Around this time of year I’d be off on some adventure. Whether that be hiking, paddle boarding, visiting a new country or taking part in a triathlon. As you know, that hasn’t happened and for the first time in many years, I’ve had to be housebound. Thing is being housebound you can’t help but see rooms differently, I’d normally eat, sleep and go off, but I was now living and breathing each room in my house. I wasn’t happy with any of it, so started on a mission to make my home my new adventure and start making it personal. Thanks to Desenio, I’ve been able to add some beautiful images to my walls to both brighten the rooms, but allow me to reflect on previous adventures.

I have been so busy! I’ve also tried my hardest not to buy new stuff and instead revamp with paint, creativity and some dye…. and adding some wall art seemed the perfect choice!

My kitchen

We’ve been doing up the kitchen for year, we couldn’t afford a new kitchen so we painted tiles, cupboards, walls and even resurfaced the counter. We did buy new flooring but at the time our Winnie was a puppy and managed to claw her way to pulling it up. That went. So during lockdown we redid the room again and added some warm brown flooring. It looks awesome now, and a kitchen I could easily stay in. The problem with my kitchen is it’s narrow and doesn’t have a social area, so my next task was the lounge and dining room.

The Lounge – The Nook

In my lounge and dining room there used to be a divider between the two, I believe the last home owners knocked this down to open up the space. We firstly decided to switch the two rooms around, the lounge now became the dining area and the dining area the lounge. The new area for the sofa we nicknamed the ‘nook’ because it was cosy and tucked away, and it was here we decided to dedicate the space to our travels. The wonderful team at Desenio gifted me a variety of posters to frame up and scatter around my house. For this particular area we chose to add all our California travels. We had photos of us from our trip and selected some photography prints from Desenio.

For this are we’ve gone with blush, grey and copper. I’ve got plenty of foliage with a combination of artificial plants and real indoor plants. Eventually the horrendous texture wallpaper will be gone and replaced by fresh white walls. We’ll also replace the hideious green carpet with grey wooden floors throughout both rooms.

The Dining Area

I was very aware that the lounge was looking a bit feminine being so pink, that we decided to create a different dining space instead of spreading the colour scheme across both rooms. The dining area played host to my previous up cycled piano, which I sanded down and painted a vibrant blue. We also had an old table and chair set that had been passed around my family, with a ‘shabby chic’ look. That sort of style isn’t for us, so I again, sanded it down painted it a light grey, took the cushion covers off and used Dylon Emerald Green to spruce it up.

Next we took one of the Kallax white four shelf units and flipped it. We added slanted legs and it became a side unit for our record player, records and additional decor. I picked up some cushions from Dunelm to bring out the blue too. I also got a piano stool of free cycle which again, painted, recovered and made this work with our colour scheme.

The Hallway

I’d say the hallway is my favourite revamp! Everyone knows the hallway is the first impression of your home, so I wanted something bright, light and reflective of our personalities. I was always really inspired by Kimpton hotels decor, in particular the Kimpton Shorebreak. We’d previously taken up the carpet, insulated under the wooden floorboards and painted them grey. They’ve now got to the stage we wanted, a distressed look. I used to have a gallery wall on the left full of fancy looking frames, we’ve now added 4 posters from Desenio by artist Henry Rivers. These are of surfing spots and places in California. Very fitting for us!

Finally I picked up a runner from Amazon, after having a plain grey office looking runner, a yellow light shade and revamped my aqua blue table with some metallic paint. I have painted the hallway and stairs a blue colour to brighten it up as it was a very plain Egyptian Cotton shade that made it feel quite dark.

The Porch

How expensive are new porches?! Safe to say, we couldn’t afford one, so I needed to work with our very dated porch! It was a cream colour with brown/red tiles. To make it brighter I went for some standard white paint for the walls, and just embraced the tiles. I decided to go for a boho decor theme. I had some items from an old room I added in such as my giant dream catcher, a hexagon shelving unit, artificial plants and of course, a nice reminder on entry, Hakuna Matata picture from Desenio.

Again, more up cycling! Free console table off Marketplace that I fixed and painted Laguna Blue, a pallet style box from my wedding that I painted a yellow shade which now contains all of Winnie’s coats, harnesses etc. I painted an old bright pink dog hook for her main harness and lead, and finally, I took my scribbled note on the door to leave everything in the porch and made a wooden sign.

I love this entrance room now, definitely nice and bright without too many coats and shoes – only the main items are in here now. Certainly makes a huge different!

The Bedroom

Actually my bedroom was the first room we did when we moved in back in 2013. Seriously, this room. Red carpet and cream textured wallpaper. I found the room so loud and chaotic for the first few months of moving in, I just couldn’t sleep in there. We painted it, replaced the carpets and wallpapered. It’s safe to say this was looking a bit tired and was in need of some TLC. I’d always had it as lilac and white, which isn’t really ‘me’ now. I liked my dressing table, wardrobe and chest of drawers being white, but the bed frame was black. Instead of trying to change it or paint it, I decided to incorporate black and some darker shades into the room. That bit darker would also make the room less ‘girly’ and perhaps feel a bit warmer.

As you can see I added two big prints of peony’s in black and gold frames. Perfect to make the room feel luxe! These are a suggested set from Desenio again, and perfect for the room. The only thing I’d like to change is the carpet to a more practical grey, rather than cream!

I have been so busy revamping my home and filling my walls with great prints. It’s definitely made the house finally feel like my home. I guess with us always coming and going, it’s never really had our stamp on it and now it has. Big thanks to Desenio for gifting me such amazing prints, I’m thrilled with how each sets the theme for each room so well. I’m especially thrilled with the hallway prints and the stylish California photos in the Nook. Have you been revamping at home too?

*Prints are gifted from Desenio*