‘Me time’. Self Care. Unwind. Rest & Relaxation. Filling your cup. Whatever we call it, apparently we’re not getting enough of it. According to a study* carried out by British bed manufacturer, Rest Assured, we’re getting an average of 40 minutes a day to ourselves. So, what do we do with that precious time and is it beneficial to our well-being?
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We’ve now rebuilt most of the house (extension updates to come real soon, promise!), added bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and moved a staircase; the one thing I’m still to get sorted is a desk area, not for me, as I oddly find the dining room table in the wee hours my most productive spot, but an ‘inspiration station’ for the kids. Somewhere that houses their 537 scented pens, 123 football shaped rubbers and all their other overpriced Smiggle junk, while also (perhaps) having the desired affect of being a place that once the school bell rings it will get their creative juices flowing on the off-chance they’ll get some homework done. Sure, I might be a little optimistic on the homework front, but I not only love a kid-based challenge but I love hunting for interiors goodies and planning a space more than a 9-year-old loves making slime!
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Let me start by saying, I’m incredibly grateful for all the awesome experiences and offers I get from writing about my family and home. But, if I’m completely honest, free stuff doesn’t pay the bills, put chicken fajitas on the table or clad my children in Adidas as they desire. There’s only so much stuff we can fit in our house along with the 7 of us – so, a lot of “gifts” end up being re-gifted or on Ebay. When I initially got the email from DFS asking me to “pop to Milan” for design week, then style one of their sofas for my blog, my first thought was “Eeeeeekkkkkkk YASSSS!” but my second – we really don’t need another sofa, I’m happy with the ones we bought 4 months ago (from Ebay), but I suppose I could sell it for a few hundred quid after I’ve snapped it for the blog!
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It might be a beautiful picture of my cherub, I’ve captured a darling moment and captioned it with squishy, vaguely comical, words – but there’ll always be a couple of beady-eyed, interiors magpies commenting: “Random question, but where did you get your [insert monochrome home-ware of choice] from?”. Truth be told, I’ve done the same a thousand times over – sod that kid picking his nose front of frame, tell me where I can get THAT cushion!!! So, whilst a vast amount of the shiz filling up my home was salvaged from a car boot sale or eBay, here’s my most asked about home wares from our monochrome family home that you can actually get your hands on, plus some I’d love to throw into the mix!
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It was only last week, after about 53 minutes of finally moving back into our newly extended/renovated family home, that Mr Only Girl turned to me and whimpered, “I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so black and white!”. I’m not sure quite what he expected, given that we’ve both been privy to our joint Pinterest “house renovation” board for well over a year, jointly selected a white kitchen, black flooring, white bathroom, black bathroom furniture and a charcoal sofa. Said Pinterest board provides endless scrolling fun of Scandi-inspired interiors, awash with white walls, black accents and the odd smattering of birch ply – so his insistence that this was all “a bit of surprise” was met by “I just don’t think you’ve been paying attention!”. That said, as I wandered from room to room I noticed there was an element missing – something that my Scandinavian muses hadn’t overlooked but was such an integral part to their home design, it was like a camouflaged, subliminal message from the super stylish sanctum: House plants.
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