A stylist’s inspiration

4 Jun

People often ask me if I get ‘house envy’ while I am working, the answer is, ‘very rarely, if I am honest’. Once you start interviewing someone you quickly realise how much blood, sweat and tears goes into making a home beautiful and I have always had more than enough of that on my plate with my own home! However, the homeowners I meet definitely inspire me and often educate me. I get first hand accounts and tips on project management and space planning and sometimes the owners become friends which is delightful, of course. I thought I would give you a whistle stop tour of moments at work which have really made me sit up straight and think F**k I want that!!

The image above is probably my favourite image, from my favourite house, that we have ever shot. This dining area belonged to Fiona and James Denholm, an interior designer and architect team based in Comrie, Perthshire, now retired and moved to a smaller but equally beautiful home. I have always loved Fiona’s sense of style, and her ability to combine up-to-the-minute interior design with nature.

My image choices are very personal, they are not necessarily exciting - a home is for living and I often find very colourful and exciting ‘Instagram ready’ homes difficult - I love to visit and they are undoubtably beautiful, but I have said before, my life is quite stressful, I am renovating a house, running a business, my children are off out in the world, so, when I am at home, I want to feel comfortable, rather than stimulated….

You will find all my favourite images here on Pinterest. I always advise anyone renovating to collect images they love to help them identify their own sense of stye and to keep them on track during a project. It is honestly so useful.

To me this is a very inspiring image -

The owner, Liz, lives in a remote spot on the west coast. She is a very creative lady, and has managed to build a house overlooking the Sound of Mull on a modest budget. She rustled up the kitchen depicted above in a tight space, cleverly mixing old and new: Ikea cabinets, with a vintage butchers block and plate rack; a salvaged Belfast sink; a distressed but beautiful little fabric fronted wall cupboard and a stainless steel fronted dishwasher; a trio of designer pendant lights above the sink and vintage style lights over the island. It has ticked a lot of the boxes I want to cover in my own kitchen: a Belfast sink, a range cooker, and an island unit. I worry that I do not have space, for my list, but this image makes me realise I do.

Clearly the view is the star of Liz’s dining area, above, on the right, but I also like the handy blackboard and the simplicity of the furnishings and accessories: vintage grain sack fabric, white wooden Venetian blinds for when the sun is low. I would love a blackboard wall in my new kitchen, for menu planning and shopping lists.

I am so excited about having a dining area of my own soon and being able to enjoy styling it…

It is likely to be summer 2024 when we ‘do’ our kitchen, but in the meantime, we are starting on our back garden, very shortly, which will actually be an extension of our future kitchen: sliding patio doors will lead out from our dining area onto a patio, complete with an outdoor eating space and kitchen and a fire pit for evening lounging.

The image below is a useful reminder to me why I have chosen sliding patio doors for my dining area rather than the more fashionable bi-folds - you definitely get more glass to frame with these beauties and we honestly do not have weather that requires doors to be wide open very often here in Northumberland!

Moving quickly on to our bathroom, I love this clever layout below, on the left - the bath is beside the window and the loo and basin are hidden behind the mirrored partition.

I am NOT going to do this in my bathroom, I don’t really want a full length view of myself getting into the bath and my bathroom is not big enough to need a partition, Just thought it was clever and I like the oil painting - yes to art in bathrooms!!

The bathroom above is a similar scale to mine. I love that it houses a gorgeous piece of artwork by Douglas Gordon. I also like the neat ledge behind the loo, which hides the cistern and adds a handy shelf. I am not keen, however, on the ‘semi freestanding bath’ - I will go ‘full-freestanding’ under the window!

In fact art can go everywhere… The images below are from the wonderful Linda Gault’s home, a cottage in Pittenweem. Linda is a super-stylish lady who has collected art and antiques all her life.

Hallways make great art galleries actually…

The hallway above belongs to my friend, Sam Withall, owner of Sams By The Sea. Sam also lives in Pittenweem - where all the best people seem to live! I love Sam’s palette, stark and moody, with loads of texture. The stone stairs were covered in centuries old red stair paint, she spent lockdown removing it… hence why I love seeing people’s beautiful homes and admire them hugely but I don’t get house envy!

I enjoyed writing this post, found it really useful to collect my thoughts, add to my Pinterst boards. I am grappling with my kitchen, bathroom and hallway plans quite intensely at the moment. Our living room is nearly done, I need to address the bedrooms and the offices as well, and the back garden but I will tackle them in a separate blog post.

I would love to hear about your current projects, anyone else collect inspiring images on Pinterest?

Let’s connect!