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For Freya's Birthday we bought her an Ikea play kitchen and then hacked it to fit in with our style and make it unique.

Here's the before/how it's sold from Ikea - the Duktig which is online here - which is perfectly lovely and obviously any child would love to play with as it is. But I've loved seeing all of the hacks on blogs/instagram for some of the creative upcycling you can do with it to make it your own and fit with your decor scheme. Some people change it so that it's a mini replica of their own kitchen. We thought about doing this, and putting tiles behind the sink for example or a little peg shelf above, or maybe paint it downpipe and fit brass handles. But actually the area that this play kitchen will sit is around the corner from our kitchen, and when I was looking on instagram on the hashtag for all of the hacks and spotted a version like this which I really loved the look of and it would fit in well with our existing shelving toy unit for Freya in this little area. So before I start, this tutorial and inspiration is heavily inspired by both this kitchen tutorial by Kandis Marino Photography and this kitchen from the instagram Raisingfinnandave - thank you to those gorgeous creators! They're both based in America so this tutorial shows it from a UK perspective with what we have available here and our version of it.

After last year's crazy hot, dry summer that lasted for months on end, parts of our garden needed a bit of an overhaul. Some of the garden had become too baked, the grass at the end of the summerhouse like straw and the beds to the far left and right under the trees, too dry to plant much. The meadow/fruit tree area that we'd planned to be all wild and whimsical next to the summerhouse just looked a bit of a mess and it was an area that we weren't using to it's full potential. It's also the area of our garden which gets the most sun throughout the year, when in the early Spring/late Autumn and throughout winter, the rest of the garden is shaded by the house. When we were in Palm Springs at the start of this year, I enjoyed working out outside in the mornings by the pool, Ben and I were walking one day and were talking about outdoor living and our plans for the garden when I realised that we either have wet grass in the mornings or gravel, neither of which are ideal for a workout mat without slipping or getting covered in wet grass! I know, I know, first world problems but it would be really nice to have a garden that suits our needs/wants given that we had the space to do so. So then came the idea of decking the bottom of the garden, which would solve the messy/dry part, hide the dark trees at the back and our compost heap, give us an area for a raised bed for planting some salad/veg at home and create a large space that our new baby can happily play on without grass/gravel and we can entertain on and enjoy the sunshine when the rest of the garden is shadowed

We've had a plain wall on our upstairs landing ever since we moved in and I've always wanted to create some kind of gallery wall there but never got around to it. Until... this baby has got me into serious nesting mode and I suddenly want to finish all of the house jobs pronto! I'm sure you know by now what a huge love of travel we have, add in my biggest passion of taking photos and it seemed like a travel wall would be the best use of space. {although in the future when we have lots of baby/family photos I might swap it over!}. I wanted to use the photos/prints we already had but have never found a home for, rather than searching for new art. So bought a couple of trusty Ikea picture ledges {I'm obsessed with these for creating displays as you can swap things around as often as you like rather than committing to drilling a load of pictures in the wall and worrying about layouts} and it just makes the whole thing so quick and easy. I also had a Rifle Paper Co calendar which I'd bought in America a couple of years back with the intention to frame some of the city prints - buying a calendar works out a lot cheaper than individual prints so you just need to guillotine them to size. And finally, I have a stack of Instax prints from our travels from using this to print favourite snaps over the past couple of years which I really wanted to frame. I've shared the DIY process below, if you'd like to see...

I'm CRAZY excited to share with you the full before, during and after photos of our nursery transformation. This room used to be a spare room, basically junk room, that we never really had a purpose for. It had some quirky angles, three different windows which made placing furniture tricky, a damp stain on an old chimney breast and an awkward alcove. Yet we always knew that it would make a wonderful nursery some day. It's right next door to our bedroom since we moved into the new room too, and it feels cosy and looks over the garden. 

{disclaimer, this post is NOT sponsored by Valspar but I have worked with them on a paid partnership campaign over on Instagram. This blog is not part of the content/deliverables for that but as I'm talking about the paint we've used whilst doing up the nursery I thought I should note it here}.

We've been busy starting our new renovation project over the past couple of weeks, and it's a super exciting one - the nursery for our baby bee! It's not at all finished yet but the first stage, of getting the floorboards prepped and painted, is done so I wanted to share a tutorial. 

This room used to be a spare room, and we've never really done much with it. Just put carpet down, plastered and painted the walls cream after we'd moved in until we knew what to do with this room {and one day hoped that we'd be using it as a nursery}. I knew that I wanted painted white floors in here from the start as a base for the nursery {my Mum & Ben tried to convince me to stick with carpet as it would 'feel warmer' for a baby's room, but I just had this interior image of white floors and couldn't be budged - also lots of people have said how practical/wipeable floorboards are with young children, and we'll put a big rug down}. 

We have painted white floorboards in our bathroom and whenever I post a photo of them, I get asked about how we did it. We actually had a decorator do them for us so I didn't really ever get around to writing a full DIY post on them. This time, we've done it ourselves and thought I'd share the process step by step. 

Earlier this week, I threw a little garden party with Hobbycraft for a few girlfriends & I ready to celebrate midsommar and the longest day of the year next week, and make flower crowns for wearing this summer. With Hobbycraft stocking all of the crafting materials and party decor {I definitely didn't realise just how many fab things they sell these days}, it was super easy and a really fun evening that you could host for a whole number of occasions this summer. From bridal showers to baby showers to birthday's or just because, we loved getting our craft on, and eating cake al fresco for the evening. A little how to guide below.. {p.s. you can use the code DIY15 for 15% off everything, except sewing machines, until the end of the month}

Christmas is upon us and one of my favourite traditions each year is to make a festive fresh wreath with my Mum. For the past few years we've returned to my wedding florist Charlie at The Flower Fairies to learn how to create something beautiful at her workshops and whilst we've loved the frosty Saturday mornings driving to the Cotswolds to her gorgeous studio, this year our calendar is pretty packed so we decided to make our own at home. After three year's of Charlie's fab workshops I feel like we've gained enough knowledge to 'graduate' and use the knowledge to go freestyle and we were both so pleased with the result. Lots of you on Instagram asked for a DIY guide so I thought I'd put one together if creativity strikes this weekend and you feel like making something pretty to adorn your front door. 

Last week I took a trip to visit the lovely Liz at Blue Sky Flowers to make an autumn wreath together. She didn't invite me there so that I'd write a blog post on it, I just wanted to put this post together to remind myself how easy it is to make one again next time and to have the photos to look back on. I hope you'll find it useful too or perhaps gain some inspiration to create something for your own front door. Wreaths are normally just for Christmas but there's something so lovely about celebrating the seasons and creating one year round too.

This post has been a longgg time coming but I finally sat down to go back through all the photos from the last few months, since May, with the kitchen being fitted. The last time I left you with a kitchen update was on this post {with all the painting/floor going down etc}. Since then, we've pretty much finished everything off. So this post is an update of all the finishing bits, starting with the kitchen herself being fitted! 

We now have a kitchen sink, and worktops, and a shaker peg shelf that I've dreamed about forever! I'm so so happy that the kitchen is almost finished and before I start sorting through all the photos to write a post about the whole thing, I thought I'd share Ben's DIY shelf today which I feel really helps to finish the kitchen off. And it's also been one of the most requested posts through Instagram. He's made one for the utility too and I can't decide which is my favourite; in different colours and settings they look so different. You could use them for a million things, the kitchen shelf so far is more decorative whereas the utility is more utilitarian with brushes, colanders and towels hanging from it. I love that you can use both the top and the pegs and would look equally good in a child's bedroom or by a back door for coats etc. A how to guide below;

Hello! I'm home from all my travels and have soo many blog posts to write. I thought I'd start with the utility room today. 

Before we moved house, one of the things on our dream house list was a utility room. I mean, of course we didn't really need one, it's definitely a want rather than need part of a house but it's always been one of those things you wish for. Somewhere to put the laundry so you don't have to sort it in the kitchen, somewhere for more cupboard space, another sink, a spare fridge {dishwasher perhaps?!}. Also on the list was a boot room with a separate entrance so we could take all our muddy allotment veg through that way or go in with our boots after a muddy walk instead of worrying about the main hallway. Again, a complete dream rather than house necessity but when we started designing our new kitchen extension we figured that we're only going to do this once so why not design enough room in the build for both! It would future proof the house and mean that we could then free up more space in the kitchen. So fast forward a few months later and we nearly have a finished utility/boot room! The befores/during/after below - note it was very much a DIY job and a complete bargain.

Parquet floors have been around forever, yet the classic herringbone pattern is having a resurgence as of late and is super on trend. We've got some classic parquet in a small section of our hallway, it's over a hundred years old. So we loved the idea of updating it for our new kitchen extension. We put a lot of solid oak planks in our last house, and in this house so far we've sanded back all the original floorboards, which all look great but plain floorboards get a bit boring after a while. We wanted to do something a bit different for the kitchen, so herringbone it would be! 

Long term readers/followers will remember the summerhouse that Ben built at the end of our last garden. I loved that pretty shed which gave a focal point at the end of the garden and I wished we could have picked it up and moved it with us. We always knew that we'd want to recreate it in this garden and after having some trees cleared from the garden last year Ben set on building this new one just before Christmas. It still needs some finishing off, I mean we haven't even put the plastic back in to the windows yet from when it was painted! And I want to add some pretty window boxes and maybe grow a climbing rose or clematis up it. I like the idea that it will age with the garden, evolving over time. Right now it's acting as storage for everything from our BBQ to our dahlias waiting to be planted to our tumble drier! Our storage is all over the place with the kitchen extension and knocking our garage down. But eventually I hope we can pretty up the inside and use it as an actual summerhouse/potting shed. All these things take time, and our main priority is the kitchen and patio but for now I'm really pleased with how this frames the garden, tying it all in. Some before/build photos below;

We kept our island from our last kitchen {you can read the story behind it below} yet knew that we wanted a different colour scheme this time around. Ben's Uncle who is making the rest of our kitchen will be painting the other units but we needed to sort having our island repainted. Last week she had her makeover and since then a few of you have requested this blog post on repainting kitchen cabinets so I thought I'd share some tips, and photos of the before/during stage below;

We're still a way off from finishing the new kitchen extension {I've talked previously about some of our plans for it here} but I wanted to share some photos of the building works so far and give some pointers for anyone else going through the same thing. We started this project back in December and it's amazing how quickly your brain forgets just how much progress has been made this far. I want to look back at it all, especially when it's all finished and you take for granted all the hard work it took to get there. This post may be interesting to some of you going through, or planning similar projects, but to others it probably just looks like a load of boring digger photos! It's amazing how much I've learnt about construction over the past couple of months.