Velvet Goldmine Interiors

Appearing in House Beautiful and some of the designs and colours from our old house As my blog posts so far have been about new things, I thought I'd mix it up by looking back to a very special day for me. When I was pregnant with my second child I decided to enter a competition with House Beautiful magazine. This was way back in 2000. The competition was for Britain's Most Beautiful Home and the first prize was £10,000 and a separate special prize for Imaginative Use Of Colour, sponsored by Crown paints. I entered the competition for something to do really. When you're a beached whale you're limited as to what you can get up to! I was invited down to London to be presented with an award as there were five potential winners in total. At this point we didn't know who the overall winner would be.  House Beautiful - with me in it! We enjoyed a lovely meal after which the winner was announced. Unfortunately  I didn't win first prize, but I was presented with the pri...

The original vestibule When you step into our house, the vestibule was the first thing you'd see - and it was boring. It had cream walls, white paintwork and three mirrors hanging on the wall, Kelly Hoppen-styley. Some people may describe it as 'tasteful'. Personally I hate this description, it is a term estate agents use along with bijou - in other words boring, small safe and uninteresting.  I wanted to create an interesting and inviting environment and feel I have. It feels like a little cocoon of a comfort blanket containing unusual original artefacts that I have mostly created myself. Being a maximalist I tried to cram in as many things as possible. Here are the elements I changed to bring together the finished room. Be sure to go all the way down for a video at the bottom of the blog post. Colour The walls, ceiling and paintwork are painted a very dark burgundy which I had mixed using Dulux paint.  This gives it a lovely Victorian feel which also compliments the era i...

Again, due to our current sitch I'm still thinking of more statement Christmas decorations done on a budget or preferably free! This week I wanted to make a feature out of our beautiful Victorian front door.  Inspiration usually comes to me if I don't consciously sit and think of ideas, they just seem to pop into my head from nowhere. I remembered we had a roll of chicken wire in the garage.....always a good starting point. This was left over from converting a metal wheelbarrow into a barbeque last summer. We also had an old Christmas tree up in the loft that went with us each time we moved home.  When I brought it down it made me smile. I remember buying it before my youngest son was born - he's now 20. The tree cost £32.99 and I think it came from Woolworths!! A tree like that now would cost over £100. Well that certainly got the creative juices flowing!  I'm now thinking red/purple, my two favourite colours. I knew there was a bag of voile somewhere in the house (wel...

Hi , this is my very first attempt at doing a blog and I have probably dipped in and out of a couple of other people's design blogs, so a complete novice really, I just love to yadder on about interiors!! CHRISTMAS TREES I'm a true advocate of the tree goes up 12 days before Christmas rule. I've been known to mutter 'look at that tree up already and it's only November!' while out walking. A bit like when you smell a BBQ in the Summer and say ' somebody is having a BBQ!' Our tree has been up already for three weeks, this was to cheer us all up really and bring some fun and normality into our lives. It has brought so much pleasure into lots of other lives particularly little children going past on the school run. I've had to start charging a 'viewing fee' now! I wanted to create something new without having to buy a new tree and decorations. The tree we already have is red and decorated with black baubles.  I still love it but we have had it fo...