May 31, 2016

Adding Character into your Home

Character is something many of us look for when buying a new house. Some houses are blessed with characterful features everywhere you look. But if you have a blank canvas rather than a finished masterpiece, don’t worry. Here are some simple suggestions to bring more character to your home.

Mix and match

Nothing makes your home more interesting than mixing and matching patterns, themes, and styles. Uniformity is convenient and chic. But if you’re looking to inject character, it’s wise to switch up your approach to styling. If your home is modern, you don’t have to choose contemporary furniture or opt for minimalistic colourways. If you’ve gone for muted walls, add some interest with a combination of patterned cushions and textured throws. Combine a chic sofa set with a rustic rocking chair or add a vintage footstool. In the kitchen, use accessories to bring colour and personality. Go for shabby chic florals or country-style plaid.

Flooring

Flooring can change the appearance of a room instantly, and it’s one of the first things you’ll notice when you walk through the door. If you’re hoping to embrace eras gone by, go for patterned Victorian-style tiles for hallways and slate in the kitchen. Check out Ted Todd Hardwood Floors for beautiful examples of solid wood flooring for living rooms and bedrooms. If you’re renovating an old house and there are carpets down, do some investigating before investing in a new floor. If you’re lucky, a ragged old carpet may be hiding original floorboards or tiles.

Open up a fire or add a wood burner

If you’re lucky enough to have open fires at home, do some research and get some ideas to restore and maintain them. You’ll often find stunning tiles surrounding original fireplaces, so give them a thorough polish and hope for the best. If you have missing or damaged tiles, look out for replacements at salvage yards and on online auction sites. If you don’t have functioning open fireplaces, you could always add a log burner to create warmth and add character.

Embrace clutter (to an extent)

Older properties tend to be smaller with a series of rooms, rather than large open spaces. Although most articles you read will advise you to steer well clear of clutter, a certain amount can make your home look and feel cosy and quaint. Don’t hoard and display everything. But add frames, vases or ornaments to shelves and window sills. Put your pans on racks in the kitchen and add coasters and books to coffee tables. A certain amount of clutter will give your home that lived-in feel.

My recent Salvage Yard find!

Many people consider character an attractive asset when looking for a new home. Have you recently bought a house? Are you renovating? If so, use these handy hints to restore your home to its former glory or add character and charm where it’s lacking. You don’t have to spend a fortune or bring about large-scale changes. Often, minor adjustments and key additions will make all the difference. If you’re struggling for inspiration, take a look through some magazines or visit a local antique store or a salvage yard.

May 31, 2016

HOW TO INJECT MORE CHARACTER INTO YOUR HOME

Mix and match

May 31, 2016

How to Create a Child Friendly Garden

How to Create a Child Friendly Garden.

Kids love gardens. They are spacious enough to play in, and they can also help their imaginations run wild. However, before your kids can be let out in a garden, it needs to be made child-friendly. Gardens can easily become dangerous for children, especially if they are left untended. Creepy crawlies can enter your outdoor areas, and weeds with thorns can swiftly take over. And that sounds far from an idyllic garden in which your kids can play! Want to make a child-friendly garden? Here’s how.

Keep Lawns Mowed

This point is especially important during the summer when all the grass in your garden will grow super quick. You need to mow the lawn at least once a week to keep it trim. Kids can trip up easily in long grass and hurt themselves. If your lawn is well-maintained, you’re greatly reducing the chance of any tears! But you should also mow the lawn to make sure no creatures make their homes in long, overgrown grass.

Add A Playhouse

You can find many playhouses in toy shops these days. And they won’t empty your bank balance! Kids will love their own small playhouse that they can use as their very own space. If you already have a sunroom, they might already be trying to take that over! So it is a good idea to get them a playhouse so that they have somewhere to play while you and your partner take some time out in the sunroom.

Make Sure Everything Is Well-Contained

You will need barriers around the borders of your garden. This is very practical, as you can easily see where your land ends and your neighbour’s garden begins. But it will also prevent your kids from escaping! Hedges are a great way to line your boundaries. However, they will need to be often pruned. If you want a low maintenance option, go for Fence Panels.

Cover Ponds

If you have kids running around in your garden, don’t be tempted to add a pond anywhere. These can be dangerous for small children, who might end up falling in. But what should you do if you move into a home that already has a pond in the garden? There is a very simple solution – cover it up. If you use mesh to cover it, your kids will be kept safe, and you can still enjoy the beauty of the pond.

Pick Plants Carefully

The plants you plant will need to be robust in case your kids trample all over them. They should also be free from any thorns so that your kids do not harm themselves while playing. Some plants, such as foxgloves and rhubarb leaves, are poisonous so should be kept out of a family garden. You should also try to set aside a small patch that the children can use to grow their own plants. This will get them into gardening at a young age and give them a good hobby. They’ll love showing visitors their own gardening work!

May 31, 2016

CREATE A HAPPY CHILD-FRIENDLY GARDEN WITH THESE EASY STEPS

a child friendly garden = happy children

Credit

May 25, 2016

4 Ways to Update your Bedroom on a Budget

4 Ways to Update your Bedroom on a Budget.

One of the rooms in the house that we spend a lot of time is our bedroom. So it makes sense that we would want to have it be a relaxing haven. You want it to be a room that you can go to and drift off to sleep. Without having to sort through a sea of mess and dirt. So one of the first things to do in your bedroom is to have a clean and a sort. Throw things out that you don’t use and make sure that it is looking spic and span. It is great if everything has a place. Then you have a blank canvas to make some changes with. Here are some other ideas of mine, to help you to update your room.

Light Bulbs

It is a simple and cheap thing to do, but changing your lightbulbs can make a big difference. First of all, you could change the wattage of the bulbs you use. Then you can have a brighter and sharper look. You could even get coloured light bulbs, to create a particular atmosphere in your room. A soft pink light would work well for a romantic setting, for example. A big trend at the moment is choosing light bulbs that are old-school filament bulbs. They often don’t need a lampshade either. They look quirky and a little industrial, so perfect to contrast with a softer decor.

Light Fixture or Lamp Shade

Along the same lines, you could change up the light fixture that you have. You could choose a pendant light, or even go for a chandelier style. This would add instant glam and there are a lot that you can buy on a budget. You could go for a strip light instead or add some wall lights. A dimmer switch is cheap to buy and can add a different atmosphere to the room too.

Photo Wall

I love to have prints and pictures around the home. If you want to update your room, then how about creating a cute photo wall? Get a few frames of different shapes and sizes. Then fill with art or photographs. It can take a little bit of planning to get the wall looking right so plan it out on paper first. Then when you’re ready, some picture mounts could be a good option. Then you can make sure that the pictures are all hung securely.

Paint Hangers

A quick and simple way to update your wardrobe is to paint the hangers. This only works if you have the wooden style hangers, of course. It is inexpensive and doesn’t take long to do. You could use something like tester posts from a DIY shop, so that you can use a variety of colours. A rainbow of pastel colours can look so good. Then when you open up your wardrobe, you will be greeted with prettiness!

I hope this post was helpful to you, to give you some inspiration for changing up your bedroom…

I have added some new and old pictures to pretty the post up bit…I hope you like it x

May 25, 2016

4 WAYS TO UPDATE YOUR BEDROOM ON A BUDGET

May 18, 2016

HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT SUNROOM

Source

You don’t need a conservatory or extension to create a sunroom. With a few simple tweaks, you can convert what you have already into a beautiful room for all year round. This is a dreamy room to gather together and soak up the heat of the summer months. And on colder winter days you can curl up with a good book and a throw.

May 11, 2016

How to Get a lot more use out of your Garden

A lovely garden is something we all want. It should be that portal from your home to a little haven or relaxing bliss under the sun. All too often, it can be more of a nightmare. Perhaps it’s dilapidated, perhaps it’s looking a little bare. Maybe it’s just never had much use in it. But there are a lot of ways you can change all that. Here’s how to get more use out of your garden.

Tidy it up

The one thing that puts most people off using their garden more is just how untidy it is. It can seem like too big a task to tackle. Put away your thoughts of having a perfect garden overnight. Start a schedule and stick to it. Give yourself deadlines on which area to tackle and work at it. Before too long, you’ll have your very own tidy garden.

Add some furniture

Maybe you just don’t get a lot of use of your garden because there’s nowhere for you to be. The kind of furniture you can put in your garden very much depends on size. You should at least have a table and some chairs out in it, however. Even smaller ones can support a little round glass table and stackable plastic chairs to put around it.

Grow your food in it

One of the best uses of a garden is that you can get some of your own food from it. Growing produce is both a great hobby as well as extremely rewarding. There’s something special about making a marinade with your own tomatoes, beyond the taste. You can buy the materials from lots places, including sites like this one and this one.

Pixabay

Keep it green

If you’re like most people nowadays, you’re becoming more concerned about the environment. For that reason, you will want to keep your garden environmentally friendly, TreeHugger recommends harvesting rainwater, firstly. Grey water that has already seen use can still be recycled to grow your garden, too. Similarly, you can landscape your garden in levels or on a slope. This way, water trickles along the soil, meaning you need less to water more places. There are lots of green gardening tips to take in, so keep an eye out.

Use all kinds of space

If you start getting green thumbs, you might find yourself disappointed by how much space you have. Even in small gardens, however, there’s more space to be found. You can use your walls and your fences, for one. You can even hang planting pots from window sills and your patio if it has a roof.

Make a real hobby out of it

Gardening can easily start out as just a means to an end. Just a way to make your place look nice or even have some more value. It’s a lot of work, too. But that work can get you invested. Before you know it, you’ll be looking up which tools are the best. Which flowers work best with which. Make a real hobby out of gardening and you’ll have more use for your garden than ever before.

It’s worked for me…I have been getting out in my new garden and now I have the ‘green finger bug’!
more pictures of my new garden coming soon. or check it out here

May 11, 2016

HOW TO GET A LOT MORE USE OUT OF YOUR GARDEN

April 22, 2016

HOW TO MAKE MORE SPACE IN YOUR LOUNGE

Happy Loves Rosie Blog is full of inspiration for your home

If you have little space in your property, you need to go through your belongings to see if you could make some more room. It’s time to get rid of unwanted belongings which are taking up space. The lounge, in particular, can get really crowded so you need to go through your stuff. Then you can have more room for yourself and your guests when they come over! Here are some easy ways to make more space in your lounge.

April 22, 2016

How to Make More Space in your Lounge

If you have little space in your lounge, you need to go through your belongings to see if you could make some more room. It’s time to get rid of unwanted belongings which are taking up space. The lounge, in particular, can get really crowded so you need to go through your stuff. Then you can have more room for yourself and your guests when they come over! Here are some easy ways to make more space in your lounge.

Throw out old cushions

Over the years, we tend to accumulate a lot of beautiful cushions which we put on our sofa. As time goes on, we end up with so many which we don’t need. Over time, they can get dirty and tatty! so go over to your sofa and decide on which ones are ready to go in the bin. You can keep a couple, after all, cushions can really add character to a room, but try only to leave a maximum of four. You could always give any old ones to charity so they can sell them on.

Remove ornaments

If you have a fireplace or even a window sill, you can often clutter them up!… Receiving unwanted gifts from Friends can often leed to a clutttered room problem and they can start to take up too much space…Just because you feel too guilty not to have them displayed! Go through all your ornaments and decide if you like them, and if they actually match!… If you don’t feel they enhance the room, consider moving them to another part of the house to make more space. Or you could even give them away to charity or as a birthday present for a friend. (make sure it’s not the friend that gave you it in he first place though! lol!)

Sort your furniture

We tend to go for large sofas which unfortunately take up too much room in the lounge. We think that a bigger sofa is better, but in fact, they often make the sitting room look too crowded. If you don’t have guests over often, it might not be necessary to have a three piece suite. You could cut back to a two seat sofa or even a chair if you live on your own. Check out companies such as lovethesign.com to see what unique seats they have to offer. And you could even sell your old ones, meaning you are making some money!

Remove some photo frames

As much as displaying loads of photos in your lounge is great, they can take up so much space. If you want your sitting room to look less crowded, you should go through your pictures and decide whether you really need them on show. Take a look at your picture frames and make a decision if they do need to be in your lounge. Old photos could be hung on the walls in a collage ensemble to make more space on your dressers …Or you could try Fred’s old trick here and make a scrapbook to keep them all in.

Give your lounge a clean and sort through everything and it will soon be looking fresher and fit for the many summer parties that await.