The Big Home Reboot

I live in a rented white house that looks deceptively small from the outside. I'm not only not in a position to buy a house but I don't think I will be for more than a decade so while I am renting I firmly intend on staying in this house and making it more of a home than it has been to us these past three years. I spend a lot of time at home due to my illness and while it's never quite clean or uncluttered I like it to feel safe and also to look pretty so while I spend my time here my surroundings are somewhat inspiring. I've been somewhat lacking in inspiration lately and so while I have some time and good health (fingers crossed) on my side I'm dedicating my time to making a few little tweaks here and there.

I've already started in the office and in the girls' room and while they're not quite finished I don't have the money to update them all at the same time so new things will be added as and when. It's safe to say that I'm pretty happy so far though as I don't think on my limited budget I'll ever have a Pinterest-worthy home. Also with it being a rented house things like the flooring, tiles etc can't be changed without a great deal of effort and money on my part which I absolutely can't do so for me it's all in the paint, furniture and furnishings. The next big effort on my list is to update parts of the kitchen but more on that in a minute.

There's nothing cheaper or more simple to update a room than some bright blooms. I've really been into plants lately which is quite the departure for me as I'm a notorious flower killer. I can keep dogs and children alive but plants? No chance. However the front garden looks so bare and run down against the pretty houses on the street with their blooming bushes whereas we have...grey slabs. A lot of grey slabs. I hung some baskets over the front door that I hope will bloom in the next few months with bright pansies and trailing flowers to make it look just that little more homely. Since we live opposite a pub I don't want to add pots etc as we seem to get a lot of litter from passers by - from kebab wrappers to cigarette packets and glasses from the pub - it just seems like it's giving them ammunition when they're drunkenly arguing next to my front wall so these hanging baskets seem a little bit more sensible. It's something I've wanted since day one but something that's always been right at the bottom of the list so this year is the year of the plants. I've got a little herb garden growing on my kitchen windowsill, a small bunch of dainty flowers on my coffee table and a tiny plant in a little hot pink watering can on my kitchen table so there's been progress on the flower front.

Unrelated to the kitchen reboot but is it sad that I'm excited to have a light pull? In the bathroom there's just been a dangling cord for three years so when I found a co-ordinating light pull in Wilkinson for £2 I was slightly overcome with joy, rushed to the checkout and couldn't wait to put it on. It adds nothing for anyone coming in to the bathroom but for me, it's everything.

Alas, the kitchen. The room where I try to avoid as much as possible but love the fruits of the labour. This is the table I drink coffee at in the mornings, drink red wine around in the evenings and it's only now I've realised how much it needs updating. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad in there at all but I feel like I'm missing something. I want some kind of storage on top of the fridge. I want to paint the cork board white, add plastic wallets and a some kind of plastic vertical letter holder so I can really use it as command central for important bills, appointments and notices. Do you have a child in school? The amount of information to remember and handouts especially for the parents - it takes over, it really does. I'd just like to make it look a little more streamlined as it's gone a bit mental at the moment. As for the table I have dreams of recovering the seats with a bright yellow chevron or polkadot fabric and painting it white - what do you think? Any colours you think that would work better? The entire area just needs a little bit of a revamp and it's first on my list in the next month or two so I'd love to know your thoughts.

PS. Don't look at my oven. I'm in the market for a new oven cleaner that'll actually work on those horrible ground in bits.