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Author Archives: roamingrooms
Blue Lagoon
Luxury Hotel Chic….
Mid-century
The mid-century style seems to be really in at the moment. I think perhaps because it gives a slightly more masculine break from all the vintage floral and the clean lines are pretty practical and sit with modern items easily . I really love this Sanderson ‘Dandelion clocks’ pattern and although I wouldn’t cover the walls in it, I would like a splash of it somewhere. The moodboard was just what I was feeling tonight but perhaps a little extreme for most of us who would prefer a subtle mid-century influence as opposed to full-on fifties!
Light and Bright Hallway
I’m back!!!You probably noticed my exceptionally long absence from the blogosphere. So sorry, things have been M.A.N.I.C around here! First Christmas, then a lovely skiing trip, being thrown headlong back into work and finally, a house hunt. That’s right, it’s finally happened- I’m moving out! We’ve found a lovely little house in London and we move on the 1st March. I’m so excited and, as you can imagine, having a ball buying stuff for the place.
Anyway, with the apologies over, here is something I put together on Polyvore. Unfortunately our new place isn’t big enough to have a proper hallway but if it did, this is what I’d want it to looklight and bright like this one.
Craving a sunburst mirror but as we’re renting and have limited options when it comes to hanging stuff on the walls, so that’ll have to wait. I’m sure I’ll manage to sneak in a tripod lamp or two though- they’re my absolute favourite at the moment.
Watch this space for more on the move and the decorative choices involved!
5 Cute Christmas Crafts
So I’m officially in the festive spirit- cracking out the mulled wine and humming Christmas songs ad nauseum. I tend to go a little hyper and the fact that is majorly frosty (and even a little bit snowy) at the moment is making me mega excited for a white Christmas.
I have finished buying and wrapping my Christmas presents (all 18 of them!!) Yay for organisation! So, with that over, I’m looking for another activity to keep me going until Christmas Day. Here are 5 cute crafts to get you in the festive spirit.
1. Felt tree decorations
If you need any inspiration, you should get the Cath Kidston Christmas Decorations book- someone bought it for me and it gives you everything you need to make 12 felt decorations.
2. Santa beard calendar
3. Stawberry Santas!
From Leanne Bakes
4. Holiday coffee holders
5. Pine cone tree
All of these crafts can be found on Vicky S’s Christmas Crafts Pinterest board.
The joys of pop-up tape
So, it’s December, the time that comes but once a year- and the best part of it in my opinion. As well as all the overspending, overeating and overdrinking, what I like to call ‘wrapping overkill’ takes hold. This is the OCD urge to make everything look perfect, with colour coordinated ribbon and matchy matchy name tags. All for 0.25 seconds of admiration before it’s ripped to shreds. I’m not criticising- I’m an offender myself!
All this perfectionism is, frankly, rather time consuming. One thing that I find does speed things up a bit is Scotch pop-up tape (available for about 2 pounds from stationery shops and supermarkets). It is genuinely one of the most useful things I have bought (credit to my boyfriend for discovering the thing). No more remembering you need sellotape mid-wrap, attempting to break of said tape with teeth and sticking it to nearby furniture for safe keeping (I know you’ve done it too). This inevitable just leads to shoddy work and pieces of furniture with strands of tape permanently adhered to their sides- not a good look in either case. No more! Just reach for your pop-up tape (cleverly attached to your hand so you still have full use of it for precise wrapping), pull the precut strip of tape and stick it down….Ta dah! Done.
It looks good too, the pieces are perfect rectangles- perfect for all you fellow OCD wrappers- no teeth marks in sight!
*Note* I have received NO funding, persuasion or even notice by Scotch tape- I’m just a keen happy customer thankful that one thing in my life has got easier!
Fabric noticeboard tutorial
Remember that fabric that I used for the sewing stool and was sad that I couldn’t keep? Well, I found a use for the left overs: a new fabric noticeboard. I’m not sure about you but I always have a gazillion bits of paper cluttering the place up and tickets and mementos that I want to hang onto. Well despite already having two noticeboards to cater for this, the paper was mounting again so I thought, why not have a third. And, seeing as cork boards are so darn ugly, it made sense to cover it with that gorgeous fabric.
As you know, I’m never one to spend an hour perfecting something that can be done in 5 minutes flat. This project was no different. I simply stretched the fabric round and used the trusty staple gun (gotta be my favourite thing ever) to attach it to the wooden frame. With some fabrics- like this one- you need to check you’re keeping the pattern straight. After that, I made a ribbon border. As the base is cork, there was no need to glue or staple this on- I just cut it to size and pinned to the board. Then got pinning all my bits and bobs on it. Ta da! No more clutter!
Tutorial: upholstered sewing stool
I’m obviously getting too good at this DIY malarkey. My mum has set me a ton of sewing projects to get through.
The first was this manky old moss coloured sewing stool. It’s been sat in a cupboard since I can remember and was in need of a bit of love. We were umming and ahhing about what to do with it. I wanted to recover it with a bold floral print but my mum wanted something plain and oatmeal coloured.
Then, when I was browsing in my local fabric shop I came across this fabric. A compromise if you will: neutral but with a graphic print. I love it and was slightly jealous to be using it for something I can’t keep. Oh well.
Anyway, lazy as I am, I didn’t even bother to take off the old fabric. I simply grabbed my fabric and stapled it over the original stool cover. When it came to the sides I cut four pieces to length (plus an additional inch for seams) and sewed them together to make a sort of empty box thing (ha- so articulate).
Fortunately my measuring was right and this was a snug fit. I shimmied it up the sides, ensured the seams sat on the corners and stapled the fabric over the top and under the bottom. This required the removal of the feet but they screwed on so it wasn’t tricky.
Then I added the finishing touches in a contrast pink ribbon- a pull tab to open the stool and trim to cover the staples and rough edges of fabric where I’d stapled it on the inside.
Considering this is only my second or third upholstery project, I’m pretty chuffed with how it turned out. I don’t think my staple gun will be in the cupboard for long!
Vintage advertising prints
As you may have noticed from the last post, I rather like vintage advertising prints and, truth be told, I have a LOT of them. I think that you can get a real insight into what people were like (or at least what advertisers thought people were like) years ago and they’re a piece of actual history- I love seeing the trends, the design, the products of the time. They are always so much more glamorous than the ‘hard sell’ garish designs of today and the fact that they’re illustrated makes them feel like proper pieces of art. It helps, I guess, that people had to be a lot more artistic before photography.
I seem to have accidentally acquired quite a collection of the things in the last year or two and they’re all over my walls. Hey, if you’re stuck in a single room that you can’t decorate- the walls are the focus of a lot of your creativity! The attraction of the adverts, other than the fact that they look lovely and are black and white (always a plus for me!), is that they are easy to come by and, at around a fiver a print (unframed), they’re pretty cheap for a piece of art you can pretty much guarantee none of your friends have hung on their walls.
So, following last week’s purchase of the 1930s Jaeger print I picked up at the Islington Pop-up Vintage Fair, I thought I’d share some of my monochrome collection…..
1931 French perfume advert
1931 French ‘Eau de Cologne’ advert
1937 Jaeger clothes advertising print- I wish they’d sold the clothes too! The bottom coat is incredible!
French ‘Charmis’ advert- unknown date. That is some seriously glam underwear.
Roman Holiday Film advert- starring the beautiful Audrey Hepburn
I couldn’t finish this post without adding this print in, I know it’s not technically an advert but for me it’s completely tied up with the adverts. These are the people that would have seen them and maybe bought the products. And there’s something about this image that I can’t quite keep my eyes off. It’s a picture of VE day and they look so happy and relieved. I see this as a little piece of history too and one quite fitting considering it was Remembrance Sunday a couple of days ago.
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