with. I feel like this type of house is very underrepresented in the online world of blogs and Instagram. I have certainly struggled in the search for design inspiration for a 60s/70s build but my post next Monday will be more about our decor plans and a sharing of the inspiration I’ve found.
Do any of you live in a similar house?
I’m also in the market for some new interior decor Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration (not necessarily just for seventies builds), so if you have any absolute favourites, of any style, please wing them into the comments and I would be ever grateful!
I’m really looking forward to hearing more about your “uncool house”. We live in a 70s semi, it’s our first home and I love it, but you’re completely right about the Instagram /period cottage thing. We’ve added some character with a Woodburner and cosy furnishings, it looks completely different than when we bought it from a couple in their 70s. Congrats on the home buy, can’t wait to see your plans!
Oh Jane I’m instantly jealous of your wood burner. One of the things I struggled with sacrificing was an open fire so we have a wood burner on the list of things to-do over the next few years. How was your installation process? Any tips/things to avoid?
Naomi, firstly massive congratulations on your purchase!
We too live in a super ‘ugly’ house and you are so right when you say they are massively under represented in the blogging world.
With a mixture of two brick colours, pitched and flat roofs, and a couple of ceramic mint showers in the mix i do often wonder what on earth the architect was thinking when he designed our estate!
BUT, the interior is warm and has scope. And it has front and back gardens – a coveted thing in these parts especially in our price range.
I’m following your post with interest as I’ve struggled somewhat with lack of character.
I’ve tended to go for calm scandi kind of style with punches of colour. It suits our living and maximised light rather than anything too stylised.
Can’t wait to see what you have planned! X
Sorry Naomi, I didn’t mean to imply that your house was ‘ugly’ in any way there with my comment, it’s just the odd affectionate name that we have for our house x
Haha Heather, no offence taken at all! I think it’s cute that you call it an ‘ugly house’. Honestly, ours isn’t the prettiest from the outside either, dark brick and white roughcast, although it was recently redone so it’s looking rather tidy.
You are right though, ‘the interior is warm and has scope’ that’s how I feel about ours too.
How refreshing! Love your uncool house and that we now have representative for the abundance of people that live in these (dare I say ‘usual’ type of houses) can’t wait to see what you do with it!!
Thanks Lisa! I just love the name of your photography business!
I live in a 70’s house on an estate as well. It’s a lovely community with lots of families and the house is well laid out and the rooms are all square with lots of lights. However, I sometimes find it hard to be inspired when it comes to decorating it. There hardly ever seems to be similar properties on Instagram maybe because it lacks any special features (I myself do love a period feature). I cannot wait to read your plans!
If you haven’t already, check out the properties on The Modern House. It’s an estate agency that specialises selling uber-stylish modern homes, many of which are 60s and 70s properties that don’t look anything special from the outside, but look gorgeous and airy on the inside. I find it great for interiors inspiration.
Ali what a gem! I had never heard of this before. Can’t wait to have a proper browse!
Yeah the struggle of the bright box with no real features (except we do have a rather fetching artex ceiling)… This has been my plight too.
Haha this is the worst thing abut that era of house in my opinion – we’ve had all ours skimmed now – totally worth it, it changes the feel of the whole room! Looks bigger and brighter and much more modern! x
I’m going to have to have to get some quotes in!
So refreshing Naomi to hear this.We all get bogged down thinking about the beautiful old houses on Instagram.I too live in a 70’s town house.It was the only decent house we could afford. No feature fireplace giving etc. But I love it…its open plan with an extension at the back. It’s pale and interesting and I think its a lovely warm comfortable home. We all can’t afford these homes that flood insta that much now I tend not to look as much these days. Looking forward to hearing more from you xx
Coving I meant
Thank you Lorraine! Lovely warm comfortable home – perfect way to describe our place too. And I’m also getting a bit jaded with the amount of similar Insta inspo.
Congratulations on buying a house! I’m looking forward to hearing more about it and to see what you’ll do with it style-wise!
Thanks Anja!
We did similar. Wrote a list of what we wanted (walkable to a main line train station yet semi rural, land, number of bedrooms, ability to take family walks from the front door) and surprisingly it came up although we ended up living in an area we knew nothing about. It’s going great although the house needed a lot of work.
I thought we’d end up in a Victorian town house but it’s more of a cottage vibe. I personally don’t like cottage interiors. It’s hard to get something that isn’t imposing a different period on what is essentially an ol estate workers cottage that has been extended in 150 different ways in 150 years. I also don’t like anything ‘too country’. Case in point, we’re looking at blinds and I find myself dodging cottage and roses and pheasant prints. Neither do I want Orla Kiely (although that would look fab in a 1970s vibe). My friend has a 1970s place and has a lot of mid century ercol furniture. She’s super cool but damn, her sofas are UNCOMFORTABLE.
We’re currently trying to decide whether taking off one of the many doors and replacing it with a floor to ceiling window to let in more light is sacrilidge or sensible. And how to show it used to be a door to maintain some of the character. Man, it’s HARD.
In terms of IG to follow a few but they are all probably a different style to what you want. They usually have the word ‘country’ in the title. Lisa Dawson has a funky style which you’d maybe like although it’s a Victorian house I think.
Yes, Orla Keily!
I find that a lot of American interiors bloggers rock a 70s style vibe. Also the amazing blog about the people who live at the Barbican.
I must say Rebecca, I love the sound of that window! I hope you do it. I am a lover of 70’s Ercol too, but I am also a lover of comfort. I couldn’t do all mid-century furniture for this reason.
Oh I do like this Lisa Dawson’s style! Thank you!
Yay, congratulation! We’ve been our late 60s semi for a year now and I did exactly the same as you-started off looking for a sandstone period property then quickly realised that we didn’t have the budget to get one in locations that would work for us. So we went for total suburbia just outside Glasgow that’s great for families and amenities. It’s not a picturesque village and our house isn’t particularly ‘instaworthy’ from the outside (or inside! The former owners loved a brown feature wall…) but we’re gradually modernising and putting our own stamp on it. I love the space, the garden and we have nursery/school/shops/train station all within 10 minutes walk. It’s perfect for us, but I have unfollowed a lot of Instagram interiors accounts because I still get period home envy every so often!
Welcome to come for a nosy since you’re so close!
I think our plan is to gradually modernise too. Drop me a DM on Insta. I’d love to hear about where in Scotland you are!
We’re actually considering moving to a 1970s semi too! All the ‘cool’ houses in our town either need serious amounts of work or are too expensive. I love how big the plot sizes tend to be with 70s homes plus we found the rooms to be much better proportioned (can’t imagine my toddler son in a box bedroom when he’s a teenager.) On the 70s homes near us the windows are so large and makes the rooms bright and airy. I’m eeally looking forward to your next post!
Hannah the massive windows in our place are one of my favourite features! So much light!
Congratulations! We’re in a pebble dashed 1930s semi – again not what we thought we’d end up buying but it suits us perfectly. We looked at what felt like a gazillion pretty terrace houses in our favourite area of Brighton that could only fit one person in the kitchen or one where my husband had to pretty much enter the bathroom horizontally if he wanted to get on the bath when it dawned on us to rethink our search criteria. I am so glad we did as I love our pebble dashed monstrosity!
Hahaha! Laughing at the mental visual of your husband entering the bathroom. Ours is pebble dashed too, perhaps we can ‘bring it back’… 🙂
This is so exciting Naomi. Congratulations! Can’t wait to see what you do with your house. We’re in a 1940s ex local authority house and it’s often hard to relate to all the period or Scandinavia modern gorgeousness on instagram.
Hoping I can deliver the goods next week Kat. No pressure! 😅
We’ve just sold our 1960s semi. We bought in five years ago as our first home as it was really affordable but it turned out to be a great place to live, semi rural so great for dog walking, very close to Nottingham and derby and on a bus route to both, although I was a bit apprehensive about living on a large built up estate it’s been great and people have been friendly and helpful. We put it on the market on Saturday morning and it was sold by Saturday lunchtime. We are relocating to Cornwall so the search for a house down there begins! And this time I won’t rule anything out!
How awesome you got such a quick sale Amy! That’s gotta take quite a bit of stress out of the moving process!
Nothing uncool about a 70s house that fits your requirements! The whole “insta-worthy” thing is really tiresome – you can have Scandi, mid-century modern, pop art, baroque, whatever-you-like style inside any house.
Ours was built in the late 60s; an ex-local authority semi with a generous garden and nice big rooms – who needs period features when you have a blank canvas to do literally anything you like to? 🙂
Congratulations on your new home!
I love the blank-canvas-ness too Alex. And you’re right, they style doesn’t need to match the time period of the house.
Congratulations! How exciting for you, looking forward to hearing all about your move!
I love a bit of Instagram interiors…
Emily Henderson
Sarah Sherman Samuel
Kate Watson-Smith
RVK_loves
Lisa Dawson
Making Spaces
Swoonworthy
French for Pineapple
Amber Interiors
Hygge for Home
Ginny McDonald
The Pink House
Come down to the Woods
Right, I’ll stop there, this is getting silly : )
xxx
Oh dear Lou. I’m off to check out this mammoth interior list immediately! Thank you!
Congratulations on the house. I live in a 50s ex-council house on a council estate. It’s very similar to a house tour you once featured of an ex-local authority house. My ideal life would be floating around pretentiously in a Parisian apartment – lots of original details and contemporary furniture. Oh, I’d be achingly cool 😄. I decorate the house however I like and don’t let the fact that I’m not in a ‘nice’ house or area change my taste. I can’t download Instagram so I don’t experience this envy, though I look at interiors in every spare moment 😳 I love living here. I expect that in the future we will move to a house in a nicer area with good looks, but I already see my house as beautiful. It’s a bit like with your own children – difficult to be objective!
Oh to be ‘achingly cool’ haha Jade! Loved that. I’d love to know what your interior inspiration sources are if you’re not on Insta. I’m in a bit of a rut of sole reliance!
It’s really just blogs, Pinterest and magazines. And looking through people’s windows (in a casual, ‘I’m just stretching my neck in the direction of your living room’ kind of way). I look at houzz and quite like the forum on there for advice. I don’t have Instagram because I can’t download it, not because I haven’t hankered after it! I read quite a few of the blogs connected to Instagram accounts people have already mentioned but the only ones I look at daily are rockmystyle, mad about the house, sfgirlbybay, myparadissi and frenchbydesign. I’m very specific in what I like, with a huge list of things I don’t like, so often don’t find things which totally fit my style but still find plenty of interesting ideas. The downside of this is that I’ve never felt that a room in my house is finished, I’m always looking to find that one thing that will make it *perfect*. I have to take a break from interiors every now and then because I get a little bit obsessive about it and it’s silly.
Looking forward to all your house plans – it is so exciting!! Sounds like you were very sensible when choosing a house, and I’m sure it will work out really well. In terms of IG and blogs, Mad About The House is one of the few that I read religiously, always a mix of ideas. If you look back I bet you could find quite a bit of inspiration for your period of house. Although to be honest I’m not a huge believer in being “loyal” to a period, I say go with what you fancy and you’ll make it work. We live in an Edwardian house with a modern extension and a mix of old and modern inside. I like it and quite frankly I don’t care what anyone else thinks of my style 😀 you can also do a huge amount with paint to turn a place around. Best of luck with the house plans and I look forward to hearing more!!
Ps started using those natural cleaners I was talking about in your cleaning post ages ago. Marvellous, highly recommend!! Used the furniture polish yesterday, hands down the best I’ve tried. And the kitchen stuff smells lovely too, I find it takes a tiny bit more effort to make metal really sparkle afterwards but well worth it.
I agree Annie! – About not needing to be loyal to a certain period. My decor plan is basically… Buy what I like.
Great to get that feedback on the home cleaners post! I’m so glad you love them as much as I do.
My 3 bed 80s house has flat plastic Georgian style pillars as a front door surround. My husband refuses to remove them. Uncool houses are where it’s at!
Haha, that’s brilliant 😄 One of the 70s houses on my parents estate has a Roman style interior. It’s all fake pillars, draped curtains and murals inside. Even the tv stand was a pillar.
This is brilliant Josie! I have a tendency to fall in love with weird features like that too. I’m glad you’re keeping them!
Naomi, I’m so excited for you! But more excited for me cos I get to read all about your plans. Can’t wait!
All of the Instagram interiors accounts mentioned above are great shouts, plus The Frugality, overatkates and some of the generic ones such as Houzz can be good for inspo x
Oh I hadn’t thought about Houzz! xo
I grew up in a 1970s house. I think my parents were the second owners when they moved in in 1975 and they’re still there! They think it’s totes hilar that the 1970s/Scandinavian style is back – justifies them not decorating very often! Under heavy persuasion from myself they’re now going through 40+ years of hoarding (they have 2 lofts and a lot of neatly packed things to go through)
Anyhoo I’m waffling; I’d love to see more house tours away from the achingly beautiful (but starting to look the same) terraces and cottages. Our first buy was a mid 1990s build and we inherited so many bodge jobs that it’s only on the second decorating blitz that it’s starting to feel ours; it’ll be just right and we’ll have grown out of it *groan*
Oh the parental hoarding. I can totally sympathise! Good luck with that Claire.
This has been quite refreshing to read. We are currently scouring the property market every day at the moment and our biggest dilemma is that we can’t afford the house we dream of in the area we want. So its house or location. I’ve been rocking back and forth for weeks but made the decision sometime last week that location wins so I need to go back to the drawing board and start to reconsider the more unappealing houses on the market. I’ll be honest…the ones I’ve seen really don’t do it for me and I do feel really gutted about giving up my dream of a period property but sense must prevail. I have my family to think about in the long run.
Naomi, I’m also in Scotland…have you also found property prices absolutely shoot through the roof? Eg: We went to see a house last week which would have been a definite contender but it went for £30k over the actual market value of the property!!! 30K!! I mean, even if I had that cash spare in the bank, I don’t’ think I could pay that much over the value! I can’t see the sense in that! I’d be keen to hear more about your buying experience? Any tips?
Ours went for 25k over asking in Cheshire. However, market valuation by the mortgage company found it was higher than we ended up getting it for so we didn’t have any mortgage problems.
We moved from London and were blown away by the fact it went to sealed bids outside of London. Even then, once we’d offered and had it accepted there was some two-ing and fro-ing because one of the other couples basically went into the estate agents and said “we’ll beat whatever the winners bid by £15k”. We were chain free which swung it for us I think but at least in Scotland your bids process is binding – down here you can get screwed at any time! Even if its gone to sealed bids!
Sarah… YES! We were very very lucky and managed to secure a private sale so we got ours for the home report value. Basically, I heard that the house was due to go up for sale and went and knocked the seller’s door! They liked the idea of selling to us because Gavin is from the area and we agreed the price. It was very jammy.
But even in our area houses are going for £5k+ over the asking price (which is usually a few grand over the home value anyway). But £30k…? That’s nuts.
Congratulations on your house purchase! We too settled on an ‘ugly house’ it’s a late sixties, ex council and have been slowly doing it up, my husband is an architect, he convinced me to go for it and now I love it! feel free to have a look at our intstagram account @ourleytonhouse good luck with the reno! X
Siobhan I’ll be keenly following your reno! Your bannister is the exact same as ours. Having an architect husband is definitely a bit of a wild card in the back pocket though. Excited to see your progress!
Thanks Naomi … the bannister, haven’t worked out what to do with that yet! it was a quick paint job to turn it from an awful off white yellow into something more presentable! good luck, will be keeping my eye out for your updates x
Also, i wasn’t implying your house was ‘ugly’ – I call mine an ‘ugly’ house as it took some serious imagination to picture what it could look like! x
Love this – so refreshing as others have said. Have to say that I don’t think I ever had my heart set on a particular period – whilst I love looking at the old period homes, I knew it wasn’t for us. We didn’t have the time or patience to take on such a big project. Instead, we based our search on similar reasons to yours and it just so happened that the area we focused on was built in the 1930s. However, it’s not your typical 1930s property that you see all over Instagram – no big grand bay windows or hallway or lovely front garden – instead it’s a shared path with our neighbour and then straight into the living room, an odd layout and quite compact (although ex-council, so solid as a rock). Even our surveyor thought it was built in the 60s from the outside and it was only when they actually visited and spoke to the estate agent that they realised it was 30s. My waffling point is that it was the feel and the area, rather than the period of house, that caught our eye. And houses from the same period can vary massively depending on space and location.
I’m looking forward to hearing your plans – I’m all open to inspiration at the moment as we start to plan out how to put our own stamp on the house. Also, yes to a bigger variety of house-tours – partly because I’m nosy, but also because I love getting ideas on what people do with a variety of space and size.
I totally agree Jo, feel and area were what grabbed me most. I’m just dying to get the paint brushes out now! The magnolia has got to go 🙂
@thisjoneslife is worth a gander for making a new build look traditional. Its very “grey” and “classic” in style (which I like) but you wouldn’t guess it wasn’t a Victorian semi.
Oh I love this account! Thank you!
Wow Rebecca! That’s crazy! I only found out recently that you have to have the actual cash to pay over the market value as the mortgage will only cover the market value. Urgh! I have to say…I know nothing about the property market in England but that does sound frustrating! Great you managed to win the house! I think this is key…we need to be in a good situation, at least sell our current house and be in a position to jump!
LOVE a house feature on RMS! Cant wait to see what you do with it. Check out the following on Insta…
my dark home
amber interiors
Emily Henderson
susanna Hawkins
dee campling
my Scandinavian house
the pink house
_itslucy_
mel boyden
Sharon Hornsby
Lucinda mitra
mrsmerrellyeah
justafewchanges……I could go on and on all day!
This is GOLD. I love all of these. Thanks Ali!
Love this Naomi – we are the same and have bought a 1960’s house on a nice estate. It’s not the prettiest from the outside (though I have plans to improve the situation!) and it doesn’t have the beautiful period features I lust over on instagram but ultimately we can’t afford that kind of house. What it does have is lovely big windows, good size rooms, limited maintenance costs and a nice size garden (front and back) and generous size plot. A home is what you make it anyway and you can make it whatever you want inside! I favour the light bright scandi look with a few country touches and it seems to work well in our house. Looking forward to future posts about your plans for it! x
Sarah it sounds like our houses are very similar! I’d be keen to hear about how you’re planning on improving the exterior…
Well we plan at some point to have the pebbledash removed and white render put on instead! A few houses on our estate have done it and it looks sooo much better! Not sure how much it costs yet though… then a nice new front door and fingers crossed it’ll look much more up to date!
Having grown up in old farmhouses or dairy cottages, I desperately wanted a period house but soon realised we didn’t have the budget for the space we needed now or in the future.
Begrudgingly, we bought a new build on an estate outside Glasgow – like you, because it has easy commuting links to Edinburgh or Glasgow and good access to the country. There’s tonnes of things for our daughter to do in the area so it ticks a lot of lifestyle boxes even if it isn’t pretty and old.
3 years in and I’m so glad we didn’t buy a period property. We aren’t DIY inclined, and keeping it clean is enough work with a toddler. I can’t imagine where we’d find the time for DIY and renovation too. It’s super warm and easy to maintain which suits us right now. When I have period house envy, I try to remember that we bought a house that makes our life easy and that is very valuable.
Having grown up in a late 70s house I then spent my twenties and early thirties renting and owning 5 Victorian properties. I loved the character, storage, high ceilings and general history of the things, but I hated the damp, cold, mould, dirt, cracks and the way they just ate up my money!! I now live in a new build which has a distinct lack of character and storage, but for our current phase of life with a young family, maternity leave and my husband’s career change and associated salary cut, it is by far the more cost effective, stress free type of property, and I honestly don’t think I could go back to a period property unless it had just been completely renovated by a trustworthy builder!
Absolutely love this post and can’t wait for the next. Congratulations on your house! We live in a 50s ex-local authority house, not the dream character property I had in mind when buying but ticked so many boxes, off road parking, quiet cul-de-sac, south facing garden, and the main one – was within budget! Actually it’s been so great that we’re now extending it rather than moving. I haven’t found much on instagram that isn’t period property based but I’ve recently been obsessed with the channel 4 programme ‘ugly house to lovely house’. Not saying yours fits into the ugly category at all but it takes houses like mine (bit of a brown box) and transforms them, including the exterior. It’s quite good for inspiration!
Congratulations! That’s very exciting. I live in South East London and have always harboured dreams of a Victorian flat – only to discover when we started looking 18 months ago that you need a cool half million for that (in zone 3! Nowhere near a tube!) So we begrudgingly shifted our focus to the less beautiful buildings, and promptly fell in love with a flat in a small 70s block. I am converted and now sing the praises of normal buildings to all those who will listen. As you say – they’re not freezing for one (and, bonus points, you know you’re not killing the planet and your bank balance to stay warm) . The layouts are often more spacious and functional. Yes, there are no feature fireplaces, but there is also a distinct lack of ‘useless space’ and annoying alcoves. You can use every bit of the place and not feel cramped. It’s so liberating! And they’re a dream to decorate. Enjoy!
I’m in a 1960’s semi that we bought just over a year ago and I agree they really do get a bad rep which really isn’t fair! Ours is well built, warm, great layout for a family and not so big you feel like every corner and wall needs filling/adorning. They really are great for families. After living in a nineteenth century terrace for 12 years before we bought our 1960’s house, I would never go back to an old house!
Echoing previous posters…I am really pleased to read about this. Two years ago we moved in to a house that was built in 1977. No it isnt your typical “instagram house” but instgram hasnt influenced any aspect of my life so far anyway, I choose not to have an acvount. I used to have Pinterest but deleted that because I started to find many of the images becoming weirdly homogenous. I prefer not to follow trends and instead do what I love; taking inspiration from places we visit, ideas I have picked up in the houses of friends and family and accessorising with items that tell a story (maybe finds from [like you] living abroad, family heirlooms and random parephenalia).
Like you we will add a log burner in time. Love the cosy feeling they impart.
Love our larger light windows (now with shutters on), front and back gardens, garage, light filled spcious landing.
Enjoy making your new house a home. I very very much look forward to your decorating info and inspiration.
I too live in an uncool house! But it’s my home, and I love it. 18 months in, its still a labour of love, but I love the area, it had everything on my ticklist (downsizing from a largs family home after a split), and for me it’s a blank canvas that I can make my own for me and my daughters. I will be eagerly following your journey! And all the best in your new home.
PS I have to credit Lauren for my haven, as I’m shamelessly pinching inspo… sail white is the best!! Thank you Lauren and RMS! ❤️
We moved from a Grade II listed stone cottage to an early 1960s red brick bungalow, not something I thought we’d do but I’ve loved living here (and no stairs was an unexpected bonus with a baby/toddler).
Have you seen any of the George Clarke series ‘Ugly House to Lovely House’? I think it’s still on Channel Four catchup. It made me want an ‘ugly’ house far more than a cottage etc and the interior styling was fab.
Thanks for the interesting article about property valuation Melbourne.