Cottage Bedroom*

Cottage bedroom by sunae-reilly featuring a glass vase

With my plans to travel Europe coming to fruition later this year, my mind has started to wander off in wild fantasies of running away to the English countryside when I finish uni, buying a cute little cottage and settling down as a homebirthing midwife. I picture myself warming my hands by a fire, drinking tea as I look out the window across snowy fields. Ideally, my little cottage wouldn't be too far from Cornwall, so that in the summer I could drive through the fields, now lush and green, for day trips to the seaside. My cottage would be a little run down when I bought it, but I'd take a lot of pride in renovating and decorating it.

I've recently become a brand ambassador for Graham & Brown and I think their Northern Rose wallpaper would make the perfect feature wall in my cottage's french provincial style bedroom. I'd pair it with furniture in neutral colours. The big, puffy settee, large bed full of cushions and throws, and coloured glass evoke a soft, country vintage charm when paired with the bright and beautiful floral wallpaper. This room would be the kind that you'd happily lounge around in on a Sunday morning, and struggle to leave on a dreary day. Soft blues and pinks in the accessories would tie the room together and sweet smelling candles would perfume the air. 

My dreams of owning an English cottage are a long way off coming true, and I haven't even convinced Jake to come on my holiday with me yet, let alone move half way around the world, but who knows what the future has in store? 

Bright Bedroom Wishlist & Moving Home*

Bright Bedroom by sunae-reilly featuring a hooked rug

Those of you who follow me on various social media platforms will probably already know that I moved back in with my parents this weekend. There were a variety of reasons for this - the main one being my health and I've realised that it's definitely the right option for me at this time in my life. I won't be moving out again in a hurry, and for the first time in a long time, I'm finally going to have the money to decorate a little!

The above colour scheme was inspired by that awesome, lime green bean bag which is from Bean Bag Boss, and the brightly coloured floral duvet cover which is from K-mart and is currently on special for just $29! Moving back into mum and dads means that a lot of my stuff is having to go into storage, and I'll be back to a single bedroom again, so I like the idea of the bean bag so I have somewhere to sit and read, away from the rest of the crazy house, and can just tuck it out the way under the bed or in a corner when I'm done.

This is a slightly brighter take on the pastels that I usually go for, but I love that all I'd have to do is switch out the duvet cover to return to that softer look if I wanted to. I'm currently working on a bright/pastel granny square blanket to fit a double bed and think the pops of colour in this little collage would go really well with the yarn I've chosen. Any guesses what my favourite colour is? Hint: it's everywhere in the above picture! Follow the links below the collage to find out where everything is from! What do you think of this colour scheme? Anything in particular that you love from this collage?

The Dream Rental and a Wednesday Bedroom Wishlist

So, Jake and I have officially started house hunting after inspecting one property on Monday together, and me inspecting another alone  yesterday. It's really starting to sink in that soon all our living arrangement hassles will be over and we will be living together, like we should be!

The unit we went and looked at on Monday was in such a great spot, with views overlooking North Creek and big sliding doors which led out onto a verandah off the living room, but inside it was really disappointing! The photos on the internet made it look quite okay, where in reality, it looked like the chipboard in the kitchen and bathroom cupboards was about to turn to dust, the bedrooms were more like cupboards than anything, and everything was quite chipped and outdated. I wanted to apply for it anyway after looking, convinced that we couldn't afford anything better but Jake wasn't keen at all, and for once I listened to him and agreed we would find something better suited to our needs.

Then we saw this beauty in the real estate listings:

It was a little ($80) over our price range, but I instantly fell in love with it and just knew I had to find a way to convince Jake to let me go to the inspection the next day. I sat down and drew up a budget - one with my estimated weekly earnings doing one day of child care a week plus my benefit, and one with my benefit alone to prove to Jake that even if I had a bad week for work we could still make ends meet in this place with careful budgeting on my part (he is fine, he is about to get a pay rise so Mr. Richpants didn't need a budget drawn up). Although he was a little sceptical of my ability to actually stick to a budget, finally he agreed that I could go and look at the house and see if it suited our needs.

Well, what can I say? IT'S PERFECT! I'm not kidding. Its even nicer in real life than in the photos and I just about died walking around it and seeing how gorgeous it is! The fireplace had me actually, literally squealing with delight, as I've always wanted a fireplace to curl up with a book beside, and it has a shed and everything, which will keep Jake happy. Oh, and it's right across the road from my old school, which is where I am planning on doing my work experience for uni, and hopefully getting a job one day. Can you see why it's my dream rental?

My biggest thing for Jake and I at the moment is finding a place where we will be comfortable for the next few years. This will be my third move this year and I am so sick of the whole process - I just want somewhere we can settle down and start making some memories together. Somewhere we can actually call home! I don't really think we would be happy living in a poky, little unit because we both like our space, and we really need something with a garage for his motorbike, tools, bmx, kite board and whatnot (yeah, he has a lot of hobbies and a lot of junk). I know we would be comfortable in this house, and if we got it, I don't think we would move unless we got kicked out, or found the money to buy our own home. With two bedrooms, an office, a sun room, an entertaining area, a shed and separate dining and lounge room, it honestly has everything we could ask for. Unfortunately, with about 30 other people at the inspection yesterday, most of them older, wiser and in better financial positions than Jake and I, I'm not feeling too hopeful about getting this place. I will certainly try though!

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When we move, I really want to update our bedroom. I started doing this at my place in Southport, but decorating a room you hate spending time in isn't much fun, so I didn't get very far. I did buy a gorgeous, pink and white floral Laura Ashley quilt set though, and ordered a custom bright, floral watercolour print from Autumn's shop to hang on the wall. This wish list is inspired by the colours in that print, and by my desire to bring a bit more colour into our bedroom. 

The chest of drawers from Bedroom Furniture Solutions* is exactly what I need to store my vast amounts of clothes, and the top two drawers are the perfect size to house accessories. I thought that replacing the wooden knobs with cute, ceramic ones would help to brighten the room a little and make the chest of drawers mine. I loved some of the beds from Bedroom Furniture Solutions as well, but since we already have two perfectly good ones of those, and a limited budget that was out of the question! At the moment half of my clothes are in a small, broken pine set of drawers in the garage, and I've been meaning to paint it and fix it up for ages, but I really do need something bigger, so I'm better off buying something new and saving my DIY energy for another project.

I love everything in this set so much, even though some of it is a little out of my price range (ahem, vintage alarm clock). Turquiose, yellow and pink are the perfect colours for our bedroom, and if we get that awesome house, I will have to buy myself a few things off this wishlist to celebrate! 

Wish me luck!

*Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Bedroom Furniture Solutions. All opinions are 100% my own. Photos of the house are from the Ballina McGrath Real Estate website

Cute Cushions

Since getting our new-to-us lounge last week, I have been super excited about finally getting our living room looking the way I have always wanted it to look. We have a bit of a blue, white and orange theme going on at the moment thanks to my Blue Willow collection and an antique plate given to me by mum, and I am absolutely loving the pop of brightness it brings to an otherwise boring room. I would really like to bring this all together with some nice, bright cushions on the lounge but right now choice is not my friend, and neither is my bank balance!

I can't decide whether I'd like plain blue cushions with orange patterned ones or plain orange cushions with blue patterned ones. What do you think? I've put together a little wish list below of patterned cushions which I love, but besides from number 3 which, being Blue Willow, is obviously my first choice and is wayyy out of my price range, I can't decide which I like best.

Since budget is an issue, I will probably end up making whichever patterned cushions I end up with, but I'm curious - which type of pattern do you think I should go with based on the pictures below? Orange or blue? And simple like the middle two, or busy like the others?

Decisions, decisions, decisions I tell you!

Cute Cushions by sunae-reilly on Polyvore

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