Mar
2
Oh Chesterfield, oh my!
Filed Under Affordable Interior Design, Furniture, My Home | 16 Comments
Do you remember this post that I wrote a while back about my search for an elusive, inexpensive Chesterfield sofa in Ireland? Well, the search continued for some time after this post and further to many near sightings online, a few wild goose chases and the threat of a divorce, I decided it was time to give up the ghost on finding my own vintage Chesterfield. But, a short time later and armed with a renewed sense of zeal, I got in touch with a man called Tom from a small but perfectly formed and rather well known shop called AJs on Capel Street here in Dublin. (Thanks Fi for pointing me in his direction.) Tom understood my plight and assured me that, although he could not find me a vintage Chesterfield, he could custom build one for me from scratch. He even managed to do me a bit of a deal! The fabric is a Designers Guild Cotton Velvet in the most amazing shade of teal and the finished piece just makes my heart sing! When it was first delivered I refused to sit on it for about two weeks and just sat on the other sofa admiring it from afar.
So, thanks to a bit of matchmaking from Fi and Tom, Chester and I have been living happily together enjoying cosy nights by the fire, whiling away Sunday mornings with the papers and entertaining some rather envious friends. Chester has everything that I was looking for in a sofa, and more….beauty, comfort and quiet companionship. It turns out that Mr Field and I are indeed, as expected, a match made in heaven.
Images from my own home.
Jan
22
Delightful Bunting Surprise
Filed Under Gifts, Handmade, My Home, Shop Stuff, Wall decor | 4 Comments
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose… this beautiful bunting that’s what Bill! While going through the new arrivals of bespoke bunting for some customers the other day, I stumbled across this pretty piece with my name on it, both figuratively and literally! And there was a note from my lovely friend Aoife who creates this bunting by hand, wishing me a belated happy birthday. She is so sweet and so is my new bunting, which is taking pride of place above my office desk and it gives me a little lift every time I look up. It also reminds me that spring is just around the corner, yippee!
Jan
9
Today I’m mostly…
Filed Under Christmas, My Home | 2 Comments
mourning Christmas and saying a long goodbye to our big, beautiful, bushy first Christmas tree. Sob.
Jan
8
Bathroom Evo-loo-tion!
Filed Under Bathroom, My Home | 7 Comments
I can’t believe it has been almost a year since I started this blog and, shame on me, I haven’t posted very much about our apartment renovation during all that time. After many long, arduous months of re-decorating, our home is finally metamorphosising into exactly that – a home. To say that it has been a slow process would be an understatement and as with most of these things it has been fraught with problems from the outset. But, I can finally reveal some of it to the outside world without hanging my little head in shame, so here’s the first of the before and afters…
Before
Just to clarify, the bathroom was tiny as you can see in the picture on the left above so we knocked down the wall between it and the walk in wardrobe in the bedroom, pictured right, to create a much more appropriately sized main bathroom. The wallpaper was peeling off the wall due to a leak from a corroded pipe on the roof – the main reason that our re-decorating took longer to complete.
After
Now it’s all a bit matchy matcherson in my opinion but it was designed to satisfy the wants and needs of many so my own creative whimsy was put to one side along with the notion of a free-standing bath. The white porcelain tiles were a great little find in B&Q, until we discovered that a) they’re not white and b) they come in many different shades of not white. It turns out that B&Q don’t have batch numbers on these particular tiles and it is impossible to match shades, especially under the UV lights of their shop floor. So, after weeks of to-ing and fro-ing to various B&Q shops we gave up on ever finding the shade of “not white” that we needed to complete the bathroom so we have resigned to living with a strip of tiles that are just one shade different than the rest of the wall. See if you can spot it!
As expected, the tongue and groove has moved a little since it was installed and needs to be touched up with another lick of paint but, I must admit, I like that it’s not perfect because it gives the bathroom a slightly aged look. You see, in my strange interiors obsessed little world, I love newly decorated interiors but I don’t like when they look like newly decorated interiors. I like a home to look worn and lived in, a bit rough around the edges, not untidy or unclean, just with added character.
Dec
15
Homemade Christmas Wreath…well almost!
Filed Under Christmas, My Home, Wall decor, Weddings | 8 Comments
I just thought I’d quickly share a few photos from my handy work last night. I finally got round to making the Christmas wreath for our front door, well, I actually bought the wreath but then I decorated it by hand…still counts though doesn’t it? I’ll try making it all from scratch next year if I have a bit more time on my hands.
So anyway, in the immortal words of the lovely Mary Fitzgerald…here’s one I made earlier (I’ll bet Mary didn’t actually make hers either)! I bought this one in my local florist at the Dublin 4 price of €12.00. Then all you need are:
2 large oranges
6 cinnamon sticks
6 small baubles
1 large bauble
Needle & thread
Twine & scissors
To decorate it I sliced up some large oranges and baked the slices in the oven at 180 degrees C for approx. 30 – 40 minutes turning them over halfway through. When the oranges were cool I added a whole clove to every second segment. Then I attached/sewed them to the wreath using a needle and thread. Using twine, I then attached the cinnamon sticks to the wreath and wrapped small Christmas baubles around them. I used these Silvered Glass Baubles. Lastly, I added the co-ordinating large bauble to the bottom of the wreath…at voila!
These wreaths are also a great way to add a festive touch to an autumn/winter wedding, perfect for hanging around the reception venue, decorating the church windows or even used as table centrepieces. Just pop a large pillar candle in the centre and hey presto!
Aug
14
Fireplace Fashion
Filed Under Affordable Interior Design, Inspiration, My Home | 5 Comments
Right now I’m thinking about fires and fireplaces, a lot. Why? Because we need a fire for this lovely faux chimney breast that we built and then cut an electric fire with marble surround shaped hole out of! The problem is that the fire we wanted is a “Wall Hung” fire and not a “Hole in the Wall” fire so it’s going back to the shop. Who knew these things could be so complicated? I find that I’m quite partial to the hole in the wall now though, it’s not as huge as it looks in the photo but we might have to reduce it in size a little. I don’t think I’m going to win this one though and an electric fire it will be, ah well. Here is some drool-worthy hole in the wall and traditional fireplace inspiration for your viewing pleasure…
I love the simplicity of the traditional fireplaces in the last three images. All images are from Shoot Factory bar the first one, which is from our living room!
Aug
11
Am I Off My Vintage Eames Rocker?
Filed Under Furniture, My Home, Shop Stuff, Vintage | 10 Comments
My amahahaaazing husband has come up trumps and bought me the chair of my dreams – a vintage Eames RAR rocker and I just can’t believe my luck for a) marrying such a wonderful man (yes pass the bucket I know but he really is the best and deserves the recognition) and b) for the find of the (mid) century!! I have been keeping a weather eye out for one of these bad boys for months, years in fact and thanks to Eimear from the lovely House & Home Magazine blog for the tip off, I managed to find this for a snip at €200 in the WildChild Originals half price sale. I received an email yesterday to inform me that the sale is still on guys so hurry and you might find your own piece of vintage heaven. Beware though if you’re paying by credit card, our bank subsequently called us out of concern that our card had been used in a place called Wildchild, bless ‘em. If only they had been so cautious about our spending during the heady days of the celtic tiger.
By the way, that’s a gorgeous Apple Tree Silk Cushion from ferm LIVING perched on top of it there – it’s available to buy from the shop. Oh and please excuse the hideous carpet in the photo, we haven’t replaced it yet because the building work continues….sigh.
Jun
30
I Want That One
Filed Under Banter, My Home, Outdoor/Garden | 2 Comments
I have a hideously large folder in my bookmarks containing hundreds of unedited links to a lot of things that I want in this life, all pertaining to homes and interiors, which is named quite simply “I Want That One.” Yes, I was vaguely inspired by Little Britain when I came up with that one. Obviously, it is my intention at some point to revisit this folder and edit out the unnecessary, the overindulgent and the downright greedy selections that I have made over the course of I Want That One’s lifetime but there is always something else to do. For not only am I a vigorous bookmarker, I am also a shameless list maker and my fellow list makers will understand that this one wouldn’t even make it onto my to do list because I would never have the ultimate satisfaction of crossing it off.
So you see, when I came across this selection of images of a rooftop terrace in New York on Apartment Therapy today, my right hand automatically latched onto my mouse and I watched as the cursor uncontrollably moved to the bookmark section of my browser and promptly saved the web page into “I Want That One.” Because that’s how it works – it’s a fully automated system that I am sometimes totally unaware of and were I to even attempt to edit the folder I probably wouldn’t remember half of the web pages saved in there anyway!
So, back to the subject at hand, I am having some serious terrace envy just looking at these images courtesy of Apartment Therapy…
I wonder if I could fit all those lovely things – the outdoor kitchen, a table and chairs, the sun loungers and a glorious outdoor shower on my meagre balcony (bottom right image above)? A bit of a tight squeeze perhaps?
May
29
Anyone Want to Buy a Solid Wood Floor?
Filed Under My Home | 2 Comments
Oh dear I have been neglecting my blogging duties again of late but with good reason. There is so much happening here at Mabel & Violet headquarters where we are busy planning world domination! We have lots of exciting things going on but for now I just have to keep schtum about those I’m afraid – you will be the first to hear about them though when the time comes.
We also have the small matter of the renovation to deal with and while progress is being made it is extreheheheeeemely slow. The first of the latest disasters to strike is that we have been told by the residents committee that wooden floors are not permitted under the terms of the lease (I kid you not), so if anyone would like 53 sq. yds of solid walnut flooring I’ll do you a good deal! The other problem that we have encountered is a leak coming from a pipe on the roof and as we are on the top floor all the water is dripping into our apartment making a nice water feature. These things don’t happen in threes, do they?
Anyway the good news is that we have replaced all of the windows and sure we don’t know ourselves with the heat in the place! While my first choice for windows would have been timber frames, again we were limited by the constraints of apartment block living and had to go for the white PVC look but we sourced fabulous white aluminium ones from a German company called Oliva and the quality is fantastic. Best of all though, we went for a fully openable (is that a word?) bi-fold door so we can take full advantage of our small balcony now – just in time for this spate of sunshine too!
Before
After - Doors Closed
After - Doors Open
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!