Home Tour: Bedroom

Hi there!

Finally ready to share some pieces of our home. We live in a rented space but we've been able to do a lot to our little home without causing too much work for when we one day move out. 

Here is our bedroom. 

When we moved in this bed was already here & since we don't own our own bed yet it worked well enough for us. The walls were all white but pretty scuffed up so after trying out this statement wall I painted over it with Eygyptian Cotton - Dulux. I did love the statement wall - when I first painted it - but then it became a little garish plus I wanted to put up more photos & that was just not going to work. I love the colour we chose, if you can call it a colour. It's an off white/pale grey and works really well with the bright white woodwork. We decided to use it through the rest of our home in the places we were able to repaint. 

The metal initials were given as a gift for our engagement. They are from Urban Outfitters and we spray painted them gold. :o) The Elvis print & Jack Vettriano prints are from a shop in Spain we bought on holiday. Other others are prints I've created with favourite quotes or images taken from Pinterest.

We each have a cub on our bedsides. Mine is a tiger & Sam's a lion. The first nickname he ever gave me was 'little cub' and it kind of stuck. Both little cubs became our wedding cake toppers! 
I made the coasters that you can see here.

The prints in the frames were taken on our honeymoon and the middle one I created myself on photoshop with the lyrics to 'Come thou fount of every blessing' which my brother & older sister sang at our wedding.
Other prints that you can just about see are gifts from friends.

The striped pillows and the bedding is ikea & the others are handmade.

They'll be a lot more I'd like to add here or there or would have done differently but I think as far as rented spaces go we haven't made it look too shabby!
Thanks for taking the tour! Let me know if you see anything I didn't mention in the comments & I'll be sure to reply!

DIY Home: Handpainted floral feature wall

A few weeks ago I got the itch to paint another wall after enjoying the triangle feature wall project so much! I nipped down to the local DIY home store & picked out a lot of colourful paint.

I had some ideas in mind of what I wanted to do but I brought the colours with the desire to just go with the flow and see where I ended up. SCARY! 

I couldn't tell you what got me started or where I got my inspiration, I just started to paint & it sort of came together.

I do really like the finished wall & it has really brightened up the rest of our bedroom & given it a different feel but do any other artists feel like when they work on something for so long you lose appreciation of the work you've done?? Admittedly, I felt a little like that but I'm happy for it to stay the way it is for the moment. I'm sure I'll get the urge to elaborate and experiment more once I roam pinterest for other home décor ideas! 

Also, I joined twitter! I gave in and got one but I don't really know what to do with it yet. Follow me! I'm @katiejpoursain.

DIY Home: Triangle feature wall

Heeey!

I did wonder whether to share this because the photos are so bad but hey ho, here we go. I had a sudden desire last week to paint one of the walls in our home. The office/spare room was the victim in this case. I had no materials properly prepared other than masking tape & lots of different sample wall paint pots. I can't help myself when I NEED to do something. 

I knew I wanted triangles so I measured out as accurately as I could rectangles on the wall which then went on to become triangles.

Then I literally got out all the sample paint pots I had and went wild. Maybe if I had planned the wall a little better I may have stuck to fewer colours but with no funds available and my hands itching to paint something I just went with it. 

Sam wanted to join in the fun after he finished work so I let him do ONE triangle. He's really proud of it! Haha.

I used mostly greys & blues but then I had some left over coral from the magazine rack I restyled but I only had enough to cover 4 triangles. I think it looks pretty effective though. The yellow came from running out of paint! I somehow found some magnolia wall paint so I mixed it with some mustard acrylic paint I had on hand and BAM! the remaining triangles became bright yellow! I seriously did this spontaneously didn't I?!!

I was so frightened by what I had done at first but once I'd taken off the masking tape it looked pretty good. I love the pop of coral. The edges are by no means as neat and as straight as they may look in the picture but I do rather like it. This home is a rental but we've been told we can decorate as much as we like here which is amazing. 
If I change my mind about this wall I can always repaint it with something else. At least my impatient hands are satisfied for now although I'm already thinking about a floral mural to paint in our bedroom.
This room is far from finished and probably won't be done for a while but when it is I'll share it with you! For now, you just get one wall.

Home Tour: Sneak Peek! Living room/Lounge

Hey friends!

This is just a little sneak peek into our living room/lounge in our new home. It's really simple at the moment. It's set up very similar to our old place except we've got some extra furniture like the corner bookshelf that was in another room before & a new rug from Ikea that is so fluffy sometimes we sit on that instead of the sofa!

This is only a week and a half after we moved in. There are a few more things I want to do & add over the next few months but it's a slow process, not finished at all but this room is the most serene in our new home. It feels so comfortable, warm & cosy! It's L-shaped so the part you can't see will be our dining room & there is a deep alcove which we want to turn into a reading nook eventually.

We've started a photo wall which we had in the previous place but I was too wary to nail too many holes into the wall because of it being a rental, this home is a rental but we have more freedom to do whatever we like here. We still need to add more family & friends to it but it's a start for now & we love looking at all the people who have blessed us and been a big part in our lives!

We've already had a few dinner parties, film & game nights at ours. The amount of space we have in this place makes me feel so blessed everytime I wake up. Our (shared) garden was used for our church community event the weekend we moved in & we've now got a spare room & our first overnight guests will be arriving in August unless someone needs a place before that. It feels great to have a space to host & have people stay. This was my desire from the beginning when looking for places to live. I want our home to be open to people. I can't wait for more events to take place here. I think we're going to build a whole lotta memories in this place. REALLY good memories!

I'll share more when we've added to it and feel a little more settled and straight.

DIY: Cushions

I've been having a lot of fun making our new house a home. One of the projects I wanted to do in our other home was make my own cushions but I never got round to it and admittedly I was a little hesitant too because I've never done handmade cushions before.

I was inspired by a friend I had coffee with the other day. At her house she'd got a new (to her) sofa from her neighbour & had made her own cushions for it. They were so cute I thought I had to get on and make my own and believe that I could!

I used this tutorial after I just googled something ridiculous like 'how to make easy cushion covers' and that's just what they are...EASY!

This style is called Envelope Cover. It's one of the easiest things I've done. My first one took a while to work out but once I'd done that one I was making a cushion cover every 20 minutes until my sofa looked welcoming & cosy. I think I'm addicted! I started making some for our bed but now I've run out of materials!

I got these materials from the craft show held twice a year at the NEC, Birmingham. It's one of the things I look forward to going to every year to get my year's supplies! Things are sold much cheaper than in the shops but it's worth looking for pretty materials in markets & thrift shops.

DIY: Decorative wooden spoons

Hello!

Back with a cute DIY! I saw these from Anthropologie although I don't think they sell them anymore. I decided to have a go at making these myself anyway and you'll most likely have these things lying around your house! Zero cost!

You'll need:

Wooden Spoons, masking tape, paint (you can use anything really, I had some sample wall paints left so I just used those), paintbrush & clear gloss varnish.

Put the masking tape on where you want to paint up to, make sure it stuck securely down so you have neat straight lines when you peel it off. Paint the spoons in your desired colours. I used 'chic shadow' & 'coral flair' from my dulux paint samples. Leave to dry.

I was originally going to use black paint but decided to go for gold using a liquid gold leaf pen that you can get from most craft stores or amazon. Draw/paint on your design. I've gone for simple polka dots & aztec inspired lines.
Once dry use a couple of coats of varnish to seal your design.

They certainly make cooking a little more exciting and my kitchen pretty! The one thing I would warn you about is that they aren't particularly dishwasher safe. I did a couple of washes through the dishwasher and they were fine but after a third wash one of my spoons began to peel. They are fine in the water but I don't think they can survive the heat a dishwasher gives out so HAND WASH ONLY.

We had dinner parties Friday, Saturday & Sunday this week so they got a lot of use. I really like them!
Have a go! Xx

DIY: Handpainted heart coasters

Hi!
I am getting really excited about moving house. I bought some paint samples yesterday to try out and have been pinning ideas like crazy on Pinterest!

The other fun part is making little bits & pieces so I've got things ready to put out and make the place feel homey as soon as possible!

I know I want pops of yellow in our living room so I've made these heart-shaped coasters. I LOVED this little project. I can be very particular about buying things for our home and if I can't exactly what I'm imagining I just have to make it myself which makes it all the more satisfying.

I found these ceramic coasters from Next Home. I got two sets because I simply could not resist! Plus, you need coasters right!? 

You can buy these Porcelain Painter Pens online or in crafts shops like Hobby Craft.

Start by wiping the surface of the coasters with a dry cloth to get rid of any dust or oil from your hands. Then 'paint' on your designs. Do whatever you like. I've used a golden yellow colour and have been inspired by succulent plants. Once painted, leave to dry for 4 hours or overnight - I always wait overnight just to be 100% sure. Then place in a cold oven (do not preheat the oven). Turn the oven on 180oc for 45-60 mins. Turn the oven off and let them completely cool down inside. Placing them in the oven will secure your design and make them dishwasher safe. (You wont need to put coasters in the dishwasher but if you use these pens on mugs, bowls, plates, etc then you may want to dish wash them). 

I LOVE how they have turned out!

I also made this set of cups & saucers for my sisters birthday this week. They make a really unique and personal gift!

Happy crafting!!

Xoxo

Day 4 & 5 and Pom Poms

I found the tutorial for these sweet pom poms on this video. They are super easy and really fun/satisfying to make and add something different to our christmas decorations this year. Just a few yarns of wool and a bit of thread makes this a really cheap DIY. Go for it!

For day four of our advent I gave Sam a little voucher promising him a game of Pandemic. He bought it a few months ago and I've always been 'too tired...too busy...too not-in-the-mood-never-want-to-play-it', but since he's always so sacrificial for me it was about time I did something for him, especially because he went to Ikea for me. So, when we get a free evening and he wants to play that's our evening sorted. Pandemic is a game where you play against the board and stop a virus from spreading around the world.....yeah.......

Hah. Moving on. Today, day five, our date for another day is to do 'up & down the aisle of the supermarkets for our christmas food and drink shop'. Sam wants to make a date out of our food shop. He's so funny. He loves going up and down the aisles, afraid he might miss out on a treat but just wants to see everything on offer. Sometimes treats get put into the trolley...
Really looking forward to that date anyway, I get a feeling this is going to be one very merry trip to the food market and maybe too long deciding what to get down the drinks aisle!

Hope you are enjoying your December so far!

Xx