Choosing a Soft Scandi Minimal Neutral Colour Palette

What is your favourite colour? It feels like a question that should be easy to answer but the reality might be that you just don’t have one!  Or your answer might depend on what mood you are in, what the weather is like outside or the emotions and memories triggered by different colours? 

I discovered quite how difficult it is to choose one when in the midst of our renovation. I thought I knew what I wanted for the interior paint scheme - no surprises that it was a neutral shade - one that wasn’t too grey but not so warm as to be yellow. More beige than greige if you will! 

There followed a frenzied spell of paint sampling when I was never knowingly without a small tin of paint on my person! I thought I had finally found the one “one” when I alighted on the Portland Stone palette from Little Greene Paint Company.  Until, that is, Little Greene sent me Katy, a colour consultants from their Marylebone store, for a home visit 

She arrived, sample book in hand, and proceeded to completely change my mind! Taking a series of sample cards (roughly half the size of a sheet of A4) we toured the house - which had bare plastered walls at that stage 

We held the cards up in different rooms and different lights - front and back of the house. It quickly became apparent that in the lighting conditions of our house Portland Stone was actually a little on the cold side. What, instead, worked perfectly were colours I had previously discarded as being “too yellow” 

Travertine - in our light filled south facing house - had actually just the right amount of warmth especially when paired with a whiter shade such as Flint or Stock. When I saw the three side by side I knew I had found my palette! 

I have labelled each of the pictures below - taking you on a tour of the house so you can see which shade we used in which room and in which combination and so cannot recommend highly enough a home consultation with a Little Greene consultant to help you answer the trickiest of questions “ What is my Favourite Colour” 

In our loft bedroom the partition between bedroom and dressing room is painted in Stock from Little Greene

The walls and woodwork are both painted in Stock by Little Green in the loft bedroom

In our guest bedroom, Travertine Light from Little Greene is the perfect warmer beige for the wardrobes with Stock on the walls

I love the match between the microcement shelves and the door painted in Travertine Light in the family bathroom

The kitchen walls and ceiling are painted in Flint from Little Greene with the kitchen cupboards in Stock

Flint creates the perfect white backdrop in our dining space making this a light filled space

Woodwork, walls and ceilings in Stock from Little Greene in our loft bedroom and ensuite

This blog post is part of a paid collaboration with Little Greene

Build Your Own Garden Office: Planning the Interior

For everything there is a season and, excitingly, this Autumn has been the season of garden office construction for us! To recap, after six months of home working/schooling in the spare room and at the kitchen table we decided to accelerate our plans to build a Scandi style Office with an integrated shed (aka a Shoffice) at the bottom of the garden.

We originally started looking options available from bespoke Garden Studio companies but for the size and finish we wanted (roughly 6m wide by 3.5m deep) we quickly realized they were going to be significantly out of budget at around £35 - 40K. So we decided to have one built from scratch instead - an option that works out almost half the price.

After many hours pouring over Pinterest I produced a sketch (although that is probably a generous description!) of what I wanted to achieve and called my builder Tony to see if a) he could tell what the drawing was and b) take the project on. Luckily for me it was a yes on both counts (although admittedly given my shaky grasp of Albanian it could actually have been “did a four year old draw this?”).

Sadly not my drawing but the inspiration for it - Cabu Cabins in Kent

It has been amazing watching my sketch literally coming to life out of the kitchen window for the last two months as Tony and team have made rapid progress. The first step in the process was lay a concrete base, after which they built a timber frame which has been insulated and boarded before then being clad. Electrics have been run out to the garden from the house (this cost approx £1K) but we decided against plumbing it with water as that would be a much more expensive option. The office will have underfloor heating and the option to have a wall heater as well if needed. For the office segment of the Shoffice (which measures approx 4m by 3.5m) the underfloor heating mat cost approx £175 so it is actually more affordable than you might imagine.

Once the concrete base had been laid the builders started constructing a timber frame

Electrics were brought out through the house and run down the side of the garden.

With the timber frame complete the next step was adding insulation

Starting to look like a proper room with the roof boards on, USB on the walls and the opening ready for the doors

In terms of the exterior, I deliberated for a long time about whether to go for real wood or composite cladding. My heart said go for the aesthetically pleasing timber that would weather to a lovely Scandi silver grey but my head (ok Tony’s head) said composite would be a better option in the longer term in terms of maintenance. In the end,after many hours of googling, I found a product that I think delivers the best of both worlds from a company called Envirobuild. Their Hyperion wood-plastic composite cladding is engineered from an innovative composition of 60% FSC® certified wood reclaimed from post-industrial manufacturing and 40% recycled High Density Polyethylene.

I love that these materials would otherwise be going to landfill but have instead been recycled into a long lasting durable form of cladding. And actually my heart has ended up as happy as my head as it doesn’t look or feel plasticky at all - it looks just like wood but is much easier to maintain. I chose to go for the darkest shade Graphite but it also comes in lighter “wood” finishes.

We used Hyperion cladding from Envirobuild for the exterior

One of the things I knew from the start (and that was hopefully obvious from my sketch) was that I wanted to invest in having crittall style windows having fallen in love with how they looked in the Cabu Cabins down in Kent. Because it is a relatively small space I wanted to go for ones with as slim frames and sight lines as possible (within budget!). Real crittall was sadly out of our price range but the aluminium alternative I found from ODC Glass achieve the look I was after for a much more reasonable price*. ODC are a British company with their manufacturing plant down in Poole, Dorset which means they are able to offer really quick lead times. Our doors arrived in 5 weeks compared to the 10-12 week lead in times other companies I approached offered. They installation was super quick and efficiently completed in a day and I am really happy with how they look. They are a sliding system with the two middle doors sliding to the sides and very easy to operate.

ODC fitting the doors

Installation was complete in a day

They are exactly what I was looking for in terms of the slim frames and sightlines.

The turnaround time on the roof and guttering have been slightly less impressive after an international aluminium coil crisis (who knew) slowed things up somewhat but it finally went on this week. I was originally thinking of having a zinc roof but to keep costs down I went for a more cost effective corrugated style sheet roofing from Cladco and chose matching aluminium guttering in the same anthracite finish.

With the roof on the exterior is now nearly complete and I couldn’t be happier with how it is all looking

Using corrugated sheet roofing was a more cost effective option than zinc on the roof.

I am going to worry about what used to be our lawn later - for now am just enjoying how it looks nestled at the bottom of the garden

So with the exterior now almost complete, I am now finally at the stage where I can start properly planning the interior and I couldn’t be happier to be teaming up with Neptune again to help me create a soothing serene workspace. To give you an idea of the look and feel that I want to achieve I have put together a moodboard which is inspired by American design duo Studio McGee (if you haven’t watched their show Dream Home Makeover on Netflix yet you are missing a treat) . Neptune do this simple, calm sophisticated look so well so I can’t wait to start work on the interior and showcase how to create the look working with their beautiful paints, textiles and furniture.

Scandi meets Studio McGee is my inspiration for the interior

Whilst Neptune stores in England are presently closed (bar for appointments only) owing to lockdown, they have recently relaunched their website and it is full of beautiful inspiring interiors and ideas and their team of home designers are doing virtual consultations if you need help designing a space.

A couple of design decisions I have already made when it comes to the Garden Office are to finish the walls in matching board to achieve a pannelled look that is a contemporary take on cabin interiors. I love how it looks in Design at Nineteen’s office and it is much more straightforward than installing individual tongue and grove boarding.

The matching board is already on the walls ready to paint.

I love how it looks in this gorgeous office on Pinterest

After careful consideration I have also decided to position the desk to the side of the room rather than at the back looking out towards the garden as this will allow us to have a long double desk running the length of the wall with two work stations and with storage on the walls and will still allow space to have an L Shaped sofa so that when our working day is done we then have another space to relax and use as a family. In my head we will gather here as a family to play wholesome board games and cards but I suspect the reality in years to come will be a trio of teenage boys loudly playing X Box! I look forward to sharing the next stage of the project with you all and please do ask if you are considering a similar project and have any questions

*I received a PR Discount from ODC Glass. My partnership with Neptune is a paid partnership.

Kitchen/Diner Revamp: The Big Reveal!

Things I had planned for 2020: giving my dining space a give it a Scandi Rustic revamp. Things I did not have planned for 2020: home schooling my kids for six months whilst trying to hold down my day job, write a book and keep a vague grip on my sanity. The latter slightly delayed the former but I am super excited to finally be able to show you the finished room!

To quickly recap: in the longer term we have big plans to create a contemporary open plan kitchen/diner, knocking down walls to combine three rooms into one. But in the short term I wanted to give the kitchen/dining space a refresh - toning down tango floors, adding timber cladding to create texture, refreshing the walls, removing a radiator cover bigger than our car, switching up the lighting and stretching my DIY skills to the limit by creating some faux crittall doors.

The Before. This is how the room looked when we moved in.

My moodboard for the revamp working in paid collaboration with Neptune

Working with Neptune, my dream interior brand, I have transformed the previously gloomy, cramped feeling space into a light, bright dining space that is now the hub of our home. So let me take you on a tour!

Working wonders on the walls

I think the lady who lived in the house before us was actually a secret senior Scandi fan because almost all of the walls in the house were painted in a neutral colour palette. However in a couple of places her inner Lawrence Lwellyn Bowen let loose and added flock wallpaper to the mix including on one of the walls of the kitchen. Having steamed it off in haste and then repented at my leisure - adding Neptune’s Cranbrook shiplap cladding has added some much needed (non Llewellyn Bowen) character to the room. Made from Norwegian Spruce (the Morten Harket of the timber world) you can keep it raw or have it stained in 16 different colour ways. Because the space is fairly narrow with not much natural light to speak of I have also refreshed the other walls using Neptune’s signature white paint: Snow. It is the perfect, fresh white and works perfectly as a base to build colour and texture around in a room.

The walls before. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty to strip that wallpaper off

I actually con’t believe how much better it looks! The cladding really adds interest to the room and Snow is the perfect crisp white for freshening up the space.

Freshening Up the Floors

If you are not a fan of the colour orange look away now! The floor we inherited was in perfectly good condition but as can often be the case, the varnish applied to the floorboards had taken a turn for the tango over time. In a DIY first (and potentially last) for me I buckled up went to B&Q and bought myself a belt sander to strip them back to a more natural shade of wood. I dithered for ages about whether to just seal them with a wax and leave them au naturel but ultimately decided to paint them an off white. I do love how light and bright the room now feels but part of me still wonders whether I made the right decision! I guess I will have to live with that #RenovationRegret though because if given the choice of spending another 48 hours belt sanding or fly fishing with Nigel Farage I would probably choose to get my tackle out.

The floor before in all it’s tango glory

The floor afterwards painted in off-white. We purposely just did one coat to allow some of the grain of the wood to still show through.

In the kitchen space I have broken up the white floor with a jute rug

Switching Up the Seating

We already have a dining table located through the double doors from the kitchen so the idea behind creating a second dining space in the kitchen was for this to be a more relaxed, informal option that channeled more of a cafe feel! With that in mind Mr Malmo built a bench seating area in.

Bench seating by Mr Malmo beautiful grainsack linen cushions by Maison Brocante - a great small interiors business

The grainsack bench cushions from Maison Brocante are really comfy. I still need to decide how to finish the bench seat itself but that decision can wait for another day (or year)

We have also added a Arundel bench from Neptune in a natural oak finish. It is nice and wide meaning we can comfortably fit three of us on it or one person can hog it! Layering a Neptune sheepskin on it adds coziness to the space and stops the white walls/floors feeling too stark.

Lots more seating options to choose from now. I love how wide the Arundel bench is - perfect for our family of five!

Sometimes i let him sit on it

To tie the two dining spaces together we have a set of Wardley chairs which echo the kitchen/diner colour palette. These chairs encompass everything I love about Neptune - they ooze beautiful craftsmanship that is built to last and the spindle back design is a simple classic that will endure beyond any seasonal trends. You can choose to have them in any of the Neptune paint range finishes or in beautiful natural oak.

We have the Wardley chairs in Ink and Snow to echo the colours in the kitchen and tie the two spaces together

Letting the Light In

One of the great things about this house is the ceiling heights! All of the rooms have lofty ceilings but in the dining space we had just one overhead pendant light that got completely lost in the space and no cosy lighting options at all. Although obviously that is something Mr Malmo lost zero sleep over given he would happily sit watching TV with the kind of lighting they use to illuminate crime scenes. Over the table the lone interrogation pendant light has been replaced with the Browning three light pendant from Neptune which fills the ceiling space so much better and adds a discreet industrial nod to the space. Adding in walllights (the Brompton - which have a gorgeous brass finish for an really affordable price) means we now also have a lower light option as well. I love putting these on during the day when it is raining outside to create a cosy feel.

The lighting situation is now significantly less interrogation cell! This three bulb pendant light is a great choice if you have a larger space to fill

These brass Brompton wall lights are a great price for a really high quality finish. I am still un-decided on the picture shelf - do you think I might need to add another one?

Creating Crittall Style Doors (on a budget)

Perhaps the most ambitious part of the revamp was creating my own version of Crittall doors. Woodworking skills are not something listed on my CV for a reason - making a simple Roman Spear in middle school took me 11 weeks, saw me snap approx 67 jigsaw blades and drove my CDT teacher to the edge of a nervous breakdown. The existing doors dividing the kitchen from the more formal dining space were pretty non descript and I thought they would make a great feature if they were given a crittall makeover. Because in the longer term they will be removed when we knock the two rooms together putting in an actual crittall dividing screen was not an option. However, armed only with a tin of Charcoal paint from Neptune, a paintbrush, 11mm timber strips from B&Q and gorilla glue I think I have delivered a pretty good short term crittall dupe! Although it is at this point I should probably confess that I may have called upon Mr Malmo to do the part that involved the hacksaw and superglue. The chances of me either losing a finger or sticking one to a window were just too high otherwise!

The partition doors before

And after their Crittall makeover. All it took was two coast of Neptune Charcoal paint, some 11mm timber strips cut to size (by Mr Malmo) and some gorilla glue!

It’s my new favourite shade of dark paint as has less of a blue undertone than Railings. I just need to touch up the paint job a little bit where my frog tape skills lacked a little!

Crittall feels on a budget

Tablescaping Time

Although it has been a long and winding road to the finish line now that the space is finished I couldn’t be happier. It has turned what was a dark, gloomy bit of dead space into my own personal Scandi/Rustic cafe and become the real hub of the house - where we come together to eat, read, draw (dinosaurs) and chat. And now that it is finished it means I can finally indulge in one of my favorite hobbies: tablescaping!

Now that the space is finished I can tablescape to my heart’s content

I loved pulling this scheme together using some accessories borrowed from Neptune’s Autumn/Winter collection. The Lulworth tableware in dappled grey looks great against my vintage wooden table with cutlery in Olive (Neptune’s colour of the year) adding a subtle contrast. In the centre of table I have played with different height candle holders,the Bayham and the Heddon and then added some flowers from Neptune’s range of greenery. This rannuculous is credibly realistic and definitely something I will be investing in.

Hopefully sometime before 2034 we will be able to host people back round our kitchen table but for now I am happy to stay home and enjoy the new space.

I am just a girl making eyes at her new faux crittall doors and trying not to burn my bum on the radiator

Thank you so much to Neptune for collaborating with me on this project and for the enormous patience you have shown me as I struggled to complete it in a global pandemic! If you are in need of interiors inspiration then do go and have a browse of their newly revamped website which has so much lovely interiors content to browse on it.

Paid Collaboration

Photos by @TiaTalula

Designing and Building A Garden Office

2020: the year none of us could have predicted in our crystal balls on the 31st of December.  Life as we once knew it has been turned on its head.  Our morning commute has shrunk from taking a train into the city to walking across the landing to the makeshift office in the spare room.   Although we are now being encouraged to get back to the office by Boris, with every fresh headline it seems less and less likely we will be returning to the 9 to five of old.   And, in truth, having had a taste for working from home and the flexibility it allows, do we even want to go back to the old way of working?

With all of this in mind, an item that was on our “Maybe one day it would be nice to have” list has made it’s way to the forefront of our renovation priorities: a garden office.  This had always been in our long term plans as one of the attractions of this house was that it came with a garden that was longer and wider with the ideal space at the bottom for a studio. As the kids get older we were anticipating a time when we might want to have a separate space where they could hang out (or we could hide from teenagers).  Lockdown has made us realise we may need that extra space sooner than originally anticipated.    

Forgive the slightly messy photo with B&Q’s finest extension cable taking centre stage but the area to the right of this picture at the bottom of the garden is where we thought would be a good spot for a garden studio.

Having decided to get our “Shoffice” on sooner than expected, last month we started to scope out our options.  There are lots of different companies out there offering studios of all shapes and sizes and catering to every budget. It all depends what you want to use the building for and how much you have to spend.  The more traditional log cabin style tend to be cheaper and the more contemporary tend to the more expensive but there are also good options in the middle and many ways to pimp a log cabin to give it a more modern feel . 

Cabu create a range of modular buildings including garden studios with a modern farmhouse aesthetic

Koto have some really cool contemporary home office designs

We wanted something fairly big so that we would have space for both an office and a storage element (otherwise known as a shed). We actually came very close to buying an ex display Hanley Heritage model from Malvern, having discovered this great British company through @design_at_nineteen (go check out his feed for Garden Office Goals) but we ran into difficulties in terms of side access to get it into the garden without having to call in a crane and it didn’t have an integrated shed so we had to go back to the drawing board. All of the other options we looked at in the size we wanted from garden studio companies were, unfortunately, out of our current budget.  So, instead, armed only with a rough drawing I had done after a glass of vino (that frankly looked like something a five year old had knocked out after an exhausting day at softplay) we decided to ask our builder if he would be able to knock us up something bespoke in budget falling within permitted development rules.

Ok so my art work will never be displayed in the National Gallery but hopefully you get the idea

You are probably none the wiser as to the design having looked at my rudimentary drawing (Neil Buchanan I am not) so I have pulled together a moodboard that captures the key elements. The idea is to have one building with a apex roof that includes two separate spaces: an office and storage shed. Working within permitted development means that it can have a max height of 2.5m but I still like the idea of having an element of slope even if it is not going to rival Notre Dame for ceiling height. The top left image on the moodboard is major inspiration for the whole design and belongs to an instagram account I think you would love to follow called @barnhousecabin. It is the forest cabin that two Copenhageners have built on preserved lakeside land in Denmark and if our Shoffice (on a much small scale) turns out 5% as cool in our non lakeside North London suburban setting I will be happy. In terms of the glazing I am hoping to include a set of crittal style aluminium doors that will span much of the width of the office space to bring lots of light into the space. With the cladding I want to keep things feeling contemporary by opting for vertical planks and I have been investigating composite alternatives to timber as that may prove to be a more cost effective option in the longer term when it comes to maintenance.

Top left image is of Barnhouse Cabin, middle image from Pinterest, Top Right image from the Local Project, bottom left image of Cabu Cabins, middle bottom image from Chatsworth Road project completed by Shakadelic and bottom right image is via Remodelista and of David Kohn’s Stable Acre Project.

Excitingly after a couple of days of mulling it over (and probably trying to decipher my drawing with a cold towel around his head) the builder came back to say he could deliver what we wanted within our budget so Project Scandi Shoffice is go! I can’t want to share the progress with you as it takes shapes over the next few weeks and hopefully inspire a few of you to maybe try something similar.  In the meantime I am off to pitch a TV Series called #PimpMyLogCabin to MTV.

Kitchen/Diner Revamp: Sanding The Floor By Hand

In my last blog post I unveiled the long term renovation plans for our Pebble Dash Princess. However, this week I have an exciting update for you on the shorter term revamp of the kitchen/dining space I have been working on for what may feel like the last millennium.

Sanding the Kitchen Floor

One of the main items on my revamp hit list for this room was the floor. We inherited engineered wooden floorboards that were in pretty good condition but which had an orange varnish that made this Scandi girl wince. In the longer term plan I am hoping to have polished concrete floors throughout the open plan kitchen/living space but, for now, it is sanding rather than concrete mixing on my mind.

The kitchen floor when we came to view the house

After stage one of the Kitchen/Diner Revamp with a filter applied to take the tango edge off the floor

This is not my first brush with David Dickinson floor varnish. We inherited very similar stained floorboards in our old house. On that occasion it was my husband who tackled the tango floor, hiring an industrial sander and then painting them off white. This time round he was less keen to take on the task (perhaps understandably when trapped at home with 3 kids in the midst of a global pandemic). As a result I found myself in Aisle 24 of B&Q on a socially distanced Saturday night, surrounded by power tools, looking as out of place as a nun in Ann Summers.

Like a Nun in Ann Summers I had no idea what I was doing in B&Q’s power tool aisle

How I Sanded The Floor By Hand

I had decided against hiring a big industrial sander because the space is quite narrow and, quite frankly, it would be like putting Thora Hurd behind the wheel of a double decker bus, After half an hour , and a lot of quizzical looks from men in tool belt trousers in B&Q, I selected a MacAllister belt sander for the job instead. According to Screwfix (not me) they offer a powerful, high speed sanding experience for fast removal of material and are ideally suited for use on large flat surface areas. At £40 it was a cheaper option than hiring the large industrial sander.

Malmo & MacAllister: the belt sanding dream team

There followed many hot dusty nights for Becca and the Belt Sander which satisfyingly stripped off the varnish - albeit creating storm clouds of sawdust in the process. I would definitely recommend a mask and googles for the job and having someone in the house who doesn’t mind following you around with a hoover. I did the most back breaking part of the job but, by the end Mr Malmo took pity on me and got his mouse sander out (not a euphemism) to finish off the edges and corners. If you are sanding a bigger room I would definitely say hiring a big industrial sander would be the better option because it collects the sawdust for you into a vacuum bag as you go along and doesn’t involve you being hunched over the floor in a position resembling a toad going to the toilet.

With the worst of the sanding out of the way I became tempted to leave the floors au naturel

How To Give Your Floor a Nordic Look

Once the floors were sanded, I had originally been thinking I would paint the floors white but as the varnish came off I really liked the natural floorboards that were revealed so I started to toy with just staining/white washing them to leave them with an au naturel finish. That is what we did in the hallway and living room using Bona Floor Oil in Frosted to create a Scandi flooring effect that I am really happy with.

We used Bona floor oil in Frosted on our hallway and living room floors

If you are thinking of going down this road some of the other products that people recommended to me to achieve a white washed natural floor feel were Osmo White Tint Oil, Spruce by Treatex, Dinesen White Oil, Woca Softwood Lye and Blanchon Raw.

However, in the end, I went back to my original plan to paint them because, truth be told, the quality of my sanding job was suspect with lots of uneven areas. The paint I chose for the job was Little Greene Portland Stone Mid, which is a great off white option that we have also used on the open shelves in our kitchen. We used a paint brush to do the edges and then a roller for the main areas.

At the moment we have only down one coat so you can still see the grain of the wood

Don’t look too closely at the quality of my cutting in!

It has made the kitchen feel so much lighter and brighter

I have a new rug on order which is wider for this space

At the moment we have only done one coat as I want to still be able to see the grain of the wood (and because I am lazy and would rather watch Selling Sunset than do a second coat). Although I agonized a lot about painting the floor in the end I am really happy I went for it. The whole room feels instantly bigger, brighter and more spacious.

The eagle eyed among you will also spot that there has been another exciting lighting revamp development since last I blogged about the project. The ceilings are pretty high in the dining space so the single pendant light we had hanging over the table before lent the room distinct interrogation cell vibes. I wanted something that would fill more of the space without dangling down into our dinner- and creating a pendant in pasta situation. Step forward the Browning 3 light pendant of my dreams from Neptune. I love the contrast it provides to the cladding and the wooden table and it has really evened up the space.

The Browning 3 light pendant from Neptune is a much better light for this space, I love the slight industrial edge it adds

Next stop on the renovation express? The faux crittal door transformation. Prepare to see me wade even further out of my DIY depth with this one!

The Browning Pendant is part of my ongoing collaboration with Neptune on this project

Renovation Update: We Got Planning Permission!

This week will mark one year since we moved into our “new” house. I don’t think we could possibly have foreseen in July 2019 quite how much time we would be spending in it during our first 12 months of residence!

Moving Day July 2019

Two slightly nervous new home owners trying not to panic about the number of Roger’s Renoval boxes awaiting them inside

The day we moved in when we still had a nice green lawn that hadn’t been obliterated by football mad boys

Over the course of the last year we have made a start in making it feel a bit more us with renovation projects on the hallway and living room and most recently a budget revamp of the kitchen/diner. But behind the scenes we have also been working with Detail.Architects to draw up bigger plans to transform our Pebble Dash Princess into a Modern Rustic Swan.

Actually I lie, getting rid of the massive radiator cover that hogged the hallway and adding a lower radiator and scaffold bench is my favourite change!

My latest DIY project, sanding back the kitchen floors

I never thought I would be a power tool owner 12 months ago

Adding paneling painted in Farrow & Ball’s Ammonite to the hallway is one of my favourite changes we have made so far.

As I think I have mentioned before, gaining extra (house) girth was one of our main motivations in buying the Pebble Dash Princess (our affectionate nick name for the house). It is at least a third wider than our old house creating the possibility of having the open plan family living space downstairs that I have always dreamed of. However, in its current configuration the ground floor is a bit like the layout of the Crystal Maze so part of our brief to Reah our architect was to redesign the floorplan so that it doesn’t feel like you have to navigate the Aztec zone to get to the utility room.

Welcome to the Crystal Maze! The existing downstairs layout is a bit of a rabbit warren of rooms

Upstairs has the same number of bedrooms as our old house but they are not quite as big and as the kids get older we are conscious that the younger two, who currently share, might not want to go on doing that forever. So we also wanted to add a fifth bedroom and an extra bathroom and then, by removing a hot water tank the size of a small submarine from an airing cupboard, also make the family bathroom bigger.

The submarine size water tank is sandwiched in between the toilet and bathroom

So now you have seen what we were starting with do you want to see the design Reah came up with that achieves everything on our wish list and more?

The final design worked up by Detail Architects

What do you think? I hope you love it as much as I do! We are extending at the rear but actually not by much - filling in an unused passage at the side that leads to the utility room then going out a little bit on the right hand side to fulfil my ultimate dream of having a window seat. Inside we are going to take down the wall between the kitchen and second reception room that currently makes this room feel narrow and dark.

Crystal Maze be gone the new layout creates a much better flow to the downstairs space.

We will then move the utility backwards from its’ existing position, borrowing a bit of space from Mr Malmo’s beloved garage. This, along with the extra space we are adding, will hopefully give us a nice big wide, open and airy room with great connection to the garden. These 3Ds that Reah put together really give you a sense of what the space will ultimately be like.

There is a pillar through the Island shown here but we are hoping the structural engineer will come up with plans that allow us to avoid this.

Upstairs we will be adding a loft which will have enough space for a bedroom, dressing room and bathroom. On the middle floor taking out the small submarine will enable us to new, bigger family bathroom that has room for a separate shower. I have shared the plans for the loft in a previous blog. Click here to have a read.

Externally the look I am hoping to achieve is what I would describe as modern Scandinavian farmhouse - I thought that had more of a ring to it than New Nordic Agricultural. The pebble dash is hopefully going to be replaced by a smooth render unless I find out chipping it off will cost the same as a new car in which case I will be seeking to persuade you guys that pebble dash is a material favored by hip Scandinavian farmers. The ground floor will have timber cladding (expect detailed chat about how different types of wood weather coming your way in 2021) and I will be paring that with slimline glazing, with crittal style doors to one side.

The vision for the exterior. Pebble dash replaced with smooth render and timber cladding

The journey through planning has not been without its bumps and compromises. Our original design was turned down owing to concerns about how the roofline would look in comparison to other houses in the street. If I could go back in time I would definitely have paid to have formal pre planning discussions with the council at the outset so that we could have understood their views and incorporated them into the design from the get go. However, we got there in the end and the changes we have had to make to address the Council’s concerns don’t materially alter the space we will end up with internally so all is well that ends well.

I don’t think we can afford to do all of the work at the same time and, to be honest, after the way 2020 has panned out so far, I am not sure I am up for cooking us meals on a camping stove in the garage with only the outside tap and a hose to shower under right now. The current plan (bar a lottery win) is to start with the loft and first floor and then tackle the ground floor work later on when we have saved up a bit more.

The next immediate task now that we have secured planning permission is to get a structural engineer on board to help with the structural drawings and to then get builders quotes for the work once we know how much steel etc we will need (Laksmi Mittal if you are reading call me :-)). It obviously goes without saying that I already have about seventeen pinterest boards on the go to help me plan out the interiors and I am excited to start sharing my ideas with you once we get going but for now here is a little snapshot of what has been inspiring me. I hope you will enjoy following along with our renovation ups and downs.

With planning permission secured I can now start pinteresting with purpose to pull together my ideas for the interior

Updating My Kitchen/Diner with Timber Cladding

A couple of weeks ago on the blog I revealed my plans to revamp the second half of our kitchen/dining space.  The project is my lockdown sanity saver – giving me something to focus on other than Twinkl worksheets and how little it turns out I know about how to calculate and teach improper fractions. The space is fairly non descript at the moment meaning I have a blank canvas to work with but it is also quite narrow and doesn’t get much natural daylight so it is potentially a bit of a tricky beast to breathe some Scandi Rustic style into.

Top left image from Plain English, Top middle, Middle left and Bottom Left images from Neptune

One of my main revamp conundrums is what to do with the wall that I over enthusiastically stripped wallpaper off before Christmas with no real plan as to what to replace it with. In hindsight that gin fuelled decision may have been slightly hasty as the wall below the paper was not in great condition and in its naked state it is currently lending the kitchen more of a 1970s squat than Scandi feel. Over Christmas I added a festive sprinkle to it with three rustic wreaths but with Saint Nicholas having long since returned to the North Pole it is time to find a more permanent solution to the problem.

The wall after my Friday night wall paper stripping frenzy

Because the dining space doesn’t really have any distinguishing/interesting features I don’t just want to paint the wall as I feel like it needs something that can help to add (non seventies squat) character and texture to the room.  On a pre-lockdown visit to the Wimbledon branch of Neptune I stumbled across the perfect solution. The ceilings of the store (which is a new build) were clad in a really gorgeous timber with a white washed/grey finish that created my ideal Scandi- Coastal look.  Upon quizzing the store manager (yep I know I have great chat) I discovered that it was in fact Neptune’s own Cranbrook Shiplap cladding which I already had pinned to lots of my Pinterest boards! It is made from Norwegian Spruce (no less) and comes with a silver birch finish but can also be customised to any of the other colours in the Neptune paint range.

Because the dining space is quite narrow and doesn’t get much natural daylight the light wash of the Cranbrook Shiplap cladding is perfect for adding texture without making the space feel gloomy or oppressive.  With Neptune having made all my interior dreams come true by teaming up with me on the revamp I can actually now give you guys a first peek at what it looks like in my house because work had actually begun on installing the cladding before lockdown began ( I was just a little behind on my blog writing and Instagram documentation of the project!)

Goodbye depressing wall hello Cape Cod Clapboard vibes

As you can probably tell from the amount of power tools in the above picture this was a task above my DIY pay grade but if you have a better grasp of a spirit level than I do and wanted to take on a cladding project of your own then the basic principles are pretty straightforward. The first step is to attach batons (hark at me with my technical terms) to the wall to create a frame on which to attach the cladding and then, once this is done, saw the planks to size to fit the wall and affix them to the batons with screws.

Although work had to stop when lock down began so some of the boards still need a colour wash applied it has made such a huge difference to how the space feels. I can’t wait to get to work painting the floor to take the David Dickinson factor down several notches.

When lockdown is lifted and work can resume all that is left to do is to colour wash the remaining boards with the silver birch finish so that it has a consistent look overall. Hopefully by then I will have also made more progress on the other aspects of the revamp like the painting of the bench seat, floor and other walls so that I can give you a better idea of the final look. However, I already absolutely love how the cladding has transformed the space - it is giving me all the Cape Cod Clapboard feels.

I love the rustic natural feel of the Norwegian spruce boards. When we do the longer term renovation of the kitchen we will reuse these planks in the utility.

Five Great Ways to Use Timber Cladding to Update your Decor

If you fancy taking on a cladding project of your own I have rounded up below some of my favourite ideas for how you can use it in your home. From hallways to bedrooms and lots of rooms in between there are plenty of ideas to get your timber juices flowing. The cladding I have used in our dining space has a rustic appearance but I also love how both more contemporary cladding or traditional tongue and groove style boards can look.

Image Credits. Top left image Domino Magazine, Top Right Project Felix via the Local Project, Bottom Left Mollies Motel and Bottom Right from Remonis

Whilst I ultimately used panelling rather than cladding in our hall it was a very close call because I think cladding can be a really great way to zone a space like a hallway. For example, I love how the contemporary cedarwood cladding in the first picture below has been used to create a backdrop to the pegs. But it can be equally effective if you go bold and clad the entire space

Image Credit Oak House, Derek Swalwell . Pictures below left hand Vosges Paris, right hand M Arkitekur

When the dining room revamp is done (some time in 2025 judging by my current rate of progress) I have my sights set on updating the wardrobes in our master bedroom and the boys bedroom. They are fitted and although structurally sound I would love to bring them more up to date. I have a whole pinterest board devoted to them (no you are too much fun) and one of my favourite ideas is have new cladding style doors made to fit the carcasses. I absolutely love how Simply Scandi Kate has done something very similar in her bedroom so that it looks like a wall of cladding rather than wardrobes. The blush pink wardrobes below are actually MDF with lines scored into them to make them look like Tongue & Groove.

Image credits Top Image Suzy Hoodless

Although we don’t have a kitchen island in our current kitchen (unless you count our jazzy breakfast bar) I think using cladding on an island can be a great way to make it stand out. If you don’t have an island or wanted to keep yours more neutral then you could look to the walls or the cupboards to clad instead. The tongue and groove style cupboards in the kitchen of Imperfect Interiors are some of my favourite on Instagram.

Image credits Main image EST Magazine, Bottom left Gloria.Fi and Bottom Right Imperfect Interiors

There has been a lot of talk about the ceiling being the fifth wall of late and if you can get up there with a drill and some timber without ending up accidentally adding rustic character to your head it is the perfect place for some cladding. I think it looks particularly good in more modern style or new build homes where it can introduce real character and warmth.

Image credits Main Image M Arkitekur , Bottom left House Doctor and Bottom Right EST Magazine

I know not everyone is a fan of wood in a bathroom as they worry about it getting damp and mouldy but we had tongue & grovve pannelling to a half height in our old ensuite and we never had any problem with it. If you are on a budget and want to make use of reclaimed materials then using scaffold boards like in the picture below is a great way to add an industrial edge in an eco friendly way.

Image Credits Main Image Project Felix via the Local Project Bottom left Unique Home Stays and Bottom Right EST Magazine

I am a particular fan of using cladding to add texture and interest in loft bedrooms as they can very often feel like bland spaces. Adding a scaffold plank wall to our old loft bedroom was certainly a game changer for me. and using reclaimed boards is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to add a statement wall. I also love the idea of using cladding as an inexpensive way to create a statement headboard. If you are after inspiration for this idea when lock down ends then book yourself a night a Mollies Motel where I loved the contemporary cladding headboards in red cedar wood.

Image Credits Main Image Remonis , Bottom Left unknown source Pinterest, Bottom Right Malmo & Moss old bedroom

I hope that round up has given you some ideas for creating statement wooden walls in your own homes. With the cladding part of my revamp now almost complete the next task I am planning to tackle is my radiator cover colossus. Brace yourself for big questions coming your way about my best option for minimising its presence in the room!

The Cranbrook Cladding was supplied to me as part of my paid partnership with Neptune

My Plans for Part Two of My Kitchen/Diner Revamp

Last month on the blog I revealed the first part of my mini kitchen/diner renovation.  You may recall that we have longer term larger scale renovation plans but, whilst we work out how much loose change we need to find down the back of the sofa to afford them, for now I am making some smaller changes to try to make the space feel a little bit more Malmo. 

Our kitchen after a mini Malmo makeover

I made over the space for less than £130

Not unlike me, the new house has a generous downstairs.   However, as you can see from the first floor plan below, the kitchen/utility/dining and living space are currently carved up into separate spaces in a way that means that some of the rooms are little awkward to work with. In the longer term we hope (subject to to planning) to be able to reconfigure the space to give us a bigger open plan kitchen/diner by removing the walls that currently divide the three rooms and shifting the utility room backwards into part of the garage.  I have included a second floor plan below that shows what that reconfiguration would look like.

However, as we currently find ourselves in uncertain and unprecedented times I am not really daring to dream too much about those plans at the moment.  Instead, to help preserve some semblance of my sanity whilst socially distancing, I am turning my mind and painting brush to completing the second part of the shorter term kitchen/diner revamp.  

Round one of the mini revamp focused on the kitchen at the end of the dining space.  This Scandi came over all Handy Andy and removed the upper wall cupboard doors, painted the lower cupboard doors and switched up the handles.  Those simple changes made such a huge difference so now I want to wave my Scandi-Rustic-Industrial wand over the remaining, untouched dining space.  

This time I  am unbelievable excited to have a little help from my ultimate fairy godmother: Neptune.   My love affair with this British brand started 10 years ago when I came across one of their beautiful kitchens on holiday in Norfolk but their story actually started 10 years earlier with a hammock hand sewn at a the kitchen table.  It turned out to be a case of from small hammocks big beautiful lifestyle brands grow. Today there are 26 stores across the UK (with a handful more in Europe) all of which are gorgeous destination experiences in themselves.

Gorgeous home inspiration galore on the Neptune Instagram Page

Whilst it is not currently possible to visit their beautiful shops in person, the online Neptune experience is just as swoonworthy.  I regularly lose myself down an inspiration rabbit hole on their website, Pinterest and Instagram pages and the great news is that lots of the helpful services they offer in store (such as design consultations) are now available virtually instead. So if you need help with a room revamp you can talk to a dedicated Neptune designer by phone, zoom or whats app and started planning how to improve your space with expert advice and ideas.. You can also still order items from their website with their online delivery service still running (working closely within all relevant government guidelines).

To be honest being asked to collaborate with them was a bit like Brad Pitt turning up and asking to take me to my school prom so I am absolutely delighted to be able to champion one of my favourite brands in these challenging times for British retailers.

The Plans for Part Two of the Mini Kitchen/Diner Revamp

So are you ready to see the space I will be working to transform? It is slightly awkward in that it is sandwiched between the kitchen, utility and living room and is relatively narrow. When we first moved in it was wallpapered in a textured flock wallpaper that I believe Lawrence Lwellyn Bowen may have designed during a fever. We said farewell to the flock on Friday evening before Christmas when, after a gin & tonic, I tore it off with my bare hands (sorry Lawrence).

When we first came to view the house this area had a table in but our existing dining table was too big and wide to fit in the space so we chose to put it at the end of the living room on the other side of the wall instead.  However, we quickly realised that without a table in the space the area just felt like a big corridor and it rapidly filled up with anything and everything that didn’t have a home somewhere else in the house.

The dining end of the kitchen when we came to view the house.

So before Christmas Mr Malmo got his drill out (not a euphemism) and knocked up an L shaped seating bench with built in storage so that we could create a second more casual dining area that would make the room feel less like a suburban branch of Big Yellow Storage.  

The storage bench construction in progress

It has built in storage

At the same time I threw myself on the mercy of Vintage Curator Interiors who I had sold my old, smaller dining table to before we moved.   That table held many happy and sentimental memories for me as it was the first piece of vintage furniture we bought for our old house and hosted many happy (and messy) family dinners.  I was therefore overjoyed when my puppy dog eyes and pleading tone combined to persuade Sam to let me have the table back.

The old table styled up for Autumn

However, as you can see from the pictures below, there is still lots of work left to do!  These are the 5 further changes I am going to be working on to fully convert it into a secondary relaxed dining space with Scandi Rustic style with a little bit of help from Neptune.

Transforming the wall

Whilst my wallpaper stripping frenzy before Christmas saw us saying sayonara to the flock it left us with an unpainted wall that looks like we are pioneering a new trend in seventies hippie squat chic.  My plan, to add some texture into the space, is to clad the wall in a pale rustic wood which, when we go ahead with our larger renovation, we can then reuse in the new utility room.

The wallpaper is gone but the blank wall left behind is ripe for a revamp.

These two images from the Neptune Pinterest page have been serious cladding inspiration for me and I am hoping the end result will have this lime washed, coastal inspired feel.

Painting the walls and floor

Because the space is relatively narrow and set back in the house one of my number one goals with the mini makeover is to brighten it up in order to make it feel more spacious.  We were fortunate in moving into a house where the previous owner liked neutral colours as much as me so the kitchen is currently painted in a gentle shade of taupe that is by no means offensive.  However to try and bounce some more light around I am going to take the walls whiter.

The floor is currently engineered wooden floor boards but they have quite an orangey appearance and a shiny varnish which currently makes the space feel darker.  In an ideal world I would probably sand them down and oil them but given the Corona crisis that is not really an option so my Plan B is to paint them an off white colour.  Mr Malmo has some serious reservations about this plan so I am hoping it doesn’t turn out to be an even worse idea than the Dirty Dancing sequel. 

The floors currently have quite an orange varnish that makes the space feel darker

I am hoping that by painted the walls and floors white it will significantly refresh the space. Picture from Pinterest source unknown

Updating the lighting 

Whilst I am hoping that freshening up the walls and painting the floor will make the space feel naturally much brighter I also want to change the current lighting to add a softer mood to the room in the evenings.  The only lighting we have at the moment is a small overhead light above the table that creates about as much hygge atmosphere as the floodlights at Wembley. I have plans to add in both some new overhead lighting and a couple of wall lights that will create a more balanced lighting scheme.  

Upgrading the seating 

Whilst the newly built storage bench has already provided an element of seating in the space we are still a few seats short of comfortably accommodating a family of 5.  As a makeshift seating solution we have been using a vintage Hungarian milking bench that usually lives in the hallway. However, whilst it may be the perfect size for a lone Hungarian milking maid, if any more than two people sit on it at one time it has an alarming tendency to topple over.  I am therefore hoping to add some more stable non-agricultural bench seating to the other side of the table and perhaps a statement chair in a darker colour at the end.

The rustic Hungarian milking bench that has been doubling up a seating in the dining at present

Removing the radiator cover and disguising the radiator 

On the wall opposite the table there is currently a large radiator cover that takes up almost half of the wall and protrudes out into the useable space which is already quite narrow.  I know some people prefer radiator covers to seeing the raw radiator but I am personally not a massive fan. I think, therefore, that I am going to take the cover off, pray for a not entirely Soviet looking radiator underneath and put a Scaffold shelf over the top to distract the eye away from it 

The radiator cover that currently cuts into what is quite a narrow space

Creating Crittall 

The final big change I want to make is to transform the glass doors that currently divide the kitchen from the living/dining space on the other side of the wall.  They are nice and wide and I think they are a perfect candidate for a crittal on the cheap style makeover. My DIY to date has not extended to woodwork, perhaps because my last brush with a jigsaw in 1992 nearly took my CDT teacher to the point of nervous collapse, but there is no time like the present to extend my home improvement skill set.   

The dividing doors I want to give a crittall makeover on a budget to. As you can see the dining table is currently doubling up as a table tennis table in lockdown

Ultimate crittal door inspiration from Plain English

Mine may not end up looking quite this chic but I am hoping that they add an industrial edge to the kitchen/diner

I hope you will enjoy following along with the revamp over the coming weeks, I know I am going to need your support and guidance when I am hacksaw in hand trying to craft myself that crittal!.

This Blog Post is Part of My Paid Partnership with Neptune

My moodboard for the makeover

How I Revamped My Kitchen For Less Than £150

Girth: not a filter term you can enter into Rightmove but it was one of the main things we were looking for when we searched for a new house 9 months ago. Our old house was lovely in many ways but it was relatively narrow with little scope to add extra width (especially when it came to the kitchen). As soon as I saw the floor plan for our new house I knew it was the one because it had the girth that would allow me to have the spacious open plan kitchen/diner of my dreams. It is almost double the width of the old house but, in its current configuration, the space is divided up in a way that does not make the most of the space.

Our old kitchen was a lovely space but it was narrow

The desire for a wider kitchen/diner was one of the motivations for our move

We have submitted a planning application to extend and reconfigure the space as well as to add a loft conversion. However, with a less than Roman Abramovitch sized bank balance, we are not currently sure how much of the work we will be able to complete in one go so it may be a while before I get the kitchen of my dreams. The kitchen we inherited was in OK condition and immaculately clean but it is just a little bit dated. So, before Christmas, I decided to embark on a mini makeover to #MakeItMoreMalmo in the short term. Because we are going to be doing a bigger renovation in the not so distant future I couldn’t justify ripping out and replacing things like the tiles and cupboard doors. My challenge, therefore, was to achieve the Scandi/Industrial look I was after by pimping what was already there.

The kitchen we inherited was clean and relatively light and bright it just felt a little bit dated.

I knew there were some simple inexpensive changes I could make that would bring the space instantly more up to date. Sphincter tighteningly for Mr Malmo, they mainly involved me, left over tins of paint from the garage and his electric screwdriver. The key areas I wanted to tackle were the tiles, the cupboards and the handles.

Adding in my own possessions helped to make it feel a little more homely to start with

But I was itching to do something with the wall cupboards

For the tiles I decided the simplest course of action was to paint them white and use a grout pen to give them a refresh. Now an experienced DIY blogger would no doubt have carefully researched and purchased both primer and specialist tile paint before embarking on this job. However, #SlapdashScandiHandyAndy bought a tin of ordinary white emulsion and a grout pen off Amazon and cracked on with the job after a couple of glasses of wine one Friday night.

Can of white paint at the ready I made a start on transforming the tiles

Considering that my technique involved individually painting the tiles and filling in the corners using the brush from a child’s face paint set I would say it is a miracle I finished the job before 2022. Even more miraculous given said painting technique is the fact that the end result actually looks half decent (especially if you are squinting and have consumed four strong gin and tonics). It may not be the perfect paint job but it has instantly freshened up the kitchen and given it a much more contemporary feel.

If I was to do the job again I would definitely adopt a different painting technique though, using a roller to paint the tiles on mass rather than painting each one by hand!

As long as you squint the paint job looks pretty good!

The newly painted tiles create the perfect backdrop for a bit of nonchalant recipe book reading

The second change I made was to #GoToWarOnTheWallCabinets. I know a lot of people like their crocks behind closed doors but I have always been more of an open shelf kind of girl. I like to wear my mugs on my sleeve. So from the moment we moved in I had the wall cupboards on my hygge hitlist. My ideal scenario was to take them off the wall completely and replace them with open scaffold board shelves. But I feared that might end in us having to replaster the walls which was definitely not on my budget kitchen makeover plan. So the compromise option was to take the doors off and paint the cupboards.

#SlapdashScandiHandyAndy in action

Even just one cupboard in I knew the decision to take the doors off was the right one

Usually I would rely on Mr Malmo for any job requiring a Black & Decker but in a bid to prove you don’t need a dick to (screw) drive I tackled this task myself. Having removed the doors I painted the cabinets in Portland Stone from Little Greene (I bought a 2L pot and had some left over by the end). No replastering was required and it means that my impressive/excessive mug collection is now back on display.

Wearing my mugs on my shelf

I love the interest, texture and (muted) colour they add to the kitchen

Is 79 an excessive amount of mugs to own (asking for a friend)

The next decision was what to do about the doors on the lower cabinets. I initially thought of also painting them in Portland Stone but when I tested the colour out on one of the cupboards it just felt a bit meh so I decided to dip a toe in the dark side instead (perhaps also inspired by the fact that I had 3/4 of a tin of leftover Railings paint in the garage). Whilst the upper cupboards were easy to paint the bottom ones were what can only be described as a complete bastard! Because I had tested out a few different shades on them before plumping for Railings it felt like Farrow & Ball could sense the presence of its Middle Class paint competitor and was determined not to be on the same cupboard as them! I should probably have stopped, gone and bought some primer and tackled the task afresh but that level of patience/preparation is not my DIY style.

If you don’t zoom in too close the paint job really doesn’t look too bad despite my epic struggle to get the paint to stay on the cupboard

However despite my struggles, as long as you don’t zoom in too close, I think it has turned out OK in the end. I don’t think I will ultimately chose to have a dark kitchen but, for now, I am definitely enjoying having a temporary flirt with dark side. With the (bad) paint job complete, the final finishing touch in my budget kitchen makeover was to update the cabinet handles (a couple of which had actually fallen off). I initially thought about going for a copper bar style handle but, echoing my mum’s thoughts about the casting of Timothy Chalamet as Laurie in the Little Women reboot, I decided that they were too modern for the part.

A sneak peek of one of the aged brass handles I opted for

Instead I tracked down some aged brass handles from More Handles which were the princely sum of £6 per handle meaning the handle refresh came in at approximately £80. I have had pedicures that cost more (foot maintenance is an expensive business in London!). They really helped pull the makeover together and were super easy to fit.

I chose industrial style aged brass handles from More Handles

They were very easy to install and I love how they have changed the look of the cupboards

So what do you think of the end result? I added up what I spent on the white emulsion, grout pen, Portland Stone paint and the handles and it came to the princely sum of approximately £130. With the exception of the handles I have just worked with what was already there and I think it has really underlined to me that creating a space that feels contemporary and cosy does not have to cost the earth.

A cosy, homely kitchen that feels like Malmo for £130

This is my favourite corner to hang out looking like William Shakespeare off to do a spot of DIY

The one change that I didn’t make which I am now slightly regretting is painting the floor. The flooring is engineered wood but the boards have a quite shiny/orangey varnish finish and I have an urge to paint them an off white to take the edge off them. What do you think? Get my paint brush back out or leave well alone? Perhaps that will be one of the changes I make in Malmo’s Mini Kitchen Makeover Part II as there is actually another part of the kitchen that I haven’t shown you yet! I can’t wait to share my plans for the rest of the space with you soon and maybe this time I will invest in some primer…..

The shiny floorboards that I have an urge to paint off white. Please ignore the fact that I should have hoovered before I took this photo!

New kitchen and a new fringe - only one of them now looks like I borrowed it from Rod Stewart

A full frontal of the newly revamped kitchen

Taking a break from painting but I am already plotting Part II of the kitchen makeover

Renovation Diary: Our Living Room and Fireplace Revamp

I have lived in period properties pretty much all my life bar a brief stay in a soviet style 1960s halls of residence during my university years. Think less the gleaming spires of Cambridge and more solid concrete Stalin. However bar that brutalist blip I have always been #TeamEdwardianVictorian. The first flat we bought was Edwardian as was our first house. But three kids in when we looking for more space it quickly became apparent that sizing up to a bigger period property in our area would require £500K that we didn’t have (unless there is a lot more loose change down the back of the sofa than I thought). So what we have ended up buying is a 1930 house which offers us the extra space we were after but the compromise is it doesn’t have much in terms of period features.

The Edwardian house and all it’s period features that we have left behind

The living room is a case in point. It is a nice wide room with high ceilings neutrally decorated by the previous owner so it feels light and spacious but we have little in the way of attractive cornicing or decorative ceiling roses and no grand fireplace crafted from marble from Roman times. When thinking about how to decorate it to make it a bit more Malmo I had two choices: try and inject some period features into it or go in a totally different direction and try a more contemporary look. My inner Edwardian was shocked to find that I actually leaned towards the latter rather than the former option. There were a couple of key changes I had in mind to take it Twenty First Century. This first was a fairly straight forward sand and oil of the floors to take them down from David Dickinson Orange to Dinesen Doppelgangers.

The living room as it was when we came to view the house. A nice big room but not much in the way of period features

Overhauling the fireplace and taking the floors down to a more Scandi shade were two of the main things I wanted to tackle

Introducing our own furniture and a few artfully displayed magazines helped to make it feel more us in the short term

The second change was much more likely to set off Mr Malmo’s “No Fucking Way” alarm because it involved ripping out the existing gas fire, building out the chimney breast, creating two benches either side in the alcoves and then micro cementing the lot. My inspo for this design decision came via Pinterest as well as from a couple of my fave American DIY accounts.

With Tony (Vintage Curator Interiors amazing builder) and, incredibly, Mr Malmo on board we got to work at the end of November. The first step was to cap off and remove the old gas fire and fireplace surround and to then build out the chimney breast by approx 25cm.

Progress by the end of day one: the old fireplace surround is no more and the gas fire is on its way to join it

With the old fireplace gone the next step was to build the chimney breast out 25cm and add benches in the alcoves either side.

Once the structure was extended the next step was to clad it in fire proof plaster board which would then be micro cemented.

I want to be able to give you a detailed description of how this was all done but by Tony’s own admission the young lad he had labouring for him was about as cheerful as Nora Batty with PMT and favoured communication by grunt instead of speech so I mainly stayed out his way instead of taking progress pics. The biggest and messiest part of the job was definitely the micro cementing which required three layers to be applied and then sanded down with a tool that made a kind of high pitch whiny noise not unlike a whippet that has got its tail trapped in a door. You then apply a top coat of oil to seal it. Tony bought the microcement from Imperia Italia in North London and if you fancied having a go with it in your own home they run courses showing you how to do it.

Imperia Italia have a range of different shades to chose from but I went for a natural very pale grey

This was the microcement after 2 coats. It looked quite shiny at that point so I was feeling a little bit nervous!

Luckily after a third sanding down it lost that sheen and started to look just how I had pictured it

I am fairly sure that after 3 solid days of this process neither my neighbours nor Tony ever wanted to talk to me again but the end results are 100% worth it. Although a lot of the inspo pics I liked had a dark grey finish I was worried that might be a bit imposing given the height and width of the chimney breast so I opted for a much lighter shade of grey. I couldn’t be happier with how it looks against the newly pale wooden floor which we (well Tony) sanded down and then oiled with Bona wax in Frosted.

This is the fireplace from Pinterest that was one of my inspo pics but I decided that this shade of grey might be too imposing

I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to go for a freestanding or inset wood burner. All of the inspo pics I was drawn to had an inset one but I was worried that given we had a fairly large, wide chimney breast that an inset one might look lost and more like a wayward microwave oven than a stove. However my mind was made up to go for one as soon as I clapped eyes on the Arada i750 Series stove. Arada are a small British Company established in 1966 who manufacture all of their stoves in Dorset. It has really crisp contemporary lines unlike a lot of other ones I had seen and crucially at 750mm wide it was big enough not to feel lost in the space. They also have a freestanding woodburner in the same range which has the same clean contemporary good looks! It is also DEFRA exempt meaning it can be used in smoke control areas. Tony created a rendered opening ready for its installation and then we used Essex Stoves & Chimneys to install it based on the recommendation of one of our old neighbours.

John from Essex Stoves & Chimneys on the day of installation

Waiting for the flue to come down the chimney to connect to the i750 Arada Stove

They were very reasonable as well as professional with the other quotes we had from companies ranging from £1500 to £3000. They do installation across London and the home counties. One of the largest costs is actually having to hire the scaffold to enable them to get up on the roof. The most dramatic/instagrammable part of the installation is putting the flue down to connect up to the stove.

John waiting to feed the flue pipe up to the guys on the roof

In it goes! Did I mention before that the new house has a balcony?!

I was slightly alarmed to discover the there was an axe hiding in the chimney when they came to install the flue, hoping that we don’t have the ghost of a serial killing Santa lurking up there!

With that part done you need to ensure you have a suitable air vent in the relevant room and a carbon monoxide alarm. There are also certain regulations that you need to meet relating to the type and size of hearth you have. I had initially thought I might go for a patterned tile on the hearth (I know crazy times) but in the end I decided to go for a concrete tile to keep things natural and earthy and to make the hearth blend with the floor as much as possible.

The big reveal!! Stove in, log piles stocked and benches and chimney breast fully microcemented! What do you think??

I couldn’t be happier with the finish and colour of the microcement and I love the contrast of having the black i750 Arada Stove (although you can also chose from a range of other colour finishes)

The oversized Espen rattan pendant was gifted as part of a previous collaboration with Cox & Cox and works perfectly with the high ceilings we have in this room

One very happy Malmo in my new favourite spot in the house. It was always my plan that this bench would be wide enough to sit on and I opted for 2 rather than 3 shelves in the alcoves to allow the head room to sit in there.

I originally envisaged the stove being flush with the chimney breast but building it out meant that wasn’t possible but I actually now quite like the fact that it sits back slightly

Tony sanded down some old scaffold boards and installed shelves wither side of the chimney breast for me

The room is by no means finished. We need to poly fill and paint the walls, chose a rug that fits the space better ( I have temporarily borrowed this jute one from another part of the house), sort out pictures on the walls, find wall/floor lighting and have about a 17 hour faff with the contents of the new reclaimed scaffold shelves. But I am determined not to rush finishing off the room and to just enjoy the process of tying it all together. The changes we have made have already created a room that we absolutely love. In fact I love it so much that it has taken me pretty much all of January to tear myself away from my spot in front of that fire to pick up a pen and write this blog!!

The rustic wreath and garlands in the alcoves were the work of Your London Florist and were actually meant for Christmas but I love them so much I have kept them up past the 6th of January!

Adding new curtains in Kendra Linen from Hilarys (gifted) has helped to really soften the room

Also for someone who never made it beyond Duke of Edinburgh Bronze (I blame a wet weekend camping in the Brecon Beacons) the stove is stunningly easy to light and keep going. In a reverse of everything watching Bear Grylls has taught me, you actually light a fire in this stove from the top not the bottom. So you lay the logs down first then arrange the kindling on top rather than the other way round. Once you have lit it to get the blaze going you push the air vent levers on the bottom over to the right and then switch them back left again once you have the kind of roaring blaze Ray Mears would be proud of.

Rustic Ray Mears demonstrating her fire laying technique

It is super easy to use and the ash that accumulates after each fire collects on a tray at the bottom of the stove that you can then easily pull out and empty. I just use the hand hoover to clear up any ash that falls onto the hearth when I am cleaning the fire out.

I am toying with maybe getting a hanging chair to go in this window and the switching this chair to the other side of the room. What do you think?

The jute rug is also a temporary loan from a different room in the how. I would like something thinner in the longer term

I love the contrast between the pale wooden floors and the logs which we get from Thompsons at Crews Hill in case anyone else is North London/Hertfordshire based and looking for wood!!

Here is where you will find me for the rest of the Winter

Pom Pom slippers on

In the cosiest corner in the house

The i750 Series Stove was gifted to me by Arada Stoves. I also received a very small PR discount from Essex Stoves & Chimneys on the cost of the installation. The curtains were gifted by Hilarys and the Pendant light was part of a previous paid collaboration with Cox & Cox

My Hallway Transformation

In a straw poll of reasons why people move house I reckon the most common answers would be: up sizing or down sizing; change of location; moving closer to family; school catchment; taking on a renovation. I would possibly be one of the only people to respond with: to gain a girthier entrance.  There were of course other drivers behind our recent move but it really was a close of love at first sight of spacious vestibule for me.

The skinny hallway in our old house (I miss those tiles!)

Our old house was an Edwardian Semi with the stairs located in the middle of the house meaning much of the hallway was a long thin corridor.  When the boys were smaller manoeuvring a buggy and bulging nappy bag out of the front door was like a challenge from the Krypton Factor.  On at least one occasion I became an unwitting hallway hostage after the zip of my coat got caught on a rogue radiator valve leaving me effectively manacled to the wall for a good 15 minutes.

The radiator upon which I got impaled and ended up a #hallwayhostage

In contrast, in our new house when you walk in the door the stairs are directly in front of you and there is double the width to play with so my days of corridor struggle are over. We also have a separate utility room with an extra set of pegs where a platoon of the army of anoraks can be kettled slashing the likelihood of being hit in the face by a smalls boys anorak as you take your shoes off.

It might not look like much but this was the #vestibuleview that won me over to our new house

My Hallway Makeover Plans

The extra space and high ceilings alone are hallway heaven for me and it was all pretty neutrally decorated but this month I have undertaken a mini hallway makeover, in partnership with Cox & Cox to further “enhance my entrance” so to speak.

The main things on my hallway hitlist were: 1) finding a solution to the soviet sized radiator and accompanying cover that dominated the space to the left of the door; 2) changing the mirror for something with a more contemporary, clean feel; 3) finding a way to de-anagylpta that didn’t involve replastering the walls; 4) fitting in some more storage; and 5) lightening up the look and feel in particular of the floors.

Overall the look and feel that I wanted to achieve with the makeover is what I would describe as 1930s Scandi Rustic Chic.  Am thinking Neville Chamberlain was a huge fan of the relaxed Ibiza beach club look.

The decor is all light and pretty neutral it is just not quite Malmo so I will be looking to downgrade the orange factor on the floors and take things more 1930s Scandi Rustic

The anaglypta wallpaper is on my hallway hitlist even though I know it is coming back into fashion!

One of my go to brands when I am searching for Scandi/Rustic furniture, lighting and home accessories has always been Cox & Cox.  I have been shopping with them since right back in 2007 when I bought vintage table place holders from them for my wedding.  14 years and 3 kids later they still tick all my design boxes so I was over the moon when they said they wanted to collaborate with me on the revamp.

Adding Panelling

The first step in the makeover was to call Darren, my long suffering carpenter (who did the kitchen cupboards in my old house) and see if he would take on #Project Panelling aka my solution to “The Anaglypta Issue” (which, by the way, I think makes a great title for a Robert Ludlum Thriller!).  My plan was to remove the dado rail and just panel over the anglypta to avoid a lengthy battle with a wallpaper steamer. 

Panelling dilemmas: to stick below the dado or go above?

I deliberated long and hard about what height to go for.  The safe option was to stick below the dado rail whilst more adventurous option would be to go all the way to the celling.  In the end I went for a halfway (well ¾ way) house and panelled just under line of the doorway. 

I would love to show you an inspiring DIY tutorial of me doing the panelling but the reality was Darren doing battle with several large sheets of MDF in his garden shed and then attaching them to the wall with a mix of nails and glue with quite a bit of swearing along the way.  I am pretty sure he will be ghosting my calls in future. 

Despite a few doubts along the way I am thrilled with the 3/4 height of the panelling

Radiator Solutions

Once the panelling was on the next big decisions was what to do about the radiator and what colour to paint the panelling. The radiator cover that was on the left hand side of the hallway as you walked in was my no means hideous but it pretty much dominated the whole space and precluded us having any storage on that wall.

The before with a large radiator on the left hand wall which took up lots of space

The after with the radiator dropped in height beneath a bench. The woven fringed cushion and black and white chevron cushion are both Cox & Cox

It no longer dominates the space and I actually love the look of the column one

The solution I came up with  was to go for a much shorter radiator that would sit much lower on the wall and build a  seating bench over the top thus ensuring the radiator was no longer the dominant feature in the hallway and we had somewhere to sit to put our shoes on. The bench was to be built out of reclaimed scaffold planks which I sourced from our local salvage yard and which cost £7 a plank.  They are my number one favourite building material although I don’t think Darren shares my love of reclaimed materials judging by his reaction when I brought them home.  Sample quote “you want me to leave the paint stains on??” accompanied by the kind of look you give someone who has just told you that they would like a threesome with Eaamon Holmes and Boris Johnson.

The Scaffold Planks that I love but which baffle Darren! This natural striped runner from Cox & Cox looks great against the sanded floorboards

Paint Choices

With my radiator strategy in place it was time to make a decision about the colour of the panelling.  My first thought was to go dark after I came across this image in a Neptune catalogue.  However because the panelling was going on both sides of the hallway I was worried that it might narrow the room down so in the end I erred towards the light side.  A tester pot orgy later I had tried out every shade between bracken beige and perfect putty and arrived at my final choice: Ammonite by Farrow & Ball. 

Slightly too late for me but excitingly next year Cox & Cox are launching their own brand of paint.  There will be 16 dreamy shades and Flaxen or Landsdown would be a brilliant match for the look in my hallway.  It will be formulated by Mylands so expect a great quality consistent finish. 

Enjoying posing againg my newly Ammonite background with a rather spectacular faux string of pearls

With the panels painted it was time to install the radiator and build the bench.  I opted for a more contemporary column radiator which I bought from this website for roughly £170 which I think is pretty good value.  With the boards sanded down and installed over the top the radiator is now barely visible and it has transformed this side of the hallway. 

Malmo vs Mahogany

My final step in lightening things up before I could tackle the fun finishing touches was to tone down the mahogany factor from the floor and the door which were a good 7.5 on the David Dickinson after a week in Barbados scale.  The floorboards are actually really nice pine ones and sanded down they look so much better.  In the longer term I would like to get a new door but for now just painting it in Railings has been a bit of a game changer (don’t look too closely at slapdash Scandi Handy Andy’s paint job!).

Adding the finishing touches with Cox & Cox

With all of the structural changes complete it was time for the fun stuff: enter Cox & Cox. I have been obsessed with rattan style pendant lights ever since visiting Ibiza last year and Cox & Cox has some beauties. We are blessed with pretty high ceilings so we could afford to go for one of the bigger ones to make a bit of a statement.  I really like this one because it allows a view through it and doesn’t dominate the space too much (or hit us on the head every time we walk down the stairs.

The other big decorative item I was after to complete the makeover was a new mirror.  With the radiator dropped and the bench in place I wanted to add a circular one to break up the square lines of the panelling a little bit.  I think I lost about 1.5 days of my life to the google search large circular mirror until I hit upon this oversized thin frame beauty from Cox & Cox.  Unlike lots of the ones I looked at it has a really thin black rim and adds a really subtle crisp contemporary edge to the hallway revamp.

The Oversized Mirror of dreams

I know some people might have opted to put pegs where I have put the mirror but I think it really opens up the space and reflects light and I have, instead, added pegs further back so they are not in your face as you wanted in the door.  Oh and when I say added pegs let me introduce you to these #heavenlyhooks from Cox & Cox with a black slate base and burnished gold hook .  You can buy a set of three but I opted for four five individual hooks instead and think they add a nod to understated glamour. 

Obviously the insta reality of this photo is 5 primary coloured anoraks rather than an artful rattan bag and a pleasingly pale cream coat

I have four behind the door for coats and practical items and one is located next to the mirror for maximum insta faffery.  I am imagine it will play host to artfully poised baskets, bags of impractical pampas and oft be draped in fairy lights.

Let the faffing commence. I am looking forward to the styling possibilities offered by the hook!

The First Noel …..in my hallway

With the hallway revamp complete just in time for the opening of advent calendars I am super excited by all the fresh festive styling opportunities that it affords me.

First and foremost the bannister!  Our old one was boxed in by the downstairs loo totally raining on my garland parade.   This year I will be going to Scandi town on our new ones.  Cox & Cox have a great range of garlands to grace your stairs and work with a variety of different looks.  I chose this really simple but effective pre lit pine one .  It looks great even just on its own but has really nice thick branches/foliage that are perfect for adding further foliage of the faux or real variety to if you wanted to add more drama to your bannister.

The pre lit eucalyptus garland is lovely and bushy and easy to manipulate and can easily have foliage added to it for extra drama

There is also a matching pre lit wreath which fits rather perfectly on my insta faffery hook by the mirror.  Again you could leave it plain of add extra foliage if you wanted to dial up the drama. 

With thanks to Your London Florist I have added some extra eucalyptus and soft white dried grasses to complement the wreath

I have struggled for years with winding fairy lights into wreaths and trying to disguise the wires so really love the pre-lit one

The bench has not only created a handy place to sit when putting our shoes on but also lends itself to lots of great display possibilities.  I love these beautiful crackle glaze ceramic Christmas trees that Cox & Cox have introduced this year to help you achieve a pared back minimal Christmas look.  They look great on their own or in small groupings.  I would happily have a whole forest of them!

These speckle glaze trees are a lovely minimal take on Christmas

But my very favourite type of tree has to be these beautiful illuminated ones. They add such a soft pretty twinkly light to the hallway and you can either keep them plain or hang them with baubles in the same way as a normal tree. 

Welcome to Malmo’s Winter Wonderland created with a little help from these illuminated snow tipped trees from Cox & Cox

It was the night before Christmas….

I love the soft warm white light of the trees

Cox & Cox have a fantastic selection of baubles for all looks and plenty that appeal to my Scandi aesethic, I particularly like these ones which wooden cut out stars and trees in the middle of a thin gold ring which are from their New Neural Noir range.

White chevron baubles adding all the boho feels to my hallway

If you wanted to add a bit of extra twinkle to your Christmas scheme then I have to let you in on a fairy light secret.  I have had my fingers burnt in the past by fairy lights which promised to be warm white on the box only to turn up and turn out to be football stadium floodlight florescent but Cox & Cox have some naked wire cluster lights which are genuinely the warmest of whites! 

My own mini forest of illuminated snow tipped trees

To complete the warm white winter wonderland feel to my entrance I have also add a couple of great outdoor lighting products from the Cox & Cox range. I think I may love the 7ft outdoor illuminated tree more than any Christmas tree I have ever owned. Mr Malmo I fear has less fond feelings towards it after a botched erection attempted on his part saw the top section hit him on the head at 7:30am on a Monday morning! I have also given our porch a dusting of twinkle with a brilliant indoor/ourdoor star. The lights on both the star and the tree are also the warmest of warm whites #fairylightwin.

Announcing our arrival in the neighbourhood with some Christmas twinkle!

The new apple of my eye, our outdoor Christmas tree

The fairy lights along with all of the other Cox & Cox products I have used in the make over are listed below if you would like to shop my look!

Illuminated Indoor/Outdoor Star

Outdoor light up Christmas Tree

Indoor/Outdoor Magical Light Up Snow Tipped Trees

Grey and White Chevron Baubles

Speckle Glaze Tree

Indoor/Outdoor Pre-Lit Wreath and Garland

Indoor/Outdoor Naked Wire Cluster Lights

Oversized Frame Mirror

Round Rattan Pendant

Natural Striped Runner

Hanging Potted Faux String of Pearls

Black and Brass Hook

Black and White Chevron Cushion

Woven Fringed Cushion

There are a few final finishing touches I need to make to finish the makeover off like applying a stain to the newly sanded floors and deciding whether to paint the bannister or sand it down but those can wait until I have finished my figgy pudding.

 This blog post was part of a paid partnership with Cox & Cox. Many thanks also to Your London Florist for providing me with some foliage for styling my hallway and to Tia Talula for coming to my outdoor photography aid this week!

Malmo & Moss Renovation Diary: Our Loft Conversion Plans

Somehow we have been in our new house for 4 months already and with Christmas just around the corner I have been working hard with our lovely architect Reah of Detail Architects to finalise our renovation plans for 2020 (and beyond!). Apologies to Reah for misspelling the name of her architecture practice in my last blog and accidentally directing people to a Siberian architect specialising in extremely well insulated wooden huts. A key part of those renovation plans is adding a loft conversion to increase the amount of upstairs space we have.  If you look at the floorplan of the new house against the old house you will see that whilst we have gained additional reception (and most importantly utility) space, the bedrooms are actually smaller than those we left behind meaning we have lost quite a bit of storage space! If there is a world record for the number of vacuum bags one household can fit under a bed I am fairly confident we would be going home with the trophy (or the £1000 Robert Dyas voucher).  Also whilst at the moment two of the boys happily (well most of the time) share a room but we can imagine a (teenage) day when this might not always be the case!

The ground floor of our new house. It has lots more width which was a key selling point

However when compared to the bedrooms in our old house (see floor plan to the right) we have marginally less space upstairs

The upstairs layout of our old house

So whilst there are changes we would like to make to the downstairs layout our priority for next year is going to be the loft.  It is, therefore, fortitious that I had actually previously written, in paid collaboration with VELUX, a blogpost all about the secrets of designing a successful loft conversion not realising at the time that I would actually get the opportunity to put them into practice.  Whilst there may be seven deadly sins (and flavours of Magnum Icecream) there are, for me, five secrets to successful loft design and here is how I will be using them in our new house.

Perfecting My Floorplan

We inherited the loft in our old house (in the sense of the conversion having been done before we moved in rather than it having been passed down in my great Auntie Pat’s will).  That meant whilst we could change the décor we couldn’t change the layout.  There were aspects that worked really well like having generous eaves storage, 6 huge VELUX roof windows that flooded the space with natural daylight and a spacious bathroom separated out from the sleeping space. 

The loft in our old house with natural daylight flooding in through the VELUX windows

 However it was a long room and the design meant that the bed had to be positioned under the eaves rather than closer to the dormer window meaning we didn’t get to take advantage of the views out of the garden. We also had limited options for built in storage.  This time around I am eager to achieve a layout with more separation of spaces, better connection to the view from the dormer and much more built in storage (so that I don’t have to find the hoover every time I want to locate my winter jumpers!)

The loft room in our old house was spacious but quite long which broke the connection between the bed and the view

 The floor plan that I think will best achieve this is set out below.  What do you think?  The sleeping space is smaller but better connected to the view and there is a much more generous “dressing room” space.  Our plan is to build some seating into the space to the right of the VELUX windows to make the most of the daylight coming into the room and make this feel like a multi purpose relaxing space. But would you sacrifice the seating and have a dressing table instead? I am more of a do my make up on the train and dry my hair wherever there is a plug kind of gal but maybe I could be won round to being a bit more sophisticated!

Option 1: my preferred layout for the loft is broken, created by Detail Architects, is broken plan rather than open plan with three distinct areas to dress, sleep and bathe

This is Option 2 which I had discarded on the basis it would mean we had to have a skinny bed and allows for very little bedside table space. But I am now wondering whether having the bed facing the view would be better and there might be a way to make this work?? Any bright ideas?!

In trying to decide on my perfect floorplan I have found it really useful to visit  Building Inspiration, a sister site from VELUX.  There are lots of case studies of real-life loft conversion projects featured which gave me some fresh ideas about how to design the space. There are also handy how to guides to walk you through the loft design and conversion process

Letting the light in

 One of the most successful aspects of our previous loft was definitely the bank of roof windows on one side.  I didn’t know this at the time but VELUX roof windows actually let in twice as much daylight as vertical windows of the same size. And doubling the amount of daylight means boosting your metabolic processes (without wishing to sound too #StraightOuttaTomorrowsWorld) improving your mood, reducing your risk of obesity and helping you get a better night’s sleep. The windows we had were top hung meaning we could open them to get a full, open view and maximise the amount of natural daylight that can be allowed in.

Positioning your bed under VELUX windows can actually help you sleep better

So we will definitely be incorporating VELUX roof windows again in our new space.  We have some planned  in for the dressing room space but I would also love to see if we can incorporate one into the bathroom space so that we can see the stars whilst brushing our teeth or at least as much of the stars as you can see when everyone has their lights on in North London! Has anyone done this in their loft conversion?  Does the reality live up to my Pinterest dream??

I am looking forward to actually being able to choose the design and size this time around and there are some exciting new products being introduced by VELUX in 2020 hopefully just in time for our conversions. For example, I love the sound of the top hung INTEGRA windows being introduced which have tech built in that allow you to operate the roof windows at the touch of a button. I would also like to add some inbuilt blackout blinds which again can be remotely controlled.

Sadly I don’t think we will be able to go for a VELUX CABRIO pop out balcony window so I will have to keep this image on my Pinterest a while longer.

Creating Character and Zoning Like Beckham

In my last blog I spoke about the fact that lofts can easily feel a bit “Keanu” (likeable but bland) and need character injecting into them.  In our old loft I “De-Keanued” with the help of a small builders’ yard worth of reclaimed scaffold boards on the wall behind the bed.  I loved how it added texture and warmth to the space and it is very tempting to repeat the trick again. 

 However, this time I love the idea of using a crittall screen to create a focal point, acting as a divider between the bedroom and the dressing room and injecting a little bit of sophisticated industrial edge into the room.  Although I may be back down the builders’ yard if it turns out I have crittall dreams on a cardboard box budget.

Room designed by Anna Potanka

I also love the idea of having the ability to open up part of the bathroom to the bedroom with a pocket door and, with some clever layout (and waste pipe location) planning am hoping I can fit a freestanding bath into the bathroom for a bit of added wow. This is my inspo for the idea although obviously on a slightly less dramatic scale than this!

I adore these sliding doors and the bath concealed by them. Image via @viral.archi

 By having three distinct spaces divided in this way I am hoping to banish the bland and create a multifunctional space that we can sleep, bathe and relax in! If you need more ideas about how to design your space for maximum wow (and non-Keanu) factor then VELUX has a brilliant EBook available that has lots of great tips about things to bear in mind when you are designing your space.  Definitely worth looking at when you consider that 70% of people have regrets about their loft conversion and that 19% of people wish they had spent more time planning their space before starting to build.

Glaze to Amaze

 One of the key attractions of our new house is that is has a lovely mature garden with some seriously attractive trees   Because it is so mature you cannot really see the houses behind so it feels very secluded and connected to nature.

Could be New England in the fall but is actually Enfield

Concentrate on the view not the chunky UpVc windows that are definitely on my hit list to replace

One of my key design aims with the loft is to ensure that there are clear uninterrupted views to take advantage of the setting.  In my last loft blog I detailed how we removed a set of white UpVC doors to de-dentist surgery the old space and open up the view.  At the time we had a limited budget so had to install, in their place, a large fixed picture window and a small opening side window.  Whilst that definitely gave us uninterrupted views it would have been nice to have had the ability to open the window to enjoy more fresh air in the summer months.

The picture window in our old loft which created stunning uninterrupted views

This time around I am therefore hoping that we can stretch the budget enough to go for either folding or sliding doors in the dormer like this amazing loft conversion I have saved on my Pinterest boards (source unknown).  Has anyone done this in their loft?  I also love the idea of having the bath positioned in front of a big pane of glass like in this inspo picture .

I am hoping god (and the Halifax) willing that we be able to finalise the design, put it in for planning and get started in the first half of 2020. If you are planning a loft conversion and need more practical information on the timings and process then click here to read bags of useful information on just those topics complied by VELUX or contact VELUX for support. Using the VELUX Project support tools has really helped me so far and it is a great way to get to know more about the whole range of different types of windows that they offer. Did you know for example that you can open and close their INTEGRA windows with just one touch of a wall switch?

I look forward to sharing our final choices and our loft conversion journey with you over the coming months. I would love to hear from anyone else also embarking on a similar journey in 2020!

This blog post was sponsored by VELUX as part of my paid brand ambassador partnership with them

Renovating our bathroom to create my ultimate sanctuary space

It has been two months since we moved into our new house and, bar one bad wobble unpacking cardboard box 3456, we haven’t looked back.  I thought I would be longing for my metro tiles and modern rustic interiors but we have been so busy making renovation plans for the new place there hasn’t really been time to pine for the old one.

The room I am pining for the most: our old bathroom

However, there is one room that I haven’t quite got over saying goodbye to and that was my bathroom.  It wasn’t the largest room in the house but, as the only one with a lock on the door and a ready supply of scented candles, it was my sanctuary.   Apparently it is not just me that feels that way either: 43% of people in recent survey by top bathroom brand Geberit listed it as their sanctuary space.  I am guessing I am not the only mum who barricades herself in there for a bubble bath after the end of full day adulting!

The copper taps made by my builder added an industrial edge to the bathroom that I loved

It was one of the first rooms that I completely designed by myself from scratch and the combo of a vintage roll top bath, copper piping taps and hexagonal floor tiles was probably responsible for 89% of my Instagram growth!

Even managed to acheive my ultimate goal before we left and snuck an olive tree in

Candles lit, bubble bath poured ready for relaxation

So are you ready to see what my new bathroom is like and find out more about my plans for transforming it into my ultimate sensory sanctuary space with some clever tips I have picked up from working with the clever bathroom people at Geberit? Ok here she is!!

This was the bathroom when we first came to visit. All clean and tidy with strong folded towel game

Like most of the house we are lucky in that everything is in pretty good (ish) condition and fairly neutral style – we are not overwhelmed by an avocado suite or battling a beige bog.   It is more of a case of things looking a little bit dated oh and the shower running at a temperature indistinguishable from lukewarm tea. 

Up close the bath panel and unit are starting to show their age and I would like to swap them for something more contemporary

One of number one desires is to find space for a separate shower as at the moment we have a shower over the bath

As you can see from this floor plan there is a very obvious reconfiguration of the space we can do that will allow me to escape from my own personal bathroom hell: a shower over the bath.  By shifting the water tank out of the cupboard shown on this plan we will be able to separate the shower out and then I would like to switch the bath so that it sits under the window.

The current configuration is a bit awkward with an airing cupboard containing a water tank in a space that would be perfect for a standalone shower

Detail Architects have drawn up some plans to show how we could incorporate the shower into the bathroom

I love the arrangement of have the bath under the window that @the_girl_with_the_green_sofa went for in her new bathroom

By knocking through into the airing cupboard we would be able to achieve a shower space similar to @the_girl_with_the _green_sofa bathroom as well.

With those structural changes made  I can then hopefully get down to the fun part: designing a bathroom to stimulate all my senses!

It’s all about the Olafractory

Ok smell may not seem the obvious sense to start with but if there was one thing that took the edge off my old “dream bathroom” it was the fact that the toilet was positioned in the bathroom 30 cms from the tub meaning that a) 1 in 2 baths were interrupted by one or more of the boys bursting in to drop off something that smelt like it had been ejected from the bowels of a Victorian and b) when they burst back out again a smell remained that even a whole pine forest of toilet duck couldn’t shift. 

In the new house the toilet is actually separate from the bathroom an arrangement that some people view as old fashioned but which I am increasingly coming round to!  But what do you think? Would we be better bringing it into the bathroom as shown on the floorplan below?

The alternative option of bringing the toilet into the bathroom

However, if we do incorporate it into the bathroom to create more of a spacious feel, then it is reassuring to know that Geberit’s toilets actually have the latest in duo fresh odour extraction technology incorporated into them, filtering the surrounding air to diminish unpleasant smells and extracting odours directly from the loo before they have the chance to spread!

I love the fact that Geberit have developed a toilet with built in odour extraction

Coming Over All Kinesthetic

Come again Malmo I hear you say? I realise it sounds like I have got in touch with my inner Mystic Meg but your kinaesthetic senses actually relate to your awareness of the position and movement of parts of your body (in essence your sense of touch) rather than your ability to read the fortune of a reader of The Sun. 

So in designing a bathroom to stimulate your kinaesthetic side you need to pay attention to things that are tactile and nice to touch! In our last house the polished concrete sink in our ensuite totally ticked this box.

The concrete sink in our old ensuite

I would love to be bolder and introduce more concrete or micro cement into the new space this time potentially on the walls or even on the bath itself.  These are a couple of the inspo pics on my pinterest board that I keep coming back to.

I love the way in this one that the concrete sink sits against a polished concrete wall. Image via Pinterest source unknown

I love this concrete bath from @viaparissi but wonder if it might be a bit much in a family bathroom?

If I can make it work without having to take on a second mortgage I would also love to bring a reeded glass shower screen into the scheme for some additional texture.  I saw it used to great effect in this bathroom

I think I have pinned this image approximately 6788 times I love it so much! Image via Living Etc

The reeded glass shower screen is a great way of bringing texture in. Image from Living Etc

I also fell in love with a basin at the photoshoot I did with Geberit earlier in the year (click here to read all about it) that was made of a super matt, soft material called varicor.  I don’t know quite how to describe it but it felt like the basin was made out of the softest silk you can imagine. 

This Geberit basin made of a soft material called varicor is super tactile

As you can see I coulnt’t keep my hands off it!

On the techy side my derriere very much likes the idea of sitting down on an intelligent Aqua Clean  toilet that is programmed to know exactly the warmth to heat my toilet seat to for me. 

Scroll Stopping Visuals

I started with smell but obviously the other biggy when designing your ultimate sensory bathroom space has to be how it all looks!  Whilst I loved my old bathroom and the rustic vintage industrial vibes it was channelling I actually have in mind a softer slightly more minimal look for the new bathroom.  Still retaining touches of industrial edge but introducing calmer colours and softer textures.  Also shockingly even to me I am toying with the idea of bring some non neutral colours in.  Before you start imagining bright pinks and neon yellow I should probably clarify that I am more thinking of dabbling with a very light mint green.  I adore these tiles for example and how they look with brass taps.

Soft mint green is the new avocado in this bathroom by Sarah Shearman Samuel

Lighting is also a hugely important part of the visual experience.  My Malmo would happily bathe with the big light on (any other Northerners call the overhead light that?!) but for me dimmable wall lights are a massive important part of creating a relaxing bathroom experience. 

Geberit have also come up with some smart solutions to avoid dazzling your eyes when you enter you bathroom space such as soft automatic orientation lighting as part of their vanity units and mirrors.  Exposure to harsh light sources in the middle of the night can apparently negatively effect your sleep patterns so incorporating gentle orientation lighting into your bathroom design is a great way to avoid being awake all night after popping for a 3am wee!

Soft orientation lighting built into the vanity unit and mirror avoids dazzling your eyes if you pop to the loo in the night!

Turning up the tranquillity factor

Unless I at bathe at 11pm (which has been known to happen!) there is very rarely silence in our house.  The very best I can usually hope for is no-one under the age of 10 breaking through the door to enquire why there is a hairy glove floating in the bath or to ask my opinion on the Sheffield Wednesday back four.

There are some clever things you can do to maximise tranquillity and reduce noise in the bathroom though.  Geberit recommend planning features into your bathroom such as a decoupled pre-walls, opting for acoustically optimised pipework and choosing wall hung ceramics. The soft touch buttons on their flush plates also ensure a super quiet flushing action.  I can confirm I have heard louder whispers!

Geberit's soft touch flush plates ensure the tranquility of your bathroom experience is not disturbed

Also there is one person I always enjoy taking into the bathroom with me (when Ryan Gosling is too busy to pop by for a bubble bath) and that is Alexa! Being able to ask her to play Zero 7 to drown out any rows that might be happening elsewhere in the house about turning the Octonauts off is invaluable!

I look forward to sharing more details of our bathroom makeover with you as our renovation plans progress.  Hopefully soon I will be in a position to pull together a moodboard that whittles down the 3567890 bathroom images I have saved and shapes them into a coherent design incorporating the sensory design principles I have picked up from Geberit!

*This post is part of the my long term paid partnership with Geberit*

Malmo & Moss Renovation Diary: August

This week marked the end of our first month living in our new house.  I would like to say we celebrated this milestone wrapped in each others arms sipping chilled glasses of Dom Perignon but the reality involved mugs of builders tea and an aborted attempt to change a light fitting that nearly ended in divorce and Mr Malmo losing a testicle to an electric screwdriver.

The light fitting seen in our old house

To briefly recap in case you didn’t see my previous blog post about the move, we have swapped our old Edwardian semi for a bigger 1930s style house which offers us the potential to extend up, out and sideways but which currently looks like it got caught up in a pebble dash hurricane.

Here she is, our pebble dash princess…

I am not going to lie, I was worried that leaving behind our old house (which we had completely renovated) would leave me feeling like a fish out of modern rustic water with nothing to instagram but laminate floors and Laura Ashley wallpaper.  But, despite all its current imperfections and a distinct lack of metro tiles, this place surprisingly already feels like home.  It helps that we have actually only moved five minutes around the corner so we haven’t had to leave behind friends or change schools.  The move was driven by wanting more space and whilst the current configuration of rooms is a bit of a jumble (more on that to come….) gaining a garage, utility and a bigger, leafier garden has already made family life much easier. 

There is not a metro tile in sight at the new house so having to get my fix looking at pictures of our old bathroom instead

Although my dad has expressed some deep concerns about the width of the toilets.  Apparently in order to stay on the right side of his bowels I need to factor toilet cubicles the size of a small Belgian city into my renovation plans.

Me and my Dad who is smiling despite his narrow toilet concerns

To keep me sane as we attempt to create a contemporary Scandinavian inspired family home (with spacious toilets) out of this pebble dash Princess,  I thought I would keep a monthly renovation diary here on the blog.  That way I can show you the ‘Before’ , share our plans for the ‘After’, and hopefully acquire and impart some wisdom along the way about designing and building your dream home. Although there is not much renovation to document so far as most of the first month has been spent unpacking endless boxes.  It turns out a girl can have too many shoes, coats, rustic benches and artfully distressed candleholders (33 and counting….).  It felt at one point that Rogers Removals boxes were waiting until we went to bed and then frantically procreating.

The procreating removal boxes and some wallpaper that looks like it could have inspired one of Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen’s frock coats

Obviously I unpacked the really important things first like a giant rustic flower wreath

To escape the #RampantRogersRemovalBoxes we have been spending as much time as possible outside in the garden.  The previous owner was a keen gardener so we will hopefully just need to try and keep things alive rather than starting from ground zero.  It is south facing which means the outdoor seating area pictured below, gets lots of sunshine.  Actually I know it feels wrong to say this (given that August seems to have got itself confused with February) but if anything it actually gets a little too much sun for this pale skinned Northern girl. 

To escape the chaos inside we have been spending a lot of time outside in the lovely leafy garden

Because it is south facing it is a bit of a sun trap

I was, therefore, excited to discover that we have actually inherited an awning. Although that excitement slightly fizzled out when I discovered that it was in Sheffield Wednesday colours and looks about as Scandinavian as the Go Jetters.

The current sun shade situation is more Sheffield Wednesday than Stockholm

Apologies for the eyeful of my pebble dash

The hunt as begun for some alternative shade solutions with more of a relaxed Ibizan beach club vibe. So it was great timing when Solero Parasols got in touch to tell me about their extensive range of garden parasols. This cantilevered gem would completely meet the beach club brief.  It is what is known as a free arm parasol and can rotate 360 degrees.  It comes with lots of smart features as well.  The fabric is fade resistant and hydrophobic and  also has a UPF Value of 50+.   On days when temperatures soars the fabric will release rather than retain hot air adding to the stability of the parasol.  It also comes with wireless rechargeable lighting meaning you can stay outside and enjoy long Summer evenings.  To be honest I think it might be cleverer than I am!

A Cantilevered parasol from the Solero range.

Another option I really like (and hadn’t seen before) was having a wall parasol.  The patio area we have to play with is not huge so I like the idea of saving space by having one mounted to the wall.  And lets face it I am 100% there for any solution which obscures more of the pebble dash! 

This wall parasol might be the perfect replacement for the awning!

When it comes to inside there are even bigger plans afoot.  We have appointed Detail Architect to start drawing up plans for re-configuring and extending the current space and hopefully by my next diary entry I will be able to share some preliminary floorplans with you!

In the meantime I am going to leave you with a couple of shots of areas of the house that are starting to look vaguely Instagrammable (if you squint…..) Do you recognise the light fitting from our old house? 10 points if you can remember which room it used to hang in!

This is one of my favourite areas of the house so far. It has got quite high ceilings so it is possible to show my Abigail Ahern light off to full effect!

I have big plans for making over the fireplace in here but for now enjoying this corner

This Blog Plost was kindly sponsored by Solero Parasols

Styling my Garden for Summer

It has been quite a week in the Malmo & Moss household. After nine happy years we have moved house, leaving our Edwardian semi behind and taking on a pebble dash dipped renovation project.  It is fair to say that as I closed our front door for the last time on Monday I was about as composed as Gwyneth Paltrow upon discovering that her local Whole Foods had run out of tofu. 

Saying goodbye to our first family home has been emotional

One of the things I will be saddest to leave behind is our kitchen extension and the relationship it allowed us to have with the garden.  That sounds like we were embroiled in an unhealthy coupling with our hardy geraniums but what I mean is the way the design of the extension opened up the house to the garden allowing it to become like an extension of the house in the Summer.

My favourite feature if our old house: the cantilevered corner

A corner of our old garden where I proved to be surprisingly green fingered

Designing a kitchen extension for indoor/outdoor living

We were originally going to just have bifold doors going across the end but ended up going for a cantilevered corner.  It was definitely more expensive ( I will probably still be paying for it when I am 79) but it created so much more wow factor.  We loved having friends round for dinner and opening the doors up to enjoy all of the view of the garden from the table.

Table set ready for dinner with my favourite items from the Marks & Spencer Spring/Summer homeware range

Another key part of the design was having a raised deck that wrapped around the extension and using concrete constructed planters to create a seating area.  That little corner was the sunniest spot in the garden and I loved sitting out there with a cup of tea in the morning or with a glass of wine in the early evening (when the sun had gone down just enough for me to venture out without turning tomato red in twenty seconds).

The seating area on the wrap around decking that we created using raised concrete planters

Summer Styling with Marks & Spencer

Over the last few months as we have prepared for the move,  I have been working with Marks and Spencer (as part of a paid partnership) to explore their Spring/Summer range and to get to know more about the brand I have loved since I was a little girl.  With just days to go before we moved I enjoyed a final fling with my kitchen and garden styling them up to showcase some of the items I selected from the range and to inspire people to go alfresco Scandi Rustic style this Summer.

Table laid with the beautiful, simple Marlowe dining set

When I attended the launch for the Spring/Summer collection there were four items that really stood out for me and which I was dying to get my hands on. They were the small bulb vases, the Marlowe dinner set, the white washed wooden hurricane lanterns and candles from the calm range.  I knew that all four would look great on my  Summer table when mixed in with my existing tableware and vintage pieces.

These lovely little bulb vases are great for displaying single stems of flowers like these blousy peonies

Peonies plate perfection

The Marlowe dinner set is a lovely soft grey and has a great raised rim detail that I really liked.  I set the table with a lovely natural linen table cloth, added the plates and bowls from the set and then lit candles to flicker in the evening sun in the hurricane lamps from the collection. 

The candle from the calm range which is crafted with sweet orange and lavender essential oils

It is no exaggeration to say I love these hurricane lamps so much that they have appeared in literally every shot on my grid since I got them!  The original ones have sold out online but there is a slightly different shape which is equally nice which is still online and linked here .  To add some scent to my Summer table I lit two of the candles from the Calm range the style and price point of which I loved! A single candle is just £7.50 and has notes of cedar wood and clary sage.

My hero item from the range has to be the white washed hurricane lamps which I would happily buy for every room in my house

The last hurrah I had in the garden was to take my three hero items outside and add in some cushions and planters from the Spring/Summer garden range to create a more casual dining scenario on the decking.

Let’s go outside…….

Creating a low picnic table from a couple of old pallets covered with a linen tablecloth. These jute outdoor cushions from the Marks & Spencer range make great seating

I used a couple of pallets to create a low table and then for comfort, colour and seating used these great outdoor cushions which I have in both a mustard and navy stripe. Given that we have experienced #SiberiaInJune this year I can vouch for the weatherproof nature of them!

As somebody who is somewhere on the English Rose spectrum between Silas the Albino Monk from the Da Vinci Code and Casper the Friendly Ghost, early evening is actually my favourite time of day in the summer. I love the light at that time of day not to mention the festoon related Instagram opportunities

All that is missing is the food! We actually had an outdoor curry but it didn’t Instagram up as attractively as the cushions!

The hi-ball glasses are also from Marks & Spencer. They have a lovely rippled effect to the glass. I have linked them here if you would like to take a closer look

New Beginnings: Our New House

Whilst I alas could not take my cantilevered corner with me in the move (at least not without causing some serious conveyancing complications) I did bring all of my favourite Marks & Spencers items with me and I am now excited to share some sneak peeks of the new house and garden with you where, after a box unpacking rampage, I have settled in enough to do a little bit of styling!

Pebble dash and White UpVC have replaced my previous cantilever corner but the garden is really rather lovely

Happy to have unpacked these concrete planters which are great for adding a modern industrial element to your garden

I love how “mature” the garden is, it feels like even we can’t manage to kill a hedge this abundant!

A bigger garden for the boys was one of the drivers for our move (along with my desire for a utility room). The garden in our old house was no postage stamp but it was, like the house ( but alas not me) on the narrow side and we ideally wanted somewhere with a bigger wider lawn to see us through the next 15 years of back garden football fixtures. 

The garden is south facing so gets lots off sunshine

I love the contrast of the jute striped yellow cushions with the pink hydrangeas

This place instantly ticked that box.  It is, like the house, wider and also longer.  It has also been been cared for by someone who knows her Foxgloves from her Fingers so is really mature and fully of things that are thriving rather than barely surviving!.

However, the existing kitchen extension does not make the most of the possibilities of the garden and so we are excited to get to work with an architect to explore ways to better open the kitchen up to the garden and to reconfigure the internal layout (which is pretty higgedly piggledly but more of that another time). I will be sharing more about those plans as they take shape on the blog but I thought you might like a sneak preview of the kitchen for now so you can get a feel for the scale of the challenge!

Introducing my new kitchen. In an Instagram poll this week it came out on top as the room in the new house people most wanted to see! We are working with an architect to explore how we can better open it to the garden

It may not be my modern rustic dream but it is liveable with for now!

#This Blog Post is part of my Paid Partnership with Marks & Spencer and the items that I feature were gifted to me as part of that partnership.#

Malmo & Moss is Moving House

We moved into the Malmo & Moss house on a scorching hot day in July almost exactly nine years ago. It was just me, my husband and two cats at that point. Although the cats were lucky to survive the move after they spent the entire journey around the South Circular emitting the kind of noise that I imagine would come out of Michael Gove’s mouth if he were to get his penis trapped in a lift door. Maybe they just had feline reservations about their owners moving from South to North London having only visited the area where our new house was located twice before. However, whilst they might have liked to remain #ClaphamCats we didn’t have a budget big enough to stretch to a family home in that part of the City.

Winchmore Hill, the area of North London we alighted upon, is probably most famous for once having played host (if that is the right word) to Augustus Pinochet who was briefly exiled here in 1998. However, before you get the impression that it is some sort of haven for war criminals I should balance that fact act out by telling you that it’s other famous ex resident is Lionel Ritchie (whose crimes are mainly perm and power ballad related).

Winchmore Hill Green the pretty heart of this lesser known part of North London

We moved when I was 37 weeks pregnant with our first son who arrived just two short weeks later. Whilst the move to a little known area where we had no friends just as we were about to become first time parents was definitely risky, it is a gamble that has more than paid off. Unlike Pinochet we have stuck around, seduced by lots of green open space, great schools and a street so friendly we go on holiday with our neighbours (although not John at the end of the street who I once overheard in Tesco trying to return some chicken he had purchased in 1999) .

July 2010: just two weeks after moving in we welcomed our first son

Two tired first time parents and a very proud (and very young looking!) uncle in the days before the front room went over to the dark side!

The house has slowly but sure been transformed from a #SanitaryPadPurplePalace with a conservatory #StraightOuttaBrookside to a light, bright modern rustic home. We have knocked through, extended and renovated the kitchen, enlarged and overhauled the family bathroom, reconfigured the loft space and breathed fresh life into the ensuite, tiled the hallway and installed crittal style dividing doors and added hygge to the living room by going over to the dark side and installing a woodburner.

You can get a glimpse in the background of the very off message Kermit the Frog green conservatory we inherited when we moved in

A couple of years (and another son later) we said goodbye to #KermitsConservatory and replaced it with a modern extension. This is it just days after it was finished

6 years later we still love how it has transformed the house

My favourite view looking back into the kitchen from the garden

Knocking through from the kitchen to the dining room has also been a gamechanger

However nine years and two further sons later we are on the move once more. This time there will fortunately be no need to subject ourselves to #CatCarTorture on the South Circular as we are actually only moving five minutes up the road!

Reasons for the Move

So why are we moving? The answer can be summed up in one word really: space. Or rather a growing realisation that we could do with a bit more of it. Our existing house, unlike me, is tall but comparatively narrow. Click here to see our floorplan. We have already extended the kitchen and the loft was converted before we moved in so we have no real options left to create extra square metres we are after.

We have maximised our existing space to create a kitchen/diner

Made over and reconfigured the loft

But alas we cannot magic up enough space for another bedroom

Our two youngest currently happily share a room but we know there will come a time when that arrangement may become less harmonious. Possibly between the ages 11-16 judging by my relationship with my own sister. Apparently having your little sister pick up the phone whenever you are on the line to your first boyfriend and sing “Let’s Talk About Sex” is not as funny as I thought it was at the time.

One day we anticipate all of the boys will want a (Scandi Forest Chic) room of their own

So when I saw a girthier house on a street we have always loved come up for sale 4 months ago with a floorplan that made heart flutter we decided to go for it.

The New House

OK brace yourself, this is the back of the new house which looks like it started a fight with pebbledash and lost. Inside it is less Scandi Rustic and more Sharps Showroom circa 1996 when fitted wardrobes were all the rage. But when I saw the floorplan I was sold. It actually currently has less space upstairs than our existing house but there is scope to add a generous loft and the downstairs space, after a reconfiguration and possible further extension, will offer us the big open plan kitchen/diner we have always wanted. And, of course, most importantly of all, I will finally be able to realise my greatest dream: a separate utility room.

My new rear end is decidedly bigger. It is the width of this house that really sold us on it

As well as the lovely big garden complete with apple tree

For the boys there is a bigger garden with plenty of Wembley and Hide and Seek possibilities . Whereas the clincher for Mr Malmo was the prospect of a garage of his own. Not because he is a car nut (our family car is more likely to be quarantined by DEFRA than appear at Goodwood) but rather because he has an ever growing collection of impulse purchased power tools which will now have a home of their own. I am slightly worried I am going to come downstairs and find him jigsawing wood in his pants at 2am down there!

First on my hit list: transforming the fitted wardrobes . Decor wise everything is actually pretty neutral though and has been well cared for so it is definitely liveable if not immediately instagrammable!

We move a week tomorrow so the next seven days are going to be spent in a haze of cardboard boxes, trips to the tip and snotty hankies as I reminisce about about all the memories we have made together in this house. We arrived as a couple and will leave as a family of five. This is the house is where our son’s first steps were taken, first words spoken and first poos on the potty (and floor) were completed. We have ticked off so many milestones, celebrating birthdays, christenings, christmases, and surviving a brush with Brian the misogynist bathroom tiler. It’s going to be emotional, not least as I have to say goodbye to my greatest ever E-Bay bargain: our £25 roll top bath.

Moving will be sweet sweet sorrow in that I will have to bid farewell to my roll top bath

And my copper taps

So are you ready for Malmo & Moss: The Renovation Years?! My head is already spinning with ideas so over the coming weeks/months/possibly decades I am looking forward to sharing more pictures of the new place with you and my ideas for transforming it one fitted wardrobe at a time! I hope you enjoy coming along with me for the renovation ride.

Secrets of a Successful Loft Conversion

When we first bought our house nine years ago one of the main attractions was the fact that it already had the loft converted saving us the expense and hassle of doing so. Thanks to six big VELUX windows it was flooded with light and had beautiful views out over the blossom trees on our street. However, after living in the space for a couple of years, we came to realise that whilst it was light, bright and spacious, it had about as much character as Keanu Reeves. Sorry Keanu but I have seen beige carpets with more dramatic impact that your performance in The Lake House.

The bright, bright loft conversion was one of the factors that sold our house to us

Over the last few years we have made a series of changes to the space to de-Keanu it and it is now one of my favourite rooms in the house. So I was delighted when VELUX asked me if I would like to team up with them to share my top five tips for designing a successful and stylish loft conversion. VELUX started out by installing their first roof window in a Danish school house 75 years ago and now sell their products in over 40 countries so working with them is a Scandi dream come true for me!

We have made a series of changes to add character, warmth and texture to it

My favourite of which has to be the addition of a scaffold plank wall

I hope my tips will help anyone planning a loft conversion or struggling to inject some character into their existing space to #BeLessKeanu. I have included in my tips advice shared with me by my Instagram followers who have some pretty stunning loft conversions of their own and have some cautionary tales of misplaced internal walls, incorrectly spaced skylights and awful attics!

Tip One: Perfect Your Floorplan

There are essentially three main types of loft conversion: a simple VELUX loft conversion where the roof slope is not altered; a dormer loft conversion which allows for vertical windows and doors; or a mansard loft conversion which is less boxy in appearance than a dormer (although there are multiple possible variations on each design and VELUX windows can easily be combined with mansard and dormer style conversions as well).

Our conversion is a dormer which is a popular choice as it is often the design which best maximises available space and does not, typically, need planning permission. Although click here for more detailed Government Guidance about when planning permission might be required (my inner lawyer is still strong!). If I was to tackle another renovation and convert a loft from scratch I would be tempted to go for a Mansard conversion (budget allowing) as they are less boxy in appearance than a dormer.

Seen here from the outside our loft extension is a dormer conversion

Once you have decided on the best option for your space start work early on your floor plan and how you will actually use the space. Loft conversions are often full of awkward spaces and getting the most out of them often relies upon embracing and finding clever uses for them. Think, in particular, about how you will use any space under the eaves. Ours was predominantly dedicated to storage but there was a large space tucked around a corner that was left empty in which I originally had my dressing table .

Once I realised that post children I had about as much chance of sitting on Brad Pitt’s lap as I did sitting at a dressing table we converted that corner into a walk in wardrobe which has made much better use of the space. It also allowed us to get rid of a large bulky wardrobe that sat in front of one of the windows blocking the view through to the outside.

Don’t be afraid to change your mind as you go along either. @Sodia _ Haddassi _ Amma shared with me that she would regularly go up and check on her loft as it was being built even if it meant balancing on scaffold boards and as she saw how the space actually looked made several decisions to change internal walls that infuriated her builders at the time but left her much happier with the end result!

Tip Two: Let the Light In

Did you know that according to the World Health Organisation we spend a whopping 70% of our lives indoors? When you have small children and 70% of that 70% is also spent in the company of Mr Tumble that can feel like a long long time! Sunlight is actually a natural anti-depressant so in the absence of it (and in the near constant company of Mr Tumble) it is easy to become glum! It turns out that people need daylight to help control the most basic metabolic processes, just as they need food and water. So getting the design of your loft right in terms of the number, size and position of windows can actually improve your mood, reduce your risk of obesity (although not if you , like me, keep an emergency packet of wotsits by the bed) help you get more restful sleep and boost your immunity to diseases and infections! 

Our bed is position underneath our Velux windows to take advantage of the natural daylight and fresh air

We have six large VELUX roof windows in the front sloping side of our loft and as a general rule you should aim for glazing to take up to 15-20% of your room’s floorspace to maximise the amount of natural light. We have top-hung VELUX roof windows because they open at the bottom making them a within arms reach and gives us a great view out of the windows to the blossom trees beyond.

@KBro1979 asked what VELUX options are available if your windows are out of reach? Because of your roof height rather than you being the size of a Borrower. Fear not the answer does not involve a trapeze. VELUX has an INTEGRA® range of electric and solar powered windows that open remotely with the touch of a button. They have blinds that can be controlled this way too!

Our windows are within easy reach but it is possible to automated opening systems if yours are a little further up

The position of your roof windows will likely be dictated by the shape of the roof; for example, a long, shallow room will benefit from windows spaced evenly along its length, whereas a narrow, deeper room might benefit better from fewer larger windows.  However in terms of reaping those sleep enhancing benefits consider positioning your bed close to your windows to soak up as much daylight as possible and speed up your metabolism when you have raided that emergency packet of Wotsits.

Tip Three: Create Character

Some of the loft conversions I love most on Instagram are actually the VELUX rooflight type where the shape of the roof has not been altered and cosy spaces have been created with original features such as exposed brick walls left in place.

The challenge with our dormer was that it felt very much like a new build in the worse sense of those two words. It was spacious and bright but had no distinguishing features and it often felt like we were echoing around in it. I had a couple of attempts at injecting a bit character in using “feature wallpaper” both in the dressing table nook and then also behind our bed to break up the space and create some drama. Whilst Lawrence Lwellyn Bowen may have been proud of my paste and paper efforts it wasn’t until we added the scaffold plank wall behind our bed that the space really started to come together for me. The rough sawn wood creates warmth, texture and character and I would really recommend thinking about how you can bring rougher less “perfect” finishes into your loft conversion. It might be be asking your builder to leave a wall unplastered, or by using brick slips to create the same effect or using lime wash or concrete effect paint but try and get some texture in if you can.

It cost about £250 in materials and labour but the reclaimed scaffold plank is worth every penny

I love how cosy it makes the loft space feel at night

Tip Four: Glaze to Amaze

When our dormer loft conversion was carried out over 10-15 years ago white uPVC doors in dormers were as ubiquitous as Noel Edmonds. Their popularity has since gone the same way as Noel’s TV career and thankfully a host of much more visually pleasing glazing options are now emerging. When we were renovating our loft ensuite we had a little bit of budget left over a decided to say sionara to our uPVC doors, the chunky frames of which obscured our view to the garden beyond. If money had been no object I would have loved to go with either crittall style doors like those in the loft of @FallowGrey or for a sleek sliding door system like in this conversion by Mulroy Architects. 

Replacing the white UpVC doors with a picture window has transformed our loft space

I love sitting in this corner looking out over the garden

However we came up with a compromise that overall I am pretty pleased with which was to replace the doors with one large fixed picture window.  The frame is still uPVC but because it is dark grey instead of white it is not as noticeable and to be honest the difference in price didn’t justify going for aluminium on basis probably only I would notice the thinner frames. We retained the smaller opening window to the left hand side so that we still had ventilation and through draft.  The cost of doing this was approximately £1000 including labour which I consider to have been money well spent.

Yes we did run out of floor paint ……

So when you are planning your loft conversion think really carefully about your glazing options and don’t just go with what builders and loft conversion companies fit as standard.  There lots of still cost effective options out there which offer much better wow factor.

VELUX, for example, have a really cool pop out balcony window product called CABRIO ® which I discovered through this collaboration that I would love to incorporate into any future renovation I take on! When shut it sits flush to the roof like a normal window and when open it pops out to create a mini balcony , have a watch of this little video to see what I mean, is so clever!

A window that can become a balcony!

Tip Five: Zone it Like Beckham

Sadly I do not have any pictures for this section of David Beckham reclining in my loft.  The tip I want to pass on here is about how to break up your loft space into mini sections.  Our loft has a fairly large footprint overall at 21sqm but because we are semi detached it is a long but relatively narrow space at 7m by 3m. The challenge is, therefore, how to stop it feeling like a big spacious corridor. We have always had our bed positioned underneath the Velux windows because I love going to bed able to see the stars, lying back listening to the rain falling on them in colder months (and the Summer months based on this June) and opening them up for a breeze on stuffier nights. However the second section of the room originally didn’t really work for us at all. We had a massive double wardrobe on one side and then a double set of chest of drawers on the other side both of which blocked the view out of the back windows and made it feel a bit being inside a storage locker at BIg Yellow Storage.

I added a monochrome gallery wall and armchair to this corner to create a separate sitting area within the room

Hopefully this picture gives you a feel for how the space fits together

I am one picture short of a full gallery wall!

Making the alcove into a walk in wardrobe meant we were able to get rid of the bulky wardrobe, move the radiator that had been under the window to that wall instead and then put the chest of drawers where the radiator had been (still with me?!) On the side of the room where the chest of drawers used to be I have now created a seating area with a vintage armchair and side table and made this area distinct from the sleeping area by painting it a different colour and adding a gallery wall. It makes it feel as if there are two rooms within a room so if you have a large loft space or large and awkward footprint think about the different ways in which you can use the space and how you can decorate to subtly create different zones.

So there you have it my five top tips for creating a truly instagrammable loft conversion in collaboration with VELUX as part of my paid partnership with them. Thanks to everyone who shared their loft conversion stories and questions with me to help me write this post.