Recycled teak candle holder
We’re always interested to hear about recycled and ethical goods such as this rustic teak tealight holder from Twizzles priced at £11.95.
The three storey teak folding tealight is made from recycling teak from old ox carts, buildings and tree stumps in Thailand. With space to hold three tea lights or night lights it is a beautiful decorative item and would make an ideal gift.
I have blogged a couple of times lately about the Cox & Kings blogger challenge I was invited to take part in. With a budget of two hundred and fifty pounds I had to decorate a room in an Indian theme.
As I said in an earlier post I opted for our living room as we still hadn’t put our own stamp on it since moving in eighteen months ago. This is a room which will stay like this so I wanted to spend the money wisely.
I didn’t put the room together until I bought everything so I did have a few days of wondering whether I had gone too far with all the bright colours. I can be quite adventurous with décor at times and I’m not afraid of being a bit different but I was hoping that I wasn’t going to end up with a room which required sunglasses upon entering. Luckily I think I managed to get everything just right.
Buying cushions was the obvious place to start and all mine were bought from the One World Shop, the Fair Trade retailer. They have a fabulous selection and I opted for different cushions – a mixture of sequinned covers and a couple more plain ones.
The One World shop was a fantastic discovery and most of what I bought came from there. The photo frame is made of Indian mango wood as is the mirror. I love the way the wood, rather than the glass, is the feature.
Lamps and lampshades don’t appear to play a big part in traditional Indian rooms but when they do they tend to have that wow factor. So I chose carefully with this natural leaf tower lamp from The One World Shop and the Maidstone Clear Pendent from Harry Corry. I love both of them.
The mosaic bowl is, again, from the One World Shop. It feels very well made, and solid enough that even if it gets dropped it should survive intact. It makes a great centerpiece for the coffee table.
Think of Indian décor and wall hangings come to mind. There really are some stunning ones on the market. I bought this one from New Age Living and I am really happy with it. It doesn’t domineer the room and the detail in it is beautiful. I love it.
My little black pod chair in the corner received a make-over thanks to Pilgrimms Bazaar with this colourful Indian throw.
I also picked up a few bargains along the way. This decorative vase was £5 in TK Maxx, and the three tealight holders came to £9.99, bought from Argos.
After weeks of planning and shopping I think everything came together nicely. With so many reds, oranges and pinks it could be easy to get it wrong but I do think most accessories are designed to enable you to blend the different colours. It’s not often you would see so many similar colours together.
I am happy with how the room looks now. It is much more homely. And we have certainly been spending more time in the living room since the transformation.
If you like the room transformation please ‘like’ my entry at Cox & Kings Facebook page. Voting runs from March 12 to March 25 with the winner announced on March 26.
Tapestry stool with storage
This Victorian Tapestry Music Stool is in the style of nineteenth century poet, writer, socialist and designer, William Morris. The floral design is both traditional and modern at the same time
While the cover is timeless, the sturdy wooden frame is a classic design. Designed as a piano stool the lid lifts to provide storage for piano books or anything else you fancy, and who couldn’t do with extra storage?
Past Times sell the piano stool for £70, with free postage for orders over £45.
I posted a couple of weeks back about the blogging challenge I have been involved in for travel company Cox & Kings. And as I said the living room seemed the ideal room to do as it needed doing.
Before the photos go up I thought it would be useful to post a picture of how my living room looks now – a ‘before’ picture.
As you can see from the picture below, it is quite a plain room. We have some photography on the walls but the room lacks colour and it doesn’t quite feel like our room.
But that’s soon to change. One thing I have found out about Indian décor is that they make fantastic use of colours, and there are some great looking accessories out there.
Jackie Cosh
When travel company Cox and Kings approached me about taking part in their blogging challenge to decorate a room in an Indian theme, with the added bonus of being given a free £250, I thought – fantastic! The prospect of spending a couple of Saturdays shopping for home accessories really did appeal.
My first thought was to do our bedroom, but for various reasons I decided that the living room was a much better choice. We have been in the house eighteen months and while none of the rooms desperately needed decorating, the living room is the one room I don’t feel we have put our personal stamp on. I am much more comfortable hanging out in the kitchen than the living room.
It is great to be handed £250 but, as I am sure the other bloggers in the challenge have discovered, it is really not a huge amount. The items I am buying are for keeps so I want them to be good quality, and to be things I will be happy to keep.
So far I have made a start. I have a few carrier bags full of delights and I am waiting for the post man to deliver more. One item (and it was so so beautiful!) was sold out when I tried to order it so I will be hunting for an alternative.
Having spent hours trawling around shops, as well as websites, I have been really pleased to see how much Indian homeware is fair trade.
You can follow our tweets @Homegems and keep updated on the challenge by following the #ckbloggerchallenge hashtag on Twitter.
I’ll add some ‘before’ shots soon.
Jackie Cosh
Along with five other bloggers, we’ve been challenged by Cox and Kings, the luxury holidays travel company who specialise in tailor-made holidays, to decorate a room in an Indian theme!
We’ve been given a budget of £250 to spend on home accessories and a deadline of 9th March, and one of the Home Gems bloggers, Jackie, is tackling her living room. She’ll be along soon to update you with her progress!
Photos of all the finished Indian themed rooms will be posted on the Cox and Kings Facebook page for voting between 12-25 March. In the meantime, you can follow our progress on Twitter and see everyone’s challenge tweets by checking out the hashtag #ckbloggerchallenge
Rachel from Cosy Home Blog
Mary from Mary Poppins
Jess H from Bibbity-Bob
Jess C from That’s Yummy Mummy!
Jenny from The Style PA
Good luck everyone!
Orla Kiely home fragrance
Part of the Orla Kiely home fragrance range, the Fig Tree reed diffuser is a great alternative to a candle and will provide a hassle-free scent in a room.
The eight reeds sit within a pretty bottle, decorated in an iconic Orla Kiely leaf print design.
The Fig Tree reed diffuser set comes boxed, so would make a nice new home gift. It’s in stock at Amara and costs £22.95.
Other scent options are available, including basil and mint and sage and cassis.
Pink flamingo cushion
Remember the lovely pink flamingo cushion we showed you last year?
If you’ve had your eye on it, now’s the time to buy it, as it’s now half price in the John Lewis clearance sale.
The pink flamingos cushion is reduced from £25 to only £12.50. It would be perfect to accessorize a pink bedroom or living room.
Wooden occasional tables
It’s always useful to have a set of small occasional tables that you can use when you’re entertaining for people to put their drinks on.
This set of Nordic nest tables are finished in a Chinese ash veneer and are affordably priced for occasional use.
The tables are in graduating sizes, from small and medium to large, and fit together in a ‘nest’ when not in use.
The set of three Nordic tables costs £40 from Wilkinson Plus.
Gorgeous green footstool
If you’re looking for a footstool and love great design and rich colours, then it’s well worth having a look at what’s on offer at Myakka.
They have a great range of footstools in all the colours of the rainbow, handmade from sari fabric, often with a patchwork effect.
The footstools are sturdy pieces, with strong wooden legs, and they’re filled with hollowfibre wadding to provide lots of comfort when in use.
This particular footstool is the green sari brocade design, and the fresh green colours remind us of spring (it’s also available in red). It costs £44.95 from Myakka.
