Latest addition to the In2decor website is our flower arranging service. I am very excited to have partnered with Hester Genis. Bursting with creativity, we do fresh a
nd unique floral styling for any event big or small! Browse what has been done before here and contact us for your upcoming wedding, christening, babyshower, birthday celebration or whatever your need is!
Author: suzanne
Dancing colours
I was fortunate to host my special friend’s baby shower over the weekend. She is expecting twins, so all of us are looking forward to meet the two blokes soon.
To make it personal and intimate I decided to have the event in my own home, and called in the very skilled help of my mother to do the flowers while I was focusing on the rest of the decorous goods!
The only resources for doing the flowers were my garden for flowers and foliage, as well as my home for vases.
Look how beautiful this one particular bunch looks!…
Flowers – from my garden
Teapot – from the shelf in my kitchen
Beautiful paper runner – from Babylonstoren’s 2016 calendar
Red velvet cup cakes – unfortunately not home baked!
Not everything always needs to be ordered for an event, its much more meaningful when you get creative with what you have available!
Frame a door!
Sometimes we have really unique articles in our homes and we often feel they get lost or aren’t seen. I had the exact situation with this beautiful rustic wooden door which I got from my mom. I think it might have come from an old dilapidated building on a farm. Its probably no good to use as a proper door, but still an interesting decor piece.
FOr about two years, it has been standing on our front porch placed against a white wall.. I thought it was a good spot for it since there was enough space and also the porch was a bit bare and uninteresting. Being white, it actually did not quite show off at its full potential.
I have two trustworthy friends; the one being paint and the other a paint brush. I framed the door in Annie Sloan’s grey wall paint in the colour Graphite which I thought brought continuity from the tiles. On a tiny budget and really easy, a great effect was achieved!
Constant change
SO, people closest to me know that I really enjoy changing things (mostly related to decor) in and around my house. There is nothing more satisfying than having a fluid decor scheme… even in the simple things like using a rug in the lounge that normally goes in the spare room; changing the bathroom accessories or reorganizing the open kitchen shelves and even getting new light fittings here and there.
It was time to change the girls’ room, and I wanted to do something really unique on a tight budget… so I had to create a new look by changing the minimum things. I haven’t really had wallpaper in my home and I discovered a lovely local website with the pretty and quirky wallpaper, handmade by me from Sera Holland. Have a look on the website, there are also beautiful gifts and Sally’s service is superb! I selected the Sweet hearts wall paper.
I also discovered a local guy who is a real artisan with wood creations. Since it was time to move the crib out the room, I briefly explained what I was looking for in a bunk bed. With great expertise and meticulousness, Evan Maree from Maree Projects installed this beautiful bunk bed. Also have a look at the clever use of space with doubling up the stairs as shelves for the millions of soft toys the girls have.
So, with only two changes to the room (adding wall paper) and a new bed; the room has a totally different feel… Light and playful for two bubbly toddlers!
What to change next ; ) !!
Use what you have to make pretty
When we were doing my home office, I was one tresle short for my display unit behind my couch.
My first reaction was to call the carpenter to order another tresle so that I can have two tesles to suport the glass top.
With a little improvisation I realised the antique suitcase which I never know where to put, was exactly the same height as the tresle when I turned it on its side..
I ended up cancelling my order for the other tresle, because the result was just so pleasing!… not to mention the comments and compliments I have had from guests!
I would love to see how you have creatively used your home objects and/or furniture!
Time for gardening
Some things in life take time, and the sooner you make peace with waiting, ironically the quicker the time seems to go by. This definitely applies to gardening, especially when you have to start a garden from scratch!
I do not have quite the level of green fingers which my mother has, but I do appreciate a beautiful garden – simple if it may be – and all the effects of it; children playing, birds galavanting, butterflies, lady bugs, and of course cherished moments with friends and family surrounded by a luscious green backdrop!
We do not have a very large plot for my garden, I guess thats why I really appreciate Stuart Robinson’s view on smaller gardens on his blog Gardening Tips and Ideas. According to him smaller beds are easier to manage, they are cosy and personal – just perfect for me. I am determined to make my small garden a haven for birdlife and a lovely and relaxing place to be – and I will be so proud of it!
For now I am focussing on my border walls. The idea for them is to create interesting compilations with creepers so that even though my yard is surrounded by white walls, the walls will rather look like entrances into mysterious Secret gardens.
On the one side, my house is very close the neighbour’s house, so I have had steel arches made and installed over my DIY/improvised tiles of leftover paving bricks. Here I have bought Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasmenoides) as well as the lovely pink jasmine (Jasminum Plyanthum) to alternatively plant at the base of each arch. Every house should have pink jasmine somewhere, jasmine makes a house a home with its lovely sweet smelling flowers in Spring! One morning (after exercising great patience) I will wake up and the arches will be beautifully covered in scented jasmine and when I look out of my windows, I will not see the neighbour’s house, but a lush, sweet smelling green, pink and white walkway!
On the opposite border wall where the next house is not as close by, for decoration I have decided to plant the Carolina yellow jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens) – which is not related to jasmine at all incidently! What lies ahead this weekend is to install/mount wires in diamond shapes for these joyous yellow flowers to grow on.
Another lovely flower that grows and spreads quickly whwich I have gotten for flower beds, is the spanish daisy (Erigeron Karvinskianus) – also a dainty, yet festive flower.
I am quite good at the planning and executing game – now I have to practice my waiting game!
Fabric fun for your heart’s desire!
Have you ever fallen in love with a piece of furniture or an interior accesory? What happens if you can’t really afford it, is that you start justifying why you absolutely need it, and you start making calculations on how to afford it; if I take so much from this month’s salary and so much from next month’s salary and I cut back on these groceries ets etc etc…
I had that experience last week when I spotted a beautiful Duvet Cover set from Linen House on Spree. I knew that although I really need a new duvet cover set, it would be irresponsible of me to buy it as there are still too many other priorities when it comes to the finishing of our new house. To extinguish my online buying desire for that moment, I got a pink mosquito net for my toddler daughter’s bed instead – which also proved a great buy. Her bed has become her haven with her very own “tent” covering her bed.
So, for the rest of the week I was making plans to obtain this stunning duvet cover which I just have to have to have… in the meanwhile I spotted on their website that Biggie Best was going to have a warehosue sale. (I sometimes love browsing their webshop for beautiful pieces of fabric which I buy and keep in my cupboard until it tells me what it wants to become)…
I popped into their warehouse sale and found a 100% cotton Duvet cover set in plain white (but stunning quality as Biggie Best always has) at a great price. My responisble self bought the white linen set, as most of the linen in my house is white – and white is not only versatile, but it is classic and elegant. Luckily I also spotted off cut pieces of fabric with beautiful blue flower prints… I got a brilliant idea! I was to buy the fabric and alter this white set to something a little different.
On the weekend I got out my old, but reliable sewing machine and started the project…. whoalla!! a vintage duvet cover set that fitted right into my monthly budget!
(I must say the desire for the other beauty has not really disappeared, but the burn has at least dimmed for now)…
Nesting!
Long weekends are great for home DIY projects! I sometimes feel that I just need a full day to get a few things done that I don’t always have time for over normal weekends….
My baby is now due in little less than a month, so the “nesting” effect they speak about has started taking its toll on me. My mother made my firstborn’s name (Elizabeth) with beautiful letters for me to put above her bed. The letters are covered with every piece of left over ribbon or wool or piece of material – a multi-coloured artwork!
Now the ‘new to be born’ also needed her name above her bed! Because I love beautiful pieces of fabric, I have to guard against falling into the trap of having too many different colours and patterns in the girls’ room. I thus decided to take the leftover fabric from the scatter cushion which I made for Elizabeth and cover the letters of HENDRIEN with it. Underneath the fabric, I put some batting to give the letters another dimension… and “whoalla”!
I also finally painted the shelf for their room! This was also painted with Annie Sloan’s chalk paint, and I mixed my own colour: a bit of Paris Grey, Original and Anitbes Green. I probably cannot call this shelf a specific colour, but I do think it looks much better than the dark oak version, perfect for handmade dolls, vintage tea sets and the pretty things girls want to display!
Finishing touches of colour!
As I have been booked to have my baby delivered by a ceaserian this coming Monday, 14th of July, I am really doing a last few things before I just take it slower for a while.
I have painted the wall against the back of our bed in the main bedroom a grey colour. I wanted to do this, as I was inspired by the many pictures I saw of grey walls in bedrooms. The grey in the pictures, was always a darker grey – almosy charcoal. I was a little afraid of darkening the room too much, so I opted for a lighter version. The white bed posts which got lost previously against the light wall, now stands out beautifully, and I think the white bed linen also gives a lovely contrast. You will see the ceiling with exposed trusses is still painted white – giving a feeling of space.
I have a very small version of Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1873) which I painted a few years ago. It almosts belongs against a grey wall as I feel it becomes part of the back drop and then a lively picture emerges as you spot the hints of red and orange. I can get lost in this picture, and I love waking up to it in the morning.
Our wedding photos in elaborate silver frames just do so much better against the grey back drop!
They say an artist is never really totally satisfied with his/her own work.. and I sometimes like to think that my house is never finished. There is always something you can do to improve your decor and interior concept. That is also why I even decided to go for a really bold pink back drop to have my “new to be born” baby’s name stand out better. It was a bit risky, as when the painting part was done, I thought I had gone a bit overboard with the brightness of the pink, but as the white dado rail was put up and the letters of her name, it all formed a harmony.
Thanks to my husband who puts up with my ever changing ideas and rooms! ( and also need to give a hand in making them happen)
a fresh view on home decor
This is the first blog since the arrival of my newborn three months ago! As I was busy feeding the little one my toddler was dancing around the house getting up to her usual mischief of going through the house and untidying everywhere.
The next moment she discovered a tea cosy in one of my kitchen drawers which my mother in law made for me in crochet. Crochet is such a lovey traditional form of art which can be applied to make crafty home accesories, see for instance this lovely cushion for your couch. If one one of your family members can still do this, do get them to either teach you or get them to make you something precious.
Since she also has a creative soul, she used this tea cosy as a hat! I suddenly had the realisation that home decor doesn’t stop at beautiful lighting, wall art, ornaments, flowers, candle holders, frames etc.. but that home decor is also the people inside the home. My messy toddler bouncing around the house in her tea cosy/hat is the most beautiful (together with the 3 month old;) ) decor item in my home. All the beautiful things in my home tell stories of where I have been and they give me joy and pleasure, but none of them give me the pleasure as she does parading my home!
What kind of decor item are you in your home?
