Home Sweet Home

I love looking at other bloggers homes, getting ideas for my own. I think its a bit like flicking through free home interior magazines! Thats actually how I discvered blogging- doing image searches on things like 'country houses' and 'cottage interiors' when bored on a night shift at work.When I clicked on pictures I liked - I was taken to peoples 'blogs'; a concept I had never heard of before.

I loved that I was invited to see pictures of thier houses, use thier recipes and copy thier craft ideas!!

So I would like to share some pictures of our home.
Its a 3 bed mid-terraced weavers cottage built in 1840. When we bought it, it was quite modern inside; all the character had been taken out. Its taken 5 years to get it the way we want, putting some charm back into it. We saved a lot of money by doing virtually everything ourselves from building stud walls, plumbing, moving radiators to hanging doors and everything in between; its been a massive learning experience for both of us. Euans handiwork is everywhere in the house; in the kitchen especially which he built himself from scratch. I make all the soft furnishings and love nothing more than pottering about rearranging things!! Its been exciting, infuriating and exhausting at times but its also been a lot of fun.

The Kitchen.

 There are some more pictures of the kitchen and how Euan made it here Our Kitchen

The Living Room.

The living room has been changed around a lot! Our tastes...wait, who am I kidding? like poor Euan gets much of a say.... MY tastes have really changed over the last 5 years -more than once! I think they are simpler now and more grown up. I painted the walls a gold colour when we first moved in and it was really bright and colourful with a lot of colourful accessories. The walls have been green as well. For a while the living room and hallway were one large room but when the winter came and the dogs began trapsing through snow all over the carpet from outside- we realised that taking out the hallway was a silly thing to do and we put the stud-wall back up. This time we put double doors in the centre of the room which works so well and the room feels much more spacious than before.

My lovely re-worked armoire and one of my antique mannequins stands in the corner.

 

We built the fireplace about a year after we moved in. There was a chimney but it had been capped at the top, plasterboarded over and an ugly electric fire attached to the wall. We had to pour in a concrete hearth to take the weight of the cast iron stove and all the brickwork. We bought the Oak beam online and the Woodburning Stove was second hand. It was a while before we could afford to get it professionally installed-the only work we have paid for in the entire renovation. Up until then we just lit candles in it! Its so cosy in the winter; all the cats and dogs love to get warm beside it.

There are some more pictures of the living room here Living Room

The Guest Bedroom. 

Thats Tabitha on the bed.

I love old pine trunks- this one came from my parents shop. In Scotland we call them Kists. There are quilts everywhere in our house and the teddy bears on top of them were my Mums when she was a little girl.

I made these curtains from an old quilt. I cut it in half, hemmed the edges and sewed some curtain tape to the top. It has made lovely thick curtains which keep the drafts out in the winter and the sun light shines through them in places where the old quilt was worn through.

The Outside

Its quite a cute little cottage. It will be hard to leave one day but its not really large enough to be our forever home. These photos were taken a few weeks ago so theres a lot more colour in the garden now but its chucking it down today so I dont want to get wet taking pictures.That hardly ever happens in Scotland ;)
You can Mollys head poking out of the catflap.... She used to just jump through it to get outside when she was a puppy. And this is looking up the garden from the door ....

Euan built the brick BBQ and this is where our chickens live......We now have 4. I think my very first post was about them and thier little house. A garden shovel stylishly keeps thier wee door open....keep meaning to do something about that.....its on the list.