£50 interior challenge / Konkurs – wnetrze za 50 funtow

Challenged by Julie from Most Wanted I created a moodboard with a selection of summer indoor/outdoor accessories from both high street and designer shops. All 10 of them for under £50 together!
The mix contains accessories from various shops, ranging from IKEA to Philippe Starck and Alessi. This just shows that with a bit of looking around (and helpful sale season!) we can add a bit of spark to any room, and on a tiny budget!
This set is designed to work perfectly for the summertime, and can be used both indoors, as well as for outdoor entertaining. Fresh and colourful!

Summer designer mix under 50 pounds

Including, from the top:
– IKEA Superfin glass tealight holders, £0.39
– Argos Mimosa Cushion – Cream, £6.99
– Dwell Organic tubular vase, £13.95
– Homebase Mini Dried Bundles, £3.99
– Koziol, Bird napkin ring, £3.60
– Lux by Starck, Set of 6 Squares plates , £3.90
– Lux by Starck, Set of 10 Big cups, £2.70
– Cath Kidston, Spray Flowers Salt and Pepper Shakers, £3.50
– IKEA Legym 2-piece salad servers set, £0.99
– Ti – Coffee cup and saucer, Sentou Edition, £5.70

TOTAL: £45.71

I hope that inspires you to hunt for other summer bargains!

New flat, old flat and other changes / Nowe, stare i inne zmiany

I don’t think I should even start apologizing for not being here for ages… so let us pretend those two months never happened 🙂

That would be difficult, though, as since the last post:

• we finished and rented out our Polish flat within a week of posting the ad (which is a really good time in our market!),
• both me and my husband started working at different companies (still within one corporation),
• we moved offices to outside of London,
• we moved houses in London to be closer to new offices
• … and yesterday we have become owners of yet another flat in Poland :).

So this is a very exciting time for me and there is really lots going on. I am obviously going to share with you the ideas for the new flat, and can tell you straight away this is going to be tricky, as we want to finish the flat mostly remotely, and as of today there are only bare walls and windows there.

But! First things first, let me show you what we managed to do to our first flat around Christmas; we wanted to make it livable, so that it rents out quickly, on a budget of ca. £250:

• bathroom

I guess you’ve seen some of our bathroom, especially the cupboard hand-made by my husband; to our great anger and despair, the glass maker did not manage to do the doors on time so our shelves are still open, but the rest was good to go:

Bathroom - view from entrance

The old trick - big mirror visually increases the size of this bathroom

• bedroom

The bedroom, with the furniture set we got for free from a friend, a super-old retro ceiling lamp, and bits and pieces of decorating from my mum, with the only new element of the baroque-inspired white wallpaper to add just a teeny bit of glamour:

White bedroom with white glamour wallpaper

Detailed view of the wallpaper

To complement the wallpaper, we have used a spare piece as wall art and put it in behind glass, all placed on an old shelf which I finished in a quasi-shabby-chic look. The throw also works the same theme as the wallpaper.

• living room

Now, the living room, and to be completely honest this is the most haphazardly finished room ever 🙂 One feature wall covered in beautiful black wallpaper… though since it was our first time ever wallpapering, the results are far from perfect! Good tip – when working with a dark wallpaper, it’s much easier if you dab the areas on the wall, where wallpaper pieces will meet, in paint the colour of the wallpaper; this way even if your work isn’t perfect, the gaps between stripes will not be as visible as on our wall.

Living room - feature wall with black floral wallpaper

Living room - view towards the ornamental blinds

The rest of the room is my parents’ old sofabed under a new throw, a red ceiling light which was supposed to be comlemented with red wall art though we never put it up (don’t ask), my teenage bedroom set, a good old piano, a spare single bed that can be put away depending on the needs of the tenants and an Ikea Lack table 🙂 Plus the really pretty blinds which unfortunately do not show too well in this light – basically when it’s light outside, they seem very pale and creamy grey, but when it’s dark, additional silver elements show as well.

• kitchen-diner

Finally, the kitchen-diner, with the infamous kitchen units which never got properly fitted together (so that the worktop still floats independently of the units, there is no steel strip at the bottom and a millon other sins we committed with it and haven’t tried to make up for yet). Nonetheless we like the kitchen and maybe, some time, in the distant future, we will finally put it together once and for all 🙂 There is also an extra loveseat and armchair in the other part of the room.

Light and dark wood kitchen with green walls

Retro kitchen oilcloth

• Hall

…and our hall, unfortunately I have a photo only from the time when this ugly carpet was there (with the dog’s bone and toys prominently on display) so try not to notice them 🙂

Open hall with spotlights

So to sum up, this is certainly not the best example of interior design, but we tried to make the place nicer for the tenants than the usual offering but on a minimal budget, and the result was that we rented it out just a few days after we advertised it!

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Chyba nawet nie ma co zaczynac przepraszac za to ze mnie tu tak dlugo nie bylo, wiec moze zapomnijmy o tych dwoch miesiacach 🙂

Z drugiej strony byloby to trudne, gdyz od ostatniego postu:

• wykonczylismy i wynajelismy nasze mieszkanie w PL w ciagu tygodnia od dania ogloszenia
• zaczelismy z mezem prace w nowej firmie
• zmienilismy biura
• przeprowadzilismy sie w Londynie by latwiej dojezdzac
• …i od wczoraj jestesmy wlascicielami nowego mieszkania w PL – a raczej wygralismy przetarg i teraz staramy sie jak najszybciej mieszkanie ‘przejac’ 🙂

Takze ten czas jest bardzo ekscytujacy i na pewno bede dzielic sie tu pomyslami na wykonczenie nowego mieszkania; juz teraz wiem ze nie bedzie to proste gdyz duzo chcemy wykonac lub zlecic ‘zdalnie’ z Londynu, a w tej chwili w mieszkaniu nie ma nic – stan deweloperski.

No ale! Zaczynac wypada od poczatku 🙂 wiec kilka slow o naszym pierwszym mieszkaniu. W okolicy Swiat Bozego Narodzenia postanowilismy zrobic ile mozemy w mieszkaniu by przygotowac je na wynajecie. Niestety czasu bylo malo a budzet juz zupelnie ograniczony (troche ponad 1tys. zl) wiec spedzilismy troche czasu wymyslajac co mozna zrobic by we w miare przyzwoitym stanie mieszkanie wynajac.

Zdjecia powyzej pokazuja rezultaty naszej walki z nieterminowymi sprzedawcami (czytaj: brak szklanych drzwi do szafek w lazience) i bardzo ograniczonym budzetem (czytaj: wykorzystanie naszych starych mebli, mebli ktore dostalismy od znajomych, odmalowanie kilku rzeczy, samodzielne kladzenie tapety ze skutkiem mieszanym – hej! robilismy to po raz pierwszy ok?? – i kilkoma drobnymi nowymi zakupami). Kilka rzeczy dalej nieskonczonych, typu kuchnia (caly czas nieprzykrecony blat i brak cokolow, nieoslonieta sciana i inne takie), te nieszczesne szafki w lazience (szklo to jedyne czego moj maz sam w tej lazience zrobic nie moze, i cholera tak nawalili 😦 ), oraz totalny misz-masz stylow i kolorow w duzym pokoju.

Zdecydowanie nie jest to przyklad swietnego designu ale biorac pod uwage ograniczenia czasowe i finansowe jestem w miare zadowolona z efektu, i obecni najemcy mam nadzieje tez.

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Habitat on a budget / Habitat taniej

I’ve spent yesterday strolling around Regent Street and Oxford Street here in London – not really to buy anything but to have a look around, see new collections etc. I found a few nice wallpapers and fabrics in House of Fraser and ordered free samples (I might use it with my next assignment, part of which is to create a sample board). In Zara Home, nothing show-stopping this time.

…and then I went into Habitat and remembered why I love this shop so much 🙂 Seriously, I could live in one of their displays and would happily get anything from that place so if you are looking for a present for me, don’t hesitate anymore! :))

Ok, so here are some of the finds from this trip – and all of them under £100 – most of them well under!

First some lamps.

• First – two lamps presenting the super-hot industrial design; both will add sharpness to the home office, living room or minimalist bedroom:

Tommy - Desk lamp from Habitat

Photographic - Tripod floor legs & shade from Habitat

• How fresh is that! Simple yet delivers the style. Look out for tealight holder of the same design. The lamp below boasts similar take on the shape.

Ribbon - Desk lamp from Habitat

Juno - Desk lamp from Habitat

• Did I say the lamps above were simple? Well… simple that! Perfect for complementing geometric wallpapers.

Jazmine - Desk lamp from Habitat

• So that no one thinks Habitat is too serious, this cute flower lamp will be great for a funky take on romanticism:

Helena - Flower table-wall lamp from Habitat

• (no description required for Boontje’s design, is there?)

Garland - Pendant shade by Tord Boontje from Habitat

• Do candleholders count as lamps? Well, they definitely count as light sources, which works for me. Check out this stylized object which is 1m high!

Bailey - Large nickel plated candleholder from Habitat

…And you won’t believe what they’ve done at the shop – they used around 20 of those candleholders in transparent glass, put LED lightbulbs in them and hung them upside-down from the ceiling at various heights, forming a very dramatic take on the bubble lamps we just discussed. What a view – shame I didn’t have my camera!

• Finally, Klara was just fun to move its arms around in various angles 🙂

Klara - Dinner candleholder from Habitat

And now to coffee and side tables.

• I love love love, for the obvious reasons of lightness, versatility and adaptability to small spaces – and price! £69.

Tablo - Nest of 3 tables from Habitat

• More expensive but very original – the Shuffle:

Shuffle - Low occasional table from Habitat

• How pretty is that! The intricate ornaments will work perfectly with next year’s trends for artisanry:

Palonia - Decorative cube from Habitat

• I do love multifunctional items 🙂 This cube is not only a table, it is also a lightbox 🙂

Mr Woo - Light box-table from Habitat

How can one not love Habitat?

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Chodzilam sobie wczoraj po Regent Street i Oxford Street, zbierajac probki tapet i materialow do mojego kolejnego zadania i rozgladajac sie za nowymi kolekcjami. Weszlam do Habitat… i od razu przypomnialam sobie dlaczego kocham ten sklep! Normalnie moglabym w nim zamieszkac, a jezeli ktos szuka dla mnie prezentu, to dylemat rozwiazany 🙂

Powyzej przedstawiam wczorajsze znaleziska w dwoch kategoriach – oswietlenie i stoliki. Zgodnie z moja idea ‘organiczonego budzetu’, wszystko, co pokazuje powyzej kosztuje do 100 funtow, a wiele z nich nawet sporo mniej.

Kilka typow? Industrialne klimaty zaprezentowane przez pierwsze lampy i stoliki; minimalistyczny ale bardzo kreatywny design w postaci kolejnych ‘skreconych’ lampek; wariacje na temat romantyzmu w kwiatowych swiatlach i drewnianym azurowym stoliku; niebanalny pomysl w szescianie Mr Woo bedacym i stolikiem, i swiatlem (swieci od wewnatrz), no i moj niesmiertelny Namber Lan – czyli zestaw trzech stolikow, za ich elastycznosc i lekkosc.

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Shop finds / Znaleziska sklepowe

Further to my post about vintage, second-hand finds a few days ago, let me share with you what I found in shops on my Polish trip. You know I love a budget find – and all that’s featured below comes from high-street retailers.

One of the super-hot designs of this season – cross-legged side table. I’ve seen it on cover of the new John Lewis catalogue, of the Dream Bathrooms (from Homes & Gardens) too, and inside many recent magazines! I find it so light and delicate – it can visually lift up any sofa it stands next to, and add elegance and subtleness to the bedroom when used instead of heavy bedside tables:

Cross-legged round black glass side / coffee table

Funky retro lamps – white & black – absolutely spot-on for now and for such a good price!  Found in the local equivalent to Homebase and consting from £30 for a table lamp, through to £60 for the floor lamp.

Retro eye-ball desk / table lamp

Retro eye-ball arch floor lamp

The huge wall light from the series is the truly fabulous – it has this designer feel to it which makes it a great statement piece, and it’s so versatile due to the long arched arm – one moment it can be used over a table, another – give you the reading light over the sofa…

Retro eye-ball wall lamp with long swing arm

Another (bargain!) table lamp replicating the eye-ball shape, working well with minimalist, retro and modern interiors:

Eye-ball glass table lamp

Is it only me or does this lamp look like it was made from a jar? 🙂

Funky jar ceiling light

And now – inspired by nature and thus timeless, but fun at the same time, the ‘twigs’ lamp:

Night / table lamp made from twigs

Loads of such ‘wavy plastic‘ designs around, both on high street and at designers, and yet few of them cost £10…

White retro plastic floor lamp

This gorgeous glamour, delicate ceiling lamp with crystals-and-sheer-white-glittery shade will most probably find its place in the yellow bedroom. Under £30.

Glamour white ceiling lamp with crystals

Now to some coffee tables.

This one intrigued me with its lovely visible wood design (check out both the general pattern and the 3 tiles in the middle of the top), its practicality (huge drawers) and its lightness achieved thanks to slim metal legs (this photo does not show off the lifting effect too well). Price: ca. £200.

Wooden chunky coffee table with drawers

This one I love for its functionality and versatility – not only in size and shape but also colour and finish. I adore such items for their aplicability to small spaces, when you need something smaller for everyday, but need space when entertaining guests.

Adjustable coffee table - 3 elements

Adjustable coffee table - 3 elements

This one is pretty simple, not from best materials either, but interesting enough to have cought my eye… and I had to give it a second look when I saw the price – for £80 you can buy it for a few years or for your rented flat without guilt!

3-tier coffee table

Sleek, linear design makes this chair a great addition to a sharp, elegant home office:

Sleek elegant wood, metal and leather office chair

And finally – what lovely fabric! Believe, when I cast my eye on the same sofa in cream alcantara, I haven’t blinked twice. But this is an example of how the choice of fabric can dramatically influence the look, instantly making it a fashionable statement for the bachelor’s pad.

Silver shimmery L-shaped sofa for a bachelor pad

…believe it or not but this is not all I want to share with you from my trip – there will still be one more buy, and a DIY project we’ve completed in our flat back home.

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Tak jak obiecalam, po znaleziskach ‘z drugiej reki’ – czas na to co znalazlam w polskich sklepach podczas mojej ostatniej wizyty. A bylo tego sporo i naprawde pozytywnie mnie to zaskoczylo – a zgodnie z moim motto, szukalam jedynie produktow w dobrych cenach!

Znalazlam wiele pieknych dizajnerskich lamp – niektore retro; najciekawsza z nich to ‘kinkiet’ z biala kula na bardzo dlugim ramieniu dzieki czemu moze oswietlac dwie strefy – no ale zyrandol ze sloika nie odbiega oryginalnoscia!. Inne inspirowane natura i dzieki temu ponadczasowe (bardzo ciekawa lampka nocna z galazek drzewa), a takze lampa podlogowa z falujacych kawalkow plastiku, bardzo modna w tej chwili – a jeszcze za taka cene?! No i piekny delikatny glamour w postaci krysztalkowego zyrandola z przeswitujacym abazurem, ktory, cos tak czuje, znajdzie swoje miejsce w zoltej sypialni.

Dalej – stoliki kawowe. Piekny wzor slojow przyciagnal moj wzrok do pierwszego mebla, ale tak samo interesujace sa w nim dwie niezwykle pojemne szuflady i metalowe nozki dodajace stolowi lekkosci. Potem trafilam na kilka stolikow ‘warstwowych’, interesujacych tym bardziej im wiecej mozliwosci ustawienia daja (idealne do malych pomieszczen!). No i moje ulubione ostatnio – stoliki ze skrzyzowanymi nozkami, ktore nadaja niezwyklej lekkosci kazdej sofie przy ktorej stoja, oraz elegancji i delikatnosci sypialniom, gdzie zastepuja ciezkie stoliki nocne.

No i jeszcze dwa ciekawe meble do siedzenia – przepiekny, elegancki i prosty w formie fotel laczacy drewno, metal i skore doda szyku kazdemu gabinetowi, a kanapa z niezwyklym lekko blyszczacym szarym obiciem bedzie wygladac pieknie w kawalerskim mieszkaniu modnego mezczyzny – idealny przyklad jak duzo zmienia material, gdyz ten sam model widzialam moment wczesniej w bezowym obiciu z alcantary… wystarczy powiedziec ze nie spojrzalam na niego drugi raz, a ta wersja az wyprosila zdjecie.

…ale ale, to nie koniec relacji z tej podrozy – podziele sie jeszcze z Wami kolejnym zakupem i projektem zrob-to-sam ktory popelnilismy z mezem w naszym polskim mieszkaniu!

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Budget decorating continues! czyli Tanie Projektowanie

Hi there,

Last night I found another very inspiring blog – Young House Love, which is run by an amazing couple of interior designers. You can’t help but simply like them, which is greatly enhanced by the fact that their designs, decorations and makeovers are really stunning – and they can work with any budget! See examples here:

Before:

Living room - before

After:

Young House Love living room - after

And my favorite – total makeover for $200!!! Before:

Bedroom - before

After:

Young House Love bedroom - after

And this blog should also catch your eye – Like Merchant Ships gives nice tips on bringing beauty to your house on your budget, whatever it is. Nice good living ideas too!

For instance, you get tips on how to find such nice pendants for $0.99… click on the image to go to their ‘budget decorating’ section:

$0.99 pendant from Like Merchant Ships

It’s funny that I found them now, when my last post (apart from the news) was about budget decorating!

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Wczoraj wieczorem znalazlam swietnego bloga – Young House Love, gdzie młode małżeństwo prezentuje swój dom, z którego narodziła się ich pasja projektowania wnętrz. W tej chwili profesjonalni styliści, pisza os sobie jak o kolegach z sasiedztwa i nie da się ich nie lubić – a do tego ich projekty są naprawde swietne: pełne ciepła i światła, takie w których każdy może czuć się komfortowo, a przy tym bardzo dyskretnie stylowe. Podalam dwa przyklady przerobek zrobionych z ich udzialem, ze zdjeciami ‘przed’ i ‘po’; salon, ktory niesamowicie zyskal na urodzie, i sypialnia ktora zostala przemieniona przy budzecie tylko $200!

Drugi blog ktory prezentuje to Like Merchant Ships. Tym razem nie sa to profesjonalni projektanci, ale pani domu probujaca zyc pieknie ale i ‘okazyjnie’ – przykladem jest ten zyrandol, nabyty za 99 centow 🙂 . Duzo ciekawych porad, takze takich ‘zyciowych’. Polecam!

Zabawne, ze te blogi znalazlam akurat po napisaniu posta o tanim projektowaniu 🙂 Blogi oczywiscie natychmiast znajduja sie na mojej liscie odwiedzanych.

(ps. Ojej… jakos dziwnie wychodzi mi to pisanie po polsku 🙂 nastepnym razem sprobuje zaczac po polsku, to moze wyjdzie mi lepiej 🙂 )

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Design on a budget

I’ve decided to update my blog tagline (see above) to include part of my motto –

…how to get the designer look on a budget?



(And be quiet, language purists – of course there is always a budget but I mean the common meaning of this phrase!)

Really, I don’t think it’s difficult to create a great space with lots of money (though, surprisingly, I’ve seen LOTS of expensively made, but terribly designed / decorated spaces). To be honest, the tendency to go for the expensive is very irresistible. Why?

Well, it’s really not about squeezing money out of clients. It’s just that we love good design. And good design is, predominantly, very costly. I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone – after all, to create an outstandigly beautiful and high-quality piece of furniture, for example, has to be costly. In time, ideas, effort, resources (including human of course), machinery and materials. Then – advertising or getting it to the market, etc…

But – one is also paying for the brand, and again rightly so, as those brands ‘high up there’ deserve to be special and exclusive for their role in opening new design horizons for us all. However, if one is willing to search and research, and wait a bit longer, and try out things, and visit auctions and sales, and customize, etc, etc… one can really create an amazing space mimicking pretty well the unattainable designer classics. So what can you do?

1) Buy vintage, customized or knock-off versions.

Sounds simple, well, it is and is not. You will have to invest a lot of time in investigating all options, checking out all the outlets, eBay, online boutiques of hand-made items, local auctions, blogs like this, designers’ stores and online shops, discounts and sales at the shops you love (and they are now everywhere, does anyone buy full-price anymore?), charity shops, car-boot sales, and the local suppliers down the road who are happy to create something for you for fraction of the original’s price.

So, time is the main investment. But this option is certainly most cost-efficient. Apart from those ‘real’ designer classic in vintage, which are sometimes more expensive than new (unless someone doesn’t realize their value and yes, it happens a lot).

And it’s fun, too, especially when you find some gorgeous stuff! You don’t have to be skilled, you just need loads of time, good eye, and good luck. 🙂

2) Customize yourself.

This is the most rewarding way, the real crowning of your achievement. But that requires ingenuity, and is certainly not ‘cheap’ in terms of time and effort. It requires skill. And patience. And good eye. And a bit of experience. So – you just have to ask yourself: what is more important to me? Am I willing to save time and spend money for the great stuff? Or am I able to spend time to research and get inspired and build and create?

Both options are rewarding in different ways. And I don’t think I’ll make a call on which one is better – I love them both. And you can also mix’n’match; buy this sleek Eames chair lookalike, but save on very simple coffee table which you can get at your local supplier and which will look just as good as any (let’s hope). Allow yourself for this gorgeous designer wallpaper, but use it sparingly – on one wall only, or buy just one roll and customise an old cupboard with it.

Bear in mind though… the ‘budget’ version does not always mean dirt cheap. Sometimes you will have to invest in high-quality golden paint, or in gorgeous crystal cupboard handles (and you will notice that accessories are often more expensive than the base item you wanted to customize). In fact, in many cases, you would have been able to buy a pretty high-street item for less than all the materials you need for customizing, and for zero effort.

BUT. Whatever you create will still be cheaper than the classics. More importantly, whatever you make yourself, is absolutely unique. Not only will it look outstanding and special, but will also reflect your personality and taste, and make your house a home.

…so where does the interior designer come into this ‘budget’ game?
Well, you may want to consider their services on two levels:

• Idea. If you do not feel you are up to creating the layout, the style, the idea for the place – this is the first problem designers can help you with. Depending on your budget and plans, this can be anything from online help (you send photos / floor plans, designer sends back his version), through to one-off consultation at home, then creating the mood board (which will gather your colour / style / furniture ideas and give you a feel for the proposed space), up to the visualisation stage, furniture and accessories suggestions, etc.
• Implementation. If after that you still are unsure you can find those unique items, or really you’re not up to customizing or simly can’t spend time rummaging through second-hand shops and going to auctions, the decorator can act as your buying agent and source everything that is required for your unique place. Even more so, depending on the extent of their services, they can customize objects for you. Perhaps they sell their furniture and accessories already?

And if you go for the interior design services, remember: ALWAYS be open and frank. You remember the previous article? “The more your tastes are communicated, the happier the outcome.  Also, have a specific budget in mind.  Honesty is always the best policy.” Say that you want customised. Or say that you want know-off. Say that you’re not afraid of vintage. Say that you hate the standard. Or that you love The standard, you just can’t afford it. And so on, and so forth…

…so, good luck with designing on a budget, whatever it is :).

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