Wow, that was a long time away from this little corner of the internet! I thought I’d make my reappearance with some current pictures of our paler living space, to combat winter in the UK we have created a lighter interior to brighten the darkest seasons. We’ve had enough of moody greys casting a slight gloom around the sitting room and kitchen and felt we needed to make the space more neutral. The grey we had previously turned out to be too blue in here, so we have brightened the place up with a paler feel in anticipation of so many grey days spent indoors.
My unplanned hiatus began back at the end of July with a wonderful week of slowing down and soaking up some good weather vibes in Tenerife with friends and an August trip to Burgundy with some comet watching, river wading and lots of sparkling wine. Then home to prepare all the things that need to be done for the approaching seasons in the store. How did we suddenly find ourselves ankle-deep in autumn leaves at the beginning of another wet and windy November?
The first pale upgrade is sitting on a new sofa that was kindly given to us by Sofa.com. I have had my heart set on one of their designs made up in linen for ages, and have spent way too much time creating different looks for their many sofas on their site. So when they got in touch it felt very serendipitous indeed. We settled after much deliberation on the modern but comfy shape of the Izzy and hoped it would sit nicely alongside our older sofa as they are both of similar stature, mission complete.
Having dreamed of a linen sofa for a long while now, we chose the beautifully pale Belgian Linen is the Canvas colour-way. It should crush nicely to a pleasing crumple with use and we were also able to get the cushions filled especially with hypoallergenic fibres, not feathers so they should need less plumping.
The only downside to all this linen excitement is cream not being a colour so compatible with two cats who actually love to wade up to their knees in mud and puddles in our marsh-like back garden all autumn and winter. Nevermind, it will have a dusky pink linen throw (as modelled by Wallis on Instagram) draped lovingly over it from September to April. She has already claimed the right-hand seat and the back rest and we can’t keep her off it.
When selecting, I went for neat and roomy but not too bulky from front to back, as the depth is always a deciding factor in furniture choices around here. We did also have a mad hot crush on the Bluebell for a week or two, but it is quite deep and our room is modestly sized along with its doorways. We also knew whichever sofa we decided on would also most likely be seen side-on from the kitchen so we decided happily to keep it neat with the Izzy.
To lighten up the dark afternoons and evenings I chose the rustic ‘Milk Urn Table Lamp’ given to us by the generous folks at Olive & The Fox. They have some beautiful lights but the textured plaster base of this is a timeless style I have been hunting for and has a linen shade that casts a warm glow over the whole room, it’s also lovely light to read by.
The other change is the walls – we have finally swapped the grey for white (we bought Atelier Ellis – Tabula Rasa after using it on the bedroom ceiling and loving the soft white). It has already made such a difference to the light in both the lounge and the kitchen, plus helped to lighten and uplift us too.
The curtains are natural linen tablecloths from Etsy and an antique linen and lace curtain that was rescued from a château somewhere in France (found on eBay). Light and airy but with a gently crushed feel keeps everything looking cosy in the evenings. I love layering the sheer linen gauze on top and pinning it up in different ways, it also helps to diffuse the red of our neighbour’s brickwork which reflects into this room.
I have also added a pile of homemade cushions from scraps of Liberty fabric, brushed cotton, linen and cream silk damask that I have been holding onto for years, it felt great to get the sewing machine out and stitch up some squares, I rarely make time for that now I am garden obsessed.
Now we are getting into fire lighting season all that whites and creams will be warmed up with candles, twinkly lights, foraged twigs, branches, and homegrown seedheads like the Crambe Cordifolia (flowering sea kale) that you can see tied up over the light fitting in the corner. Every year out in the garden we tie this baby in, reinforce it and try to save its magical 5-foot tall stem from being snapped off in the raging coastal winds up here, this year – success. There is a danger of it ending up looking a bit Narnia-ish in here but who cares?!
I always like to keep collections of inspiration gathered over the passing months around me, this year I have pale and delicate snail shells collected from a secret garden, shooting stars handmade by a friend on the banks of a shaded river in France, packets of collected seed and some special handmade ceramic pieces.
November and December rituals will include warming spiced cider burning these wonderful French incense papers and my favourite scented candles to delicately scent the room, making seasonal decorations beside the fire and the most exciting – planning what we will plant for the garden next spring. That’s all for now from our happy paler living space – the weekend beckons and a pot of Anna Jones’s ‘Not Chicken Soup‘ needs to be made.
