feature – Home at Rose Cottage – Northern Irish Lifestyle Blog

Hello there!

If you follow me over on Instagram you will know I’ve had a photographer in today taking some photos of Rose Cottage for a local magazine. We have featured in one before just over a year ago, so it was a pleasure to do it again! My inbox has been flooding with messages asking about the experience so I thought it would be easier to put all the info into a blog post.

Here’s everything you need to know about appearing in an Interior Magazine (in my own experience!!!)

You don’t always need to be asked

From the messages I’ve received, everyone assumes you always get asked to feature; but, this is not always the case! If you think you have a beautiful home you can contact the magazine yourself, send over some images and ask to be considered.

2. You will most definitely feel like a dirty bruit

Because you become this mad cleaning person, who wants to clean everything in sight, you will find masses of dirt in places you didn’t even know existed!…Queue thinking you could grow spuds behind your sofa!

3. You will spend alot of time faffing

Painting over toothpaste splatters, delicately positioning potatoes in a crate and karate chopping cushions will only be a few crazy activities you will undertake in preparation.

4. Hiding anything that is even remotely ugly

This may include bins, tv buttons, multi-coloured plastic toys and even family members; which leads me on to….

5. Bailing your family out

You most definitely will not want any small people hanging about on the day of the shoot (Kids and expensive camera equipment will not mix) so I recommend getting rid of them as soon as you can – a week before the shoot is just about perfect!!

6. You will become the most awkward and out of place thing in your own home

Trying to keep out of the way of the photographer is hard, especially if you don’t live in a big house.

7. You will be out of money

You will convince yourself your home needs to be able to feed the 5000 and have more fresh flowers than chelsea flower show.

8. The experience will be as enjoyable as you make it

Take your time, enjoy your home and soak it all up!

As always if you have any questions, please get in touch!

Hope you enjoy reading, as much as I enjoy writing!

INTERIORS

Garden Transformation

July 2, 2019 Home at Rose Cottage

Hello there!

Well…..hasn’t this post has been a loooooong time coming?! We have been in Rose Cottage over 3 years now and the outside has been left completely untouched. (Apart from my Dad taking the head staggers with the weed killer when they outgrow him!!!) We have quite a lot of outdoor space and it has been overwhelming for us to know where to start. A few weeks ago I decided I needed to start somewhere; I didn’t want to let another year go by without doing anything. Neither the Hubby or I have any skills in the gardening department, but with some guidance from my Dad I got to work!

When my Grandparents lived in Rose Cottage, my Granda would be out pottering about outside everyday rain or shine. For his 70th Birthday my parents bought him a greenhouse, which Dad constructed outside the backdoor on top of some old reclaimed brick. This greenhouse stood proudly there until around 2 years ago, when we sent it off to another home to be loved. From then, like the rest of the outdoors, it was let go wild!

Before:

I started by weeding and clearing the whole area. This was a hard graft both physically and emotionally; I was finding little pots and gardening tools I remembered my Granda having in the greenhouse, so it was bringing lots of memories back. This made me annoyed at myself for letting it get so out of hand, but it also made me more determined to make it a space which he would be proud of.

After it was cleared, I put down some heavy plastic both inside and outside the bricked area to keep the weeds at bay; then white stones inside and large bark on the outside. I added some slim wooden posts to the fencing and attached solar powered festoon lights on top from B&M.

I wanted to put all the plants in pots as my track record at keeping them alive is not good! (Means I can replace them when needed!) I am also a massive fan of faffing, so can easily move them about as often as I like!!

All the pots and plants were picked up from Home Bargains, B&M, TKMaxx and B&Q.

The table and chairs are from Argos and linked here (its currently on offer too!)

Solar powered lanterns are from B&M.

I cannot believe I have such a nice outdoor space now to enjoy! It was such hard work, but boy was it worth it! Now to sort out the rest!!!

If you have any questions as always please get in touch.

Hope you enjoyed reading, as much as I enjoyed writing!

INTERIORS

Harry’s Bedroom Makeover

June 17, 2019 Home at Rose Cottage

Hi there!

I can hardly believe we are at this stage with Harry….moving him into a big boy bed! I knew time would fly when we had him (because everyone and their Granny warns you!!) but I really cannot take it in!

For any one who missed out on what his wee room was like before, I’ve linked 2 blog posts below…who doesn’t love a good before and after eh?!

Harry’s Little Room

Harry’s Room gets a little make over in Collaboration with Søstrene Grene

In preparation for the change, I did hours of scrolling on Instagram and Pinterest for inspiration. I kept saving and pinning images all with a similar bed frame, so knew this was the one! I built the jungle theme around the bed and after numerous Ikea visits and online basket checkouts his room was finished!

Bed Frame (We added the storage drawer, side rail and matress) – Buy here

Tiger Mat – Local Selling Site

Trunk – Bedeck (Was black leather which I white washed with Annie Sloan paint)

Plant – Ikea

Basket – Primark

Building Blocks – The Works

Animal Heads – https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/home/shop-by-room/kids-room.html

Cushions – https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/home/shop-by-room/kids-room.html and Sostrene Grene

Bedding – Scion from Bedeck

Plush toys – Ikea

Prints – https://desenio.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzbLF38iO4AIVBrDtCh010QV0EAAYASAAEgIkgvD_BwE

Frames and snake – Ikea

Green Leaves – Ikea, attached to the bed frame with cable ties

Born to be Wild Print from Desenio – Link above

Giraffe print, frames, zebra vase – Poundland

Plush toys – Ikea

Wooden Crate – Sostrene Grene and I added hanging luggage tag from Next

Curtains – Ikea

Bags – H&M Home (Linked above) and Sostrene Grene (Gifted from previous collaboration)

Prints – Desenio and Poundland

Wire basket, giraffe and frames – Poundland

Mice and plant- Ikea

As you can see this little lion is loving his new room and bed! Lets hope that means lots and lots of sleep in it!!!!

I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the makeover! I’ve tried my best to tell you where everything is from and given links where I can; but as always, if you have any questions please get in touch!

Hope you enjoyed reading, as much as I enjoyed writing!

INTERIORS

Bathroom Update

May 19, 2019 Home at Rose Cottage

Hi there!

I have been a bit of a rubbish blogger recently, I’ve even been too busy to do much on Instagram as the makeover of the bathroom and spare room has completely taken over my life and the house!!! I don’t know about you, but when I attempt to re-decorate anything the whole house ends up a total tip!

If you’ve been following me over on Instagram for a while you will remember I re-decorated this bathroom around a year ago. Although I felt it was an improvement from what it had been before, I still didn’t love it. It just seemed too plain and lacking the ‘wow’ factor. At this point you can feel very sorry for Ash (my Hubby), as he had to listen to my moaning. (Which he felt was ridiculous as I had chosen everything in the room – so why wouldn’t I like it?!!)

Ignoring Ash (!!!) I ploughed on scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest to get some new ideas, determined to fall in love with this room. When I seen the gorgeous Sam from Dove Cottage (Find her bathroom update blog here ) I seen stars and knew panelling was the way to go…

I was determined to keep my costs down and do as much of the makeover myself as possible, so bought the pieces of wood cut to size from here – I chose Standard MDF, 3mm thickness. The total cost of the wood was under £30. I stuck the pieces of wood to the walls with ‘no more nails’ which was so easy for me to do myself! (Even my Dad the DIY king of Rose Cottage was impressed!!)

The paint used was Dulux – Polished Pebble on top (which was the colour already on the walls); and Crown – City Break on Panelling.

I added some lighting to the wall, but didn’t want the hassle or cost of bothering with electrician, wires, cutting into walls etc. I bought these lights here, which are meant to be electric but stuck a battery push button light into them instead!

The mirror is from Dunelm, you can find it here.

I picked up the frames and prints from Ikea.

This is one of the Ikea Shoe Cabinets which I have popped into our bathroom, as the storage in it is amazing and I love that everything is hidden and stored in one place. I’ve dressed with with a few accessories on top.

The flooring is vinyl and was bought and fitted by Stephen Moore Carpets in Lisburn.

So this was a long time coming, but I can confirm it is now my absolute favourite room in Rose Cottage and I cannot stop popping into it for a stare! I am so looking forward to lots of hot, bubbly baths in it!

Hope you enjoyed reading, as much as I enjoyed writing!

Tag: feature

Everything you need to know about appearing in an Interior Magazine

Garden Transformation

Harry’s Bedroom Makeover

Bathroom Update