It's been coming to 9 months since we moved to our house and I haven't blogged too much about the place. It's my first property and also a house which is something new for me; plus having seasons affect our lives too, unbelievable as it may sound.
We moved in in the peak of winter, at end January this year, where we froze our butts off in the new and bare space. As it was only two of us, we decided to furnish the necessities first, and slowly extend to our other bedrooms. I got all excited because I've never had the chance to really decorate any of the previous places I rented here, so this was the chance for me to demonstrate my love for decorating. Painting was an altogether new lifeskill (as I call it) we learnt from the Geesons who spent a Saturday afternoon helping us paint our bedroom. (Yes not only they helped to paint, they helped to drill holes to make our love wall recently. We owe a lot in this house to them, really.) Back to the bare house in end January/ early February. There were times where we felt miserable- miserably cold that is. The heater didn't seem powerful and I be honest to say we were worried at our first utility bill because we had no ballpark figure to estimate from. We only knew that we moved in at the time where we would consume a lot of gas and electricity to heat up the place. We would huddle round the fireplace (yes a real fireplace) every night and be dressed in layers of clothes and socks wondering if we made a wrong choice to buy a house in the country where Kent is closer than central London.
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| We slept on the floor while waiting for our bed to arrive (took 12 weeks!) and I wore socks and my fav bunny slippers around the house |
Bills were also expectedly high because we needed to buy a new bed, new fridge, new sofa.. well new everything! We even went to Ela and Vik's leaving party cum auction where they were giving away free stuff as they were moving to - ironically - Singapore. When it was the turn for the TV console and the bookshelf, we both eagerly raised our hands and shouted "we'll have it!" - that was the rule of the game. Plus nobody else were moving and didn't need these big ticket items so we were glad we had no competitors; otherwise the winner will be balloted out of a salad bowl. Ela and Vik stayed in a one bedroom apartment in Westminster and had good taste so the TV console was a really good contribution for us. We had to arrange for a man with a van to deliver the next day. Shirley and Keith (the previous owners) recommended us to use eBay and by now you would already know about the first accidental purchase - my grey linen coloured French shabby chic corner cupboard - which till this day K looks at it and shakes his head. I did however find a furniture restorer in Birmingham and I bought a set of dining table and chairs off her, telling her the colour of the fabric I wanted (think I blogged about this before) and thankfully this buy somewhat redeemed my previous "mistake" to K so I was not banned from eBay.
Friends told us that we filled the house with furniture, it would get less cold and also I learnt that one of the first things we had to buy were thick curtains - very important to block out some of the cold. Not that it would help immensely, but every little counts! I started to learn about curtains - box pleats, pencil pleats, how to measure your window to get the right measurements… another lifeskill.
Slowly over the course of 4 months or so we managed to fill up with furniture we wanted and as K is very good at budgeting and controlling our expenses, he finally said we could start furnishing the blue room.
See the blue room is the second biggest bedroom of the house and when we first saw it, I wasn't blown away. No offense, but the decor was dated and I didn't like the colour. I was on a grey and white mission, which our bedroom is and I wanted some consistency.
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| The original blue room |
When the owners moved out, they left the obiang (old fashioned) curtains for us. It was so much blue all around without any furniture. And what's with the obiang blue ceiling lights? Gosh I wanted to redo the whole room. To my horror, K LOVED the blue in the room. He forbade me to paint over the colour. He loved everything about the room - "HOW??" I wondered aloud.
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| An empty blue room. This was taken at night with the orange lights but the colour is truer to the pic above. |
The funny thing is, when we had our housewarming, it was only the guys saying they loved the blue. All the girls did a funny nose thing and said "hmm.. yeah maybe too much blue…". Anyway I had to respect K's views. One day Gabby and me started talking about decor stuff for our houses (they also just bought a house last year) and an eureka moment happened between us. I would make use of the blue and make it a nautical themed room! I needed to get rid of the curtains first, and then get some white furniture in. Seaside theme, folks! I loved that period of shopping online and got all sorts of inspiration, down to the details, you will soon see.
It's amazing how a new set of curtains does to the look of the room. It was slowly transforming…
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| I chose a set of duck egg and brown vertical stripes curtains, with a set of nautical tiebacks bought separately from Amazon. Love Amazon! |
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| I started to look out for nautical themed photo frames and chose a photo from our recent beach holiday to Sanse. Remember my love for beach huts? Yup! |
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| For our windowsill, I looked for fisherman's lanterns and blue coloured candles fit for the theme |
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| I even found a Whitstable inspired enamel pail that says Fresh Oysters. Initially I wanted to use it as a bin but Gabby said it's such a waste. She said to use it as a magazine holder which I did. |
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| More fisherman's lanterns, big and small for the bedside table. They can also be placed on the floor if I wished. |
There were other things which I wanted to get, such as a nautical themed bedside lamp, or more photo frames but I remember K's dislike for clutter and I was concerned I would overdo it, so I decided simple is enough. Plus these ornaments together made it pretty clear the theme for the room. Eventually, when the room was done, I didn't even mind the blue ceiling lamp left behind by the previous owners.
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| THE blue lamp. I bought a nautical print and intend to buy two more for the wall- the last finishing touch which I have been procrastinating. |
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| And it's done! Made complete in my view with the blue chevron bedside rug. |
The grey furry throw is one of my best buys for the house till date and K loves it. Especially in winter, we would put this furry thing on top of our mattress and sleep on it which is so comfy and kept us warm. Everyone who saw it asked where I got it from. Super proud of this buy! So now that the room is 99% done, K is in love with this room and wants us to use this as our permanent bedroom! Lol. We did sleep here for a few warm summer nights as it overlooks the garden so it's cooler at night.
So pleased that we now have a blue room which we BOTH like! :)
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