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.

Living Space - Interior Inspirations

I'm feeling in the mood to reorganise and look at improvements I can make to our home. We have only lived here for six months and every so often wherever we live I like to have a move around or try to look at things with fresh eyes to see where things could be improved. I enjoy it. I like making my home nice and I think the way you live in a place changes over time. There are pieces of furniture that I would like to replace but for now I want to look at the smaller details and spend 2012 adding some more colour and personality to my home. First I am going to concentrate on the living/dining room area where we spend most of our time as a family.

This year I am hoping to…

1. Paint the dining room chairs and table legs - I'm thinking about a bright turquoise colour.

2. I have a large wall in the living room, for which I am hoping to buy some vintage travel posters (featured here) of places we have been to.

3. I want to make some new cushions. Colours/patterns to be decided but I am thinking no two will be the same. 

4. I want to find a vintage cabinet/bookcase that could store some of our much loved books for the living room.

5. Re-paint the chest I recently bought for toy storage.

6. Make some new curtains for the living room.

7. Buy a new vintage lamp for the corner of the living room.

I also wanted to work out a clear colour palette to use and keep me focused.

I created my own board on Pinterest using a selection of images and colour palettes from Design Seeds  –  which I found so inspiring. Take a look at my board below or click on the Pinterest button on the right side.

Of course if I had a lot of cash for these things life would be easier but it's more fun this way and any excuse to get back to those auction rooms!

The following words best describe how I want to living space to be:

Cosy and comfortable

Bright and fun

Full of memories

Vintage

Relaxed

Here is the chest I bought recently for £25 at a great place in Thorpeness. It's great for toy storage and the front slides closed so you can put things on the top without removing them every time you want to get into it. I do feel it needs a bit of colour and updating. I haven't decided on what to do with it yet though. Perhaps a light mocha colour similar to one of the ones from the colour palettes.

I will keep you updated and please add links to any interior design projects of your own or any ideas you have! I would love to hear about them.

Love Lemon x