When I left for the UK at the end of June, I packed one medium suitcase of clothes, shoes and toiletries. When I returned last week, I brought back two large suitcases. What caused the extra baggage?

Mmmm, english chocolate.  How I love thee.  Oh, and not to forget our other finest export…

There’s nothing like a good cuppa tea.  It solves all problems. Well, according to most English soap operas.

In addition to the case load of chocolate and tea I brought back, I did manage to squeeze in a few home decor related items. Like a pair of these crystal pineapple lights:

Although it is designed as a pendant lamp, I’m planning on using it as a wall sconce in the spare bedroom. I also had that makeover in mind when I bought these curtains:

The duck-egg blue, cream and chocolate brown work well with the color scheme I had in mind.  However, I’m not sure I’m actually going use these as curtains.  I might use the fabric to make a pelmet instead, and use the leftovers to make some coordinating pillows for the bed.  I’ll be posting an updated moodboard and inspiration photo for the bedroom makeover shortly.

I also brought back a candlestick very similar to the one below – it was a lovely surprise gift from my mum.

In case I had an extra square inch of room that was not being used up in my suitcase, I brought back a duvet set for our master bedroom (very similar to the one below):

I LOVE that teal color.  So much so that I got a table runner for the dining room in the same palette:

The last items I managed to pack into my overstuffed suitcases were this modern chrome clock, and these wooden letters (actually in white), both of which will live in the dining room.

In fact, the only thing I didn’t manage to bring back was my brother’s adorable spaniel puppy, Ginger…

If I could’ve, I would’ve.  So, that’s the tale of how I managed to double my baggage coming back from the UK.  Let’s not get into how much it cost me in excess baggage charges.  I’m sure it will be all worth it when I see these items in place. What items have you brought back from vacation to use in your home?

If all goes according to plan, we should have family from the UK coming to stay for the Thanksgiving holiday.   Although it’s not on our list of renovation goals for 2010, we really need to make a start at getting at least one of our spare bedrooms more visitor friendly by November. 

 Until recently, the spare bedrooms have been empty shells… well, apart from a few boxes of junk that we’ve never sorted through since our move in 2009:

A couple of weeks ago, I worked up a inspiration moodboard for this room.

It involves repainting the walls a lovely duck-egg blue color, and bringing in some sumptuous chocolate furniture, with touches of turquoise and silver and contrasting red accessories.  I also talked about having a dark bedspread, but funking it up with some graphic black and white sheets and punchy pillows.  Throw in some modern sleek lined furniture and an architectural light, and we had an initial plan for transforming this blah space.

Well, phase 1 of the bedroom makeover is currently underway. We’ve yet to paint the walls – I think this will make the biggest transformation in the room.  When I return to the States at the end of this month, the search will be on for the perfect duck-egg hue (any suggestions?). We have moved some furniture in to the room, making it decidedly less storage-room and much more bedroom.

A brand new queen sized mattress and box springs has been topped with a simple black bedding set and a few cute pillows.  The bed is flanked by two glossy nightstands (that were bought on clearance, score!).  The generic drawer handles were replaced with some funky crystal topped ones, which I think tie in nicely with the brushed nickel finish of the lamps.  The black bedding is only temporary until I can find a more exciting set like one of these.  I do like the graphic pop of the black-and-white sheets and pillow that peek from behind the more subdued cover.

Opposite the bed, an Ikea Hopen dresser (another Craigslist bargain) is topped by three mirrors found at Target, which are great for bouncing light around the room.  The dresser is actually quite large and so has plenty of space for guests to place their foldable items (the door to the left of the dresser is a small walk-in closet).

A few small red accessories have been placed on the dresser, including the very first photo taken of Rick and I when we began dating (10 years ago – eek!).

So, we’re starting to make progress transforming this room in a more liveable space.  There are many things left to do in this room: paint the walls, lay some flooring, change the bedding, bring in some artwork and figure out some cool lighting.

Eventually, I’d like to think about installing a built-in bookcase in that wall where the roof line comes down (instead of that small door).  It might also be cool to install some window seats under those two windows.  That would add a little extra storage and create a nice relaxing space for our guests to chill with a book or to look out the window at the scenery.

I am still looking for design inspiration for this room.  Do you have perfect duck-egg blue paint on your walls?  How about a great architectural light fixture?  Have you built a fab window seat? Help a girl out here and spill the beans!

Following on from Monday’s design inspiration post for the spare bedroom, I started searching the Interwebs to find some nice bedding sets.  Let me preface this by saying I am not a big home decor shopper.  Shocker, I know (in fact, I’m not much of a shopper at all).  So, when I found myself perusing the web for hours some time, oohing and aahhing over duvets and pillows for the spare bedroom, I was a little surprised at myself.  

I managed to find a number of great contenders for the spare bedroom.  So I thought I’d share the eye candy (if you’re not into duvets, then please save yourself the time and don’t bother reading on!).  It’s been several years since I lived in the UK full time, so I was surprised to see that Next, a store that usually deals with fashion and clothing, has a home decor section too.  I spied a cool duvet set when I was out one day this week and made a mental note to check their selection online.  Helloooo my sweeties….

I love the turquoise blue and black combo of this duvet – it would fit nicely with the color scheme I have in mind for the bedroom. 

And talking of turquoise, this duvet had me at hello because of the eye-catching color…

Check out those cute ruffle cushions!  They seem to be in a lot of stores here in the UK, so I guess I’m on to a trend. I do have a hesitation with this bedding though – I’m not sure about all that white. With 5 dogs in our house, keeping white white is quite a task.  Although the duvet is destined to go in the spare bedroom (and therefore mostly a dog-free zone), I still wonder how difficult it would be to keep the white crisp and clear.  So that’s why this blue/black combo caught my eye…

Love it.  Especially with a few colorful pillows thrown on top.  But I also like the monchromatic schemes in these bedspreads…

I think the black & white combo is so versatile – you can literally pair these duvets with any color scheme, like the hot pink shown in the photos on the right.  The benefit of this is that you can swap bedding between bedrooms if the beds are the same size.  So satisfying when design, functionality and frugality come together!

And talking of pink, how about this piiiiiiiink bedspread?

Love the design.  In theory.  Not so sure about the shocking pink actually in situ.  I wish they did this design in another color – teal, turquoise or even black.

So, there you have it.  Which duvet above do you like the most?  Have you checked out the bed linen on the Next home decor site?  Is there another duvet that floats your boat?  Do tell.

In addition to the master suite, we have three bedrooms upstairs.  Well, technically, at the moment we only have two spare bedrooms because one is in the process of being turned into a library (we eventually have plans to turn the attic into a guest suite).  When we have guests over to stay, we usually put them up in the guest room with the adjoining bathroom (this room has been dubbed the “Helen” room in honor of our first house guest, Prof. Helen Haste, last year).  However, this bedroom is no longer usable because of the air handler leak which damaged parts of the ceiling and floor of the Helen room (and not to mention completely trashed the bed!).

Since moving in last year, we haven’t really done much to the second spare bedroom (dubbed the “blood room” because of a dubious stain we uncovered when the carpet was removed). For the last year, it has remained largely in an empty state:

In preparation of sprucing up this room, I thought I’d whip up a little moodboard; some design inspiration if you will…

I’d like to paint the walls a lovely duck-egg blue, replacing the dark mocha color that we inherited in the room.  The duck-egg blue walls will be paired with rich chocolate furniture, and accents of turquoise and silver and a few contrasting pops of red.  I like the idea of having a muted black bedspread, but funking it up with some black and white sheets and some fun pillows.  I love the sleek design of the Hopen dresser from Ikea – it’s actually pretty large so offers plenty of storage space for the unmentionables.  Although this gorgeous leather turquoise chair is way out of budget, I think it is possible to find a similar, much cheaper alternative for this space.  I’m not 100% decided on the lighting for this room.  I really like the architectural lines of the Fillsta light from Ikea, but I am not sure I can quite picture it in the room. I like it, but do I love it?

I am excited to be getting to the fun design and decor aspect of our house makeover.  What aspects of this moodboard catch your eye?  How about that expensive turquoise chair? Are you liking or hating the blue/red color combo?

There is a reason why I am not an optimistic person. Usually, as soon as I start looking on the positive side of life, fate steps in to bring me back to the darker side.  Following my last peppy post, this is exactly what happened. I should have known better than to bask in the glory of the projects we have completed around the house since moving in 6 months ago.  There I was, gleefully claiming that we haven’t had many projects to blog about just recently.  Well, not any more.

Friday afternoon, I noticed that there was a puddle of water on our breakfast table.  I was puzzled by this, but not especially alarmed.  When Rick got home later that evening, I showed him said puddle, which had grown considerably in size. We deduced that the water was dripping down from the kitchen light fixture. We ran upstairs  to the spare bedroom above the kitchen and found this:

A section of the flooring was absolutely soaked through  – this was what was seeping into the kitchen downstairs.  The bedding and mattress were also soaked.  There was significant water damage on the bedroom ceiling, where water had busted through from the attic above:

There was so much water coming through that Rick had to empty the light fixture of the water (we made sure the electric was off!)

In the attic, we found the offender.  The tray under the air handler (for the air conditioning units) was leaking water. It had overflowed so much so that the water seeped through the attic flooring, through the bedroom ceiling, onto the bedroom floor and into the kitchen, two floors down.

As soon as we made this discovery, we called the peeps who have our home warranty and an hour later, a technician came round to look at the problem.  The guy found two issues: apparently, the tray should extend the whole way underneath the airhandler.  Secondly, the tray appears to be cracked, so it wasn’t holding in any of the water at all.  There was not much else that could be done so late on Friday night, except for turning the upstairs air conditioning unit off.  The guy will be ordering a new tray Monday, so hopefully it will be fixed sometime this week.  In the meantime, we need to start thinking about replacing the ceiling sheetrock in the kitchen and spare bedroom, plus the flooring in the attic and bedroom.  We’ll also have to replace that mattress – all that water means that it just isn’t salvageable.  We’re hoping the bedding will come out okay, although I’m not too optimistic.  Back to my usual self then