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Living Room

Design, Interiors, My Home, Shop

Good Decision #1. The Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table.

January 7, 2018

Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table White

 

2018 is going to be the year of the good decision. I’ll be applying that logic to pretty much everything. It’ll be particularly prevalent within my home as I spend the year putting my disposable income to one side in the hope of being in a position to start looking at buying my first home come January 2019. This year if I’m going to spend money on something for my home then it has to be something built for my future: a piece I know I’ll never tire of.

Christmas money is not a thing I find myself with often, my family is big on the present and I’m fine with that as that’s precisely how I am too. This year however, some came my way. I know what you’re thinking, I could have popped it into my savings account for my deposit, but I didn’t. It was intended for a gift so a gift it became.

The Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table has been on my list for quite some time now. I’ve lost count of the amount of times it’s been added to my basket. On December 27th I took the plunge and finally ordered it from the sale at istome. Naturally I went for white, though the pale grey did give it a good run for its money, honest.

 

Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table White

 

Before the block table’s arrival my living room had started to feel a little bit cluttered. I have very minimalistic tendencies and tastes, but at the same time I have that rather annoying habit of liking things and therefore thinking I have to have them, regardless of wether I a) need them or b) feasibly have room for them. The room had become a little too busy towards the end of last year; some good decisions were needed.

The nesting set of three oak tables I’ve had for about eight years now we’re a gift from my mum when I moved into my first unfurnished property. There’s a sentimental part of me that wants to hold onto them but there’s also the sensible part of me that knows they take up too much room and don’t particularly fit in with the way my interior has evolved. With the blessing of my mum they will be finding their way to eBay in the search of a new home, the money from which will go straight into my savings account. Promise.

 

Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table White

 

Essentially the minimalist version of a drinks trolly, the Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table is a dream on wheels. Powdered steel and solid ash, it’s exactly what I wanted. It took all of two minutes to screw together and joyfully lead to several minutes of pushing it around the room like it was 1962 and about to offer people a Snowball.

Designed by Simon Legald back in 2012 and filling Nordic design hashtag feeds ever since, the table call be wheeled about in just about any direction you’d like. For now it will live comfortably in my living room, but in the future it may find itself anywhere. I suppose that’s the idea of these good purchasing decisions – buying things I’m confident I’ll always have a home for.

 

Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table White

ARKET Matches

 

Now the table is perfectly positioned beside the sofa, ready to receive a cup of tea and no doubt several magazines. It’s only January 7th I’m aware, but I can’t help but feel this is a good decision to start with. An investment piece I’ve had my eye on for years; versatile and adaptable.

 

Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table White

Normann Copenhagen Block Side Table White

 

It’s the first of a few changes I plan on making in the room in order to strip it back and pair it down. The large bookcase I so painstakingly painted in Little Greene’s Basalt Blue will be turning a pale shade of grey to make it less imposing, along with a large proportion of the objects that have accumulated around the room being boxed away, redistributed or listed on eBay. The large empty wall behind the sofa will also finally be receiving the linen wall hanging I’ve been talking about creating for two years. Well, it will be once I’ve decided on a design. It would seem that is much easier said than done.

Watch this (large white) space.

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Design, Interiors, My Home, Shop

A Design Essential That Won’t Break The Bank

November 5, 2017

 This is a sponsored post produced in collaboration with IKEA.

 

I truly believe the concept of one’s eyes being too big for their belly can also be applied to interior design. Have you ever fallen in love with an item so immediately you find yourself standing there, all alone in the deserted aisle, clutching an inanimate object to your chest whilst your mind runs over every last inch of your home? Where can it live? Where will it fit? Where can it be stored until a place it can fit and live can be located? Perhaps you haven’t, maybe it’s just my own inability to let go… For me however, it seems to occur all too regularly.

 

 

The most recent object of my affection resides – perhaps unsurprisingly – within the YPPERLIG collection I’ve been championing for quite sometime. Arriving with a price tag of only £12, yet crafted from solid birch wood, IKEA and HAY’s wall shelf is the kind of piece I never knew I even needed in my life. That was until I saw it gazing out at me from the collection’s lookbook anyway. I knew I had to make it mine. It was going to be the shelf of dreams. Casually (yet artfully) styled with those images I tear from magazines and never know where to put and those postcards I pick up but then again never quite know what to do with. It was to be the modernist version of the pin board and a stellar edition to my home.

It could be a tad bold to say this, but I think this may actually be my favourite piece of the collection. It’s clean, modern design isn’t exactly something you tend to find in the ‘mass market’ often, especially not for such a ridiculously achievable price.

To date this shelf of dreams has found itself in three locations in my flat, moved from pillar to post as I backtrack on my decision of its rightful home. Sometimes when you love something you’ve got to try real hard.

My first thought was for it to sit beside the gallery wall in my dining room but something just wasn’t right. I already feel that wall is somewhat unbalanced as it is, so adding a rather large weight to one end was in hindsight a glaring error. I was a fool. I also feel that wall is one for a later post; ‘When Gallery Walls Go Wrong’. Watch this space.

 

 

Secondly it arrived in my living room, positioned to the side of the two large black and white photographs that flank the left hand wall. This time I came prepared with Command strips and temporarily hung it in place. Down it came. I couldn’t bring myself to photograph that incorrectly gauged experiment as evidence here, so I swiftly moved on.

Its third appearance took place in the same room, positioned directly behind the sofa on the mass blank wall that has plagued me for quite some time. There, off to one side, it all fell into place. It found its home.

Each of the shelf’s sections can play host to any manner of objects, held in place by a bungee cord threaded through. With the addition of some black bulldog clips it was also able to accomodate those odd little tags and business cards I’ve kept floating around at the bottom of drawers.

 

 

Exactly what will be going on the rest of that massive wall is, at this moment in time, still alluding me however.

If you find yourself in possession of £12 and fancy creating your own YPPERLIG conundrum, the shelf is now available to buy online and in store.

 

 

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Design, Interiors, My Home, Shop

A Living Room Update. Part One.

September 2, 2017

IKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Tray Table

If truth be told, I didn’t strictly need to do anything to my living room. I just really wanted to. I have a habit of convincing myself things are absolutely essential, if not imperative to my happiness in life. Saying that, there were very real reasons for wanting the living room update, but they definitely didn’t push it into the ‘absolutely essential’ category.

I had bought my previous sofa from DFS specifically for a rather narrow living room in flat I was living in at the time in Ealing. I definitely didn’t have the money to be buying sofas but it one was required and like much of the United Kingdom, I was drawn in by the ever-present DFS offer. You know the ones: ‘WAS £999, NOW £299 – BUT ONLY TILL TUESDAY’, which is of course swiftly followed by ‘OFFER EXTENDED!’. It’s all a con. They know it, you know, I know it, but still, when you can take the finance option and pay around £8 a month for a sofa, you do it. Picking a new sofa was the first step in the room’s overhaul. You can read my initial musings on that tricky topic here.

The sofa I eventually decided on was IKEA’s Two Seater Nockeby in Tallmyra White & Black. Surprisingly for me, I went with the chrome leg option. I visited my local store on numerous occasions to test it out prior to purchasing online, and it most definitely came out top. I even took two friends for back up opinions and thorough testing of its capacity.

IKEA Nockeby SofaIKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Tray Table

It’s comfy, it’s satisfyingly grey in appearance (yet is actually a two-tone black and white weave) and it is precisely the dose of modernity I wanted to inject into my living room.

IKEA Nockeby Sofa

Naivety took a hold of me when it came to the sofa’s delivery however. I had the incredibly bold idea I would simply be attaching the sofa’s legs and putting on the covers. An hour’s work at most. Well, I was wrong. As I was presented with three very large boxes, it all started to dawn on me. I had to build the sofa. It was a flatpack, of course it was. This is IKEA after all.

IKEA Nockeby Sofa Flat Pack Two SeaterIKEA Nockeby Sofa Flat Pack Two Seater No Covers

Several hours later and with some rather tricksy straddling, foot balancing and awkward bending, it was complete. Angels sang and golden beams of light descending from the heavens. Ish.

Now the sofa is safely installed, I can start to think about the rest of the room. I originally painted the room’s bookcase in Little Greene‘s Basalt Blue and still love it even now, but after much deliberation have decided it shall be going a pale shade of grey. I’d like it to blend in a little better. The side of the room it lives on has the large black fireplace and a black TV cabinet, so three large pieces of dark furniture in a row like that has always bothered me. It feels weighty in comparison to the lightness of the other half of the room.

IKEA Bookcase Painted In Little Greene Basalt

The next thing I’m going to be doing is making myself a desk area, complete with the freshly purchased HAY x IKEA YPPERLIG wall frame. I knew as soon I saw this piece in the lookbook that it would look fantastic hung directly above a shelf.  It’ll be a small desk area but I’m confident I’ll still be able to plan for world domination at it. Currently the corner of the room it will occupy is filled with what could possibly be several tonnes of magazines, so where these will be relocated is at the moment a little bit of a mystery. For now the frame is propped nonchalantly against the wall, awaiting some carefully selected images and magazines to be filed within it.

The YPPERLIG collection makes another appearance in the room in the form a new side table, replacing the set of nesting oak tables that I used to move around the room on a weekly basis. I’ve always loved the tables for their mid-century curved shape, but I can’t help but feel the tray table sits a little better with the sofa’s sharp lines.

IKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Tray TableIKEA Nockeby Grey Sofa

I’ve set aside September to get everything completed, all set and ready for the autumn’s arrival. I find myself spending so much more time in the room over the autumn and winter months, so what better time for it? The large wall behind the sofa has been irritatingly blank since I moved in due to my issues with artwork commitment, so that’s first on my list of things to sort after the desk. I’ve now decided I’m going to put my sewing machine to good use and make a wall hanging – something graphic and colourblocked. Maybe a greyscale Mondrian effect, but perhaps don’t quote me on that.

I’m also planning to make some new cushions, along with stepping up my search for a simple oak bench and the perfect footstool. If you find yourself interested, feel free to head over to Pinterest to check out my board.

 

 

IKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Collection

|1.| IKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Tray Table £35 |2.| IKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Candle Holders £4.95 |3.| IKEA x HAY YPPERLIG Wall Frame £12

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Interiors, My Home

Sofa surfing.

April 16, 2017

My present sofa has served me faithfully for half a decade. A rather terrifying thought. It’s found itself in the living room of an oddly cottage-like two bed flat in West London and remains present in my white walled Victorian abode. However, lately I just can’t help but feel it’s time for the winds of change to coming a-blowing, bringing with them a new sofa.

To date, I have been a tenant in eleven flats. Until the two most recent of those eleven, they had come oh so delightfully furnished with brown faux-leather sofas. Here are two bits of information about me, yours for free. I despise the colour brown and faux-leather furniture makes me queasy. Don’t forget that, there’ll be a test when you least expect it.

I imagine landlords favour them because they’re –  a) cheap and b) wipe clean. Two things I distinctly never want furniture to be. After the 9th flat I vowed to never have to uncomfortably sit on a faux-leather again, never was I to wince in pain from the brown horror I was confronted with each time I unlocked the door. So it was that I took my first unfurnished flat. The task of furnishing it on my rather measly disposable income however proved somewhat trickier.

Buying a sofa is no easy job. When you actually take some time to think about it, aside from our bed and mattress, is there any other piece of furniture we have more constant interaction with? It should be warm and comforting, inviting and friendly. It is where we should come home and want to sink into, somewhere we feel absolutely content. All of this means there is a lot of pressure behind that decision. What if it’s not right?

I picked my current sofa – a DFS number selected on a boiling hot summer’s afternoon in a bustling showroom on Tottenham Court Road, with the ‘assistance’ of a woman who found my queries about the finance option rather irritating – because it was quite frankly, the only one I could afford. On finance and spread out over five years, the payments amounted to almost nothing every month. That seemed like a good deal to me.

I can’t pretend finding a sofa in DFS to my taste was easy, because it certainly wasn’t. The one I selected came with obnoxiously large throw cushions in a contrasting chenile. They were directly donated to a charity shop. I hope someone somewhere is enjoying those oddly huge cushions, I really do. I personally do not appreciate being told what ‘throw’ (seriously, if you’d thrown one of these, someone could have died) cushions I’ll be having on my own sofa thank you very much.

Anyway, I have digressed yet again. The short story is that sadly it just isn’t all that comfortable. An oddly sloped back and a rather deep bottom cushion makes the body contort oddly in it; perhaps the reason why the sofa is now actually discontinued from the DFS range… Who knows.

So the decision on what exactly shall replace the sofa begins… My mind is boggled. Sofa.com? Made.com? Swoon Editions? The market has opened up quite a lot since that sweaty purchase five years ago and my tastes have altered almost as much. I feel the time is now to opt for something a little more rigid in its shaping? Supportive and strong without being overpowering and uncomfortable. No mean feat.

 

The contenders.

 

Sofa.com’s beautiful imagery teamed with their ability to nail the exact shade of grey that entices me means I can barely narrow it down. I’m going to reserve falling for the Descartes grey wool sofa until I’ve perched myself on it in their Harrogate showroom very shortly. It certainly looks comfy… and the fact you can clearly take away the button-studded design makes me think it could sit quite nicely in the same.

In the past I have brilliant reviews on the quality of the sofas, so I’m certainly leaning Sofa’s way I have to say. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

 

 

Swoon Editions are the front runners when it comes to the shape. Naturally selected in grey wool, the Berlin sofa seems comfy but oddly… strict? The inability to actually perch my cheeks on anything Swoon Editions prior to buying however is making me rather nervous. That’s a lot of money for a potentially uncomfortable wool sofa.

 

 

And in the red corner, we have the Tivoli. Are those arms too stiff looking? Are the legs a bit too piddly? It’s a minefield of sofa queries I tell you.

 

 

Finally, there is made.com‘s Scott sofa in velvet. Yup. Velvet. ‘Curveball!’ I hear you cry! Well, it is still grey, but yes. Velvet. I’m tempted. Although I am oddly put off by the fact it’s called Scott. Scott the sofa. We’d be renaming that one I feel. Stefan? Sigourney? I’ll give it some thought.

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Interiors, My Home, Shop

Hello HAY.

March 28, 2017

My mantelpiece has been the same since I moved into the flat eighteen months ago – a collection of frames and objects that were regularly punctuated with a vase (or seven) of flowers. I liked the easily interchangeable nature of having nothing hung on the wall, allowing me to mix and match as I chose throughout the year. Sometimes there were books, candles, extra frames, birthday cards… whatever took my fancy really.

All of that changed however when my eyes fell upon the beauty that is HAY’s Strap Mirror. As I quietly perused the COS x HAY selection at the High Street Kensington store it is safe to say I fell in love. I fell in love with a mirror.

There it was, hanging proudly over a perfectly styled birchwood desk. Its incredibly satisfying round surface reflecting the array of concrete plant pots positioned to one side. At this moment I knew it. I knew it was meant to live atop my mantelpiece. In fact, I knew it was going to make everything better. The room needed something, some varying levels to make the most of the tall proportions it came blessed with. It was going to solve everything.

Okay, so it probably wasn’t going to solve everything exactly and I may be somewhat over egging the experience in to some kind of religious experience, but guys, it was love.

Despite the quizzical glances it quite often results in, each year for my birthday I tend to ask for things for my home. With this year being my thirtieth it seemed even more apt to pick something I will be sure to keep. And so it is here that the beautiful grey minimalist mirror of dreams became mine.

If you haven’t familiarised yourself with Utility Design then it’s about time you did. Stocking a great selection of HAY product, the site sells an incredible selection of brands that can sometimes be rather difficult to purchase in the UK.

It came. It is indeed as beautiful in my own home as it was in the busy basement of COS. So it might be a little heavier than anticipated and yes, I do live my life with the fear that my drilling might not quite have been good enough and it could fall down during the night and deliver me bad luck for the next seven years, but it has indeed changed everything I wanted it to change about the room. Adding a focal point to the large chimney breast wall, providing some height to the room’s proportions and reflecting the light from the window back into the room. It’s a masterpiece of minimal design, which when softened with a vase to one side, looks perfect in the room.

Shop the HAY Strap Mirror at Utility Design here

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Design, Interiors, My Home

Blank Space.

January 3, 2017

For the most part I am aware of what I like and what I want, in an interiors sense at least. However I constantly struggle with deciding on what to hang on my walls. It seems such an important decision, even though I am fully aware that prints can be changed and frames can be switched in next to no time should I have a case of midnight regret.

When I think about how much time will ultimately be spent with it in my eye line, it makes it all the more important to get it right. The space behind my sofa in the living room has always troubled me. What exactly was I going to do with it? It is the largest blank space in my entire flat if you discount the extensive double-height walls of the staircase. (I do chose to discount this presently painfully magnolia space, as until it is reworked into a beautiful sea of white, it absolutely does not exist.)

In a spirited moment of potential creativity I purchased a large canvas to fill the space. Quite what I planned on doing to said canvas was as unclear then as it is now to be perfectly honest. It has stood propped against the place that may perhaps be its home one day for several months now. Blank. Very big and very blank.

As I now find myself the owner of the canvas I feel I really do need to see it through produce something for the space myself, although the fear of producing something altogether a little amateur is very present. Nothing is quite so upsetting as being made to admire someone’s bad artwork.

I think the ultimate problem – and the reason the canvas has found itself so unadorned for quite such a long time – is that I’m not actually too sure what art it is I do like? Let alone what kind of ‘art’ I’m capable of producing myself. So this week’s task is to try and pin down exactly what I want through the medium of a moodboard. Oh yes, I plan to moodboard.

Watch this (blank) space.

 

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