Tag Archives: country living

Home tour ~ Bathroom

Home tour ~ Bathroom-5

We are about to start a big renovation project in our home. Walls will be coming down, floors will get replaced and I will be saying farewell to that awful chip wood wall paper. I wanted to share these home tour pics for a while now so it’s probably best to start with the smallest room in the house: bathroom. Our small, cozy, vintage, avocado green bathroom.  Some call it vintage but let be honest it’s puke. This was never my favorite room and it was the first one to go.

Home tour ~ Bathroom-4

 As you can see I tried to make it homey by adding some greenish pastel floor rugs together with extra soft Egyptian cotton towels from John Lewis. I’ve thrown in a few ornaments from around the world; like these orange & purple Buddha’s from Burma & Maria Guadalupe statue from Mexico.  A few frames around are handovers and mostly car both  items.

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Metal cabinet was sourced in a small vintage shop based in Bourne End, it was on sale together with the towel rail aka wooden duckegg ladder. I think we paid £80 for the lot.

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I bought my duck shower curtain from Homebase. The quality was catastrophic and it was the first thing that we binned. The loops started tearing down after a few months of use and by that time it was way too late to claim any refund.

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And here comes the bonus! All in all this is/was a decent size bathroom. It needed a new set of tiles, a lick of paint and new toilet, sink & bath. Making it fresh and modern but still in touch with the county cottage feel. Our renovation process was very well coordinated (just under 2 weeks for bathroom) until our plumber discovered some extra space! I know how lucky are we? Behind the bath stud wall lays extra 40 inches of space followed by the whole bath size wall that is currently being demolished. Our bathroom doubled in size and changed it shape overnight; from a small rectangular to a spacious square. Needless to say my original Victoria Plumb order was sent back and a new plan was hatched. I will be sharing my Pinterest inspiration with you shortly.

Ines x

 

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Organizing your wardrobes ~ ideas!

I was over the moon when we first moved into our new house! I had a little walking in wardrobe, that I naively hoped to keep just for my self. Three years down the line and I was still sharing my space with the boy! I was not impressed! As we didn’t have that much space(read these lines:I have a male version of Imelda Marcos in the house)..I constantly had to swap my winter wardrobe with the summer one! And trust me, climbing up to the attic to store your coats or your dresses was not my favorite thing! Especially as I have so many of both. So…what do you do when you lack space and have to share your wardrobe with a guy?

Build him his own!

It started with us moving out of the spare bedroom and getting our new studio. Spare bedroom become free and suddenly a massive storage of bits and bobs that we accumulated trough out the year. It was a time for a change. The old office shelves were perfect to store t-shirts and all I had to do is install a hanging rail! Quick trip down to the Homebase (metal rail + fitting ends= £15!) Perfection!

Here are the photos of before and after!

before

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And the guest bedroom, (without the bed!) was turned into a private walking in wardrobe. His! Oh, you should see the joy in Mr. B eyes. He loved it! All of his stuff in one room. Together! Priceless…not even a MasterCard can buy you that.

After spending whole afternoon with drills and measuring meter I was ecstatic. I finally get my small cupboard to myself. I spent hours, days, months getting it all into the place. This is what I came up with and no, there is no more daunting trips up to the attic.

wardrobe-6-horzAs I didn’t need my old filing cabinets in our new office, I decided to transformed them into some kind of a storage. In this case, storage for sock, knickers, bras and belts.

wardrobe-13-horzI am a sucker for hanging clothes in a certain way. I like to hang mine by lengths, shapes, materials and colors. Hence it looks like this. Whilst cleaning rooms, I’ve found this old & cute material hanger which I hanged on the door of my cupboard  together with my favorite necklaces.

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My antique women’s bust is a charity shops find and I tend to put all my current jewelry on her as I go…

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I finally got that amazing chest of draws and put all my winter sweaters in it! On top of it I store the rest of my jewelry. I have accumulated a lot of it in the past few years so again I need a lot of boxes to keep the things tidy. I used some old tin candle boxes to store my earrings in …

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And my bracelets are nice and organised in this long African wood box 🙂

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I have still kept my vintage wardrobe for my coats and fancy dresses as I don’t use them that often.

wardrobe-23-horzThis is my favorite box where I keep my little trinkets and brooches. It was bought for me by one of my besties ~ Matea, my bridesmaid and dearest friend.

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I will finish this post by a framed picture of us on our wedding day which is perked up on the top of the chest. Frames can be used to store your jewelry too!

wardrobe-27-horzHow do you store yours? Done any spring cleaning recently? Would love to hear your troughs?

x Ines

 

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5 THINGS WHY I LIKE WINTER

1. TRAVEL.-We love to travel, it has been our passion for years. It is travel that drives us through our busy summer months. Given that we are both photographers sometimes it’s really hard to balance both work and travel. Especially for hubby as he is always on the go to photograph this new happening and/or that new festival. Hence the winter is our time off. It is time when we re-charge our batteries. We don’t take any jobs on as we try to escape from the dull & grey Britain. As I write this we are on our way to Spain & Morocco…and our captain just announced 22 degrees Celsius.

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2. CLOTHES- I’m a summer girl, born and raised on the beach and parading around in just bikinis represent no problems to me. However there is something charming about winter clothes. Maybe it’s because I grow up in really hot climate with average of 15c in winter. We really don’t have any winters in Dubrovnik! All of that however changed when we moved back to UK and I suddenly discover my new love for hats, scarfs and gloves.

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3. WINTER COSY- well this is more a state of a mind than a thing. Getting into your warm slippers after a cold day out is just priceless? Isn’t it? How about burning a fire in your log burner? Catching up in your next door local with some mates (yes, we live next door to a pub) J over a warm cider? These are the things that matter to me and make me one happy bunny even if it’s -3 outside.

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4. CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR- Oh the joys of getting into yet another year and thinking, yes I survived! And how many New Year resolutions do I make this time? 10? 15? 100? Make them last until the end of January anyway…and don’t forget the presents, a lot of presents. Having a Christmas dinner with the folks while chatting with Nan over a glass of mulled wine? My favorite! Watching bad telly? Yep! Singing Christmas songs on the radio…eating…there is too much to add…

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5. SALE-s – Yes. You read correctly. Its sales that get my weak heart scream with joy, especially the ones after Christmas. Most of my bargains are from those sales. I hope you hit them already  Unfortunately sales don’t mix well with travel so this year my love for travel wins.

Big Merry Christmas to all,

Xoxo Ines

 

 

 

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Chandeliers and pots

I have been spying on this chandelier from Graham and Green for more than a year now. If a chandelier can have a stalker than this beauty has. Me! Soon, very soon my love we will be together and you will hang proudly in my white & pink kitchen.

Photo credit

This shop is amazing. I was first introduced to Graham and Green by one of my lovely clients after a photo shoot in Primrose Hill, London. I felt in love instantly and bought a lovely flower aged ceramic vase. I don’t think they have her any more but I did found some similar flower pots on their menu.

Another purchase are these three vintage heart wire baskets. I keep them on my kitchen bay window and you can see more about them in this recent blog post. I use them as a storage for lemons, potatoes, onions and garlic… I like to have my fruit & veg displayed nicely.

 

P.S. I am also in love with this Jeeves & Wooster’s pendant lights.

Happy Tuesday folks, X Ines

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