Our New House: The before pictures!

Hi guys,
Sorry for the long gap between posts. With looking after Wilbur, and the (frankly confusing) process of buying our first house, there hasn't been much time to drool over gorgeous interiors. But we did it - we are now officially homeowners and we moved in last week!

There's plenty of decorating, unpacking and repair work to do. But for now, here's what the house looks like before the process begins:

So what have we got? Well it's a three bedroom house with an entrance porch, large open plan living/dining area (with gorgeous bamboo floors) and a frankly disgusting kitchen downstairs. Upstairs are three bedrooms (2 double and one single, which will become my office) and a bathroom. Out back we have a garden big enough for BBQs and a veggie patch, and a garage.  Our own little patch to call home!

I'm planning on adding wallpaper feature walls to the master bedroom and living room. Every room in the house needs painting. The doors and windowsills need stripping back and varnishing. The stairs are going to be power cleaned and painted. And the kitchen needs updating without spending too much money. And that's just my job list for the next month!

Over the next couple of months I will be posting hundreds of posts inspired by our new house: room makeovers, shopping wish-lists, and no doubt curses about how hard all this DIY is. I can't wait!

Love Tor x

Latest on Fabfrocks: Mellow Yellow from ASOS AFRICA

Pattern love: Sanderson Dandelion Clocks

Hi guys,
I have a new pattern obsession: the Sanderson Dandelion Clocks pattern. As soon as I saw it I knew that it would be the wallpaper for the feature wall in my living room (When we finally get the new house signed off: fingers crossed!): I just can't decide which-colour way to go for. Blue and green or purple and yellow. Decisions, decisions!! Those aren't the only colour-ways though - there are around a dozen different options. And this pattern must be popular! Not only can you buy the wallpaper and the fabrics, you can also buy the cushions, the bedding, the mugs, and even place mats and coasters. I found one website that was selling a full dinner service with the pattern on it. It's the matchy-matchy homeowners dream! It has a really lovely retro mid-century feel, but it's still very modern, especially in the blue and green colourway. I've spent the past month looking at various wallpaper patterns near daily: I've been ordering samples online and trawling wallpaper vendors at the weekends like a woman possessed! But as soon as I saw the pattern I knew that it was the one. It really was love at first sight!

I will be buying my wallpaper from John Lewis. You can also find alternative stockists on the Sanderson website.

Love Tor x

My picks from the Debenhams SS13 Home collections

Hi guys,
It's that time of the year when all of the high street stores are pumping out their new season look books, and the new season pieces are starting to appear in store. When it comes to home wares, that quite often means brighter colours, pastel colours, and florals on absolutely everything. For interiors, I tend to prefer the Autumn/Winter collections: I'm just not a floral kind of gal. But that doesn't mean there isn't something to love in the new Spring ranges.

I buy quite a lot of my homewares from Debenhams. All of the picture frames in my living room, both of our living room lamps, and several pieces in my kitchen are from there. So I'm always interested to see what new ideas and themes they have instore.

With that in mind, here are my picks from their new collections:
Ben De Lisi orange Rise and Shine cushion, £22
Sass and Belle wooden owl coasters, £15
Tea cup vase, £15
Matthew Williamson hand mirror, £10
Heirloom fabric covered chair, £175
Yukari stacking mugs, £18.50
Ben De Lisi worktop saver, £10
Comet painted teak coffee table, £625
Comet painted teak side cabinet, £375

I am massively impressed with their furniture this season. I did know Debenhams did furniture, but before now it has always been very generic and overpriced in my opinion. Now though, there are several pieces I love and I want to immediately add to my house! And given it's made of solid wood, the prices aren't bad either!

What do you think of my picks? Has anything taken your fancy? And do you find you prefer the spring/summer or autumn/winter interiors collections from the highstreet?

Love Tor x

Our house: The compromise living room

Hi guys,
Well, you've already seen the dressing room and the nursery. Next up on the tour of our new house is the living room. Because the house has a living room and dining room, the room is much smaller than the living/dining combo room we had in the old flat. The affect is that it feels nice and cosy, full of all my favourite things.

I call our living room a compromise room because Mike and I have such different tastes. He likes things minimalist, and is a huge fan of slick black furniture. Me? Well I'm the complete opposite! I like vintage, colour, and clutter! So our living room is an odd combination of both. Here's how it looks:




The trunk looks vintage but isn't, it's actually from Homesense. The phone and lamp are both from Debenhams and the little brass bird was a bootsale acquired gift from a friend. We brought the furry stags head back from Berlin (I promise you stuffing this into Mike's rucksack because we were travelling hand-luggage-only was not a highlight of the trip!) The fireguard screen is the newest addition to this room: I got it from a carboot sale for just £1, where it needed some serious work. We scrubbed it clean, replaced the fabric inside the body of the screen and new jewelled knobs for the top (these are just ordinary doorknobs from B&Q, but they serve exactly the same purpose!)

We're renting this place (we're hoping to buy early next year) so we're reluctant to paint or do any extensive refurbishment to the living room: renting and injecting personality is hard! But I do like this room: it's so cozy and just perfect for snuggling up warm in when it's cold outside.

Do you have to compromise in your house? Do you have different tastes from your partner/housemates and how do you make it work?

Love Tor xx

Our house: My walk-in wardrobe

Hi guys,
It has always been a fantasy of mine to have a walk-in wardrobe. A room where I could keep all of my clothes and accessories, plan outfits, a relaxing fashion space that was just for me. So when we moved into a house that had a box room which could only be accessed from the main bedroom my first thought wasn't the same as everyone elses ("nursery!"). No: my first thought was '"wardrobe!" I promptly gave my husband full reign of the built-in wardrobe in the bedroom, and my mission for this weekend was to a) finally unpack all my clothes (it's only been 3 months!) and b) set about creating my dream.

The main thing was that I wanted to turn the room, effectively a blank canvas, into a wardrobe on a tight budget. So I utilized the big wardrobe, chest of drawers, and dressing table that we already had from our old flat. I then brought an £8.99 hanging mirror from The Range which I've hung over my wardrobe door, storage boxes from John Lewis for my handbags (£9 each) and from Asda for my make up and jewellery (£4 each).




Finally I wanted a clever storage solution for all my shoes, in a way that I could see them and the pairs I wear most often could be on display. And a comfy chair, so that I could view my domain for hours without hurting my back. So we hit some second hand furniture stores and picked up some shelves for the shoes for £20. Sadly I couldn't find an armchair I liked, but the hunt is still on!


The plan was that turning this space into a workable dressing room shouldn't cost more than £100: I managed to achieve my goal and have only spent £65 so far, including the hooks and trinket boxes and other bits and pieces I picked up. That means I have £35 left to find that elusive armchair. Pretty impressive, even if I do say so myself, and not bad for a weekend's work!!

Now I will admit this isn't quite the walk in I always dreamed of. What I would really like is an open floor to ceiling wardrobe across one whole wall, so that all of my clothes were always on display. But as we're renting this place, fitting something that big to the walls just isn't feasible. And so, for now, this is my version of the dream! I'm really looking forward to getting dressed tomorrow morning....

Love Tor x