It's Orla tidied up.

I managed to snatch a few minutes the other day to peruse around John Lewis. I was very excited to see the new raised stem collection from Orla Kiely. I loved these cake tins - absolutely made me wish I a) was the type of woman who baked frequently, and b) had more room in my kitchen to display them (I could therefore store items other than cake in them!). Sadly, neither is the truth, so I will have to just stroke them like a loon (they're very tactile!) every time I see them.

I also really liked the raised stem storage canisters. Didn't I get a set of Orla Kiely storage canisters for Christmas? Yes, I did - and I'm putting them to great use. However, these are quite special and as usual, I love the colours, so I may have to sneak some into my house somehow. I'm currently trying to think of what I could store in the grey one in my bathroom.

Image from here.

A quick fix in the kitchen.

When we moved in to our house nearly six years ago, certain aspects like the kitchen and the bathroom weren't quite to our taste, but were too new to change. Fine - it meant that we moved in to a house with a modern kitchen and bathroom. However, our house was clearly modernised for sale, and modernised by a bit of a bodger.

For example, the kitchen cupboards were left incomplete - there were no end boards. Around the extractor hood looked like this:

The missing panels made what was already a budget kitchen, look even cheaper. Annoyingly, there wasn't enough room between the extractor and the cupboards to even fit on any end boards. I had to come up with another solution.

The answer came with sticky backed plastic! I found a roll of wood effect lino, cut it to size, and stuck it on.

After about an hour, after a lot of fiddling and huffing, my cupboards looked like this. Tons better don't you think? The lino helps to create the illusion that the cupboards are actually made of solid wood!

A quick fix that has made quite an impact, and all for about £6!

A little piece of Velcovsky in my bathroom.

So you know the old story - grandmother dies, and the old picture she had hanging over her dingy gas fire turns out to be an original Monet. Well something, admittedly not quite so dramatic as that, has happened in my house recently!

I've been making my way through Veronika's archives over at A Few Things From My Life (which I highly recommend by the way), and I learned from this post, that I've been using a piece of classic Czech design to house our toothbrushes!

This quirky porcelain cup was given to us several years ago by my uncle and his Czech wife (who live near Prague). At the time, I thought it was quite cool - the attention to detail is pretty impressive - it really is a good replica of a polystyrene cup. However, not realising its true status, it sat on our desk, occasionally containing the odd biro. When Torin accidentally broke the white ceramic cup that should sit in the chrome holder above (I think he knocked it out while swinging his toothbrush around his head (!)), I realised that porcelain cup sitting on our desk would be a great replacement.

Thanks to Veronika's post, I learned that the "Pure cup" as it's known, was designed by renowned Czech designer Maxim Velcovsky, who is known for his porcelain work, and also for redesigning the interiors of public buildings.

I have to admit that before I read Veronika's post, the barcode was turned around to face the wall so the cup was white against the pale walls of our bathroom. Now I know where it has come from, the barcode faces forward as it should, and funnily, suddenly I don't mind it so much!

Printer's tray on the landing.

On Sunday I grabbed a few minutes to hang up my new printer's tray. The very kind gift from David's father and stepmother, has been propped up against the wall for a while now, even though I've known where it was going to live since it entered my house! It's hanging on the wall at the top of our stairs, right outside Torin's bedroom.

So far I've only added a few little items to it, but I'm looking forward to adding more as time goes by.

On there at the moment is:

The name tag that I made for our room when we got married (I made one for every room in the house that we hired). I was so pleased with them when I made them nearly six years ago, and still am really (though I really wish now that I had used a type writer or stamp to write the names).

One of the snowflakes I used as a decoration for Astrid's birthday party (I know, I'm so rubbish - I still haven't posted all of the pictures from that!).

My plan for the hallway and landing is to re-paint the walls in a darker shade - probably something like this and then I'm going to hang wallpaper on the wall behind the tray (I want to use some up that we bought yonks ago to go on the chimney breast in the living room). I think I'll probably eventually paint the tray - probably in a neutral colour like this. I think it will make the objects on it stand out, and make the whole area feel more streamlined.

In other printer's tray news . . . have you seen this project from Vintage Sheet Adict? I think it looks great. I'd certainly attempt it myself if I hadn't already decided to hang wallpaper up behind mine.

Image from here.

An IKEA induced nostalgia.

I popped to IKEA with the children yesterday. I was in search of a picture frame, but I also thought the small adventure playground that they have outside our local branch would absorb some of Torin's excess energy! 

It was a successful trip - I picked up an ÖDBY frame for the wonderful Eloise Renouf print my brother gave me for my birthday back in the summer (I know, things move slowly around here!). I'm really pleased with it actually - I'll post some pictures when it eventually makes it onto the wall above our bed!

While I was in the frame section, my eye was drawn to the NORRLIDA frame. I'm not sure if it is a new product, but I hadn't seen it before. The display model contained a fabric collage showing two owls and some bunting - I thought this was quite creative for IKEA and it set my mind wondering about what use I could find for one. Described as "the perfect frame to make collages with your pictures and other keepsakes", it reminded me so much of the frames my great-grandmother used to frame her wonderful cross-stitch creations. I can clearly picture a white frame, with a cross-stitch design inside it depicting rolling green hills and fields of lilac heather. I think it's hanging on the wall in my grandmother's cottage now, so I'll try and grab a picture of it next time we're back in Kent and share it with you.

I was quite drawn to the unusual shape of the frame - if I can think of a good project involving one, I'll get it and share my thoughts with you. In the meantime, here are some pictures of how others have put their NORRLIDA frames to good use:

Image from here.

Image from here.

The Full Monty at Loaf.

A while ago, I mentioned that I really liked this bedside table from the new range of furniture at The Sleep Room. Well, The Sleep Room is now Loaf, and their new range of furniture is now massive. Alice from Home Shopping Spy mentioned that there were some really lovely new products that just had to be seen, so I decided to take a look.

I always admire the sofas and beds that Loaf advertise in full page campaigns in interiors magazines - they tend to make me want to strip out everything in our bedroom / living room and just focus on one new big squashy bed / sofa. Their new range The Full Monty, is called that because Loaf have expanded beyond living rooms and bedrooms and now sell products for every room in the house. Hurrah, I say!

I like how the chalky tone of this bedside lamp contrasts with the glossy finish.

These plain linen cushions are from India and have been livened up with blanket stitched edging in bright colours.

I'm really drawn to industrial shelving at the moment - I once saw a great use of an old shoe rack that was used as towel storage above a door in a bathroom - I'll try and dig out the picture if I can remember where I saw it. This upright unit, aptly called Highwire, would neatly fit into any bathroom. I'd happily have it in mine, but I think that with the recent addition of my lovely new cabinet, we'd have storage overload!

Finally, I love the curves of this hand beaten metal mirror that was inspired by a 1930s mirror seen in Venice. 

Which is your favourite piece?

Lovely new curtains in the living room.

On Saturday, David really helped me out by taking the children into town for the afternoon. With a quiet empty house, I sang along to First Aid Kit (loudly) - a very welcome Valentine's gift from David, that I'm really enjoying listening to (have you heard of them?), made myself a quick lunch, and then set about putting up our new curtains in the living room!

My mum (who is a complete star, and very talented) made the curtains for me for my big birthday last year. Thanks mum, I absolutely love them - I keep wandering into the room, just for another look!

They really add a warmth to the room, and help to make the space feel more "grown up". It felt really good to take down the cheap, faded IKEA curtains that were hanging there. 

Here's more of a close up shot - I chose the fabric (from Dunelm Mill) for a few reasons - I thought the cream background would really lighten up the room and the green matched the colour on the walls, but wasn't too samey. Also, the leaf motif is embroidered onto the plain background fabric, which is the same as the flowers on the cushions.

The new curtains have really refreshed the living room, and I can't wait for mum to finish the curtain that is going to hang at the door in the dining room area. When that's done, the rooms will pretty much be complete!

What do you think? Do you like them?

Also, I'd just like to say hi to my three newest followers - welcome Daisy of Lazy Daisy Jones, Sophie of Fading Grace and Hettie Brown, and Jenny of The Custards. Thank you for following me!

Bathroom cabinet . . . finally!

A long long time ago, I wrote about looking for a cabinet to go in our bathroom. It was meant to be my birthday present from my parents that year. Well, on Friday I was finally able to call my dad and congratulate him for buying me my birthday present, albeit well over a year late! I successfully (with a little help from David who was watching the auction on a train heading back from Durham), managed to bid for and win a beautiful cabinet on Ebay, and yesterday we braved the pouring rain and drove to Pontypool to pick it up.

I'm really thrilled, as it's exactly what I'd wanted - size, colour, everything. Apparently, it used to display tiaras in a bridal boutique, and prior to that, it spent years in a watch shop, so it's got quite a quaint provenance too.

At the moment, it's sitting on top of another cupboard in the bathroom, as this is the safest option for the children, while I wait for the weekend when I can have David's help to put it up on the wall. It's going to eventually hang on this wall, but at a height that'll be just above the tallest frond on the aloe vera - it's going to look so good, and it should house loads of our bathroom paraphernalia. I'll post a few pictures when it's up on the wall!

And the winners are . . .

So, as promised, my chosen few . . . sorry it's coming to you a day later - you can mainly blame teething for my tardiness.

As a condition of accepting my little blog's award the other day, I have to pass on the award to a further ten blogs that I find inspiring. Here they are . . .

Pardonmyfrenchie - now, I have to admit from the off, that this is my sister's blog. She reviews films and displays her cool photography skills in an incredibly witty way. Family ties aside, this new blog deserves recognition - she's doing a great job!

Bristol Parenting Cafe - because the lovely C is so friendly and she posts gorgeous pictures of her family doing wonderful activities together. 

At Home With Red - for Dawn's sharp photography and pretty displays.

Little Green Shed - for the beautiful pictures in Lou's House Love section.

The Custards - for the fantastic array of vintage finds and little projects.

Fading Grace - a cosy, well-written blog that enthuses about a simpler life. Full of lovely pictures and up-cycled delights.

Celebrate Creation - Claire has a great collection of inspiring interiors pictures and DIYs.

A Few Things From My Life - I've admired the work of Sarah and Bendrix for a long time, and the accompanying blog is so so pretty. I'm also quite in love with Veronica's house.

A Quiet Corner - because it is just that - Karen's blog exudes calm, both in the friendly way it is written and the lovely pictures of her home. Plus, she's an English teacher, so I'm very impressed that she has time to mark and write!

Dreaming of an Aga - because I do too, or at least a range cooker. Fay charts her idyllic life in the country with some charming makes.

This list is by no means meant to exclude or alienate - there are so many more wonderful blogs that I read all the time - all of you are doing great things!

Last bit of award admin - I have to post the rules in this post:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Add the One Lovely Blog Award / The Very Inspiring Blogger Award to your post.
3. Share seven things about yourself.
4. Pass the award on to a further ten lovely bloggers.
5. Include this set of rules.
6. Inform your chosen ten by posting a comment on their blogs.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

I'd just like to thank . . .

I had a lovely surprise when I checked my email yesterday - the lovely Viv from Re-routed had nominated me for a blog award. I was very touched that she had thought of me - thank you again Viv!

My second thought was - argh! Can I think of seven things about me that anyone except me or perhaps my closest friends and family (who would probably only be indulging me!) would find interesting?

Anyway, the rules of accepting the award state that I have to spill, so here goes . . .

• I was a good girl at school. I still have my deputy-head girl badge in my jewellery box. My brother and sister used to call me Bof.


• I hate heights, but always force myself to go on rollercoaster rides.


• If I had another child, I'd love to give it a name from one of Shakespeare's plays, but I don't think I'm quite brave enough.


• I'm so long-sighted that I can't see anything, anywhere. Seriously, it doesn't matter if you're holding up two or four fingers, or just the one rude one . . . I wouldn't be able to tell you how many were there!


• I'm a complete and utter romantic. I think this is fuelled by the fact that my degree was in English Literature.


• I can be incredibly clumsy. Bull in a china shop type stuff. It often involves red wine being spilled.


• I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. On reflection, it's probably not such a sensible place to put it!


• So, there you are . . . now you know me a little better. Hope you're still reading!

Next step is to pass the award on to another ten bloggers who I deem deserving, which I will be doing tomorrow . . . watch this space.

Can't stop looking at . . .

Each week, I'll be sharing with you something that has caught my eye. It may be a picture, blog, product or website.

In an effort to streamline our finances, I stopped my subscription to LivingEtc a while ago. I miss it. Especially when they feature wonderful rooms like this one - love the chartreuse and teal combination against the white walls and little floral touches.

Image from here.

Happy weekend everybody!

It's Orla neat and tidy in the kitchen.

As I begin to write this, I can hear the sentence forming in my father-in-law's mind - "Oh goody, another one of Bec and David's corners!" And, yes, that is what I'm going to show you. However, with the addition of some lovely new Orla Kiely canisters, they are now very pretty corners.

I've never had a proper biscuit tin. I've always made do with other tins that we've had, or plastic tupperwaresque boxes. However, that just leads to soggy contents, and I was beginning to feel mean feeding them to the children, assuming that they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. So, for Christmas, I asked for a biscuit tin and hinted that I liked the new set of three Orla Kiely air-tight canisters that I had seen in Lakeland.

We've recently realised that we're not making the most of the space in our kitchen - when we moved in over five years ago, we just plonked everything in the cupboards without much thought to how easily things could be accessed, or indeed, what we were actually putting in there.

So, with the help of my new trusty tins, I've re-arranged a few areas of the kitchen and I'm enjoying the new little space I've created.

Originally, the bread bin was underneath the cups on the other wall and I didn't really realise just how much worktop it occupied that way round. In it's new position, it leaves room for the new tin (containing rice), and it also means that there is room on top for four tall storage jars. I'm also pretty pleased with my addition of an IKEA VARIERA shelf insert, which means there's room for the pestle and mortar, salt pig, butter dish AND a small jar of I think, ground coriander. You can also see in this picture, my smart new spoon rest (my Christmas list was so exciting this year!).

I've shown you the rest of this shelf before (it's the one from which our pots and pans hang), so I decided to focus solely on the new tin which does actually contain biscuits (malted milk for the children, scrummy shortbread for me - mmm). I really like the design of all three tins, but I think this one just has the edge on the others and is perhaps, my favourite. I love the way the dusky blue flowers are set off by the tomato red of the lid.

Lastly, here is the third and smallest of the three new tins. This one is currently empty (any suggestions?) but it looks great on this shelf, so it's going to stay there until I can think of something worthy to put in it. 

Hope you're all having a good week!

New bedroom blinds.

I'm very excited as, after many months of procrastinating, dithering and sample-ordering, I've just ordered new blinds for our bedroom!

As you can see,  we've got two large windows in our bedroom and we live on a terraced street, so we definitely need a window treatment that gives us privacy. The patterned voile blinds covering the bottom part of the windows are excellent, as they allow light in, while preventing anyone from peeking in. These are staying.

We're going to swap the curtains for blinds. There are two main reasons for this - firstly, one of these pairs of curtains is now hanging in Astrid's bedroom and I've (very) temporarily put up the old blue ones that were in her room (that used to be Torin's), in our room. So, we currently have one cream pair and one blue pair - it's certainly not pleasing on the eye!

The other reason is that I think the curtains look a little messy - I know they're plain and pretty inoffensive really, but I'm hankering after something with cleaner lines - perhaps something a little smarter and dare I say it, masculine?

I've really taken a long time over this decision and, after rejecting many samples, and looking at the prices of made to measure Roman blinds (!), I've decided to go with a very safe option. I've ordered the same blinds that I chose for Torin's bedroom (the one you can just about make out in the terrible picture below).

The new blinds will be cream, blackout, spring-loaded roller blinds. Although I would have preferred Roman blinds, as I think more fabric would help to create a slightly softer look, the new blinds will be smart, unfussy and streamlined. Hopefully, this will help the rest of the bedroom to follow suit - there is a reason the top picture is an old one - it's to do with the clothes currently drying in our room, the additional bookcase we've squeezed in between the chest of drawers and the windows, and the large amount of general rubbish that seems to congregate in our room so it is either out of the reach of the children, or doesn't seem to have a place elsewhere.

Hopefully the new blinds will be delivered within a week, so I'll be sure to post some pictures soon!

Make do and mend: personalised cushion.

Now, what I should be showing you tonight is the pictures of Astrid's party - I want to show you what I did with a whole lot of paper and a small branch. But, I've just realised that would involve searching through and editing all the pictures that were taken at the party and I haven't done that yet (and don't have time tonight, sorry). I'll aim to get them ready to show you before the week is out!

So, to this post - making a personalised cushion.

I managed to grab some time to make some gifts just before Christmas and I even remembered to take some snaps of some of them so I could share them with you.

Up first, is a personalised cushion that I made for our niece, Harriet. Her bedroom is neutral but with tasteful, brightly coloured accessories and so I wanted to give her a cushion that mirrored that. As I don't possess a sewing machine, I chose to use a shop-bought cushion cover and then embellished it myself.

Like most of my crafts, it was really easy to make - I think it took me three evenings to make it (well, the time left after re-settling two children!). I used:

• chartreuse cushion cover from Dunelm Mill
• pink toile de jouy fabric from Laura Ashley
• empty cereal packet
• pencil
• ruler
• decent scissors (I have to confess I used our kitchen scissors, as I don't have any fabric scissors)
• pins
• white cotton thread

What I should have also used:

• thimble (ouch!)

I began by drawing an H on the empty cereal packet using the pencil and ruler. When I was happy with the dimensions, I cut it out and used it as a template to draw an H onto the toile de jouy fabric.

Next, I removed the cushion pad, positioned the fabric and then pinned the H to the green cushion cover. I then sewed around the edge of the H using a very simple straight edging stitch. Please excuse the total amateur nature of the following stitching, but if you're not a perfectionist, here is a close up showing how I finished the edges of the H.

All in all, this was a inexpensive, easy craft to do and hopefully Harriet will like it (she's only seven months old) when she's older.

What do you think? Did you get around to making any gifts this year?

Make do and mend: Astrid's winter-themed birthday invitation.

As you know, Astrid turned one in November and we had a winter-themed party for her. I realised that I got all carried away saying that I'd got my craft on, and then Christmas took over and I didn't get around to showing you what I had made.

First up is the invitations I made for her party. Do you like?

To make this I used:

• cream cardstock
• a snowflake punch
• an old, unwanted book
• silver card
• white card
• silver pen
• glue pen

It was super easy to make - I just simply punched out several snowflakes from the silver and white card, and old book; experimented in laying them out until I was happy with how they looked; and then stuck them on to the card using the glue pen. I finished by using the silver pen to write "Astrid is One" on the bottom right hand corner.

A very simple idea, but one that I was quite happy with.

150 years of the London Underground

According to Google this morning, today is the 150th anniversary of the London underground. Over those 150 years, the iconic transport system has featured significantly in our culture - it has inspired art, films, novels; been used to stage music videos, and most recently has set trends in interior decoration.

Inspired by the images in their poster archive, the London Transport Museum has launched a celebratory range of gifts and souvenirs. I had a look at the rest of the shop  to see what they had to offer and below are some of my favourite pieces.

This colourful poster would be great for a child's room.

I really like the colours in this old print.

I know we've seen these before, but these vintage luggage rack shelves are achingly cool (if a tad expensive!).

And finally, these bright tea towel designs by Michelle Mason would liven up any kitchen. The "Big Leaf" pattern is her take on the classic 1930s "Colindale" print used on tube upholstery material.

All images from here.

Also, speaking of anniversaries - I'd like to say a big thank you to you all for reading my little blog - Beautiful Square Feet was 2 on the 3rd!

Happy New Year

Things went back to normal this morning - Torin went to nursery, David went to work, and I went to the supermarket with Astrid. It already feels like Christmas was ages ago, although you only have to take a look at our living room to see that there has been a recent toy delivery!

One of my resolutions this January is to be better at keeping in touch with people - birthday cards on time, replying to texts and messages on facebook straight away - all things that I really try to be organised with but never seem to manage very well. Anyway, that resolution goes for here too, which is why I really wanted to come on here today and say hi, and that I really will try and squeeze in time in the evenings to write more (I know, I know, you've heard it before . . .).

So, Happy New Year everyone and hopefully see you around here more frequently . . . promise.

Image from here.

Make do and mend: snowflake table confetti.

Now, I know you can buy this kind of stuff, but I thought I'd use materials that I already had and spent a lovely evening in front of Kirstie's Vintage Home pressing out a load of silver snowflakes.

I used a snowflake design hole punch and thin silver card to make these little shimmery cut outs - my thumbs hurt quite a bit now as I had to press down with both of my hands in order to punch them out. Using thinner, silver paper would have been a lot easier, but I wanted to work with what I already had - so card it was.

I'm going to use the snowflakes as table confetti and scatter them over a white tablecloth on the food table at Astrid's party. Simple, but pretty, don't you think?

Also, sorry - in hindsight, I should have used a white background in this picture, as I can see some of the snowflakes are a little hard to see against the grey.