I found this link through another blog that I follow, but wanted to share some of the beautiful photos from it here. This Swedish real estate company uses a professional photographer to dress and take photos of the beautiful properties they have for sale so it looks like something out of a Homes magazine. Click here to see more...
What a clever storage idea! Hang spare guest chairs on walls if you dont have space to store them on the floor in a small flat. Then use them as shelves for pretty objects. One in a bedroom to store summer hats on would also be nice!
French Connection launched a really lovely homewares range last year. This January in the sales I managed to get myself a great deal on a pale grey linen throw and some matching bed cushion covers. Here are some other nice photos from their range as a nice change from bathroom taps!
I'd then line the drawers with sunshine coloured wall paper like this (below), called Little Trees from Missprint, available from this website
Or Saplings, also from Missprint:
Or Dandelion, also from Missprint:
Rather than making bed boxes from scratch, I realised that if these IKEA PAX wardrobe drawers (called Komplement) were just a little bit shorter, they would work perfectly! Figured I'd share the idea anyway as a pair of these would probably do the trick for someone looking for extra storage space, and I wanted to remember the idea!
Take two of these IKEA Komplement drawers (£22 each). They are 160mm tall:
Then just screw in four of these 50mm diameter rubber tyre swivel casters (Pack of four from Screwfix for £13.95). They are 64mm tall.
Or, if tight is space, try some of these single direction low profile castors which are just are 28mm tall. (Slightly less preferable as then you have to pull the drawer out perfectly straight)
Now that I have some space under my bed, I've decided it would be useful to have some under-bed storage drawers on castors for ease of use. Looking on line turned up a number of options, but they are all too tall to fit. The time wasnt wasted as it gave me some good ideas. Looks like a weekend DIY project is in the works...
This is the sort of thing I was envisioning...
What a brilliant idea for a kids bedroom!
These economical guys are from IKEA, but are too tall to fit.
I like the natural wood and circular pull hole, but these are also too tall, and rather expensive.
I spent the whole day today successfully de-cluttering, and re-organising all the storage cupboards in the flat. I cleared out all the kitchen cabinets, (throwing out any expired food cans), emptied my wardrobes (gathering two big bags of clothes to donate to the charity shop), organised my clothes and managed to put some order into the jumble of building materials stored beneath my bed. Phew!
Narrow Converse shoe boxes made the perfect home for my collection of coloured tights!
Pile of rubbish I managed to clear out
Under Bed - Before
Under Bed - After (I've learnt that it is useful to still keep some of the good bits of wood for future DIY projects, so that's why some remain!)
I decided to start my flat resolutions with the chimney draught-proofing in the hopes of keeping the flat a little cosier for the remainder of the winter. Online forums suggest two methods for draught-proofing non-used chimneys:
The problem with method 1 is that, as you can see from the above photos of the two chimney flues, there is a vast amount of space to fill. Little balls of news paper would just pile up in the void and I'd never be able to achieve an air tight seal. (The silver tube is the new flue lining the ground floor flat owner put in so he could use his chimney without smoking out the other flats!)
In reading about method 2, there were numerous complaints about the product, stating that it deflated quickly, punctured easily, and was difficult to inflate in situ (as i can well imagine!).
So, my brilliant solution was to combine the best aspects of both of these ideas into one. I filled two large plastic garbage bags with crumpled newspaper for each chimney flue. After stuffing one bag into place, by holding on the ties of it I could hold it in place while inserting the second bag. Pulling both ties down created a nice neat plug.
I used the cheque that I received from my dad for my birthday gift to buy this cute Tab floor light to use as a bed side reading light. I dont have a bedside table, so this light is perfect for the job - Im so pleased with how cosy it looks. Perfect for those long dark winter nights that are setting in....Thanks Dad!
After a day of struggling, the second pair of bedroom shutters finally went in. Because we had straightened up the window frames during the refurbishment, and infilled all the notches in the shutters, they no longer fit so needed to be planed down around the edges in order to close and then the paintwork re-touched up. 
I was so pleased to finally, after a year of waiting, have one set of bedroom shutters installed that it has motivated me to start working on the second pair. I have spent some time sanding and filling them this weekend, and now they also have their base coat on each side. In the detailed photo you can see how Flo has infilled the cutouts where the old hinges went with new wood. Just 3 more coats to go each side and they will be ready to hang.
I have been slowly working away sanding and painting the shutters which we took down and had stripped almost a year ago today. They are grey on the inside so they match the fireplace when closed, and white on the outside so when folded into the pocket it looks like a wall panel. 