Dining chairs makeover - before and after

Regular readers will know that this year we had our kitchen renovated. During the building and decorating work, some things somehow managed to get ruined, even if they were packed away, and my mismatched dining chairs all ended up looking grubby, paint splattered and generally a bit tatty. 

I'd been meaning to repaint them anyway for ages, so when Farrow and Ball offered me some of their paints for a makeover project, it was just what I needed to get on with it. I ordered two colours - Nancy's Blushes and Pale Powder. I decided that while my chairs are different styles (I have two pairs and two random ones), I wanted to bring some uniformity to them and thought these two colours would look great together. 

They all needed a good sanding, and I must admit I had a little help from my dad when it came to this project, sanding, priming and painting 6 chairs is not something you have a lot of time for when you have a small baby!! The chairs were primed using Farrow and Ball's Interior wood primer in white and light tones, followed by two coats of the colour.  

And here they are! I'm really pleased with the colours and the finish on the chairs, it's really brought them back to life! You must ignore the state of our floor - that is another thing on the to do list, to paint at some point!

As you'll notice I also make some new cushion pads for the chairs. This gorgeous fabric is from M is for Make. I'll be sharing the tutorial for making the cushion pads over on AO at Home in the new year so look out for that.

I'm so pleased with how the chairs now look. Thank you Farrow and Ball for the gorgeous paint, and giving me that little push I needed to get this job done! 

Check out all of the gorgeous Farrow and Ball  paint colours.

Art in the kitchen

The walls in our new kitchen have been pretty bare for the last few months while I decide what and where to hang things. But when I saw this print by Yourtype in the Southwood Stores online shop, I swiftly sent the link to the hubby as an idea for my birthday. I thought he'd decided against it, but then a few days after my birthday, to my joy, it arrived! 

It's a large print in need of a large frame, and I was very lucky to have collaborated with eFrame - an online framing service - who provided this lovely white wood frame. I mentioned how I used them for the artwork for Ruby's room also as you can create bespoke frames to your own size specifications. 

Funnily enough I don't actually drink coffee, but at the moment I feel like the word coffee here should be replaced with baby! That is pretty much my routine at the minute!! 

thanks to the hubby for the print and to eFrame for providing the frame. 

New lighting in my home

The clocks turned back last weekend, so it is darker earlier these days. So when Homebase recently offered for me to choose some new lighting to help illuminate my home during the winter months, i jumped at the chance. Good lighting, whether it's candles or electric, really does create atmosphere and cosiness and I'm really pleased with the two choices I made from their Habitat range. 

Firstly, for our bedroom I chose this bright orange lamp. I am really loving orange at the minute, especially this bright, eye popping shade. As our bedroom is mainly pale, subtle colours I love how this lamp has now added a splash of colour, which brightens up quite a dark corner even during the day. 

The colour of the lamp reminded me of the berries on a Solanum plant (also known as Christmas Cherry - perfect for this time of year) so I picked up one of these while in Homebase also, and I think they look lovely together. 

Here it is switched on - the perfect little bedside reading light! 

My other choice was the Helena flower lamp. This light has been around for about 10 years, designed by Helena Christensen for Habitat, and it's one I've always admired, and I thought it would work really well as a feature in our new kitchen/dining area.

I love how you can bend the 'stem' of the flower around into a shape you like, and how it looks like it is 'growing' out from behind the sideboard! It almost echos the shapes of the real flowers at the other end of the sideboard, and the copper flower adds a flash of metallic colour.

With a lovely orange-y glow it creates a lovely atmosphere in this corner of the room in the evening... it's definitely a piece I can see me owning for years and years to come and moving it around as our home (or future homes!) evolve.

Thanks so much to Homebase for these lovely items! 

xxx

Win a Rewined Candle

October is here, and while September was a great month weather wise, it is set to change this weekend and everyone is now thinking of autumn and getting cosy! I do feel a little like summer has passed me by this year with the arrival of Ruby.  We spent one of the hottest weeks of the year cooped up in a hospital room and were desperately wishing for cooler weather, and since being home, while it's been nice going for walks with the pram, I've generally been too worried about Ruby getting the sun on her or her getting too hot! We are spending quite a lot of time at home with her, so I am actually fine with the idea of autumn arriving and just curling up with my little family in front of a good film.

And of course for that cosy atmosphere, candles are a must, so it was lovely to receive this gorgeous one from Rewined Candles recently. 

The South Carolina based company make the candles from recycled wine & champagne bottles. The soy candles scent mimics the tasting notes of wine - yum! The one I received was Champagne scent and smells delish. I'm really loving the design on the candles too, what do you think? 

If you like the look of this, then listen up! Rewined Candles are giving one Patchwork Harmony reader the chance to win a candle, and you can even choose the scent you would like! 

To enter just visit their online shop and then leave a comment on this post saying which scent takes your fancy. You can get an extra entry by tweeting: "I've entered to win a @rewinedcandles candle via @patchworkhrmy www.patchworkharmony.co.uk/blog/2014/9/2/win-a-rewind-candle "

TERMS: 

Closing Date is 10th October 2014. 

Open to UK and international entrants.

Winner will be selected at random and you will be notified by email.

Make sure you leave a contact email address so you can be contacted if you win. 

The nursery makeover

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen a few little sneak peeks into our baby's nursery already, but as it is finally finished and all ready for our new arrival, due in a couple of weeks time (!), I thought I'd share some photos of the whole room.

The room had been my office before, stuffed full of craft supplies, books, props, paperwork etc, so I've really had to downsize on that front and in fact the cupboard on the right hand side is actually being used to store a lot of that stuff. The wallpapered wall on the left used to be covered by a bank of ikea shelving that were there when we moved in. Hiding behind the shelves was a botch job of a partition wall, so we had this rebuilt when we had the builders in recently. Apart from that, in terms of decorating, all we've done is paint the walls and ceiling white, wallpapered and repainted the floor.

I'm so pleased with the wallpaper by Ferm Living, which I ordered via This Modern Life. It is perfect for growing with our little one, as it's not babyish, but still a lovely nursery pattern. The cot is from John Lewis, please excuse the plastic covering on the mattress! The baby will sleep in our room for the first few months, so I've left that on there for now!

I bought the 'Whale in Paris' print from one of my fave shops, The Hambledon, on a recent trip to Winchester, and the honeycomb decorations are from Ikea. The fox cushion is by Sweet Reverie available at Society 6, and the little striped cushion was a lovely gift from a new brand based in Barcelona called Mint Banana.

This lovely knitted blanket was handmade by my mum (thanks mum!), and the spotty one came from Gap.

These drawers were a fab eBay find. The little pink turtle was handmade by Ooh La Lapin and the gorgeous moccasins are by Monkey and Mole. The toadstool lamp came from Bimbily - it's the only place I've seen stocking the gold version of this, so I was really pleased to find it.

The curtains are a simple set of grey linen ones from Ikea, but I've customised them with a little bit of pink pom pom trim, which was so simple to do and I think really adds something to the curtains.

I've blogged about the little cupboard before which I bought from the fab Goose Home and Garden. The huge pink honeycomb ball was another Ikea purchase, and the ice cream one is from The Hambledon. The 'My Daily Melody' print is by Audrey Jeanne, which I bought online from Tea and Kate.

I've had these little shelves for a while, I bought them in a charity shop for £5 and have just repainted them. The 'little girl' postcard and the elephant also came from Tea and Kate - I love how the elephant's pom poms match my curtains! The Polish wooden dolly was picked up at The Vintage and Handmade Fair which i visited a while back. 

I blogged about artwork for the nursery a while back so you might recognise some of these prints. The seal is from Isa Form, the elephant on the bike is by Ez Pudewa and the other elephant is bySeventy Tree. I've managed to frame all the artwork relatively cheaply, with a mix of Ikea frames for the standard sized prints and then some custom made frames by eFrame - which is a fab online resource, where you can enter in the exact dimensions of your print, what type of frame you want, whether you need a mount etc, and they are delivered to your door. I'm always really pleased with them and think they are affordable considering they are custom made. 

The very last thing we added to the room was this light from John Lewis. It is made from plaster and punched with lots of tiny holes, so gives off a really soft light which is perfect for the nursery. Again, I like how it's not childish and will last for years to come in the room. 

So there you go! The finished room! I've tried to keep it quite simple as it's a small room, but I'm sure it won't be long before it is filled with lots of baby paraphernalia, so it's nice to have a record of how it looks before the chaos takes hold! ;)

Just one more tiny thing to be added in a few weeks time! I'll be sure to give you an update when our little one makes her appearance!

xxx

91 Magazine craft special is online!

It's that dreary month of January, I'm sure it's most people's least favourite month of the year. Everyone's broke after Christmas and it's cold and dark outside. Well! We've decided to try and remedy this problem with our brand new issue of 91 Magazine! It is our first ever Craft Special, as we thought it's the perfect time to stay indoors and get making and also with the new year, it's time to try out some new things!

If you've never tried crochet, then maybe have a go at Emma Lamb's simple crochet pin cushion or try a bit of cross-stitching with Peas and Needles blogger Lucy Davidson perhaps? We've got 9 craft tutorials for you to try, all different disciplines and levels of difficulty, so hopefully something to suit everyone!

We also report back on some recent craft and handmade events we've visited, such as Renegade Craft Fair, where we met some talented makers, and we peek inside the home of crafty bloggerLeigh Metcalf, as well as checking out the colourful garden studio of screen printer Megan Alice England.

Lots to keep you busy until Spring appears! We'd love to see if you have a go at any of our tutorials, so please share your photos on Instagram or Twitter and tag with #91craftspecial.

Also, you may have spotted we have a little bit of a new look! We'd love to hear your feedback on this so do let us know, via commenting here or on social media. And of course please let all your friends, family and colleagues know that our latest issue is available and free to read for all!  

Below is a little peek inside, but why not head straight to the 91 Magazine website and get reading!