Design Dilemmas
Episode 69: This week we’re talking hardy plants, adding personality to your home and how to do it. Plus doing pattern properly (with help from the experts), side tables and the Sunday Niche Edit.
As you read this, we should now be esconced fully in our new house. The keys will have been returned to the landlord, all unwanted goods will have been despatched to the charity shop, the removal company will have collected boxes and my animals will be in a permanent state of shock at their second move in six months. I have said, many times, how excited I am to start this new stage of our lives but I do feel there’s going to be a significant element of stress as we start to work out where we’re going to put our remaining possessions which have built up over 25 years. 25 years! Seriously, I do not know where the time has gone. It seems like yesterday we were living in a two bedroom flat on the old football ground in Elm Park, Reading, eating McDonald breakfasts and mainlining wine and Silk Cut with not a care in the world. Now, we are three kids and multiple pets in; two have (almost) left home and we are ten houses on after downsizing to a property that doesn’t gobble all our cash up, Cookie Monster style, monthly. A new era, indeed and I cannot WAIT.
One of the things that I am most looking forward to in this move is having a bath again. There has been a bath in the rental house, but it was next to the boys room and no one in their right mind would enter that room unless they heard someone was drowning. Honestly, I don’t even know how boys make bathrooms so utterly gross, it’s beyond me. Anyway, I’ve been showering for six months and honestly, it’s just not the same. I don’t think I even used to have that many baths in the old house but as soon as I don’t have one, it’s the only thing I can think about. I’ve ordered a bottle of Neom in preparation, even. I’m also looking forward to having bookshelves again, mostly because until I find someone to make them for me I’m going to be surrounded by 30 boxes of books and magazines, like my very own in house storage unit. It’ll be FINE. God help me.
Okay now back to business and this week we are starting with how to add plants to your home that won’t immediately die on you (hopefully). We’re discussing what to do if you don’t feel as if your house reflects you and some good advice on pattern mixing from our favourite pattern expert, Sandra Baker. Plus choosing side tables and the Sunday Niche Edit, which this week is focused on aesthetically pleasing tissue boxes. Yes, I am nothing if not niche.
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