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Orchard Cottage

Updating our Fireplace

Posted in Dwell by
Fireplace

We have now been in out house for almost six months. We have settled into Whitchurch nicely and have started some projects around the house. This week we are going to give you a couple of little updates; the fireplace in the living room and the master bedroom.

Living room

The first room we painted was our living room. The room was previously mint green below the chair rail and white above, not really to our taste.  We decided to flip the colours to have the white below, we painted this in Crown’s Canvas White with a silk finish.  Above the chair rail we opted for Lopen Taupe from Hemsley Paint.  Hemsley paint is only available from Homebase, it is an ultra matt finish and makes a great and affordable Farrow and Ball alternative.

Fireplace

Fireplace refresh

We are planning on installing real fireplaces and exposing the brick. In the meantime we decided we needed a stopgap solution.  We look at the fireplace everyday and the dated green tile surround just had to go! We opted to replace the tile with a white mini metro tile.  This was a value option that keeps the fireplace light and clean and give it a more modern feel.  We also stained the pine mantle taking it from an orange colour to a darker shade so it doesn’t have such a 1990’s feel.

Fireplace

Plenty of candles

If we are honest nothing beats the feel of a real fire in a house. It’s one of those things that makes a house a home.  We are not going to get our fire this year so we are just going to have to improvise! We might not have a fire but we can have candles… and lots of them (thank you Ikea). The candles give a lovely feel to the room, they also come in handy when we had a power cut a couple of weeks back!

Style it out

We know this isn’t our ideal fireplace but with a bit of styling it holding its own.  We have used a mix new purchases and old favourites to soften the look. As the living room is a very bright room we also have a couple of houseplants.  One thing of interest is the the Concorde artwork – it is over 30 years old and was a retirement present to Rich’s grandfather who was a production manager on the original development of concorde in the 60’s and 70’s.

What do you think?

In total fire fireplace refresh probably cost us £30, not bad for a stopgap solution.  What do you think, do you like or should we have just waited until we could install a full working fireplace?

Read more…

12th July 2017
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Choosing a New Sofa

Posted in Dwell by
Paddington Sofa And Stuff

One of the reasons we decided to move out into the country was we could afford to buy a house with more space.  We loved living in Hampton Wick, but if we were to buy there we’d be lucky to afford a one bedroom flat.  Having made the move to Whitchurch we had gained space but one downside of this is our furniture was purchased for a small flat and doesn’t fit. We have therefore decided that it is time to buy a new sofa, well actually a pair of sofas.

We are looking to buy a two seater and a three-seater sofa for the living room, we will compliment these with a couple of accent chairs so we should be able to seat six comfortably.  Having gone around several show rooms we managed to decide on style we like – a classic and mid-century inspired.  Other considerations were the fabric choices, sizes and availability.

The Shortlist

In no particularly order here are our finalists:

Sofa

Iggy Sofa Three Seater in Taupe Brushed Linen Cotton £1640 Sofa.com

Sofa.com offer a great selection with loads of fabric options.  This Iggy sofa met many of our requirements but was probably a bit over our budget.

Sofa & Stuff

Paddington Extra Large in Woodstock Linen £1123 Sofa & Stuff

From Sofa & Stuffs pronto range, this Paddington sofa is the right style and size.  The pronto range has less fabrics to choose from, but we are after a neutral finish so we managed to find something that would work. We love the style of this sofa, especially the button sofa backs.

Furniture Village

Bond St 3 Seater in Denbirgh Ecru £939 Furniture Village

The Bond St Sofa fitted the bill in terms of size and budget, we also loved the Denbirgh Fabric option.  A classic and elegant style but missing the mid-century vibe we like.

Sofology

Cricket 3 Seater in Allure Chocolate Mix £749 Sofology

Sofology was a revelation to us, they had a great range at a reasonable price.  The Cricket caught our eye with its mid-century styling.  Size wise was a touch too large for us and we weren’t massively keen on the fabric options but overall a great sofa.

Multiyork

Dexter Large 2 Seater Sofa In Oakford Chalk £1569.00 Multiyork

We are probably a bit bias as our godson is called Dexter! We like the simplicity of this style, but not as strongly mid-century as other options, and a bit over budget.

Made.com

Halston 3 Seater in Pebble Weave £599  Made.com 

The Budget option from Made.com.  In many ways, this could be a good option, but is only available in limited sizes and fabric options so not quite right.

Our decision

After looking at lots of options we think we are going to go with the Paddington from Sofa & Stuff. It is the right combination of Price, Size, Style and fabric choices.  We will probably buy the sofa soon, although having said that our dishwasher has just given up the ghost that is a priority first!

What do you think, what is your favourite sofa?

21st March 2017
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Bathroom Renovation Plans

Posted in Dwell by
Current Bathroom

As promised we are going to take you around our new cottage to have a look at the rooms and share some of our plans.  We are going to start with the Bathroom as this will be the first room for us to tackle.  The bathroom is on the ground floor which although common in victorian houses is not ideal. There is the potential to put an extension on the side of the house that would allow the a family bathroom to be upstairs however this would be quite an investment that we wouldn’t be in the position to do for a couple of years at least.  Although the current bathroom is fine there are a couple of serious issues which means we need to look at this room first. An immediate problem is the shower, it is a fixed shower head and unfortunately it has been fixed far too low for us (Rich is 6″1′ and Calum is 6″6′). The second problem is the placement of the loo.  The last major issue are the windows, the are single glazed meaning the room is much colder than the rest of the cottage.

Current Bathroom

Our plan is to install a new L shaped shower bath and install a new shower that we can both fit under. We will also replace the toilet and the basin at the same time to allow more room to use both. We like the idea of a patterned floor tile with white metro tiles on the wall. We will add in recessed spot lights, and some wall likes around the mirror. The windows will be replaced and we also need to add in some extra storage.

Bathroom Inspiration

fig. 1 |  fig. 2 |  fig.3 |  fig.4 

We want the bathroom to have a crisp and classic look, mixing traditional and modern fixtures and finishes. We will use wooden accents to bring some warmth into the room, along with plenty of fluffy towels and some plants.  We are not entirely fixed on the sink, toilet and towel warmer yet, we need to visit a couple of show rooms to finalise. This is the style board we have put together so far.  Once we finalise the refurbishment in a month or two we will come back and share our progress.

Bathroom Style board

fig. 1 Wall Light Garden Trading
fig. 2 Wall Clock John Lewis
fig. 3 Mirror Cabinet Victoria Plum
fig. 4 Cavendish Toilet Victoria Plum
fig. 5 Shower Victoria Plum
fig. 6 Taps B&Q
fig. 7 Ladder Shelves Garden Trading
fig. 8 L Shaped Bath Victoria Plum
fig. 9 Cavendish Sink Victoria Plum
fig 10. Towel Radiator Victoria Plumb
fig. 11 Floor Tile Topps Tiles
fig. 12 Metro Tile Topps Tiles
fig. 13 Oak Stool Garden Trading
fig. 14 Plant Pot Ikea
fig. 15 Towels John Lewis

2nd March 2017
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Getting Settled

Posted in Dwell, News by
New Home

So as per our last update we finally found our new home.  Since we shared that post we have moved in, begun to get to know the town and have started planning how we are going to improve and decorate the house.  Our house doesn’t have a name, but in honour of our blog we will informally refer to it as Orchard Cottage.  We will be using a blog for a place to share updates with you.  There is plenty to be getting on with, and we will be starting the projects soon. Before we get started on anything we’ll share with you room by room tour and share our current thinking, keep checking back over the next few weeks.

We have already had our first dinner party at the cottage and have more planned so there will be plenty to share with you.  We are also busy planning our holidays for this year.  With so much to do at the cottage we won’t be getting out and about as much as we used to but we love our little adventures.  Its going to be a busy and exciting time for us, we can’t wait too how you what we get up to.

We received lots of lovely housewarming cards, we particularly loved this card from Rich’s cousin Catherine. She obviously knows us well as we have already started lots of new pinterest boards for the different rooms, go take a look and let us know your thoughts.

Best wishes for now,

Rich & Calum

New Home

23rd February 2017
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