Yellows and Greys

Hello there!

I've decided to start blogging again. It makes sense now that I am designing and making again. For the last three years I've been designing for the greetings industry but I feel the urge to create my own designs again as well. I'm also desperate to do some sketching and painting. My new work will be created under a new studio name: DinkyRouge Studio.

My plan for this blog is to trial a few different post over the next few months to see what works and what I most enjoy writing and posting about. I expect there will be interior posts and posts about sketches and portfolio pieces. There might be some cooking and sewing posts too. I also love the great outdoors, my home in Cardiff and travelling so the themes might be quite varied. I'll be blogging about whatever inspires me in the moment. So no promises, just some beautiful and creative images and thoughts. Hopefully these will inspire you and you'll stick along for the ride.

Those of you who know me well, know that I have a bit of a longstanding obsession with yellows and greys and this was the theme for our living room in the old house. It felt time for a change in the new house but I just couldn't let go, so my old favourites have made their way into our bedroom.

So here is the first post. It's not refined or eloquent and I definitely need to take better pictures! However I am a serial procrastinator and sometimes a perfectionist. So before I spend another three years thinking about this, here it goes.

I have gathered together some images of our bedroom as it is one of the more finished rooms in the house. We often get positive comments when people visit about our lovely knick-knacks, art and bravery with colour. Our friends and family always comment and how homely our home is! So I thought you might like to know where all of these objects and textiles came from. My taste is pretty eclectic and I don't really like to match things too much. I like to think that this creates a cosy home with lots of interest.

In this house I'm feeling even braver with colour and really wanted a vibrant yellow for one of our walls. One of relatives questoned whether it would be too bright for a bedroom and not feel relaxing. Luckily we find that it's really warm and brightens the mood when you wake up in the morning. It certainly helped me over the winter months. I used a matte paint from Wilko, in "Bumble Bee". It provided greta coverage and the price was reasonable. We decided that our bed would go against this wall as it would break up the colour a little bit. I also knewthat my Sue Howells print would look great over the bed. The ochre tones in the sand complement the wall nicely.

The other lovely print on the yellow wall is by Natasha Newton. I have been following her work via twitter for a few years. When I used to freelance I'd spend quite a bit of time on twitter, networking and looking for inspiration. Natasha's paintings are beautiful and I was lucky to receive one of her prints from my husband for Christmas. I'm probably going to move it as I think it works better when placed on a pale wall. I do love that it's right next to my bed though as it's very calming to look at before I go to sleep. 

Print by Sue Howells.

Print by Natasha Newton.

The quilt cover was a very happy find. I had already made the lampshade myself, following a tutorial online and wanted to add more geometric patterns to the room and the colours were perfect. I found this in "Skandi" design in Dunlem. I love this design and it was reasonably priced too which is bonus when you have cat that loves to attach a nice quilt cover! It has also featued on a tv advert recently, so I guess I've picked a favourite again. The monogram cushions on the bed were a lovely gift from my mother-in-law. They were from Matalan but I can't point you to them as I don't think they sell them anymore. Whilst in there the other day though I did come across these lovely, decorative metal letters. I think they're a bit too ditsy for our room but I'm sure I'll find a home for them and what a bargain! I'm not usually a fan of fast fasion. I prefer quality items that last and I try not to be a part of the throw-away culture but sometimes I'll make an exception.

"Skandi" quilt cover from Dunelm.

Metal decorative letters from Matalan.

Home-made origami lampshape from online guide.

The beautiful clock below was designed by a work friend, Joanna Little. As soon as she posted them in her Folksy shop I knew that I wanted one. I love her sketchy style and I really believe in supporting friends and local artists in business.

Beautiful Clock Littledoodler (Etsy)

I created the little dressing table area qite recently and I'm so happy with it. I've never been a girly girl but I really needed a place to store my my make-up etc and I probably shouldn't be sat on the floor drying my hair now I'm in my 30's! I bought the table from eBay last summer and painted it with grey chalkpaint. I absolutely love it and it was so easy to refurbish. Chalkpaints are great as you often don'teven need to sand the furniture before painting. The lovely mirror was a wedding present from my Uncle Pete. He's a carpenter which is a family tradition on my Mum's side. I'm glad I've found the perfect place for it. It's hung it from the picutre rail with brown twine. All of pictures and mirrors are hung in this way. Our picture rails are a great feature and the brown twine gives a rustic feel to them.

Old dressing table refurbished with chalk paint.

Last but not least, the knick-knacks. I received this lovely Orla Kiely tealight holder from my work friends for my birthday recently. They know how much I love Orla's patterns and it was a very thoughtful gift. That beautiful tin on the table came from Saint-Valery-Sur-Somme. We went there last summer and it's a wonderful reminder of a great holiday. It had biscuits in it that I brought back for my colleagues, but I knew i'd find a use for it afterwards.

Orla Kiely Tealight holder.

Beautiful biscuit tin from Valery.

Face tumbler from Tiger. Canister from Dunelm.

 

This cute little ceramic tumbler was from Tiger and it's useful for keeping tweezers and a nail file in. I love how random that shop is! The beautiful dusky blue pot was another find from Dunelm. It's actually from the kitchen department but I use it to keep cotton wool pads in. They have a fantastic range of beautiful canisters at the moment and a lot of them don't have any labels on them so you can use them anywhere in th house. The little wooden box was a gift from one of my best friends' many years ago. It's walnut and I love the way the grain looks.

Antique wardrobe from the Pumping Station.

So that's our master bedroom and it's not too far from finished. I think I'd like to paint our antique wardrobe with white chalk paint as there is a little too much plain wood in the room. We bought it from the Pumping Station in Cardiff. hope you enjoyed this post and please comment if you'd like or if you have any suggestions. I'll be featurign others rooms as we continue to decorate them. The next post will be my thoughts on the creative block I faced a few weeks ago.
 
Lauren x