Photography Excursion – Lourdes

Inspiration, instagram, Musings, Photography, Ramblings, Travel, travel

Last week I travelled to Lourdes in France with a band of local pilgrims. I went along as a) it was the sort of thing I would never do and I want to push my boundaries, and b) I was generally just curious to see it.

A bit about Lourdes…

Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in south-western France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château fort de Lourdes, a fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its center.

In 1858 Lourdes rose to prominence in France and abroad due to the Marian apparitions claimed to have been seen by the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who was later canonized. Shortly thereafter the city with the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes became one of the world’s most important sites of pilgrimage and religious tourism. Today Lourdes hosts around six million visitors every year from all corners of the world. This constant stream of pilgrims and tourists transformed quiet Lourdes into the second most important center of tourism in France, second only to Paris, and the third most important site of international Catholic pilgrimage after Rome and the Holy Land.

I took along my trusty Canon E0S as I knew there would be interesting photo opportunities, and although I wanted to respect the privacy of people there I knew I could get some good documentary type shots.

I am a born and bred ‘intermittent’ catholic, (although my local priest calls me a ‘have a go catholic’ – i.e. I just pick the bits of doctrine which I like and ignore others), so I went with some scepticism if I am totally honest. But I can convey that is a great place to visit, and not a bastion of the Catholic Church itself in terms of rules and regulations, but one of Faith, pure and simple. The atmosphere was amazing, and what I liked most was that ill and disable people were treated with the utmost respect and courtesy. They were not the invisible as in so many places, but instead the most focused upon and respected.

The town is set at the foot of the Pyrenees, and I went up the funicular on the Pic du Jer to get a birdseye view. This is a very high hill overlooking the town, and the funicular was so steep I had to shut my eyes going up, but once up on the top you can see snowcaps in the distance even in the summer. It is simply beautiful.

Around the Basilica and Grotto in the town were a multitude of people; Religious, Medical Staff, Pilgrims and Volunteers. I loved just watching them all go about their business, whether it was praying, talking or just moving through the town.

The town has stations of the cross set on two levels, low and high. I climbed up to the high ones which are life size and cast in bronze, to get a set of photos for a pilgrim I was with who could not make the steep walk.

The statues of Saints and Angels around the Basilica are amazing.

It really is an inspirational place and I recommend a visit for anyone, religious or not, to see such kindness to the sick and disabled. I bathed in the waters at the Grotto, and it was an incredibly experience and very humbling.

There are bits of Lourdes that have lots of shops selling religious souvenirs, some tasteful and some very garish, but it’s all part of the experience just to see how many different statues and types of water bottles you can count…!

So if you are ever in that part of the world, I really recommend a visit. It puts life into perspective a bit more and was a very calming experience.

Gorgeous Candles…

candles, Decorating, home decor, Lifestyle, Shopping

Hello, I have been taking some photos for Muri Home candles, and thought I should share how delicious they are in terms of not just the look but the smells!

I am a bit of a candle freak to be honest, and dread to think what I have spent over the years on them. Muri Home candles are available on Etsy, and are very reasonably priced at £18 each for a glass jar version – compared to similar quality candles by brands such as Diptyque and True Grace. And they do not disappoint in terms of quality and scent.

I like my candles strong.. so I can smell them even when not lit, and these ones definitely hit the mark. I was a sent over three candles to photograph; Fresh Air, Freshly Cut Grass and Cactus & Sea Salt. Once the lid its off the smell is really potent, which is a good sign of perfume levels I think in the candles. The design is also really simple and so they suit any interior.

There are several other fragrances available bedsides the ones I photographed; Rose & Neroli, Coconut Cream, Orange Blossom, Lemon & Lavender, Fig & Brown Sugar, Fig & Bergamot, Fresh Bread, Cinnamon Bun and Vanilla. YUM! They are also available really cute enamel mugs if you don’t want glass jars. Definitely a great gift, or just be really selfish and buy them all for yourself!

Object of Desire – Bespoke Wallpaper

Decorating, Interior Design, interiors, wallpaper

This week’s obsession is not the Royal Wedding for me, but the amazing new wallpapers which I keep seeing everywhere as new designers embrace the digital printing possibilities that are now available. It seems that interior trends are embracing large scale and bright patterns, and while they may not be for everyone’s taste I love the boldness they offer.

The original bespoke wallpaper in Europe from makers such as de Gournay are exquisite and I have always lusted after a bespoke wall covering. But they are not cheap, and there’s a part of me that just cannot justify the expense. But just look at the beauty of them:

Recently, due to my somewhat obsessive scouring of Instagram and Pinterest, I came across a designer team in New Zealand called Back To The Wall. These designers do huge digitally printed murals in gorgeous designs, and while they may not have the hand finished painterly effect of a de Gournay, they are still pretty spectacular.

In the UK, another digital mural company well worth looking at is Surface View. They have a huge collection of images available to be printed up as large scale murals. Their botanical and historical prints are pretty amazing and you can go as wild or as tame as you like in terms of design. But all are large scale for a great feature wall.

Another favourite who I love is House of Hackney. They print beautiful designs which are quite intense, sometimes quirky and also designed as a set of 3 panels which can repeat around a room if desired.

I used their design Florida Onyx in my renovation of a townhouse as panels on wardrobes and it was stunning. Who knows, one day I may be brave enough to do a whole room?!

A Visit to Lambay

Art, Experiences, garden landscaping, House Tour, instagram, landscaping, Musings, Ramblings, Travel

Lambay, sometimes also called Lambay Island, is a private island lying off Dublin Bay and owned by the Baring family trust. It was purchased in 1904 by the Hon Cecil Baring, who later became Lord Revelstoke, for his new bride Maude whom he was madly in love with. The island came with a 16th century fort, so Baring hired Edward Lutyens to remodel and extend to make an idyllic castle for his young bride and subsequent family. This became a beautiful example of Lutyens architecture with his typical motifs everywhere, circular stairs, vaulted ceilings, stone fireplaces and furniture designed for the house specifically. Outside there is a huge circular enceinte wall surrounding it to create a windbreak. It’s very blowy outside this shelter on the island, and once within the confines of the wall the garden becomes a calm oasis from the brutal Irish wind (even in summer). Lutyens also designed the horseshoe shaped harbour, another building called The White House for Baring’s daughters to use with their own families when they later came to stay, and cottages for the staff. There is also a chapel on the Island and farm buildings. Gertrude Jekyll designed the gardens around the castle, and it is a privilege to see the work of both these notable designers in a private setting.

My husband and I were lucky enough to be invited to stay by a family member who still visits the island, and I realised recently that I had not shared this adventure on the blog. It was an amazing time and very memorable. The Baring Trust still own the island, and family members can still come and stay. It is also rented out privately for shoots, day trips and events. They have also recently started making Lambay whiskey.

Here is an aerial view of the island lying off the coast of Ireland. As we flew into Dublin I could not believe how big and empty of human signs of life it seemed.

Lambay_Island_-_Reachrainn_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1350641

Photo by Joseph Mischyshyn

So we arrived in Dublin and headed to the very smart port area that is Malahide where the boats leave to get to the island. This is a genteel port with the most expensive supermarket I have ever been to, it outdid Fortnum and Mason’s in delicacies and everything looked delicious. We had to collect food we had ordered ahead to take over to the Island, where we would be staying in The White House with friends. The Island is inhabited full time only by a few people, so this taking of provisions across the waters is par for the course. Once upon a time animals for food used to be put on the boat to take over, but EU regulations put a stop to that. Clanking with bottles, bags of food and luggage, we then were collected by the boat used by Lambay to ferry passengers and provisions and headed across the bay. In summer this crossing was fine, but I don’t think it would be quite so much fun in winter with gales.

This rather buxom beauty reclines in Malahide overlooking the sea

On arriving, the first thing you see is the amazing port Lutyens designed. To the right you can see the cottages and then The White House. Towards the rear you can see the trees and wall that protect the Castle. The sea is teeming with seals who are very nosy and come over for a look at visitors.

Photo credit: M Baring

We arrived and unpacked our food and drink and then had a look around. The White House where we stayed is beautiful and vast. All of the fitted furniture is still there as Lutyens designed it. The kitchen still has all of the old china and huge storage jars intact. The current full-time occupants of the island had just upgraded all of the bathrooms so there is not just ‘one bath a day which we share’ which is what a long-visiting family member told me used to be the order of the day. Now it is simple and spacious, but still luxurious.

What makes Lambay unique is that time has stood still. It does have generator power, but even though you can see the lights of Dublin twinkling at night in the distance, there is no wi-fi, no light pollution and peace. In fact there is no noise except the seabirds, the waves and the wind.

The castle sits nestled in its peaceful wind-free grounds, with herbaceous borders, secret walled gardens and the sound of water trickling in ponds and streams. We were given a tour of the Castle and gardens, and listened to friends reminiscing about the summers they spent as children on the island where they were literally free-range for 3 months of the year.

Photo Credit: M Baring

Photo Credit: E Kayne

We spent our time on the island catching lobsters, fishing, setting rabbit traps, harvesting edible seaweed, picking vegetables and making all our food from scratch. Every morning the dense soda bread was baked ready for lunch, cakes and pastries were made for tea time, and then foraging began for extra treats as we explored the island. I swam with nosy seals, roamed around the spectacular coastal path and watched nature in its finest state of freedom.

The wildlife is extraordinary on the island. Many birds use it as their nesting grounds as it is far from the madding crowd, and I saw guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and puffins to name just a few breeds. The west side of island that faces away from Ireland is the main breeding ground with spectacular cliffs, and the amount of birds on it rivalled a FA Cup stadium on a finals match. The noise was terrific; screeching birds and crashing waves reverberated as we watched seabirds dive bombing into the sea to catch their fish. The seals that dot themselves around the island are Grey Atlantic Seals, and apparently there are also Harbour Porpoises in the waters.

One evening we took a walk up to the highest point of the island to watch the sun set. The wind was blowing away, and dusk was settling so we could see Dublin in the far distance starting to twinkle with lights. A Labrador who was with us started woofing, and chased after what I thought were rabbits. But the dog then retreated bit pathetically, and looked really confused. Out of long grass sprung the most bizarre animals, which in the half light I thought were huge rabbits. But they turned out to be resident wild Wallabies who bounced around us, spinning off in all directions. Apparently a pair were taken in by one resident Baring and they breed copiously so have to have their numbers reduced every few years so they don’t overrun the island, according to one family member they are “Ok, but a bit chewy…”

In the evenings we would have drinks outside watching the sun set, and then eat all of the food we had caught or made that day. There is nothing better than lobster you have caught that day with fresh home made Hollandaise sauce… although our Soda Bread was a bit like eating dried cardboard – but that could be our culinary skills.

A Lutyens gate in the distance

Then as the sun set we would light a fire (it’s damp on this island when the sun sets) and get out board games or just sit and chat. There were no televisions, phones or dreaded iPads and even the teenagers with us seemed to love this disconnect from the real world that they know. It was like turning back the clock 50 years, and I loved it. We decided to have a Lambay Art Exhibition, with everyone on the island having to take part and make something from items they had salvaged from beaches or cliffs. Considering that there were probably no more than 20 people on the island, we all did really well with just one glue gun to share and few pencils.. and the competitive streak did take over for a couple of days – people vanished and claimed beaches for themselves as they hunted for finds. This culminated in a Private View for ourselves and an exhibition party, again for all 20 of us – it was great fun.

On the left is my Lambay artwork – a spoof dinosaur skeleton find of a ‘Lambaysaurrus’

The stylish wardrobe I took with me thinking I was partaking in an Agatha Christie style weekend (minus murder), did not see the light of day… it’s way too windy for linens in this place. And my wetsuit served me well for jumping off the port to swim with seals, (incidentally they appear behind you very quietly so when you turn around there is a curious pair of eyes right next to you). By the end of my stay I was covered in mud, bedraggled and dreadlocked, but as relaxed and happy as a lamb.

But we did go home in this plane, so I got my Agatha Christie moment in the end… sort of…

There is some great drone footage of island you can watch https://player.vimeo.com/video/233184732 <p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/233184732″>Millie’s Island Club, Lambay</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user50024027″>Miranda Baring</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>here

The Influence of the Bright Young Things

Art, Decorating, Historical Houses, Inspiration, Interior Design, Literature, Musings, Painting, Photography

I have a huge obsession with early 20th century literature, especially authors like Evelyn Waugh, Somerset Maugham and Nancy Mitford. They describe an age of elegance, beautiful houses, artistic endeavours, privilege but also the advancement of social mobility and change. The books are bitter, funny and sharp.

In real life, a group of people emerged at the start of the 1920’s who were dubbed ‘The Bright Young Things’. Evelyn Waugh pronounced the best definition: ‘There was between the wars a society, cosmopolitan, sympathetic to the arts, well-mannered, above all ornamental even in rather bizarre ways, which for want of a better description the newspapers called “High Bohemia.”

The press could not get enough of these people who tended to be the younger sons and daughters of the aristocracy and their middle-class friends by association, it was the first sign of celebrity being documented in it’s own right. Lurid stories of wild parties, wealth, promiscuity and convention-flouting were reported and the public lapped them up.

This photo was taken, under Cecil Beaton`s direction, by “William the footman”

The Bright Young Things included writers, artists, society women and rich club members memorably satirised by Waugh in Vile Bodies (1930). It was acceptable within the circle to be homosexual, which still as considered illegal in Britain at the time. In Nancy Mitford’s novels, the most eccentric characters are also allegedly based on real people of the time; who can forget Lord Merlin dying his doves to match his party decorations? This character was supposedly based on the real-life Lord Berners, an eccentric party-giver whose dogs wore diamond collars as they roamed his grounds. Or there is a woman known as ‘the Bolter’ as she kept running off from her husbands to marry someone new.

But from this group of Bright Young Things also emerged creative figures in their own right like Oliver Messal, Noel Coward, Stephen Tennant, Cecil Beaton, Rex Whistler and John Betjeman to name but a few. Although frivolity and frippery was the order of the day, a strong literary development and aesthetic developed and some of England’s most highly regarded artists emerged. Through literature, documents and photography there is a wealth of information available about these people and their times which I find fascinating.

Some of the interior design from this age as spectacular; money was no object and the aristocracy had started marrying into the US millionaire families bringing great wealth for them to modernise their homes. You can still see interiors designed by some of these dazzling talents:

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This is the tent room mural painted by Rex Whistler at Port Lympne, in Kent.

The Art Deco bathroom at Upton House, Warwickshire

Lady Bearsted’s bathroom at Upton House – a dazzling modernist boudoir of red, black, silver aluminium leaf and streaming natural light. It was designed for her by Morley Horder.

Oliver Messel is best known for his lavish set designs for the theatre, ballet and opera, but later he also worked as an interior designer, mainly in the Caribbean for the wealthy and famous. His interiors are beautiful, and his signature tone of green is now commonly known as Messel Green.

By the 1930’s the Bright Young Things’ popularity fizzled out. Socially England was changing dramatically, the aristocratic families were breaking up their estates due to huge taxes, and their excesses were seen as distasteful to the press and public. World War II would draw the final line under this social scene, but it is still such an exciting group of people creatively to draw inspiration from.

Music to work to: BBC Radio 6 Music ❤️

grown up, Inspiration, Lifestyle, music, Ramblings, working

Diverse, eclectic and always inspirational… BBC Radio 6 has become my constant companion when I am either working or mooching about at home. The breadth of music is really diverse, there are no repetitive playlists, and I learn about new artists all of the time and from all over the world… no hierarchy, snobbery or commercialism… just music that inspires the DJ’s.

Take today for instance, I was unpacking my shopping and gyrating to Gilles Peterson’s Saturday afternoon rare grooves, whilst later on I nodded my head in time as I typed away on a website article. The latter article was relating to financial information, but PJ Harvey suited the typing speed, and now when I read it back I can hear 50ft Queenie in my mind – definitely not what the readers will hear as they read my FinTec news.

In a way it’s a bit of an addiction. I miss it when I am in the car and have to substitute another radio station to listen to. I pine for Lauren Laverne, Radcliffe & Maconie and Tom Robinson’s dulcet tones. If I have to listen to Jenni Murray on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, I end up enraged and comparing her to Cerys Matthews, and the latter wins hands down. If I try Radio 1 it just seems so noisy and inane in comparison. It’s got to the point where I’ll just plug in a podcast instead, and I am loving The Leisure Society series at the moment (from, you guessed it… BBC Radio 6).

I find that I am more creative when I listen to music as I work, and this information that follows proves my point:

Scientific research has uncovered that listening to music can actually be beneficial while you work. Although, it depends on what you’re trying to achieve.

A study by Simone Ritter, at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and Sam Ferguson, at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, looked at how listening to various types of music affected different types of thinking compared to working in silence.

Their study found that happy music enhanced participants creative ‘divergent thinking’. However they found it had no impact on ‘convergent thinking’, which is problem-solving.

In their study, Ritter and Ferguson split 155 volunteers into five groups, which were then given tasks to complete. Four of the groups did so while listening to classical music aimed at stimulating different moods, such as Holst’s Mars and Vivaldi’s Spring. The fifth group worked in silence.

They found that the groups working to music they considered positive generally came up with more original ideas.

Ritter and Ferguson said: “The current project aimed to shed light on the potential association of music listening for optimizing divergent and convergent creativity, and demonstrated that listening to ‘happy music’ (i.e., classical music that elicits positive mood and is high on arousal) is associated with an increase in divergent thinking, but not convergent thinking.”

The upshot being, if you need to be creative with your work, then you should stick some uplifing music to help get the cognitive juices flowing. But if you’re trying to solve an problem, you’re better off opting for quiet solitude. (Telegraph, Sept 2017)

As I don’t do problematic maths problems for work, I think I’m OK to continue….

My ‘Door to Nowhere’..

before and after, Decorating, House Renovation, interiors, wallpaper

As mentioned in the last post, the final item left to complete was my door to nowhere. This the odd doorway/architrave mid way up the top stairs. A nice, but quite bizarre period feature in the house (?!). You know that song ‘We’re on the road to nowhere’ by Talking Heads, it has now morphed into ‘There is my door to nowhere’, and I have been so obsessed with getting this area sorted that I just can’t stop singing it in my head….

The wallpaper I put in it a few years ago had faux books, and I was quite bored. I ordered some samples of wallpaper to see what I could replace it with. They were all extremely expensive, and actually when they appeared I didn’t like them. So I turned to my iPad and starting hunting with the hashtags #quirky. And this amazing paper appeared via the excellent site Iwantwallpaper… it is a great site and they have a really good collection of papers.

Coloured Version

Monochrome Version

It’s called Mad Dogs by Holden Décor and there is a monochrome or coloured version. I decided to go monochrome, as I can always add colour later if I want to with my trusty pencils. It arrived really quickly, was very reasonably priced (£15.99! Saved me a bomb!) and took literally a few minutes to hang. It does not stretch or sag like a lot of papers do when they are left to soak, so lining up was really easy to do.

So there are dogs & flamingoes in hats, boxing kangaroos, drunk toads and a giraffe smoking a pipe amongst other things. I love it!

Here it is in situ, and I think it suits the grey walls much better than the previous books paper. Due to the width of the Door to Nowhere I couldn’t help but have to cut into the frames on the vertical run, but I still love it….

What do you think? It could be a Marmite situation for this paper for most people – love or hate!

Stairs & Landings – the ‘nearly’ finished results…

before and after, Decorating, gallery wall, House Tour, interiors, Makeover

In my earlier post, you may have been aware of my procrastination about finishing off the top floor of my hall and stairs. But it is finally done, with some serious hanging off bannisters paining techniques. I forced myself to start yesterday, and it is now finished, well very nearly….

This was looking up to the next level before I changed the wall colours. That wallpaper which is in in the strange ‘door-to-nowhere” architrave is going to change too, I have ordered some samples of eye-wateringly expensive wallpaper from the lovely Fabricsandwallpapers.com and we’ll see what works best when they arrive. They are all very large scale patterns:

cole-son-lily-wallpaper-95-4020-111458-p

I am really forgetful about before and after shots as I tend to dash in with paintbrushes on a whim. So I don’t have any photos of the floor above pre-makeover! Probably as it was always such a dumping ground, it had loads of overflowing bookcases, an electric piano in pieces, and I never really liked it so never photographed it. Sorry….😐

Anyhow, I cleared out all of the books and had a huge cull so there are boxes and boxes ready to go off to charity shops, and I removed 2 out of 3 bookcases. I had to keep hubby’s collection of comics, books and coca-cola limited edition bottles, plus we had a lot of film posters and things to hang. This is now what it looks like looking down the stairs with the dark grey walls.

And here is the artwork. The weird original Harry Potter troll picture was a present to my daughter from her Godfather, who got it from the art/concept designer Rob Bliss from the films. If you look carefully, he has pierced nipples, which Warner Brothers obviously asked him to tone down for the final film! It scared my daughter to bits when she got it, so it has been hiding in the loft until now. That is the bonus of having older teens, I can put whatever I want on the walls now without fear!

At the top of the stairs is an odd landing which goes nowhere, a bit like the door mid-way down the stairs. What is it about my house and places going nowhere? Originally this landing had 3 full size bookcases on it, now it has been reduced to one, And I have hung the strangest huge anatomical drawing/chart on it which the hubby gave me, and until now I had no idea what to do with. But I think he looks great against the red carpet!

It looks so much better than before. There is no natural daylight in this landing, so I was a bit worried about how dark it would be with the grey walls. But it looks bigger in a strange way as the corners vanish with the dark grey. I kept the original wall light which was a converted victorian gas light, and got 2 excellent wire cages to go on the top from eBay. The ceiling is white so light can bounce around still, so it’s not dark at all.

The bookcase generally houses Hubby’s stuff, and I have moved the books I saved for myself elsewhere so it looks much more spacious now – althought somewhat random items are on it…

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

I’ll do a final post when the wallpapers have come, and I have decided what to do with the ‘door-to-nowhere’. I also have the odd corner wall to hang something on so I am hunting for something large like a mirror to go on it, or maybe a lovely bit of taxidermy.

Instagram Challenges

Decorating, instagram, Interior Design, interiors, Lifestyle, Photography, Ramblings

Or how the # has become second nature…

It is a fact that I love Instagram, and I am always amazed and delighted by the creativity out there that I can peruse… from nature photography to food to clothes to interiors. It means I follow so many people that it takes ages to scroll through daily feeds, but it’s worth it! It also seems that there is a colony out there of similar minded people who like me are obsessed with interiors, it’s like having a mini village of people right on your doorstep. Everyone shares ideas & tips, and are incredibly friendly.

From there come the Instagram challenges, which tend to be people setting up a hashtag and the rest of us posting pictures including it, usually within a timescale. One that I have been doing is #myhousethismonth this February. It’s a daily shot with a title, so things like #storage, #bestbargain, #love (Valentine’s day of course) and so on. I love doing it, but WOW! it takes some planning. Especially when you have to photo something everyday that passes muster.

Anyhow, here are some offerings I have been posting this mont. My teenage daughter has trained me in various editing methods for photos as she said I needed to up my ‘instigame’ – thanks daughter, that made me feel ancient! So I sometimes use Whitagram and VSCO to tweak shots before they are posted, although I do like to use Instagram as it was intended if possible and just shoot and edit on it directly. So here are some shots posted while I tried to keep up, and it’s only mid month! And this is the challenge set….

This is #favecorner

This is #window

#metallic – a lovely silver leaf

#lightit up – a very un pc lamp!

#handmade – my upcycled cupboard

#storage – my favourite huge cupboard

#workspace – my desk where I ponder the universe

Once I get into doing it I then start taking other photos, so they go up as well as the challenge ones:

And so it goes on… now off to shoot today’s picture which is #can’tlivewithout…. that will be my coffee maker then…? Or maybe my cats…. ? Hmm, it takes ages to decide…

Hallway – New Decoration Project Is Underway

Art, Decorating, Interior Design, interiors, Makeover, Property

So as we are now staying put in our home, I have been itching to get going on some revamping. And I have the perfect project to get my teeth into.

Our hallway is quite large, and stretches up through 3 floors, with the staircase splitting off in two directions after the first flight of stairs. It is not a typical narrow Victorian hallway and stairs, and there is a lot of space and ceiling a minimum of 3 meters tall on the ground and first floors. When we first came to the house it was painted a sickly aqua green, so I redecorated it in pale taupe and white on the woodwork to neutralise it. But it is now a long time since it was done, so I have decided to crack on and give it an overhaul.

Ground Floor

It has great original floorboards, stained glass windows either side of the original front door and original panelling on the sides of the stairs. It’s large enough to take a huge period cabinet and a sideboard. The stairs are original with 2 spindles per step, (takes an age to paint them though). The stair carpet was inherited with the house, and is a very rich dark red Wilton attached with Victorian stair rods on the first flight. Then it goes full width up through the rest of the halls and stairs above. As anyone who knows me is aware, I have a love-hate relationship with this carpet. It is amazing quality, and looks like new after well over 7 years, and that is since we have been here and it existed pre-us. But I have 2 cats called George and Mildred, and EVERY hair they drop shows on it, so I have to hoover a lot. I always wanted to replace it with sisal when it got tired, but the quotes were really high to get it laid well and with multiple angles needed, and it shows no sign of looking shabby yet so I am holding on for the moment. It has also survived many children, teenage parties and flailing carrying of coffee and tea by the said teens. So I’m stuck with it for now.

Very pale taupe walls

The red stair carpet with brass rods

My huge old cabinet filled with ‘stuff’

First Floor

Continue reading →

Emma Kayne

The Department of Designs

Photography Excursion – Lourdes

Gorgeous Candles…

Object of Desire – Bespoke Wallpaper

A Visit to Lambay

The Influence of the Bright Young Things

Music to work to: BBC Radio 6 Music ❤️

My ‘Door to Nowhere’..

Stairs & Landings – the ‘nearly’ finished results…

Instagram Challenges

Or how the # has become second nature…

Hallway – New Decoration Project Is Underway

Ground Floor

First Floor

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Ground Floor

First Floor

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