Renovating and Decorating Our Forever Home (An Update)

I can’t decide if we’re deluded or just ambitious here (ha) but we’re hoping to move into our new house, our forever home by the end of July/ Early August. I know! We feel lucky to be collaborating with renowned home brands as well as house and garden companies. Recently Simba have gifted us one of their premium super king mattresses called the Simba Hybrid Mattress Original for our bedroom and we are receiving deliveries daily. We just need to get the floors in and finish the electrics and we’re in.

Below is a two part tour of the house and I’ll be doing more as the work progresses!

You can see a partial tour here:

Part 1

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Part 2

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With the builders getting stuck in (and my husband Peter too, over the holidays), our first goal is to ensure the house is a liveable state, a blank canvas in which we can finesse our style, buy extra furniture we need, put up all our artwork and simply make the house a home. The work will be on-going as we would like to extend from 4 to 5 bedrooms, convert the garage into a gym and possibly add a swimming pool. We feel so grateful we have the space to consider this and having luckily grown up with a pool as a child, full of sweet memories of swimming parties, I would love to offer that to my own kids…But first, part one of the house’s transformation needs to be completed.

When it comes to home decor, we want to move in and get a feel for the home and the direction we want to go in. However paint needs to be chosen right now, floorboards, lights and some more furniture.

So most of my weekends now consist of trawling DIY stores, and Pinterest of course. I feel like I’ve added another job to my list as I plan our new kitchen, floors, the paint we want to use for the house and more.

Last weekend, we hit our local B&Q for some tools and Christmas decorations as we like to add to the decs each year, and I was amazed by the breadth of the collection of kitchens, bathrooms, lights and homeware available and for such reasonable prices too!

As the house journey continues I want to share my discoveries here be it high street stores or tiny quaint antiques shops. I hope in documenting our progress, it might inspire or even help others as they redesign or renovate their own home.

Paint-wise, an almond white or soft cream is our goal. I’ve inherited vibrant artwork which works well over a more neutral backdrop. I also like the idea of a soft green or grey in some rooms along with tiling and some statement wallpaper features which can work well on single walls alongside painted ones.

The paint and flooring collection is utterly immense at B&Q with every colour and style of paint imaginable available including our favourite brands of paint including Farrow & Ball, Laura Ashley and Dulux. They also stock a vast range of decorating tools and supplies, wallpaper, wall coverings, stickers and everything else you might need to turn your home into a haven.

We’re considering buying an airless paint sprayer machine as we’ve often painted our previous homes ourselves and know the paint sprayer gives your home that precision, professional finish. We found the Erbauer 240V 600W Multi-purpose sprayer so watch this space.

Floor wise, we’re looking at solid wood flooring for quality, warmth and endurance (hardwood can be sanded down many times and can last for decades and even centuries) downstairs and soft carpets upstairs in the bedroom for that cosy feel. B&Q stocks a variety of wood and engineered wood flooring options (a thin veneer of real wood is bonded to structural plywood).

My favourites are the lighter blonde coloured solid oak flooring and their Herringbone dark brown oak flooring. Tiles for the bathrooms and toilets of course and I’m a fan of monochrome and silver in those rooms.

Perusing the lights too, we’ve decided on the user-friendly spotlights where possible (they’re easier to keep clean) with a few chandeliers and ceramic table lights and longer more dramatic floor lights.

From modern to antique effect lights and lamps I was staggered by B & Q’s collection and didn’t expect to leave wanting to buy so much. I’ve always associated the store with hardware, plants and garden furniture but they stock stunning, premium quality and brilliantly priced items which cover absolutely everything home and garden. I left truly impressed and excited to start buying and decorating!