Hello there my lovely readers!

It’s been a long time hasn’t it? I’ve been extremely busy with work and due to now being on lock down (thanks coronavirus), it seemed like the perfect time to settled down and start sharing with you all some rather big news and what I’ve been up to when I’m not at work designing kitchens.

 

If you follow me on instagram, then you probably already know that my partner and I after 11 and a half years took the plunge and bought our first home together!

We were so excited to start looking and thought it was going to be a lot of fun. Let me tell you, the search was NOT easy.

(Image credit: Luff & Wilkin)

Long story short, the estate agent that was selling the property we ended up buying were useless and didn’t know how to do their job properly. We found this place which was a dream come true for us and made a conditional offer if we can get the lease to allow Sam to run his business from home. The agency didn’t even tell the seller that we were interested and told us it wold cost us £7,000 to get the lease change or even have an amendment attached. We ended up pursuing it through another agency, who told us the seller had no idea we were interested, and that the management company can just write a letter of consent, free of charge, to allow Sam to run his business from the premises. What!? However, because we saw our future home with the original agency, we had to unfortunately buy it through them, even though they BROKE THE LAW and didn’t inform the seller of our interest and offer. This was extremely frustrating as we could have moved in sooner if they did their job properly.

Anyway, 8 months later (yes really) and we get our keys!

(Images above: Waterfords Camberley and Prospect Camberley)

Over the next few days I’ll be able to show you guys what I’ve been up to in our new home, including product boards and colour combinations. For now, I wanted to show you the before images of our apartment and the beginning stages of redecorating. All images of the apartment above and below are the estate agents photos. We got to see the apartment four times before we got our keys, twice whilst the previous tenants still lived there and then twice once they had moved out and with the apartment being completely empty.

(Images above: Waterfords Camberley and Prospect Camberley)

I moved in first to get started on the redecorating. Virtual tour of our new home before for you to see below:

We needed to get the bedroom liveable so I could start sleeping in our home and get the second bedroom turned in to a studio so that Sam can move in and start working from home straight away. This was the fun part that I had been waiting for. The decorating!

We first started off ripping up the old carpets in both bedrooms as they really needed to go.  Below is a small time-lapse of me being a strong independent feminine power house and ripping up the carpet! I love love LOVE DIY! Give me some wood and a saw, and I will get crafting!

After that I sanded down all the skirting boards and door frames in both rooms. I then wiped them down with a damp cloth and sanded them all over again to ensure I got a nice smooth finish. I did the same thing to the windowsills as well. When I’m redecorating, I like to make sure that I’m giving everything a bit of TLC.

I was so excited to start unleashing myself on what was essentially a blank canvas! Goodbye ugly magnolia walls! HELLO COLOUR!!

Before I could pick the carpets for the bedrooms, I needed to think about what colour was going to be on the walls because that was going to influence what we then have on the floor.

I am a nightmare for picking a colour because I am such a huge colour fanatic and I wanted the paint to be eco friendly with little to no VOCs. I wanted to be sure that my home will be in keeping with my values of living as responsibly and sustainably as possible.

So I ordered samples from the following companies:

• Earthborn Paints – Made from clay and natural colours.
• Farrow & Ball – Low to no VOCs and they are really high quality paints.
• Little Greene – Also low on VOCs and a great selection of colours to choose from.
• Lakeland Paints – Eco-friendly and no VOCs, as well as lots of colours to pick!

I had an idea on what colours I’d like to use where, but it’s hard to choose the one on a computer screen. So of course I ordered as many samples as I could!

I painted each colour on to a piece of paper so that I could hold them up in the rooms I intended them for to see how they look in different lights. I pretty much had all the colours of the rainbow on my living room floor at one point! What do you think about these colours? I loved them all and found it very difficult to choose! But I managed to narrow it down to the following:

Living room – Shrimp Pink from Little Greene and Delilah from Earthborn Paint

Sam’s studio/gaming room: – Can Can from Earthborn Paint

Master Bedroom – Lily Lily Rose – Earthborn Paint

 

I even started collecting a few plants along the way… I couldn’t help myself. I have since bought 3 more plants for the apartment, but you’ll get to see them later on in the process. I have 12 plants in our apartment at present, and I have 6 plants still at Sam’s parents house waiting to come home… Don’t judge!

Unfortunately, that’s all I have from the very beginning stages. I’m really excited to show you what we’ve done with the apartment so far! Keep an eye out for more posts to come over on my blog. But, if you can’t wait that long, there are a few sneaky peeks on my instagram @danica_interiors where my all too impatient boyfriend has posted images.

The next post will be about his studio room as that is the only room in the apartment that is actually totally and completely finished.

Let me know what you think so far!

Please keep safe my lovelies! Stay home, stay inside and I’ll speak to you all soon!

Danica x