A 2018 Flat Update

Steve and I have been living in our flat for a year and a half now and I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by. Despite our tiny little space only comprising of three rooms, it's taken a while to get just right. I'm definitely not finished with the flat yet, there's a few things I'd like to add to the living room / kitchen area, plus we're still using a spare bed and bedside tables from my parents that I'd eventually like to replace. But aside from those extremely minor details the flat is more or less a finished article.

The nice things about living somewhere so small is having the ability to spend a little more than I usually would on furniture. Steve and I haven't had to buy much so when we have, we've splurged a little on investment pieces. We've taken our time to make sure we've really thought about what works with our needs and the space. When furnishing a new home I think an important thing to bear in mind is that you don't need to furnish the place right away. You can start with the essentials and move on from there. Take your time to save up, research, and really think about what you want. Once you've lived in a new space for a few months you might realise that your original ideas aren't actually that practical.

When we first moved in we were lucky that we were able to borrow a bed and a sofa, that left us with bar stools at the top of our must have list. I gave these a lot of research and we splurged on a pair from Normann Copenhagen which I still adore 18 months later. It took us a good six months to finally settle on a sofa and rug but we ended up with a DFS x French Connection Zinc three seater and La Redoute afaw berber style rug, both firm fan favourites. The coffee table is a West Elm number that I coveted for almost a year before purchasing, and even our extremely extra Branbantia bin took over a year to settle on. I've also splurged on a few designs pieces that I've loved ever since taking an interest in interior design. The Uten.Silo, Artek E60 stool, and String pocket shelf were a Christmas treat to myself after dreaming of owning these pieces for years. However, with all that in mind I am still a huge fan of the highstreet and have been able to pick up many accessories from the likes of H&M Home, IKEA, Tiger, and independent sellers on Etsy.

My original dream of a minimalist, Scandinavian inspired home isn't quite how the flat is looking these days. As hard as I try I am a maximalist at heart and as you can see my cookbook and house plant collection is out of control. As much as I love the flat we just don't have an awful lot of space, or storage, so it gets busy. But I try hard to keep everything in a place and not let it get too cluttered.

An area of the flat I've really had to be careful with is the kitchen. Whilst we have a huge amount of worktop space, which I adore, we don't have a lot of storage underneath, which means I'm very picky when it comes to choosing kitchen appliances. I'm a huge fan of KitchenAid, and I use my blender and mixer all the time when cooking one of the many recipes from my cookbook collection. I've been interested in trying one of their food processors for quite some time and fortunately JD Williams sent me the Classic Food Chopper to try out. I love how small this appliance is, it looks cute whilst not taking up a huge amount of space, perfect for those with a small kitchen. But don't let the size fool you, the chopper is powerful and can easily reduce your vegetables to small chunks. I've used it in recipes that require a lot of chopping and it's worked a charm, plus it's much quicker than manually chopping everything with a knife.

I love my little flat and whilst I wish we had more space I think we've done a great job with what we've got. I love having guests over and despite being one of those annoying people who doesn't allow people to walk on the rug with their shoes on, I think the space is cosy and welcoming.

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