Welcome to my new home

Steve and I moved house in February. We moved from a 'seen better days' flat share in Wimbledon to our very own, brand new, one bedroom flat in Putney. The novelty of having our own place is still strong and every day I look around the flat and think to myself how lucky I am to have a place to call my own.

When it comes to interiors I'm a fan of the less-is-more mentality. I am not a minimalist by any stretch of the imagination but I like reasonably clean styles. I am not a fan of obvious colour schemes. Instead, I like white walls, wooden floors and lots of neural colours that flow with each other, with maybe one or two bright items like this yellow stool. Our flat is full of white walls, wooden floors, and a complimentary kitchen aka the perfect backdrop to fit my Scandinavian interior dreams.

Up until now, Steve and I had always lived in rented accommodation so we didn't own much furniture when it came to moving. We had a couple of vinyl storage solutions, an IKEA TV cabinet, an old bookcase, and Steve's Fortnum and Mason hamper. While the flat is far from finished, we have enough furniture to make life comfortable. In fact, we could probably get away without having to buy anything else. However, I have a vision of how I want the place to look and that means buying a few more pieces over the next year.

When it came to buying must needed furniture when we first moved in, bar stools were top of the list. We have a rather large kitchen with a generously sized breakfast bar, instead of space for a table. I'm not a fan of eating on the sofa so bar stools were a top priority. I knew I wanted them to be white with wooden legs and after quick Google I found the perfect piece from Normann Copenhagen. I took a risk and bought these without ever sitting in them. This is not something I'd usually recommend, but there was no way of testing them out in real life. Fortunately, they are extremely comfortable and I couldn't be happier with my choice. They look great which was a key factor as bar stools quite often look awful.

A sofa was another important piece for maximum Netflix comfort and fortunately my parents had an old sofa to give us. It's doing a great job for now but it's not a forever piece. I know I want a mid century style 2.5 person sofa with little wooden legs, in a soft grey, textured fabric. But I haven't yet found my dream piece. I really like these sofas (1, 2, and 3) from West Elm, but I'm not 100% sure yet. For such an expensive purchase I want to make sure it's perfect.

We've already bought this gorgeous arm chair from IKEA that I'd been lusting over for years. It's a great Finn Juhl / Hans Wegner replica so if you're into Danish design, it's a wonderfully affordable alternative. Along with the sofa, we have room for another armchair and I've fallen head over heels for this blush pink, velvet piece from Made. I had a look in the Made showroom recently and it's even more gorgeous in real life. I really like the idea of our seating area being a mixture of colours and I think grey, blue and blush pink will work nicely together.

I've always had a thing for chairs, they're probably my favourite item of furniture due to their versatility and design. They can be real show stopping pieces which is why I'm keen to invest in some good designs once I have a larger home. In the meantime I'd love to get this cute dining chair for our bedroom, however I'm not totally sure we have the space.

I also want to get a coffee table and I've fallen in love with this round, marble piece from West Elm. It's on the expensive side but considering we don't actually need to buy a lot of furniture, I don't mind splashing out. I think it'll look great in our space, plus who doesn't love a bit of marble to luxe things up. Eventually I want to upgrade our TV cabinet for a vintage, Danish teak sideboard, but who knows where I'll go about getting one of those for a reasonable price.

While it's lovely having wooden floors throughout the flat, sometimes it gets a little chilly so I'd love a rug to make the seating area more cosy. I'm in love with this rug from Swoon Editions and think it'll work nicely in our open plan room, plus it's quite affordable compared to similar pieces I've seen online.

Out kitchen is more or less sorted. I want to buy a KitchenAid food processor at some stage (I already have the mixer and blender) but other than that we have everything we could possibly need. Despite having a few bright red KitchenAid appliances I've been trying to keep the kitchen neutral. I love my mint green washing up bowl and I've been slowly building up a collection of plants on the windowsills to inject more green. I love my Dualit toaster and kettle, the cream colour works so well in the space and I even found a matching retro microwave.

I didn't think my old bookcase would fit into the area so well but it's actually perfect and makes an ideal display piece for my cooking and travel books. As you can see, I have quite the collection.

We only have a small bathroom but I asked the builder to put up some shelves above the toilet and they are terrific. I have a lot of junk that I need to store in this room and thanks to the big shelves and Muji storage containers, I can keep everything in one, reasonably neat place. Steve has about five products here (bottom left corner) while everything else belongs to me, oops.

 

I've got a few ornaments scattered around the place to add a little personality and colour. My gold and copper pineapple ice buckets are great fun plus the little green cacti pot Elodie bought me when she stayed over is just gorgeous.

Steve and I found the above mid-century style vinyl storage cabinet in a charity shop last year and it's probably my favourite piece of furniture. Inside you'll find our favourite records but on top I've been using it to display my collection of hygge books as well as fresh flowers (none today, boo). I love the pop of yellow this Ricard jug gives. Steve found it on eBay a while back after I'd seen one in a French restaurant. Steve's Edward Hooper canvas was only placed on top of the cabinet as a temporary fix but I'm quite fond of it now plus I'm not sure where else we'd put it.

The walls of our flat are still a work in progress. We've created a gallery wall above the sofa using posters we've bought at gigs. There's plenty more space to fill so hopefully we'll pick up more posters from upcoming gigs and festivals. I want to get a wire clip board for above our vinyl cabinet and I've got my eye on a white Uten.Silo piece for wall space next to my bookcase. I also want to invest in more plants as I love the contrast of green leaves against white walls. I think a couple of statement cacti will look great alongside a monstera.

I haven't included any photos of our bedroom as it's quite a small space with built in wardrobes so it's not very exciting. We have a double bed and two bedside tables so there really isn't that much to show. We're using an old bed frame at the moment so I'd eventually like to upgrade for something a little more contemporary. I really like this frame from Made but my choice isn't set in stone. This room is definitely at the bottom of my list for styling as I'm more concerned with our large living space.

Even in a one bedroom flat it's a slow pace getting everything just right but I don't mind as it's a rewarding journey. While my interiors vision stays the same I do change my mind when it comes to items of furniture so I don't want to rush into any big decisions without being 100% sure. Hopefully the flat will be more or less finished by the end of the year but I'll be sure to update you on the journey, however long it takes.

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