Jul
15
An Interior Design Expert No Less
Filed Under Affordable Interior Design, Furniture, Gifts, Kitchen, Textiles | 2 Comments
I received an email yesterday from a lovely man enquiring as to whether I design and fit kitchens, having seen images of our recent kitchen overhaul here on my blog. Unfortunately, the answer is no – I am merely a novice playing around with Ikea’s wonderful design software not Autocad or any other such technical wizardry. So there you have it – I am not an Interior Designer, nor do I claim to be but I know someone who is…in fact I know quite a few.
One such person is one of my blogging buddies Lorna from Garrendenny Lane Interiors – yep the one who tagged me recently giving me the opportunity to shame myself into answering those questions so honestly thus revealing that I am far less erudite and cultured than I try to appear.
Lorna has dedicated three whole rooms of her house to display beautiful collections of fabric, wallpaper, bedlinen, furniture, lighting and accessories in a most unique way giving customers the opportunity to see how these items work in a real home as opposed to a brightly lit shop floor. She also has an online shop, where a lot of these items can be purchased and delivered direct to your door. As if this isn’t enough to keep her busy, Lorna also provides a curtain making and fitting service as well as Interior Design consultancy. And when her busy day is done, she has two young children, herds of cattle and sheep, not to mention a few goats and acres of land to look after. She recently appeared on RTE’s programme “Not Enough Hours” – surprised? No, neither was I.
I just love the Designers Guild bedlinen range available from Garrendenny Lane Interiors…
Designers Guild Bedlinen from Garrendenny Lane Interiors
Jun
30
Who Moo-ved My Milk?
Filed Under Gifts, Kitchen, Shop Stuff, Tea Party | 6 Comments
I think this is one of those milk jugs that might just fall into the novelty category, meaning you’ll either love it or you’ll hate it. I love it, my husband loves it but my mother hates it. It has passed the rigorous Mabel & Violet test meaning they both love it but what do you think? Moo Cow Ceramic Milk Jug €9.95 – love it or hate it?
May
6
Ta Daaaah….Some Kitchen Snaps As Promised
Filed Under Affordable Interior Design, Kitchen, My Home | 12 Comments
Here’s a quick sneak peek at our new IKEA kitchen although please bear in mind that it is still not completely finished. We still have to lay the floor and install the light fittings but, most importantly, I have yet to curate the objets d’art that will be lucky enough to make it on to the wall to wall shelving!
Apr
26
Sorry for the lack of posts recently but…
Filed Under Banter, Kitchen | Leave a Comment
I’ve been so busy trying to finish off the kitchen – preparing the walls (removing more wallpaper and DIY re-plastering) and painting them, think we’re on the fifth coat at this stage! It’s more or less complete bar the lights, which are being shipped from the UK, more about those later. The walnut flooring has been purchased but won’t be laid until we have replaced the windows, which is happening next week…finally!
The kitchen had her maiden voyage on Friday night when we had an impromptu dinner party for seven prior to going to Andrew’s Lane Theatre to see our friend Darragh’s band Angel Pier on stage. They pulled off a fantastic performance and as a result they are playing again in the best of IMRO Showcase at The Village next Saturday 2nd May. My friends all oohed and aahed at the kitchen and despite being on the small side she came up trumps in the function and style stakes so we’re happy enough. The only problem now is that the kitchen puts the rest of the place to shame so on to the living room we go! I’ll pop up some kitchen photos when the light improves so that I can get a few good shots but until then I’ll leave you with this beautiful image that I came across on flickr today. Doesn’t Japan look beautiful in the springtime? It has just been added to my long list of destinations to visit!
Mar
30
Kitchen Progress and Appliances Update
Filed Under Affordable Interior Design, Kitchen, My Home | 2 Comments
The kitchen is slowly making progress but I won’t show any photos until I have the before and after shots because I’m not a huge fan of seeing the “work in progress” shots unless they are being used to explain a particular process in a step by step manner. Hopefully, most of the work will be completed by the end of this week but we still need to paint the walls, which means I need to decide on a colour…fast! Unsurprisingly, I am leaning towards grey but I might just go for plain white walls. We have just bought a pastel blue Smeg retro 1950’s fridge so I want to see how that looks in the kitchen before deciding on the wall colour. We hadn’t planned to spend so much money on a fridge, the original plan was a built-in under the counter one but the reason we plucked for the funky new fridge was threefold:
1. the built-in under the counter fridge was out of stock
2. our chosen counter (Pragel walnut effect from IKEA) wasn’t long enough to run the length of the wall
3. I found this beautiful pastel blue Smeg fridge for a bargain €850, reduced from €1300 in Dominic Smith Electrical in my hometown of Gorey! Yes I realise that €850 is a lot to spend on a fridge but…in for a penny, in for a pound as they say! It’s such a statement piece and a design classic in the making methinks so we can pass it on to our grandkids!
To be perfectly honest I would have loved the green one too but the decision was made easy for me based on the fact that the blue one was the only one available at this bargain price but I did come across a second hand pastel green one on Gumtree, which was also in the running for a while.
While on the subject of appliances, we both have a real hankerin’ for a stainless steel range cooker, not that we fancy ourselves as professional chefs or anything but I love the aesthetic of them and like the practicality of having the cooking facilities in one area – ok scratch that who am I trying to kid, they just look divine don’t they?! The downside is that they are extremely expensive, especially here in Ireland but we found one in IKEA for a very reasonable £665.53. It’s called Praktfull Pro and is manufactured by Whirlpool but when we went to buy our kitchen it was out of stock. I did a bit more research and found an even cheaper range cooker from Indesit with a “B” energy rating (IKEA’s cooker had only a “C” energy rating) for £420 from Sams Yer Man in Belfast and they were willing to deliver it to Dublin for £50, thankfully saving us another trip to Belfast in a big white van! As it turns out though, our builder has a good contact in Indesit and managed to get us the same cooker here in Ireland at the bargain price of €500 and we can feel a bit better about giving the business to an Irish retailer instead. You’re welcome Mr. Cowen, oh and any chance of a VAT reduction in this week’s budget please?
- Indesit Range Cooker (and she’s all ours!)
- IKEA range cooker (not bad for the price)
As you might have gathered I am a bit of a bargain hunter and a massive online shopping fan and I have been known to scour the internet for the best deal that I can find, much to the frustration of “him indoors”. So when it came to looking for a great deal on wooden flooring for the kitchen and living room I thought I would easily find the best deal online but as it happens, I could not find a better deal than this – solid walnut flooring at €25 per square yard – yes I mean SOLID, not semi-solid and definitely not laminate muck! I have obtained a sample and I am ordering it today, it truly is solid and it’s available from Furlong’s Hardware in the wilds of Wexford – Bunclody to be precise (tel: 053 9375400 and tell them Paula sent you!).
Mar
24
Miniature kitchens, how cute…
Filed Under Kitchen | Leave a Comment
I wish I had one of these when I was a little girl, in fact I wish it came in a real life grown up version. They even come with a stainless steel sink! Cooking might be a little hazardous though. I found these on Etsy from imaginethatwoodshop, I don’t know how much they would cost to ship to Ireland though. Great for all those budding Gordon Ramsays and Rachel Allens out there!
Feb
28
Inspirational White Kitchens
Filed Under Kitchen | 2 Comments
I’m very excited, we took a trip to IKEA in Belfast yesterday and bought our new kitchen. We hired a van and turned it into a proper road trip, beeping at every other white van driver en route! It’s funny though, I have spent the last few weeks (months actually) thinking about what kind of kitchen I would like and there was no doubt about it, it was always going to be white. I found the perfect cabinet style and the desired appliances in IKEA (see previous post) and the perfect tiles in Fired Earth – Retro Metro – love, love, love these! As it turns out, one of my best friends who is a design nut just like me, has also bought the exact same kitchen! Now that can easily happen but when we were chatting on our way to IKEA yesterday, it turns out that she has also found the exact same tiles!! We weren’t at all surprised really because we have always seemed to live parallel lives and share the same taste but I decided to do a bit of research online and see if I shared the same taste with any more people…and the answer is a resounding YES! So here are some images that I came across that exemplify what I plan my lovely new white kitchen to aspire to…
Feb
11
IKEA – Sinner or Saint?
Filed Under Affordable Interior Design, Kitchen | 1 Comment
This is only my second blog post but I fear that I’m about to lose all credibility as an interior design blogger with this one! I have spent the last few days designing my dream kitchen on IKEA’s downloadable kitchen planner program. Now I was never great at AutoCAD in college but this really is a piece of cake! They have so many different sized kitchen cupboards and units that you can work around almost any space and incorporate architectural features as well. If you’re anything like me and love to do things yourself then you will love this. Check it out here.
You see, I have been getting kitchen quotes over the last few weeks from various Irish companies and the truth is that they vary wildly but I think the worst part is that few of them are actually broken down into clear costs. The majority of quotes just seem to come back with a figure plucked from the sky! Irrespective of what it costs to install the kitchen, it seems that even the lowest grade of kitchen in Ireland is going to set you back at least €7,000 and that excludes everything but the kitchen sink! No you’ll have to cough up more for tiling and appliances thank you! So I’ve designed my own kitchen now, which includes a gorgeous ceramic sink, one of those cool industrial style taps for rinsing out my pots, a rather professional looking five-burner cooking range with built-in gas oven, a stainless steel splash-back and an overhead extractor, a fridge, a freezer and so much storage space that I probably won’t know what to do with it all, two bar stools and even a few fancy things for hanging stuff to dry at the sink! And the cost? £3059.91, which at today’s exchange rate works out at €3394.35 – bargain!
While some would argue that IKEA has done little for good interior design with its general homogenisation of our homes, in its defence it has brought affordable design to the masses and revolutionised how we live today. Just look at their storage solutions and you’ll see what I mean. I first came across IKEA a number of years ago when I moved to Leeds on a transfer with the company that I worked for at the time. I arrived in a strange city where I didn’t know a soul and lived on my own in a rather bland looking rented apartment. Soon enough I discovered the big blue and yellow homeowners’, renters’ and buy to let investors’ heaven that is IKEA and I was like a giddy schoolgirl running around, open mouthed, eyes bright with wonder at all the possibilities for my shoebox sized temporary home…a desk under the bed, why hadn’t I thought of that?!
So while IKEA has served me well over the years (even providing many a weekend social highlight before I made any friends in Leeds!) the downside is that everything is so mass produced and affordable that you end up seeing it everywhere. You call over to your friend’s house and recognise the sofa from last year’s catalogue, you watch an episode of Neighbours and notice the same throw and cushions you almost bought for the spare bedroom or you go to view a rental property and you see that same black and white print with the five pebbles that was taken on a beach somewhere in Sweden and now occupies the walls of thousands of homes around the world. So I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I choose to celebrate the merits of IKEA but everything in moderation (including moderation itself) as they say! So you will see evidence of IKEA in my home but you will also see many things that aren’t so instantly recognisable, probably many things from Mabel & Violet and some vintage and antique pieces too. Mix and match is my motto.
For us Dubliners the prospect of IKEA’s arrival after all these years is so highly anticipated by the nation that it just might be enough to lift the country out of recession! I think we will definitely see a spike in consumer spending in the month of July this year, which, according to my sources, is when it is due to open. In fairness, I think their best customers will actually be the property developers who have been clearly saving up all their coffers from not re-paying the interest on their loans in order to do a major trolley dash around IKEA! They will then flood the rental market with their generic looking shoebox apartments, kitted out with IKEA flat-pack furniture, each one complete with a lovely black and white print of five pebbles on a beach! Mark my words.
