Inspiration: Simple Stationery

Hello!

So, i mentioned earlier in the week that i have a lot of those 'must-get-organised' days! This weekend was no different, and this time it was my stationery's time for a makeover!

It all started when i was flicking through the June edition of Elle Decoration and got side-tracked towards the beautifully simple website of Folklore. I've not had chance to visit their store in London, although i kick myself everytime i get on the train home as it's been on my to-do list for quite some time.
Now i've always been a fan of their 'simple but functional' ethos, particularly in their ceramics, however their stationery was quite a surprise and this recycled desk tidy is what triggered today's big tidy-up!

Source: Folklore

I love how this product really represents Folkore's ethos as it has such a simple design but it's so functional, i'm not sure how i'm suriving without one! It's funny how stationery always has this effect on me - i'm a nightmare walking around stores like Paperchase - always full of products i didn't realise i needed so much! :)

My usual stop for this style of stationery is of course, Muji, and their simple, no fuss design, which has become quite a staple for my 'day job' desk!

Source: Muji

I love the combination of the acrylic holders with the kraft notebooks and functional accessories! This simple desk-design, combined with the beautiful, bold inspiration boards i recently blogged about would make such a great little creative office space!

Bee
xxx

Spotlight: Our Sofa

Hello!

Well that little bit of summer came and went pretty quickly didn't it? It's amazing how different everything feels with some sunshine - i found myself up early at the weekends, actually enjoying cleaning (!) and generally having a really productive few days!

Today i wanted to share with you, as promised, some photos of our living space - as you know, we spent the first few weeks in our new home enjoying evenings sat on dining chairs whilst we awaited the arrival of our much-debated sofa. He was very much set on a sofa with straight arms and a more contemporary shape, whereas i'd always dreamed of a big sink-in sofa, loose covers and super-soft fabrics...

Our compromise was the Conran Reynolds sofa from Marks & Spencer in a textured grey woven fabric (exact fabric is Navora Texture, Grey).
Now you'll have to excuse the quality of the images - i'll definitely be enrolling on the next Decor8 workshop as that's going to be for photography skills!

It's really difficult to get the fabric across in these photos as it looks a little greyer than it actually is - but you can get a feel for the shape and the Scandi-feel we're going for in the living area. Lots of light woods, tripod legs, soft greys and of course lots of natural light from the skylights!

What do you think? Good choice in compromise or do you think he won out in the end? :)

Bee xx

Inspiration: Inspirational Boards

Hello!

Do you ever have those days where you just want to have a huge clear-out and get super-organised? I get these quite a lot and today was definitely one of those days!
I really wanted to start making the most of my little creative corner of the apartment and instead of hiding all of my inspiration in folders, boxes and drawers, i want to have it out on display as constant inspiration for our home...Now, this isn't easy when you're limited on what you can pin onto your walls, so i decided to do a little research into mood boards to try and create my own real-life Pinterest board!

As soon as i started browsing all of the wonderful boards out there, i loved how unique and diverse all of the of the ones i found were - each having personal touches such as photos or mementos. There was also a lot more texture than i was expecting! Unlike e-boards, these weren't just images being pinned to walls, but everything from ribbons to flowers to clipboards - all building on top of each other to create truly personal displays!

Here are just a few of my favourites, each with their own unique styling:

All images sourced from Pinterest

For more inspirational inspiration boards please do check out my Pinterest too!

Do you have one in your home? I'd love to see!

Bee xx

Blogging Space

Well hello!

We've had to take a little break over the past few weeks - who knew that getting all of the boxes into the apartment was the easy part!? It's been pretty hectic around here with lots of visitors and delivery men, but it's a great feeling to be excited about getting back through the front door every time i'm driving home from work!

So, do you fancy a peek?

We want to do a little bit of a 'tour' post this week as we've gotten pretty good at giving them around the place - so for now, this is a little glimpse of the open-plan living and kitchen area from my little blogging corner.

There's sky lights so lots of natural light pouring into this room, especially on a weekend like we've just had! This is definitely my favourite spot in our new home, a little corner basked in sunlight and is often combined with a coffee and a magazine, or fresh fruit before i run off to work!

Hope you've had a great weekend!

xxx

Get The Look: The Humphrey Residence (Gossip Girl)

Hello!

Hope you had a great weekend? We've been busy trying to get our bedroom a little more organised, as we've been living for a few weeks now with just a bed and our clothes piled on the floor. I have to say, my clothes have been neatly folded and segregated by type but the other side of the room...well, i guess Spring is the time of jumble sales! ;)

We finally ordered a wardrobe we liked though and have built some other storage units, which we'll share photos of later in the week, but it was lovely to wake up this morning and finally feel like we were sleeping in our bedroom.

Talking of bedrooms, over the weekend i was reminiscing about the room sets on Gossip Girl with Kiki, the author of North Leads To Home blog (and soon-to-be e-magazine!) Now this show is certainly a shared guilty pleasure, but so is the love for their style, and not just the clothes! The interiors were just amazing and so well designed - i actually spent quite a bit of time exploring the set designer's website today. Her name is Christina Tonkin and you should definitely check it out if you're a fan of Gossip Girl or Sex & The City as she's designed sets for both of these shows.

For those who may not have spent their teens (and tweens!) dreaming of a life in the Upper East Side, shall we take a litte tour?

Today, let's start at the Humphrey residence in Brooklyn in a rather retro "little" apartment...

Source: Hooked on Houses

Source: Material Girls Blog

I loved this apartment, it was so quirky, effortlessly cool and full of stories. None of the furniture matched, there were splashes of colour and materials all over the place and a lot of clutter. But it was their family home and was practically personality. I mean, who doesn't want a garage door as a wall separating you and your sibling?

Source:Hooked On Houses

Another of my favouite things about the Humphrey household was how family-orientated the whole house was; the kitchen & dining areas were just divine - they had a big open plan living/dining/kitchen area which provided a lovely big open space to socialise in. We have a similar set up in our new place and love how you can prepare and cook meals in the kitchen whilst still entertaining your guests. 

Source: Kitchenisms

So, how can you bring a little Humphrey-style into your home? I've been asking myself this too!

It's all about statement pieces, eclectic accessories and playing with combinations of different colours and materials. This desk, for example, from Rose & Grey oozes urban chic with it's combination of wood and iron. 

We also love their Industrial Apothecary Chest, it's a great statement piece and its unusal style is perfect for creating the Humphrey look (and adding some interesting storage!)

John Lewis's explorer trunk is also a great way to add a little vintage adventure into your home - and the combination of the brass, leather, canvas and wood certainly ticks all the Humphrey boxes. I imagine the trophy is for some musical or literary accolade...

The colour palette on these cushions from Crate & Barrel are also perfect accessories for this eclectic look - we love the combination of the burnt orange and dusty yellow here and think these would look great clashing with vintage leather sofas or against industrial-inspired metal cafe chairs!

Finally, what Humphrey family home would be complete without one of these hand-printed Oversized Ruler Growth Charts from Dear Lillie...

What do you think of the Humphrey style? Are you a fan or are you a little more Upper East Side?

XOXO

Ideal Home Show

Hello!

Well this heatwave we were promised this weekend hasn't quite arrived in our village yet - it's pretty much been raining all day, which has given us plenty of time to build a few more bits of furniture!
We've also been going through our photos from the recent Ideal Home Show at Earl's Court and have got some we thought you might like to see if you didn't get chance to go this year.
We were fortunate enough to attend for the first time after winning tickets through Lucy Loves Ya blog and considering it was its 105th year running, it was still absolutely packed with interiors, food, accessories, beauty products and lots & lots of people!!

One of our favourite areas at the show was the Ideal Home Room Sets, which were right at the entrance to the exhibition hall, and a great way to start off the day by bringing together ranges from across the high street in inspirational displays (and each room set came with a really handy shopping list to take away too!)

We loved the more country take on the botanical trend in this living room display - the combination of the lavender tones with the more vintage floral accessories create a really soft, homely atmosphere don't you think?

How striking is the hue of blue they've chosen for the wall in this display? The built-in bookcase is also a great way to display your key accessories or store all your favourite interiors books!

This bedroom was right up our street - simply accessorised but with a Scandi colour palette and minimalist features - we particularly loved the shelving units they'd fixed to the wall and the burnt orange cushions.

Not sure what else we can say on this, other than...check out the bath tub!

...and there's a walk-in shower...surely this can't just be our dream bathroom?

Unfortunately, we don't have any outside space in our new place, however if we did, we'd definitely use it for entertaining al fresco too (when we finally see that sunshine!)

Oh, and somewhere between the interiors and food halls (where we bought some amazing smoked cheese!) we spotted this quirky cabinet! We loved how the coloured stripes created a great statement piece, but we'd also sand the top down to add to it's distressed oak finish.

So, what do you think of their chosen room sets? Did you attend the Ideal Home Show this year?

xxx

Inspiration: Ombre Accents

Hello!

Today we wanted to share with you some ideas for one of the big trends we've noticed recently in lots of the interiors magazines and stores - ombre!
Now this is one of those trends that we've seen slowly working it's way into everything from fashion to beauty and now it is the home's turn to jump on the graduating colour train! And what better trend than ombre to try out some new accessories.
In last month's Elle Decoration magazine, they recommended experimenting with graduated hues of vibrant pinks and inky blues and used some great examples of subtle ombre accessories from one of our favourite stores Ferm Living:

Source: House of Money boxes at Ferm Living

Whilst on our search for some beautiful ombre accents of our own for the new place, we came across some really bright, colourful accessories that fit this trend perfectly and are a really simple way to bring this trend into your home.
Our particular favourites are the beautiful tapas plates from the super chic Aedriel Originals - isn't the coral colour just stunning?

Source: Ombre The Tapas Plates at Aedriel Originals

Source: Ombre Pillows at Just Dwell Etsy Store

Source: Flamenco Shower Curtain at Anthropologie

We love how ombre can add really fresh pops of colour to your home, but being the colour-phobes we currently are we're also huge fans of the more neutral earthy palettes that West Elm have done in such perfection - don't they always?!

What do you think? Are you brave enough to bring some of the more vibrant ombre desigs into your home, or are you currently as in love with West Elm as we are?

xxx