We have lived in our lovely house for just over 4 months now and although it still feels like we have everything to do, actually, when we sit back and take stock, we've achieved quite a lot!

Our priority when we moved in was always to get the boys settled as soon as possible. Living in 3 houses in a year has definitely taken it's toll on their sleeping habits and I can count on one hand, the number of nights I've had sleeping in our bed without one small boy or another! 

They trundle in, bleary eyed, looking for comfort from a bad dream or just a cuddle, and their little puppy dog eyes get me every time. I know this stage won't last forever, they won't be creeping into our bed when they are 15, and quite honestly I haven't got the energy to march them back at 3am whilst life is so crazy.

When we moved to the temporary house last year, whilst our purchase was going through, they shared a bedroom. All their bits and pieces went into boxes but when we finally moved in, they decided they wanted to stay together. We talked about how they wanted to decorate their room and aeroplanes was top of the list!

I fell in love with this aeroplane wallpaper and picked up little accessories over the year, although I am still searching for an old pair of pilot's goggles!

They declared the shelves behind their beds as the special shelves for their most precious things, so in amongst the pictures and planes are a ghastly set of rubber trash pack characters, snot something, maggot something and sweet light up polar bears they were given from Grandma at Christmas. There's a few shells, a pirate wind up music box, a handwritten poem about animals and some Christmas books, which all take pride of place! I love seeing what gets scurried behind the beds, what's in favour that week.

The old Rolls Royce prints were a gift from my Auntie and the beds are actually bunks but work well as twins for now. I found a charming old desk which was already painted in a vintage shop locally and picked up the bright yellow chair from another antique shop in Semley, making a perfect space for Sammy to do his homework and drawing, 

Dressing up is a big deal with the boys and whilst I am still searching for the perfect chest of drawers for between their beds, a trunk that I bought for £25 from the local carpet shop is ideal to store all their costumes and hats. Their quilts keep them cosy at night, being in the attic room is cooler than the rest of the house, and I love the stripey curtains. 

I didn't want to buy everything that matched perfectly, but slowly find fabrics and accessories that all tied around a red, blue and white theme. Something that would last! As much as I know they would adore their current favourite character themed bedroom, I also know that next year they will love something else and it's expensive changing bedding and curtains! It's a more grown up room for growing boys. I will admit to feeling a little sad packing away all of the owl baby nursery decor Ollie had at our old house!

We had the wardrobes built by a lovely local handyman and I found some globe handles and a peg for their dressing gowns. The top landing isn't quite finished yet, I still have the gallery wall above the chalk board to finish and am busy printing photos of their friends and framing artwork from school and nursery. So I will save their reading nook and the finished landing for another time!

Now I just need to source a nice rug, any suggestions?

Here are some links incase you are planning an aeroplane theme too!

• Spitfires wallpaper by PaperBoy.   
• Kingsettle Antiques have a fab selection of painted chairs. I bought the yellow one for £22.
• Aeroplane quilts, fabric storage bag and drawstring laundry bag from the Powell Craft aeroplane range.                                  
• Stripey curtains from the Varsity range at Dunelm Mill.
• We bought the white Vancouver bunk beds from Amazon.
• Hanging plane, hooks and door knobs were from HomeSense and the globe was from Oliver Bonas which is currently on sale for £15. 

Ooh and fancy seeing how it was before??? Check out this post for the before photos and see how the house was when we first viewed it. I am longing for the Summer now, to see the garden look as beautiful as it did then. I just hope I can do it justice with my not very green fingers! 

I grew up in a happy home. I remember noisy Christmas' with my cousins, Summer holidays at my grandparents flat in Southbourne and endless games of forty forty in our garden. My brother and sister and I made tents, put on shows and trailed our duvets down the stairs on Sunday mornings to watch a variety of films like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Slipper and the Rose and The Goonies.

And we may not have noticed but the house was made a home. With furniture and paintings and a wall of certificates of our childhood achievements. I remember the pine kitchen table and chairs, with a big Papa bear chair at one end and the red wood pieces in the lounge, which made it feel more special than the family play room. 

And that's what I want to create for my boys. A house bursting with things, really quite simple things like cushions and pictures, that make you feel happy. 

We love colour. A neutral backdrop and a sea of vibrant accessories to catch your eye. 

I've been searching the internet, writing down little interiors shops I stumble across, for places that understand and share my love of all things happy.

And then I found bluebellgray, and they found me.

Beautiful floral patterns, dynamic watercolour prints, I fell in love. I bought one of their peony print cushions and saved it for he moment when we had a dust free living room and dog dirt free sofas. And it felt like a very special moment, placing that treasured cushion on the plump new sofa seat!

So can you imagine how giddy I am to bring you these wonderful pieces from bluebellgray?!

Fi Douglas and her team have developed a product line that makes me squeal with delight. Textures, prints, textiles I want to fill our home with, managing to combine delicate with reliability. 

Richard shares my love of individual, mis matched painted crockery, but often despairs that none of them can go in the dishwasher! So he was thrilled when we had a holiday brunch that everything can be washed by mechanical hands. 

Sammy talks about my "precious things" he even commented that a friend started jumping on my  special cushion! And both of my boys notice what I do. They say, un-promted, that the table looks lovely, that the food is yummy, and it absolutely makes a difference how you serve things! Pretty plates make dishes seem a little tastier. They make ordinary food (And pre made dough ssh don't tell!) seem a little more extraordinary.

It's a skill to create a line that can go straight from a breakfast table to a celebration dinner. Rims that don't feel as though they are going to chip if you stack them in a cupboard, but evoke a garden party, Summer atmosphere.

The milk jug has been filled with milk, cream and tulips over Christmas and the bowls have been overflowing with popcorn, salad and oranges!

Versatile, yet feminine. And it has this ability to make you want to complete a set.

So I have a special treat for you today! Fi and the team at bluebellgray would like to offer a lucky reader one of their stunning watercolour tea trays. I have the same one on our living room table filled with candles and flowers and it's fast becoming my favourite photo prop!

All you have to do to win it is leave a comment on the blog or on this Instagram photo!

Now go and have a peek at their beautiful bedding collections, prints and rugs. Oh the rugs. Be still my floral, colour loving heart. 

I feel so proud to feature one of Great Britain's most talented designers. Scotland is very lucky to have bluebellgray. And so are we :)

The competition will close at midnight on Sunday 4th January and a winner will be drawn at random and notified on Monday 5th January. Good luck!

In collaboration with

Christmas this year felt like a sprint to the finish, which should have been a marathon. We really wanted to be at home for our first Christmas in the new house, and invited our family and lots of friends, who are yet to visit before the holiday period is over, to come and stay. It's felt like we have spent almost every spare second making the house feel like home.

A happy home.

When we first viewed the house, we didn't actually go inside. I knew as I tip toed past the front gate, that we were going to live here. The lovely lady who owned the house saw me snapping a couple of photos and popped her head out. 16 hours later, 2 hurried house tours and a frantic set of phone calls to the estate agent, and we knew we had found the forever house we had been searching for. 

It feels like a good house. It has good sturdy walls, window ledges that are begging to be filled with the photos that are buried in a box in the garage somewhere, it feels like a grown up house. A house that has been standing for 300 years and will still be standing in another 300 years. But I didn't want it to feel as though we were playing house, if that makes any sense?! I wanted Christmas at Charters to feel like everyone was coming home.

To be looked after, to make some new memories. To want to come back again next year!

We have been working hard to get our living room finished, a space for Rich and I to sit in and read, watch an episode of our favourite series, and entertain. No toys, nice sofas for sitting on, not jumping on! That goes for boys and dogs!

So when Farrow & Ball got in touch, I was thrilled to feature them and their beautiful range of paints. I adore their colours, their ability to develop exquisite finishes and depth to colours that can often feel flat. We knew we wanted a grey palette for the room, and Farrow & Ball's grey colour choices are inexplicably not cold. They give out warmth even though they are traditionally  cool tones. 

I loved the chalky grey of the Blackened paint. I knew it would work well with the pinks in the accessories around the room and the undercoat was like painting with milk. Creamy, smooth and helped to hide the lumps and bumps in our very old walls.

The room is quite a big square with windows and a door on all 4 sides and a wonderful inglenook fireplace with the original bread oven. A traditional drawing room which we wanted to respect, but also have a contemporary feel.

Under the carpet was the original herringbone oak flooring which had been carefully preserved for over 50 years! We love having hard floors downstairs because of the 2 sets of mucky paws that run around the ground floor and the next job is to polish and seal the wood and fit coconut matting to the french doors. We are also going to order the same striped curtains that frame the doors for the window seats to the back garden but have chosen to have grey linen roman blinds at the front windows. 

The colour changes with the light during the day, starting off with a more blue tone and then ending the day when the sun is low in the sky and streaming through the windows with a creamier tone. We used 2 coats on each wall and still have almost a whole tin left, which I have saved for a few other projects around the house. 

Now I get to add all the little pretty bits, and when the cards and decorations come down next week, I can start adding our lovely accessories that have been stored away for over a year. A vintage window frame mirror, all our family photos (Which may need a little updating now!) and trinkets. 

Farrow & Ball paints are distinctive and well respected. They set the tone of a room, they make it feel slightly more special because you know it's a Farrow & Ball colour. They have a great set of advice guides online for preparing your rooms, which undercoats to use to get the best finish possible and you can order a FREE colour card of their 132 colour options here. 

The room looks so different now, I'd love the previous owners to come back one day and hopefully love the love we are pouring into the house. 

Their paint has brought my vision to life. The soft chalky grey hints of the Blackened colour is the perfect backdrop to the wool mix sofas and I now need to choose a complementary colour to paint the very old dark wood furniture that has been unloved after 3 house moves in 1 year!

What do you think? Go for a neutral or go for a colour, like my beloved Edwardian sideboard which sits against the back wall to the hallway?! 

In collaboration with Farrow & Ball