Beside the Seaside

Welcome to my first ever room makeover, which I am very excited about!

Recently, I have felt inspired by a few things, one of which is living by the sea – how beautiful it can be and how happy it makes me. Another is Joanna Thornhill’s book Home for Now, which is full of inspiring ideas that you can read more about here. It made me think about my rented home and how when renting there is a certain limit to what you can do. But this shouldn’t stop people from making it their own.

Our spare room was best described as a dumping ground with a bed. It was where all our odd bits of furniture ended up. We are so lucky to have lots of family and friends that come to stay with us and we love it – it’s been amazing to have the space to put people up. So I wanted to make this guestroom into something special. It’s a great room at the top of the house with a small balcony. It has a dark navy blue wall, which I decided was the perfect backdrop for a nautical, beach theme inspired by the sea at the end of the road! It’s all about working with what you have – if life gives you lemons and all that!!

So, first have a look at the room before (I always love this bit):

And here is the room now:

I have been working through ideas for the past few months. First, I sanded back the orangey pine on the rocking chair and repainted it white – I love how it looks now. The bedside table was something I found outside someone’s house when we lived in London. I really liked the shape of the legs and it was a good solid wooden table but it looked as though someone had started a DIY makeover that they never finished. Rather than paint it, I decided to add a sheet of glass on the top and put pictures underneath of beaches we have visited – I used postcards and old railway poster prints. I filled an old vase with stones and shells that our family have collected over the years from various beaches. After some searching, I finally found some old wooden boat oars from a local couple that I scrubbed clean and revived with some linseed oil. As most of you will know, I love old and new together and I feel this room satisfies my obsession!

I found the cushions, throw, artwork and storage box all at Tesco, which has a great seaside living range and they also have some great interior ideas on their Tesco Living site.

Have you recently completed a room makeover? Or do you have a nautical room of your own? I would love to hear from you.

Love Lemon x

Please note that Tesco kindly gifted items for my makeover. All thoughts are of course my own.

Lemon Loves #2

So what are my loves at the moment, well to start with I have really enjoyed catching up on lots of blogs recently and following some great sewing bloggers since completing a dressmaking course in March. I particularly enjoy the Dolly Clackett blog featuring so many amazing dresses in such a variety of brilliant fabrics. I have also enjoyed reading Randomly Happy, Tilly and the Buttons, This Blog is Not For You and What Katie Sews. A whole new world of handmade for me and so many inspiring ideas. I would be grateful for any recommendations for dressmaking blogs. 

A few weekends back I was in London catching up with some friends which was so lovely, we had food and cocktails in Brixton village which I have wanted to do for a while after so many people had told me about it. So much amazing food to choose from, we went for Tapas which we all really enjoyed. I also popped into ED which is a Rigby and Mac store in East Dulwich, it's near where I used to live and I always loved popping in to browse all the colourful and quirky homeware. I bought some great rustic wall letters that are made from old boat wood. A fab addition to the growing collection of items on my hallway wall. 

I started another dressmaking course at Felixstowe Sewing School and I am so excited to be making the Emery dress by Christine Haynes. I really wanted to try an independent pattern this time and did lots of research, checking out all the amazing pattern designers out there. For me the Emery dress was the perfect style and I found some very pretty Liberty fabric at Clothkits who were also offering 25% off at the time. I haven't actually ever bought Liberty fabric so it feels very special to be using some for this dress.

Sun and more sun, it's times like these when I truly appreciate living by the sea. I have been out on my bike with the kids and we have loved sunny trips to the beach. 

There are many things I love about where we live, it's mostly about the beach and friendly people but also smaller things that make me happy like fresh bread from the tiny bakers around the corner that sells the most amazing bread. You can't beat fresh bread and this seeded loaf is my favourite.

I am working on giving my guest room a little makeover, so hopefully I will be sharing that very soon. It's very exciting putting it all together.

Love Lemon x