Is it just me or does grey seem to be the new cream? I have completely fallen in love with having grey sofas in our new grown up living room and completely fallen out of love with our old, tired, beige sofas, that have recently become so unloved, they are extravagant dog beds. They have served us well for many years, but now that the days of baby sick are behind us, it would be nice to have some nice things!

The trouble is, the room is freezing! I took down the curtains when we moved in and lifted the carpets to reveal an original herringbone oak floor and after the recent AGA fire, (Down to the chimneys needing to be swept.) we have decided to fit a stove in this room. The stove is an investment but one that will make a huge difference, not only to the room, but to the whole house!

So here are a few before snaps I took the other afternoon, before the sun went down. No filters or fancy editing, just as it is! Nothing is plugged in, odd bits of furniture with the dogs sleeping on the top of the sofa cushions. A room that doesn't get much use on account of our lovely family/dining room. A work in progress!

We have the option to put vents in the floor to our bedroom above, to benefit from the heat the stove generates and it will be so much more efficient than the open fire, which fills the room with smoke!

So the room has become a bit of a dumping ground/my office space. When the decorator moves in here next week, I need to sort out my office in the barn above the garage, which is currently full of props! The new door to the family room/dining room is waiting to be stained and fitted, the walls need decorating and the floor needs sanding and polishing. We are still debating the curtain fabric but have definitely decided to have wooden shutters on the front windows, which our lovely decorator is going to make for us. 

It's an almost square room, with traditional proportions. So we actually have lots more room than at our last house! I love the idea of having a central ottoman with piles of books and trays for drinks and nibbles, and then 3 sets of seats surrounding the fireplace. It's a room to sit and read, entertain friends, play games on Christmas Day in, and a space for Rich and I in the evening to really relax in, away from laptops!

I love this colour scheme and the work by Jessica Zoob and it's inspired me to collate all sorts of bits and cuttings to help bring our vision to life.

I adore the mix of soft and bright tones. A neutral backdrop with pops of colour and beautiful prints. I may have not been able to resist this cushion. It comes in a box and is our prized possession. I literally adore it. 

So here is my current mood board of inspiration. Pinks and greys and brass fittings for a hint of gold. 

I love the sofas with a fixed back, to help the woofers keep off the tops, combined with new rules when the room is complete! We ordered the Angel range from Sofas and Stuff just in time for a Christmas delivery and I am currently lusting over these chairs from Alison at Home to complete the seating around the ottoman. Also on my lust list is the prints by bluebellgray. There is nothing I don't love.

Of course I haven't found the perfect coffee table or fabric ottoman yet, it's driving me mad! So if you know anyone who makes large square ones let me know!

Someone asked me on Instagram the other day, how do I have all these vases and bits all around the house with small boys. But the honest truth is, whilst they are definitely boisterous, they are not destructive. I have little vases on the coffee table and they never touch them. Planes whizz by, feet jump around, but all my lovely things stay just where they are. In fact both the boys often say "Mama, that looks lovely." Good boys!

I love the idea of big lamps on the sideboard behind the sofas, but Rich quite fancies an old piano! And when you look on eBay they go for about £50! So that's on the New Year wish list. 

This is a room that will take a while to come together. We can't have everything on our wish list all at once but all the evenings spent working will be worth it. When we have a beautiful room.

Now the funny thing is the estate agent called it the drawing room, but with our modern family living it seems to formal to call it the drawing room. So I guess it will be our sitting room, to sit and relax. Read and relax. Now hurry up lovely decorator and make it look wonderful for Christmas! 

What are your top sites for interiors inspiration? Let me know, I love searching through lovely sites!

Hooray! The first room at the new house is almost finished. We have walls, a floor and lighting and now it is time for all the lovely bits.

I adore researching interiors, I carry scraps of paper of real home photos around in the bottom of my handbag, and the lounge is littered with home inspiration magazines. 

The family living space in the house is a large rectangular shaped room with a door to the hallway, conservatory and the kitchen off 2 sides. The room has several dark wood original beams and we are lucky to have an enormous 8ft wide fireplace as the focal point of the room.

With dogs and small boys, we decided that hard flooring was a safer option, given the muddy paws and dirty bare feet that run from the garden through to the grown up lounge across the hallway. The beautiful oak herringbone flooring we uncovered only went across half the room, so we made the painful decision to cover it up. One day when we can chip all the old concrete out and source reclaimed parquet, we will do, but for now we had to get the room finished, the most economical way possible. But the good thing is we know it's there for later! We have taken the original walls back to the plaster and stripped off the old lining paper so you can really see all the quirks in the walls. 

The house was built in the 17th century and we really want to see all it's character rather than hide it under lining paper. Of course that does mean you have to get used to lumps and bumps but we love it!

We removed the partition which created a snug area, in favour of a larger more open plan feel and have chosen to keep the walls white as a neutral base for the rest of the furnishings.

It does look a little stark at the moment which totally goes against my love of clutter and colour! But I am going to restrain myself and keep to a soft colour palette of greys, corals, mints and a hint of gold, to bring warmth into the cool space. All week I have stared at these roses on the dining room table and love the deep rich colour they bring to a room.

I like the concept of keeping your biggest items neutral, your walls, flooring and main pieces of furniture and then accessorising to bring in your chosen print or colour scheme. That way when your tastes change after a few years you don't have the vast expense of changing all the really expensive items!

The room serves 2 purposes, a family area in front of the fireplace and a dining area at the back of the room. After lots of searching I found the perfect sofa and farmhouse table and now I need to get to work on my charity shop chairs and source 3 more. Mis matched but not completely mis matched! There's a space for an armchair too to make the area around the vintage coffee table I found in Olliebobs locally more cosy, but we are still on the hunt for that now!

We chose the Anglepoise range of pendants and wall lights for their classic but contemporary feel and now need to source table lamps to replace the lanterns on the console which are more at home in the fireplace. 

I love creating mini mood boards. They help you imagine what your room will look like and you can take a little inspiration from each picture, rather than replicating a room set. Here is my current collection of beautiful images.

I LOVE the dipped furniture and would love to be brave and paint the thrifted chairs with coral feet.  The mint and coral colour brings a more feminine feel to the room and I love the hints of gold in the lamps and accessories. You can find all the images on my Pinterest board here. 

These room shots are my favourites. Contemporary lines mixed with traditional prints and fabrics. Eclectic but not cluttered.

So we have a little way to go before it feels homely. I am sifting through all our photos deciding which ones will go in frames on the deep window ledges and having lots of fun finding cushions and curtains, to make it feel less white!

Let me know any recommendations for soft furnishings, I am always on the look out! I can't wait to do a full tour of the room when it's finished, so check back in soon.

This month we have been living in chaos. I have been able to write my name in the dust on every window ledge, sideboard, the floor in the hallway and even the cutlery that sits in a basket in the kitchen needed washing every time before you stirred your tea! But it's all worth it. Because when you see a room slowly come together it starts to feel more like yours. More like home. Our home in the country.

We are trying to be methodical, move room by room, and translate our vision for this beautiful old house into walls, furniture and all the other bits and bobs that are the fun part to source and buy!

I have lots of photos to share over the next week or so of the inside of the house but when we first viewed the house, on a chance drive by back in the Spring, it was the garden we first fell in love with. The garden is a picture perfect backdrop, still full of colour, and a testament to the vision and loving care the previous owners poured into it. 

So it seemed fitting that our family photo for this month was amongst all the crunchy leaves and apple trees! We donned our wellies and headed out yesterday whilst the air was still full of mist, with the horses next door looking on bemused.

Balancing the camera on an old stone sculpture that I was thrilled they left for us, we snapped this. 

My family. My boys. And their stinky dog dog and puppy. (Yes we go for original names for stuffed dogs here!) And then I really looked, looked at the small boys between us. They are still so little. We have expected so much of them lately, been frustrated at the continued broken night's sleep, been horrified at the level of rough play fighting and the constant desire to run around the garden in bare feet getting filthy! 

But we have been blessed with 2 boys, slugs and snails and puppy dog's tails! I followed them as they headed down to the pond, their precious dogs in hand, and listened as they talked about adventures in the trees. Climbing trees has become a standard in this garden, a big challenge for big boys, apparently! All 3 ft off the ground!

We feel like we need to freeze time at moments like this. Simple, happy moments with no bickering, no endless request for Takeshi's Castle, followed by endless requests to turn the lounge into an assault course. Last weekend we went to the big annual village event, the Harvest lunch at the village hall and I was so proud of them. Polite, funny and nice to the other children from the village. As we chatted to new friends and enjoyed the amazing food (The dessert table was like a final of the Great British Bake Off!) I caught a glimpse of them in the garden, throwing leaves in the air with the other children and smiled. 

They are wide eyed and innocent for such a short time. They won't want to come into our bed for cuddles in the middle of the night when they are teenagers, they won't fiddle with my hair when we sit next to each other on the sofa. 

And it's these moments we need to freeze and store away to get you through the days of moaning and arguing! Boys - you are our greatest challenge and greatest achievement. And we love you very much.

Now hurry up home from your kind grandparents who have had you for a half term sleepover so we can get dressed up, put our wellies back on and go trick or treating! 

I've shown you me and mine now show me you and yours. Join in with us and share your little family. This month, pop across to Lauren's blog, another Mummy with 2 beautiful boys! 

Life, HomeLucy Heath31 October 2014 Comments