Superior Interiors?

I was quite excited earlier when I spotted that a new interior make-over programme was beginning today. It was called "Superior Interiors" and the premise was that Kelly Hoppen was travelling the country, working with families in order to improve a room in their houses. Tonight's episode featured a family who wanted to convert their garage into a 'chill-out' family room. I cringed at the beginning when Vince, the guy who owned the house expressed his love of the mafia and all things Italian American - his dream was to have a bar area in part of the room. I really don't ever understand people's desires to have bars in their houses? Do you? Do you have one? Am I missing something?

Anyway, the finished room was actually very tasteful. Well, what else would you really expect from Kelly Hoppen?! She managed to give them the bar area that the family so desired by 'diluting' it into a moveable console with the aim of storing it against the wall and then pulling it out into the room when the family were entertaining. She also gave the nod to the mafia theme by adding red accessories to an otherwise monochrome scheme, and incorporated black and white pictures of Little Italy that had been taken by the father.

All images from here.

I'll definitely try and catch next week's show, although I'll probably record it so I can whiz through the slower parts of the show. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but for me the most interesting part of a show like this is to see what the room is like before work begins, how the design scheme came together, and then what the room looks like when it's been completed. I also like to be able to fast-forward through the three long ad breaks that come with an hour long programme on Channel 5!

I'm also very excited tonight, as we've finally managed to book a carpenter who's going to begin work on transforming the bannisters and handrail on our landing tomorrow! 

A not so ugly bug.

I received a strangely shaped parcel over the weekend. It was a tube shape and I had no idea what it was or where it had come from until I remembered that my sister had said she was going to try and post my birthday present to me. I was then ingtrigued - I assumed it would be a piece of paper of some kind (ie. a print or poster), but I just couldn't work out what it would be. Do you do that - try to guess what a present is before you open it? I'm a bit notorious for it - I used to shake all my stocking presents before opening them at Christmas - used to drive my younger brother and sister nuts as they just wanted to rip into theirs but had to wait for me first!

Anyway, family history aside - I opened the present and found some promotional material from Ugly Bug Cartoons. I really then just couldn't figure what would possibly be in the tube!

When I pulled out the A4 sheet, I laughed out loud - this is what was inside:

My brother and sister had clubbed together and commissioned this wonderful A4 cartoon of Torin for me! Once I had got over the initial surprise, and looked at everything in the picture, I then began to cry - it was such a sweet thing to do for me, and I love it. It's a great drawing of Torin, surrounded by all of his favourite things: his toy vacuum cleaner, bubbles, Cadbury's buttons, and his watering can and spade.

I've put it on the picture shelves in our living room, and temporarily framed it like this:

It will probably stay in this frame, which was taking up space in our spare room, but I need to get a proper mount for it - at the moment I've just placed the picture of Torin over the one that was originally in the frame. I'm sure I'll give it more thought soon, but for now I just wanted to get it behind glass in order to protect it.

Torin absolutely loves it - he points to it pretty much every time he goes into the living room, and really enjoyed pointing out all of his possessions when I first opened it.

I'm so lucky to have a gift like this that I can cherish for years to come, thank you Jo and Adam.

The top shelf is up (at last)!

A while ago, I mentioned that I had this little mishap in my dining room while trying to arrange the books on our alcove shelves according to colour:

I'd forgotten that some of the books on the upper shelves were actually supporting the weight of the shelves above them, and therefore, when I tried to replace the books in their new order, the weight of them sent the top shelf crashing down onto the shelf below, pulling out the wall plugs as it fell. So, I was left with a shelf missing, and several large holes in the wall, right where I needed the shelf to be put back up.

This weekend, my Dad tackled the job for me (I keep being told I'm not allowed to go up ladders!) and used some Polyfilla putty to fill the holes, which dried like concrete. Once this was dry, he made quick work of putting up the top shelf (thanks Dad, again!). Then my sister-in-law put the books back up on the shelves in strict colour-coded order (thanks Bec!).

This is how the area looks now - I'm so pleased with it. I really think I'll never put books on a shelf again unless they're arranged by colour as it helps to make everything look so much neater!

Apologies again for the light in this picture - have been potty training Torin all day and haven't been able to take my eyes off him in order to take a photo during the daylight!

I'm so pleased with how well these rooms are coming together, and I'm so grateful for all the help that we had from our family at the weekend.

My new kitchen shelf.

In this, one of my first posts, I mentioned that I was thinking of buying one of these shelves to go in our kitchen. I'd seen it featured here in Anna's city apartment, and thought it would be an excellent way of making use of dead space in our kitchen, and freeing up the very limited space in our cupboards at the same time.

My parents bought me the shelf as part of my birthday present this year, and this weekend it finally went up on the wall (thanks Dad!).

Sorry for the poor light in this photo - I had to take it in the evening using the flash!

I'm really pleased with how well it matches the kitchen cupboards, and it really is useful. Not only has it meant we've now got more space in our cupboards and on the worktops, it also makes useful ingredients very accessible.

My new desk wall.

So, as promised, a little peek at some of the painting I managed to do at the weekend. It really is a little peek I'm afraid, as the rest of the room is just too messy for me to bring myself to photograph. The main reason for this is because I'm planning on painting the woodwork this weekend, and so I haven't put everything back in it's right place just yet, and the ladder and my painting tools are still in the room too.

I'm so pleased with the colour, and it's such a pleasure to sit at this desk and look at a clean, fresh wall that is actually finished! If you remember, it looked like this for a LONG time!

I promise that when the two rooms are completely finished, I'll have a big tidy up and then post some pictures on here. Hopefully this weekend will really help make that happen sooner!