Time for a change, time for entertainment

With New Year comes the obligatory New Year’s resolution.

I’ve made a few “promises” to myself and one of them is to entertain more (aka stop being a cave-dweller). I would like to have our friends over much more often, maybe throw a few more dinner parties and in general be more sociable. To achieve it, I need space. So the question becomes: What do I do?

Currently, we have a kitchen / dinner with a table set for four and a front room designed around our family entertainment – large sofa, space to play jumpy console games and to chillax in general. I think the front room will have to stay as it is simply because it is our family space and besides I don’t know how to tell Mark his front room is about to change. Now the dining room part of the downstairs area might just be the subject of a make-over.

In order to entertain I will need space. If we have more than two people visit us be are quickly reminded of a major drawback to us entertaining. Sitting for hours on little wooden stools is not very comfortable, no matter how good the food, the company or even how many drinks you have had 😉 and there is no room to add full size chairs as the table just isn’t long enough, oh and it has very fat legs that don’t help.

So, what to do now?

The easiest solution would be to just buy a new set of slim chairs, but as our furniture’s quite old I am not able to find anything to match it nicely.

I like dark wood; solid wood, heavy furniture is very me but they make the space seems smaller and darker than it actually is. The more I think about it the more I feel I might be ready for a change.

I had a look around for some inspirations and I have a few ideas for my new dining room. I think I would still like to stick with the wood and keep the same rectangular shape of the table, but maybe this time we should get something lighter, with a more modern look…

What do you think about my choices?

Would you attempt a make-over just to satisfy your need for fulfilling a New Year’s resolution?

Do you think I should just stick with my old furniture and maybe invest in some soft cushions to make long evenings by the table more comfortable?

I know this is a long list of questions but I am quite in the pickle and unsure what to do next.

* Post written in collaboration with Rodgers Of York

Let there be light – Sensio Furniture Lighting Solution

It’s 6am and I am up. Mark is still deep asleep and not snoring as he will claim later. I put my dressing gown on and slowly wandered to the bathroom for my morning routine. 15 minutes later I am done and it is time to get dressed… now I facing straight into that common dilemma… I will either be getting dressed in total darkness or I have to put the main light on, which will most likely wake up my non snoring other half… hmmm what to do, I need to rummage and find my outfit for the day!

Sensio has a solution – a rechargeable wardrobe light which can detect movement. You open your wardrobe door and taadaa – the light comes on!

I know as I was sent one for testing.

To be honest I’ve never even considered putting a light into my wardrobe, but having one, especially this time of the year makes a lot of sense. The light is bright enough, so I don’t have to play “cave woman” in the morning, yet it is angled into the wardrobe in such a way so it is not too overpowering for anyone else in the room, thus will not cause the waking up scenario I am so desperate to avoid.

The Sensio Solus has a rechargeable battery fitting. There is no wiring required so it is extremely simple to install, anyone can do it. If used for 2.5 minutes a day the Solus will only need to be recharged every 8 months or so, so it is really the definition of simple to maintain… I think I am taking at least triple this time to actually pick my clothes but still, the battery life is very impressive.

Key features of the Sensio Solus light (as stated on the website):

• Contains a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. No electrical installation required.
• The product is cable free for ease of installation.
• Rechargeable via a pluggable USB charger.
• Angled surface light to reduce glare.
• Features an integrated PIR (person in room) sensor which automatically switches the light on when the wardrobe/cabinet door is opened.
• The detection range of the PIR is 2m, meaning the fitting can be positioned as required inside the furniture.
• If movement is not detected for 30 seconds or more the light will temporarily switch off to reduce wastage of the battery power.
• The run time of the product is 8 months based on 2.5 minutes of use per day. The charging time is 6.5 hours on average.
• The perfect fitting for use inside wardrobes with several storage compartments.
• The product has an additional on/off switch for optional use.

The price starts from £41.88. I know what you are thinking now… yes, I agree it isn’t cheap, but none of the new LED lighting products are.

Did you know that LED lightening is the most efficient lighting solution invented to date? For example an incandescent bulb releases 90 percent of their energy as heat, LEDs use energy far more efficiently with very little wasted heat. LED lights also have a significantly longer life span as well so no more days of no light whilst you try and remember to pick a new bulb up whilst you’re out shopping.

I think that for what it offers, the price isn’t as scary as it might at first look. And to be honest use of a light like this doesn’t have to be limited to a wardrobe. We have a pantry in the kitchen… with no light… it would actually be a perfect spot for this little Sensio Solus light… or a staircase… as the light is detecting movement it will turn itself on as someone is approaching… the uses are unlimited… all those very dark corners of your house, garage or even garden shed can now be bathed in useful bright light.

No more darkness – let there be light!

Review – EcoArt from ThePackagingSite

When I was asked to review a piece of EcoArt from ThePackagingSite I thought to myself… oh cool, I can get another canvas… but I was wrong. An EcoArt might look like a canvas when you first see it from a distance but it is not… it is so much more.

So what is an EcoArt?

EcoArt products use environmentally friendly solutions; from the materials they used, the manufacturing processes down to the delivery of the final product.

The entire range of corrugated products is made using papers from either a recycled or sustainable source. Furthermore, all the products are manufactured in the UK, reducing the environmental impact of importing goods from around the world.

This is why throughout the entire EcoArt collection you will see the following symbols:

My EcoArt arrived securely packed in a large cardboard box. Inside, it was neatly wrapped in bubble wrap. The product reached me in perfect condition and I don’t see how it could get “broken” when using a substantial packaging method like this.

First thing which struck me after opening the box was a lack of smell. The canvas I had the pleasure to review before had an overwhelming paint smell once you finally got to it; EcoArt is fragrant free, which is a big plus as not everyone likes or even can stand a strong smell of paint.

Secondly it was unbelievable light. I could literally lift it with my one finger. At first I didn’t understand how this is possible… then I noticed the lack of a wooden frame. How cool is that? The whole product is made of paper! Again the fact that it is so lightweight is a huge plus. Imagine yourself getting a lovely family portrait for your Granny and she is not able to move it; with EcoArt this situation will not be a problem at all. I would say it is children and elderly friendly… at least when we talk about its weight.

And finally the quality… it is perfect:

Nice sharp colours, just like the original picture.

Lovely crisp white and perfectly finished back.

And perfect corners.

The cardboard frame has 4 openings in the back… this is where your picture hooks will go. With some pictures this might not be needed but I am sure we have all seen pictures which can or could be hung in different ways… EcoArt thought about this so you can just remove it from the wall, flip it or turn it and pop it back up… it really couldn’t be easier.

When ordering your EcoArt you have two options. You can pick one of the lovely pictures which they feature on their site; there is a selection of abstracts, animals, cityscapes, flowers, landscape and seascapes… or you can design your own EcoArt by creating it from one of your own pictures. Personalised EcoArt can be created as a square, rectangle or a panel frame, where you would split your photo into a few frames, which together will create the whole picture.

The prices start from £14.16 for a rectangle EcoArt with measurements of 30cmx20cm. Having in mind how environmental friendly this product is, I think that this is a great price.

So, what do you think?

Would you buy this environmental friendly EcoArt to decorate your walls?

If you are planning on getting one, you can use discount code: ECOTWENTY. This will take 20% off the price but it only applies to personalised canvases.

* Product was provided free of charge for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are honest and my own .

#Kitchentales – A tale of a forgotten island

Getting your own house is hard but getting it furnished is even harder, especially when we talk about the kitchen.

When we bought our house we wanted something different; we wanted something which will have the “wow” factor, something which would make us smile every time we enter the kitchen… mainly because for us the kitchen is the heart of the house but also because it is our home and we wanted it to be perfect and reflect a bit of “us”.

This task proved to be very hard.

You need a lot of skills if you ever want to create what we wanted to achieve, but we have negligible skills when it comes to building our own furniture; therefore you need a lot of money, if you want to buy something original that is standing out from the crowd, but alas we didn’t have the money and still don’t have the money so what is left, luck, you need a bit of luck… yes, we got that one right…

A few years after we had bought our house we decided to take down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This seemed to us like a no-brainer decision – our kitchen was small (in our opinion, most of our guests however tended to disagree with us) and the dining room being also on the small side was never really used. We had a second smaller table in the kitchen and this is where we tended to eat all meals. So making one huge room from the two smaller ones was the perfect idea. The building work progressed pretty fast and we no longer had a kitchen and a dining room, now we had kitchen-diner. We had this huge room filled with nothing… none of our old furniture looked any good in this new space, mainly because they were just too small.

There was only one thing for it… We had to go shopping!

After hours on the internet and endless trips to all the furniture shops near us we still had nothing. We knew that our budget would not allow us to get what we really wanted so the time was coming to make some sacrifices; we knew we would have to compromise on our dreams… but then something magical happened… fortune did decide to smile down on us and we were able to buy the furniture of our dreams (more or less) from friends of ours who were downsizing. We purchased an awesome solid wood table. It is huge and could easily seat 6 people though it only came with 4 chairs unfortunately. We also snapped up a triple fronted sideboard and few other bits like coffee tables and lamps… all of them for the fraction of the cost, mates rates are the best rates.

It was great to see our empty space finally taking form.

That said all the furniture was placed in the dining room part of the kitchen-diner. Thus we still needed something to fill the kitchen part. We had always planned on having an island. We wanted the extra work surface space for food prep and ideally some more storage, but all island are always very expensive. To add to our dilemma we had now surrounded ourselves with dark solid wood furniture, so the island would have to match, which we knew would be very hard to source with our budget, so the search continued…

Then by chance one day we visited a furniture store in a town close by. A few people had mentioned it to us in conversation – it is full of handmade solid wood furniture from the Far East we were told. We had a strong suspicion that the contents of the shop would be out of our price range but curiosity overcame us and so we drove to have a look anyway. The store was and still is amazing; the furniture in it are like pieces of art, most of them are unique and just one off mainly due to the materials they were made from (mainly old fishing boats). We were over the moon with this shop, yet we couldn’t buy anything as the prices were as we suspected, a bit too high. Still, we loved it so much; we kept driving there over and over again just to have a look once again in the hope of some great bargain or the sale of the century. After few trips we knew most of the pieces in the store by heart, but still it was a pleasure to be there even if they were not ours.

One time during our trip around the store (the shop has 3 floors and a lot of small corridors, so it is like a rabbit warren) we spotted something we had never noticed before… in the corner behind some huge doors was an island… dark wood, hand carved and looking extremely dusty was an island. It had no price tag and 100s of other items stuck on top of it and a huge tarpaulin. We instantly fell in love with this dusty, dirty piece of abandoned, neglected wood. We contained our excitement as we didn’t even know if it was for sale, and if it was would we even be able to pronounce the price. As it ended up it was indeed for sale, one concern laid to rest. The shop keeper, a wonderfully enthusiastic man admitted even he had forgotten about it. As he recalled the piece he told us the story; apparently someone had ordered a whole kitchen matching the style of the island but alas for them the island was made in the wrong size, it didn’t fit in their kitchen so they refused to buy it. Their loss, was about to become our luck! The island was perfect for us. We just had to have it! We negotiated hard and a bargain was struck with the owner in order to help us afford it; we figured out that he would be happy just to let it go especially as he had forgotten about it.

A few days later our beautiful island arrived. It took six grown burly man to carry it in – the wood part is one solid piece and it doesn’t disassemble into smaller parts; the only thing that they could remove in order to make it lighter were two granite work tops, thankfully.

Once the island was delivered, and placed in its new setting that was the moment that our kitchen finally took its final form. We had a wonderful kitchen! We were so happy!

So you see, sometimes all you need is a little hope and a lot of luck!

* This post is an entry for the “My Kitchen Story” Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum.

Out With The Old… In With The New! – Let there be light!

Furniture Choice is currently running a pretty cool blogger competition. They will award £500 to one lucky winner to spend on any item / items they want from their website. All you have to do is to blog what and why you need it.

As our house is still a “work in progress” I couldn’t just walk away from the chance of getting something new replaced in our home.

Having had a very long browsing session through their website I settled on giving some love to our kitchen. Our kitchen needs replacing as a whole but we made a partial make-over a few years back by restoring all the units. We removed the wall between the kitchen and the dinner room creating a lovely open plan space. It looks good and we are pleased with it except for one small corner…

We do not use this door into the conservatory simply because on the other side of it is a huge dog bed. This set up although not ideal, works for us… all we have to do is to walk a few steps further and enter the conservatory via the old dining room double doors. Using the space the way we are also gives us much needed storage space… but as you can see from the attached picture not a pretty one 😦 We have a long standing plan to replace those cheap units, which originally (years back) were in the office, with something much more stylish and that match the rest of the room. Our final goal is ideally to replace all the kitchen cabinets with oak ones so my pick from Furniture Choice seems to be the perfect dream match, which will stand up to our future, long term plans.

Behold Michigan Oak 2 Door Sideboard

Pretty isn’t it?

I really think this is the perfect piece of furniture for us, being much lower (only 80cm) than our current furnishing in this corner will allow all the light usually blocked by the units to flow into the kitchen. I can visualise this set up in my head and I am sure it would be lovely.

What do you think? Will it work as well as I am imagining it?

#GreatBritishHome Challenge – Are we really Mr and Mrs Glamorous?

Victoria Plumb has created a really funky “What’s Your Celebrity Home Style” quiz. There are just a few questions to answer and a lot of interesting facts to read if you want.

Did you know that on average, Britons take 1.3 baths a week and take 4.4 showers? Weird numbers wouldn’t you agree?

Anyhow, I wanted to know the answer to this question – “What’s Your Celebrity Home Style” – so, I took the quiz… apparently we are Mr and Mrs Glamorous 🙂

Do I agree with this assessment? Partially, to a point I guess…

I do not think that everything about us screams glamour… at times it is far and away from it but we do crave home comforts… but then don’t we all?

When we bought our house six years ago we were not so sure what we wanted it to be like – decor wise. Coming from rented accommodation where we were not allowed to change almost anything it was hard to pick what we like. I think the biggest problem was that we were quite unsure about our own style and preferences… with time, once we lived in our little “doll house” (this is how my Mum refers to our house, as comparing to their house it is so tiny)our vision become much clearer. Six years in and our house is still a “work in progress”.

If you are a regular follower of my blog (and if not…why not?) you will know that just a few weeks ago we did an on suite makeover; one of the bathrooms which has never been unused since we bought the place. We went for natural, calming colours and simple white and silver accessories.
Is it glamorous? Not sure. But what I am sure of is that it is nice and pleasant to be in. It feels home like and I think that is what it should all be about.
We all should try and create spaces we love and feel comfortable in; after all it is Your home, so make it Yours.

These are our two bathrooms makeovers pictures.

Do you think we are Mr and Mrs Glamorous?

Did you take a quiz? What is your celebrity home style according to it?

* This post is an entry for the #GreatBritishHome Challenge sponsored by Victoria Plumb, a source of quality bathrooms for every type of home. Take its “What’s Your Celebrity Home Style?” quiz to discover what your home says about you.

DIY – Bathroom Makeover on a Budget

Firstly let me explain “on a budget”, as this term will not mean the same to me, you and for sure not to any super rich football star… we will all have a different monetary definition regarding what “on a budget” means… so to make it more clear, the idea was to remake our bathroom using only supermarket own brand products.

This challenge was set by the people at Debt Free Direct in line with their idea of Making Money Go Further.

I bet you are wondering right about now is it possible to create a nice space from supermarket own brand / super value products? Not to worry I was wondering about it as well. I wasn’t sure if I should or shouldn’t except the challenge… until I actually browsed through few websites and had a look at what is out there… then the choice was obvious… yes, I think I can do it!

I was not restricted to picking any particular brand / superstore chain, the only restriction was it must be a supermarket own brand and not one of the perceived “posh” brands, so Harrods was out of the question.

After much deliberation I picked Wilkinson and their Wilko range. I wanted to get all the bits from one place, so if anyone attempts to recreate my steps, they can save on delivery charges or unnecessary multi trips to a variety of stores for collection.

This is what I got…

Ingredients of a transformation

My full order come to just £85.45. All that I was missing were some paint brushes, rollers, etc but I already had them so there was no need for getting new ones.

So now that you know what I had to “play” with, let me introduce my “playground”… please do not judge us to harsh…

Guess where we hide stuff

Yes, I know that this bathroom is was full of clutter and totally unusable but we really didn’t have any use for it… until now…

Step one was to remove all the items which didn’t actually belong in the bathroom and get it cleaned / de-web and ready for the make-over to come. Once everything was removed, walls hovered, cleaned with soapy water, all holes filled, dried and sanded back down to smooth surfaces, all edges covered in masking tape it was time to get painting.

Let it be white

While making my choice of paint I wanted something washable, this was my “must have” regarding the paint… in addition to this I chose paint which can cover wood and metal as well… how handy is that? In light of this there was no need for any additional wood paint just for the skirting boards and “shelves” around the loo; everything could be painted using my Wilko choice.

As I was covering a blue wall with white paint I knew that one coat would probably not do the trick. My first day on my DIY project stopped after the first coat of paint and room looking like this…

Looking better already

… when I left it to dry I became kind of distracted with other life issues, so there was no coming back to do anymore work on day one.

So on too day two of my DIY project, I started with the second coat of the white walls. The ceiling was perfect after just one coat, so there was no need for any touch ups, the joy of white on white painting. Once my walls were done with the second coat it was time to add some colour.

Let it be green

When picking the paint I wasn’t sure if I wanted our bathroom to be entirely white, I thought it would feel too clinical. Therefore I chose a tin of subtle green paint as well; I wanted something calming and easy for the eye. The green paint covered the walls very nicely. It was quite a thick paint but it spreads very easily and it had good coverage.

My green corner

I think it was just after midday when my green corner was done. Lunch break was in order as the paint had to dry out.

After returning to my little bathroom I discovered that in a few places I could still, ever so slightly, see the blue paint showing through from underneath. I had a lot of paint left, so I decided to give it a quick third coat just to be totally sure that all the walls that were supposed to be white, where in fact totally pure brilliant white, just as it said on the tin!

It was yuck… then it looked better… now, it is perfect

While yet again waiting for the walls to dry I wanted to get started on adding my accessories but I again became a bit distracted whilst passing by the bathroom door, which had been removed earlier to improve access, and stored in our bedroom… I spotted the horrible dirty door handles 😦 One quick trip to the garage later I was in possession of some brand new door handles, woot! Unfortunately my happiness didn’t last very long as they didn’t fit – they were the wrong size and there was nothing I could do about it! So, as I had some free time, I decided to check if I could simply clean them… 30 min of scrubbing later and tada…

Not bad, would you not agree?

Yes, I know that they are not perfect but for me they look 100s times better and I didn’t have to spend a penny :-), well maybe a couple for the hot water.

After that everything else went more or less smoothly…

The new mirror replaces the old one which just so happens to be the same size and shape, the only difference being the old one was full of rust and really didn’t look very attractive any more.

New towel hook replaces the old one giving our bathroom a more clean and modern look.

New loo roll holder replaces… hmm nothing… I think maybe the old owners of the house took it with them when they moved out… unsure on that one… all that was left were the holes in the wall where the holder was once placed some years previously.

New extractor fan pull cord weight replaces the old one. Its shape and colours is in much better keeping with our other accessories, so it all blends well together.

A new addition goes on the back of the door – an over door towel hook. It is actually not a part of the Victoria accessories set but it does look very similar and so I thought it would be a nice addition and it will give us some much needed hanging space for bathrobes.

A much needed element of the transformation – a venetian blind. No more weird hanging net curtains, I hate them! Now we have a clean and fabulous looking blind which we can open or close depending on our mood. Just perfect!

So finally I had come to the end game, at this point it was time to “dress up” our new bathroom. The three piece set which I had picked looked perfect, I think. It goes very well with all the other bits I had placed and I think it really helps with bringing the room together.

This is the only part of our make-over which is not finished as yet – is the light 😦 We attempted to change it but it is not as straightforward as one would think – we are supposed to connect three wires but we have five it turns out. As we lacked confidence in this matter I think we will wait for an electrician with this one!

So here you have it! – A bathroom make-over on a budget.

Loo corner transformation including a new toilet seat

Sink area before and after transformation

General overview of before and after

So, what do you think?

In your opinion did I succeed in my task?

* I received the above items for free in order to attempt a makeover of my chosen room.

Review – Our new canvas from Canvas Design

We have a new canvas! Woot!

We are allegedly a bit weird when it comes to pictures, frames and wall decorations etc… the only picture we actually have “on show” in the house is of Mark’s grandma… and this is only because we were given it as a gift, and she may come visit.

We do not like to “decorate” our house with pictures of ourselves, but we do not mind having “on show” something which will remind us of things we love, admire or simply like. We have a few paintings, a few movie related canvases but we still have a few empty walls which are waiting for something special.

When I was choosing the picture for a new canvas, I knew that it must be something special, something which will remind us of good times and something which will look fabulous on the wall.

In the end I went for a lighthouse, which was already featured on my blog in my Friday Who / What Am I? a few months back…

But enough about my choices and let’s talk about the canvas itself…

My canvas arrived a few days after placing the order. You actually get a 48h free delivery with your order (UK delivery I guess). It was huge, and I mean HUGE when the nice courier man brought it from the van; really it was huge, believe me… I became a bit worried as my math skills aren’t brilliant (Mark always reminds me of this) and I thought that I did my calculation wrong when using cm and inches… but then I started digging…

I took me about 10 minutes to finally get into it…

Unpacking it actually felt like I was on some sort of treasure hunt… layer after layer and still no canvas… but I would say it is a big plus because who would like to receive a damaged picture. Canvas Design made sure that there is zero chance of this happening by hiding it in several thick layers of bubble wrap and protective cardboard sleeves, which sits inside yet another protecting cardboard sleeve… all of this was then generously taped with lots of fragile signs all over it.

Once I finally unwrapped all the protective packaging materials, bubble wrap included, I was hit with the fresh smell of paint… what a great feeling… it was like a new piece of art was born in front of my eyes, or nose.

My new canvas is nothing like the one we already have in the house. It feels very solid, the wooden frame is thick and perfectly finished. There are corner wedges inside the frame, which help with maintaining the tension. All the edges look neat and there is nothing I could fault with it. Quality wise I give it 10 out of 10.

Simply put it- it has a perfect finish.

As I find out later, Canvas Design use 380gsm pure cotton canvases, this might be one of the reasons why it feels so solid.

The canvas came with a hanging kit supplied – yet another plus as you do not have to hunt around the house, garage, and loft to find something suitable in order to attach it to the wall. 10 minutes after it was out of all the wrapping it was already hanging on my wall (ok, I did have some wall space ready for it, so no drilling on my part required).

There it is…
my new canvas and original picture for comparison

Canvas Design offers few types of canvases:

• Square – from 6”x6” up to 40”x40”
• Landscape – from 10”x8” up to 40”x30”
• Portrait – from 8”x10” up to 30”x 40”
• Photo collage – from 8” x 8” up to 20”x 16”
• Custom size – from 6” up to 72”

Their prices start from as little as £7.99.

To sum it up, we are very pleased with new arrival. The canvas is beautiful and extremely well made. Next time we find a picture we think would make a perfect canvas or just need a new canvas for a wall Canvas Design will be our first stop.

And if you are thinking about ordering a canvas for yourself I happened to find two discount codes which you can use.

“disco15” will give you 15% off the value of your shopping cart total.

“93HEXWF35U” will give you 10% off (just in case the 15% off code stops working)

So what are your thoughts on canvases?

Are you a fan or are you a traditionalist and prefer a painted picture… or a print if you didn’t win the lottery lately?

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I received one canvas of my choice from Canvas Design for free for review purpose. All opinions are honest and my own.