Princess and the pea.....

The first photo is a still from an exhibition that was showing at a stately home last year based upon classic fairytales.
The second photo is the living room of Cabbages & Roses owner Christina Strutt. Her new book comes out in a couple of months-if you haven't visited her website do, because there are some gorgeous photos of her own home on it at http://www.cabbagesandroses.com/ - click on the Homeware lookbook down the side where there are 52 photos to look at.

French country-style inspiration...

These photos are of the clothes designer Rachel Riley's beautiful home in France, and her mix of very formal French and classic English country-house style.
I really like the Aubusson tapestry rug in her bedroom-I bought a massive one at auction last month for just £90-it's 3 metres by 2.5 metres and is going in my bedroom when I've painted the floorboards.

Happy New Year...looking back...retro fridge makeover..

Last year on New Year's Day we were spraying our fridge mint green. It's funny because lately I've had lots of queries about this project-maybe the New Year inspires lots of us to start makeover projects? If you go back to my Jan 1st post 2009 you can see the link to buy these brilliant sprays online-sorry, I don't know how to backlink to my own blog!

The sprays come in pastel pink, green, blue, lilac, silver and cream and cost about £6.99 each from B&Q or the other online seller I mentioned (you can check the stock online at B&Q ). It's also available in all colours on UK Ebay if any worldwide Bloggers find it hard to get hold of!

We only needed two cans but other essentials are a pin for unclogging the spray nozel and masking tape to cover the seal and any logos when you spray. It's also better to clean your fridge first, then lightly sand with very fine sand paper to give the spray something better to adhere to. We gave our fridge about three fine coats, letting it dry in between each coat. You don't need any other primers or sealers, and I have to say, one year on, it still looks as good as new with no chips or scratches! We added the chrome handles (also from B&Q) to make it look a bit more retro and glued them on with Araldite metal glue (£3)-again, another tip is to secure them in place overnight with masking tape to make sure they bond really well.

This was definitely one of my favourite home makeover projects, being cheap and relatively easy to complete. If anyone would like more info just leave me a message via Flickr!