my favourite interior trends this season

The New

As someone who's really into interiors I always love watching new trends emerging and seeing how people incorporate them into their homes. There are so many things I'd like to try myself, and while my own style is some kind of a scandi/mid-century/eclectic mash-up, there is only so much experimenting I can do before my home starts looking like I have multiple personalities! 

And that's where me decorating vicariously through the homes of others comes in. I'm an interiors junkie, and Pinterest is my drug of choice.  So when Chill Insurance contacted me and asked if I'd like to collaborate with them on a post about the latest trends in interiors I just about bit their hand off! Cos if there's one thing I have plenty of guys, it's opinions ;)

There are so many trends doing the rounds right now, from interesting colours like hunter green and millennial pink for walls, to the "grey everything" trend that seems like it might never go away! I found it quite hard to pick my favorites, but I settled on the ones that I've incorporated into my own home, and they are....

Velvet Crush

Rebecca Fredriksson

Velvet is everywhere this season, and it's the perfect trend to try if you want to keep your home feeling cosy while adding some dramatic, but easy to live with colour. The soft feel of this fabric and the gorgeous jewel colours that it's popping up in at the moment mean it will look and feel amazing in any room that has a fairly neutral palette. Go for a fabulous jade green sofa like the one above if you know what you like, or stick to adding a few blush pink and cranberry cushions to a grey sofa if you're not ready to commit!

Christina Lundsteen

Monochrome

Pinterest

I'm a big fan of monochrome, huge! After playing around with different colours when we first bought our house I've come to the realisation that what makes me happiest is a clean, neutral palette. White walls, white cabinets, black and grey accents. However, that doesn't mean that you have to have everything in just black and white. In fact, that would be way too stark for me. In my opinion the best monochrome spaces incorporate a lot of wood and greenery, which both help to really soften the look and stop it from being cold. In my own home I like to have a fairly monochrome base and then add touches of warmer colour like gold and pink to lift the space.

Mother nature

Pinterest

As I said above, I love a neutral palette, but to keep it from being too stark I ALWAYS add some natural texture. No room in my house is complete without some greenery, and I've recently started adding in natural texture with woven baskets, raw wooden frames and soft furnishings in raw cottons and linens. they really bring a room to life, without competing with your neutral backdrop.

And if you have a black thumb and fear the responsibility of so many plant lives being in your hands, just go for a print! I personally LOVE the all over fern print of this bathroom, but if you're a print virgin maybe just start with something in a frame.

The Zhush

So what do you think? Will you be picking up some fab inexpensive velvet pieces? Or being like me and accidentally filling your car with greenery the next time you pop into B&Q?! If you try any of these trends I'd love to see some pics! Share your images in the comments or tag them on Instagram with #interiorinspirations cos I'd love to have a nose :)


                  

*This post is written in collaboration with Chill Insurance

plans for a nautical, cool kids bathroom

              

This is a sponsored post. As always, all opinions are my own. I only work with brands I love and I think you'll love too ;)

I know, I know, I barely managed to finish my own bathroom, why am I planning another one? Well folks, this is why....

               

Yep, that's a light up mermaid sign friends, and it was on sale, so I literally couldn't not buy her. The minute I saw her (in The Range for €15 if you're wondering) I fell head over heels, and I knew I needed her for the kids bathroom. I hadn't had any plans to touch that room ANY time soon but sometimes inspiration hits and you just have to go with it! 

This room is the main bathroom in the house but it's only used by the kids so I can have some fun in here. I want it to be child-friendly, but not childish. So fun, and whimsical, but no primary colours, no plastic, and absolutely, positively, no cartoon characters.

Starting with my beauteous mermaid I want to go with a kind of jules vern, steampunk-y nautical vibe in here, but with a palette of soft blue greens to stop it being too heavy or adult. Here's a basic moodboard to give you an idea of what I'm thinking....

The floor in here is actually the only one in the house that I didn't dislike when we first moved in so it will stay, but I will be refreshing the grout lines. It's a nice deep blue colour, so will work well with the theme.

The wall tiles in here are also fine, so I'll just be painting the walls a nice white, and adding a feature wall of some kind. I'm thinking an ombre scale pattern? The paint colours on the board are Farrow and Ball "All White", "Blue Ground" and "Vardo", and I'm thinking of making some scale shaped stamps and trying to recreate a fish scale pattern using those colours. 

I would be getting the paints mixed in Fleetwood paints though cos....money.

The shower in here only get used to rinse the kids off if one of them decides it's hilarious to pee in the bath to freak the other one out, so I'm going to replace the ugly curtain rail with a prettier, but less practical round curtain rail. The one in the picture is this one from Argos.

I'm hoping to use pallet wood to create a really cool, rustic bath panel which I think will fit in really well with the theme. I'm also going to use pallet wood for shelves, and possibly for some storage crates.

I say "I", like I'll actually have anything to do with that other than nag Gavin until it gets done.

I'll frame a round mirror with rope, and I've seen this great nautical compass wall decoration that I'll pick up. Add some vintage style art, an octopus toilet roll holder and a nautical style light like this one from Lights.ie and we're done!

What do you think? I think it'll be really pretty and fresh, and something that walks the line between what I want and what the kids want, cos I know they're my kids and I love them but they have terrible taste and this is my damn house.

amazing lighting for under €150

If you follow me on Instagram (and why wouldn't you? everyone loves pics of things I want to buy interspersed with the occasional "fml" post showing my kids destroying my house right? It's @makedoanddiy by the way) you might have seen the gorgeous new pendant light currently bringing a bit of glamour to my kitchen. 

Gorgeous isn't it?! I'm really in love with it, and get this...it was €52!!!! Yep, that's correct, absolute bargain. 

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finding art for your home on the cheap

Art can transform a room! What you display in your home can totally change the mood and a simple print can often be the finishing touch that really pulls a room together and makes it "yours". 

I love that I can change the paintings in my dining room and suddenly it feels completely refreshed, and I love finding meaningful little images or quotes that I can stick in a frame to add some fun to my decor. You know what I don't love? Paying good money for something when I don't have to! Yes, I have bought particular prints that I really loved, but in general I've found that when I want to jazz things up a bit there are plenty of very inexpensive ways of getting my grubby mitts on the art I'm after!

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it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful

So I was browsing Pinterest recently and I came across something that was so perfect that I had to share it. The idea isn't isn't new, the pictures aren't even mine, but the feeling behind it resonated so much with me that I felt like I had to show it you.

It's the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi, and it's where damaged things are repaired with gold or silver leaf, highlighting the repair rather than trying to hide it, and it looks like this......

Yatzer

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plans for an industrial/glam bathroom...and a trip to Barcelona

Hola friends!

I'm just back from a holiday in Barcelona so I come by that "Hola" honestly. We spent four nights on our own in the city and then headed to a vineyard outside Perpignan for the beautiful wedding of one of our oldest friends.

As in, we've known him a long time, not that he's of particularly advanced years or anything.


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10 things I've learned in my first year of blogging

By some miracle I started this blog more than a year ago, and instead of my usual "think it's the best thing ever for a month and then drop it like a hot snot" approach to hobbies*, this one has stuck. If anything my interest has only grown, and the more I get to know about the ins and outs of running a blog the more into it I get. 

*"Hobby" really feels like the wrong word, but I can't think what else to call it. Sideline? Venture? What I want to do when I'm a grown-up? That thing I neglect my family for? Answers on a postcard please.

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a gallery wall with a difference

The playroom is finished!....well, practically finished anyway, I just have to figure out how to incorporate a little bit more lighting in there. I hate overhead lighting and I will avoid using it at all costs! However, the lamps and strings of lights I would usually use really aren't a great choice in a room designed for such small kids so I'm a bit stumped. Suggestions are totally welcome :)

Anyway, while I'm waiting to get the whole room photographed and up here on the blog I thought I'd share a few of the different elements in here first, and to start with I chose.......yet another gallery/feature wall!! SURPRISE!

You're not surprised? Yeah, me neither.

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