Papering, Juxtapositions and Organising

This is my walk in wardrobe, I do love her so:

 You have probably noticed from my blog so far that words such as minimalist, monochrome or neutral do not appear in my vocabulary, not where my personal style is concerned anyway. Today I decided to make a few unnecessary adjustments to a few items in my walk in wardrobe that I thought I would share. First of all I have a chest of drawers that was once a very standard pine chest. I had previously painted this to be purple and changed all the knobs so that they are all different but that for me was not enough! I am slightly addicted to covering things with paper and so this is what I decided to do on this occasion too:

I covered the front of the drawers with some of my most favourite ever wrapping paper from Paperchase. I thought having all the drawers the same would look a bit too much so on two of them they have ripped edges and some purple showing through to break up the pattern a bit.

Now I hate empty white spaces, to me they just call out to be covered with something more interesting or decorative. Having looked through all my images when covering my noticeboard I realised just how sad it was that I couldn’t fit more on display and it dawned on me that I did have a little bit more empty space where a few more small pictures could be displayed:

I attached some postcards all along the front of the drawers at the bottom of my wardrobe. I chose lots of contrasting images ranging from black and white photographs to cartoons as I love juxtapositions of images that are all so different and yet work well together and, in my opinion, these do just that.

I am one of those people who just loves nothing better on a cold afternoon to just stay in and organise things! My clothes are stored in colour order, all of my drawers are organised into compartments, I like to know that when I need something I can find it immediately! However, my nail varnish collection had become a bit skew-whiff:

By using the polystyrene packaging that a frame came in I managed to make some steps to organise my nail varnish in a way that allows me to see them all! I now have a little choir of nail varnish that I can access easily and find my desired colour with a single glance – yay!

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Office Area Improvements

Recently I have seen so many blog posts with before and after shots of office areas being revitalized and it got me thinking about my own and how it needed a bit of an update. I wouldn’t exactly call mine an ‘office’ as it is just a desk in my bedroom but still! This is what I started with:

So as you can see I had a very messy desk space with no room for me to work at and a generally uninspiring area. So firstly I decided it was time to change my wall decoration:

I have had this poster for years and I still absolutely adore it, it is one of my favourite images of all time, but it is time for a change and I wanted something that I could change and add to over time and so decided it was time to get a noticeboard:

I have boxes and boxes filled with images ranging from magazine cut outs to greetings cards and so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to get some on display! I didn’t really have a plan or theme I just looked through all the images I have, as well as going through some of my newer magazines, and picked out the ones that stood out the most for me at that time. After spray painting the noticeboard’s frame a deep scarlet colour I arranged my chosen images. I am really happy with the result and the deeper colours of my mood board, compared to the pale hues of the Venice poster, have completely transformed the look of my room, which I am really pleased about. 

Next it was time to move onto the desk, after I cleared and cleaned it, it was ready to go. There wasn’t much I wanted to do to it but I needed to cover up the nails on the front panel as they really bugged me being so visible!

So first thing first I cut a piece of wrapping paper to the right size and glued it on to that front panel. I then wanted to cover up those horrible plasticy handles, instead of buying new ones. I decided to do this by wrapping different coloured ribbon around them and tying lots of knots to leave all the ends showing and making it look intentionally shabby! I chose ribbons in corresponding colours to the wrapping paper to tie the two sides together and give the desk a bit of character:

This is one of the handles in closer detail:

So finally, my new work area was complete and I now have space to write this blog on a nice tidy desk and sitting in a comfortable chair with my new mood board to inspire me! I can see why office area makeovers have been so popular!

 

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My week and pretty patterns

I have had quite an exciting week this week but this has had nothing to do with the Queen’s jubilee! Firstly I bought a car! My very first car, even though I passed my test a good few years ago, and so now I’m in the process of re-learning how to drive! He’s an old blue Vauxhall Corsa and I am still trying to come up for a name for him but so far so good, I already love him!!

Secondly, one of my best friends, Vicky, asked me to be one of her bridesmaids as she is getting married in June next year! I am sooo excited to be asked, having never been a bridesmaid before, and I can’t wait to help her with the creative side of the planning! I’ve already started sending her bridesmaid dress ideas too!!!

So that’s my big news for the week. On a side note I did also wander into my local Primark this week, given my recent part-time job status this is about all I can afford right now, but I was so very pleasantly surprised by what I found. They have so many women’s clothes in such gorgeous vibrant colours and patterns at the moment that I just didn’t know where to look (or what to buy!) These were some of my favourites:

Starting from top left going clockwise: Strapless bandeau £5.00, Halterneck sundress £10.00, Strappy elasticated waist dress £7.00, Fitted skater sundress £15.

All in all I was very impressed with the range that they offered, from Asian paisley prints to tropical bird designs through to art nouveau style prints, all for under £20.00. If only they could transfer these beautiful prints onto their homeware products! They would just be stunning!

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