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I was sitting in my lovely front room last night, having a cup of decaf tea and watching the Sex and the City reboot (no idea why I’ve just needlessly admitted to that, to be honest) and I realised that it’s been ages – over a month – since I last wrote any kind of house updates.
I’d never make it as an interiors blogger.
To be honest, the room was 95% there during the last update with just a few bits of trim around the fireplace to go, which took so long to arrive I have given the company a 1* rating on Trust Pilot. The only thing remaining now is to find some art for the walls, but this is something you shouldn’t rush lest you be stuck with generic Ikea art out of desperation.
Here’s a little before and after I knocked up:
We (I say ‘we’, it was definitely not me) noticed that the fancy black radiator was not exactly where it had been placed; the brackets weren’t really up to the job and with the company refusing to do much about it (boo, Victorian Plumbing) so we had to buy more lest it come crashing down in the middle of the night. That would really piss on our chips (and ruin the flooring).
We also painted the TV unit black, and got a nice dark green rug in the Dunelm sale.
And of course, we bought some more cushions.
If you don’t get tipsy and order cushions, are you even middle aged?
Speaking of cushions, the last time I shared a post about my new front room, I received this heart-warming message from someone who didn’t follow me, but nevertheless was incensed…about cushions.
(I suspect a hint of jealousy about my majestic sofa, to be honest).
I didn’t have a clue what she meant so I took to Facebook to ask the wise people there, and apparently there is such a thing as ‘chopping’ cushions. Chopping cushions basically placing them on the sofa square and then denting the top so they look like this (but probably in a shade of greige):
NB I had to go through two pages of stock photos to find some cushions one could describe as ‘chopped’ so they’re obviously not that fucking popular.
I’m still unclear on what the point of chopping cushions is.
Perhaps it’s so that your family and friends believe you don’t actually live there, and the house they have visited is instead a show home from an issue of House and Garden magazine. I believe I’ve addressed this once or twice before, as it goes, and I am not here for it.
It’s a lovely feeling to have decorated a room just how we want it to be, but at the end of the day I couldn’t give less of a fuck how to cushions look.
Anyway, here are my cushions!
Bloody marvellous, no?
Also: A very respectable hall
Another reason I’ve not updated much recently is because July is the month of birthdays; first my son and then two weeks later, my partner. It means I’ve been rather absorbed with writing reviews of toys, theatre trips and days out.
For my partner’s birthday, among many amazing gifts, I got him a lovely and very classy antique (and in no way a cheap knock off which you can buy here) drinks globe. It’s a little bit too small to actually keep anything in, but it certainly looks the part.
When I bought it I wasn’t exactly sure where it would go, but we picked up a wingback chair from the local Buy Nothing Facebook group the same day and as luck would have it, the two look pretty good together in the hall with the grandfather clock.
I’m not sure how practical it is, but I tell you what; it’s nice to have somewhere to perch to put my shoes on.
Meanwhile, in the garden
The weather has been pretty shitty this past couple of weeks (make your mind up, I beg of you!) and as such, I’ve not been in the garden much instead letting the grass and brambles grow free.
This has been rubbish for the beds, but excellent for the was-breezeblock-monstrisity-is-now-a-lawn in the back garden.
The before/during and after is pretty impressive.
We also got our first harvest of one cucumber and one courgette, which obviously made the hours of work well worth it, and the tree (an Indian Bean Tree, we now realise) which was definitely 100% dead so we chopped down and built a platform on, is now very much alive and thriving.
The platform is still there too and the tree is growing around it, so that’s fun.
Anyway, I’ve successfully wasted all the time I had so that’s all for now.
We might be wallpapering the bedroom soon, so that’s something to look forward to for next time…