Our kitchen in our old house didn’t have much light! It was dark most of the time, a small skylight in the gangway providing just a glimpse of sun at certain times of the day…
When we moved house, a bright, light kitchen area was so important to me – and now we spend the majority of our time around a big, white table, chatting over meals, reading, doing homework, building lego, working, drawing & painting (Gus!), listening to music, even knitting (me!).
Plus of course, the flood of light in an overall white space gets me going photography wise like you wouldn’t believe!
I’ve never had much of a vision when it comes to interiors, I tend to haphazardly throw things together and hope it all looks ok! And there is undoubtedly a magpie in me who enjoys bright sparks of colour and pretty things! I have to hold back on cluttering things up too much visually!
The dining area is now at a sweetspot for me aesthetically – reflecting my mish-mash personality and various interests. Connected is the kitchen/cooking area with a useful marble topped island and counters…
Dining Chairs Update
As we go into our third year in this house I felt a few things were in need of a little update. Not least our old dining rooms chairs, which were constantly popping bolts and screws and lately actually collapsing under guests and piano players alike, ahem. (Goodbye replica Eames chairs from eBay!)
So the starting point was to update the chairs. And I very quickly fell in love with this sturdy (sturdy, non-collapsing being the main criteria, hah!) retro school style design from Cox & Cox. (We actually have this Cox & Cox coffee table which I bought back in the Spring for in our living room – you can see in this post here.)
So kindly being gifted a pair of the chairs by Cox & Cox, I bought a matching second pair to make up four and am thrilled with how they look. The sizeable base is extremely comfortable and the open back allows a free line of vision from one side of the room to the other, which I love! This style is mainly sold out now, but there is a discounted sample left! Also Black Friday sale pieces here.
Dining chairs | Cox & Cox (*one set gifted, one set bought!)
Table | Houseology (bought three years ago, more white tables here)
Cushions, Candles & Cups!
Our sofa is an Ercol vintage find from eBay, which I’m constantly changing the cushions on – latest additions are this beautiful artist print design circular cushion by Sessions & Co. (beautifully designed homewares by artists) and the heavy cotton hand embroidered cushion from The Small Home.
Also from The Small Home is a jug and mug from their kitchen table selection and teapot is from the Soho Home Burleigh collection – I have matching teacups and saucers too, and never feel so grown up as when I get them out!
I always light a scented candle come 6pm (a Danish childhood tradition I just can’t shake, often earlier, especially with these darker days!) and at the moment I am loving the fabulously named travel-inspired 100% soy wax candles from Lost in Scent.
Circular Bosco cushion* | Sessions & Co
Square hand embroidered cushion* | The Small Home
Colourful kilim cushions | Yonder Living (Black Friday sale on!)
Grey cushions | The Hackney Draper (old!)
Candles* | Lost in Scent at A Beautiful World
Bud vase | Tutti & Co
Misc. & Rugs
On the walls, in addition to Gus’s ‘sticker art’ ahem, I have an old shelf inherited from my granny (transported all the way down from Edinburgh) and some hand-embroidered designs in mis-matching frames. It took me a while to pluck up the courage to finally hang the frames, but I love how it all came together!
We always turn around a dining room chair for our mini cream piano (another eBay purchase the first Christmas we moved in!) which gets a lot of use – mainly by my husband who is brilliant at bashing out every song you can imagine for family and friends singalongs. Often wonder if the neighbours can hear us! Well, we have had comments from two doors down on particularly loud renditions of Jingle Bells! Ho hum!
Also our rugs – the cream one was my very first purchase from Edit 58 back when Lisa had just launched the brand and the pink one is from The Hackney Draper!
Other things to mention: mini succulents & plants from Geo-Fleur, knitting this hat (just plain!) from Wool & The Gang, Louis Wain print because I love cats and a wooden iguana and aardvark from Venezuala!
So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little insight into my favourite space in the house – I’m by no means an interiors expert but I do like slowly coaxing a place into suiting how we use it and taking pleasure in it visually!
All shot on Olympus Pen F with 12mm lens –Use BLOGGER10 discount code to buy both Pen and lens here
