A colourful Autumn with Rice.

A pretty table setting with the Italian tableware from Rice

All images Rice

Although I'm busy creating a black and white theme in my living room, I am actually rather drawn to bright colours too, so I'm loving a dose of colour in the new Autumn/winter  catalogue from Rice, which is soon to be available in October.  

My latest charity shop find.

I've been on the look out for ideas for storage space in our living room. We have very little cupboard space in the whole of the house, and though I hate to admit it, I'm a bit of a magpie for collecting and keeping things, so wanted to put some kind of shelves or cupboards in the living room to store all my magazines books and bits and pieces.
Having flicked through my pile of books and magazines for some inspiration, I came across a couple of looks and ideas that I thought might work, some units from an IKEA catalog (picture 2) and some units seen in the Book Decorate by Holly Becker. (pictures 1&3) a book that I spend many a happy time flicking through for inspiration.
With these ideas in mind I headed out to our local B&Q store to check out if I could get something similar to the IKEA units, (the nearest IKEA is in France so B&Q had to do) thinking I could use slim white glossy kitchen wall units but at floor level, then having checked them out, I headed out to my favourite charity shop on the Island, the Hospice, not a week goes by where we don't pop in to either donate or buy.

Image 2 Ikea, 1&3 Decorate by Holly Becker

and there I found these units below.  As soon as I spotted them I thought of those shelves in picture 1 above,  and that was it, decision made!  I bought two of them for £35.00.  Now I need to decide if I should paint them or leave them, I'm thinking paint them white to blend into the wall a little,  but I'll live with them a while before deciding. 

In the mean time I'm enjoying filling them up with all by bits and bobs.

Oh, and if you read this post and are wondering about the red sofa's just going out of shot in the pictures, I can tell you that I had a couple of  very disappointing days where I thought I had scored two perfect white  sofa's for my new look living room, from the same charity shop,  only to have them delivered and for them NOT even to make it through the door!  I could of sworn that they where alot smaller then the current red sofas.....which just goes to show that colour can be very deceptive, and you should always carry a tape measure with you.....and know before hand if something will even make it thorough the door and round the stair well.  I'm still ever so slightly peeved about the whole sofa saga, but the shelves kind of make up for it.  Lesson learned though.

Ladders and frames.

I'm always on the look out for ideas to use in my living room now that it has been painted white, and I have  been looking at styling inspiration on the Tine K Home site and the new blog. I'm loving the idea of using picture frames in a cluster hung on the wall.  So during the week I picked up some cheap frames from the pound shop to try  out hanging them in a few different places around the room, I think I need a few more for impact and I might change the garden string for some suede lace that I spotted in a material and craft store in town, but its a great way to display just empty frames or a collection of pictures together.  Where do you like to visit for  inspiration?

  

The weekend project, arrange flowers.

Styling  and Photography by me!

This weekends weekend project is a nice easy summery one, because for many of you its the summer holidays and that means the children are home from school (how many of you are already counting down the days until they go back...heheh) so take out some time to treat yourself to some lovely summer blooms and arrange them in different containers and tins.

I bought these little playful blooms from a road side stall, and thought that they would work well in my tin cans that I spray painted back when I did my  yoghurt pots make over.  

I'm  pretty much a throw um in the vase kind of girl when it comes to my flowers, but if you want to get serious about your flower arranging then why not check out this book, Flower Arranging by  Mark Welford and  Stephen Wicks of Bloomsbury Flowers (linking here guys and gals)  So, What do you prefer, rustic country or sleek and contemporary? 

happy weekend! 

The weekend project (a little late) Diy display ladders.

Lately I have come across more than the odd blog showing how to use a ladder to decorate with, (such as here)  and I quite like the look, not only are they a great way of storing things such as throws when not in use, but they are also a great way for displaying things too. But  not having a pair of ladders to hand, I got to thinking that actually it wouldn't be that difficult to make a pair, even with my limited DIY skills, so after popping to B&Q to buy me some  lengths of wood, I had a go over the weekend, and this is the result, which I have to say I'm pretty pleased with, and for the cost of about £5.00

So if you fancy having a go your self:

Here is what I used

• 2  lengths of 12mm x 44 mm and cut the length to how tall you want it,  I kept mine the full length of the wood as we have high ceiling.
• 1 length of 11 x 33 mm 
• Headless Nails.
• Glue (optional) 
• Hammer.
• pencil to mark the place of the rungs.
• tape measure 

To assemble 

• Lay the two lengths of wood on the floor and decide how you want your ladders, equal width apart all the way up, or tapering, I chose tapering, and for tapering it helps to have a tiled kitchen floor to use as a grid!
• Once decided on how your ladders will look, decide on how far apart you want the ladder rungs (are they rungs or runs?)  cut the the piece of wood  for the rungs to fit, then nail each of these in place, you can use a bit of wood glue for extra security if you want.
• Then finally paint to the colour of your choice and voilà your own display ladders.