the ideal home

I’ve been so rubbish with blogging this year so far, and now that we’re halfway through February, I can hardly even use the excuse that it’s post-Christmas blues either! In my defence, we’ve been overrun with chickenpox for the last two weeks, and I’ve been creating lots of lovely things for the craft section of Roost, so keep your eyes peeled for those!

I’ve been reading LOADS this year so far – at the moment I’m working my way through The Year of Living Danishly, which is absolutely brilliant. I just finished the chapter where the author and her husband arrive in Denmark, and they’re talking about Danish and Scandi interiors; everything is pristine and lovely, there are white walls and whitewashed floorboards and most people are utterly in love with their homes. It made me think about how even though we rent, I’d like to be able to say that there’s nothing I’d change about our house; I love the size (I’m not keen on huge houses, they just take longer to clean!) and it has a lovely, homely feel, but there are three things I’d definitely alter if we had the money.

Convert the attic and add a skylight
I love this house, despite all the shoddy DIY that we’re slowly fixing, but there’s one major downfall; it only has two bedrooms. At the moment, the kiddos are sharing, but as they get older, I can see that they’ll probably end up throttling each other if they don’t have their own space. If we had the money (and we owned the house, obviously!), I’d convert the attic and add one of those wonderful VELUX skylights or balconies – I’m a big space geek on the quiet, and love watching the sky at night, so to have somewhere to set up a telescope would be ace!

Change the exterior
One of the things I hate the most, and can’t do anything about, is the outside of the house. The front garden is teeny, and is also made up largely of a hill – oh, and there’s no fence, so I can’t plant anything as all the cats and dogs in the neighbourhood would be doing their business up against my begonias. I’d love to put up a fence and level the whole thing out, but I think we’re going to make do with adding some window boxes (utterly in love with the ones from My Window Box!) and planting some climbing roses and wisteria to cover the ugly wiring across the front of the house. Oh, and I think we’re finally going to get rid of the rusty aluminium shed in the back garden as well. At last!

Change the flooring
It’s no secret, and I might have mentioned it a few (hundred!) times, but I loathe the carpet that runs through the lounge and up the stairs. It’s mottled, it’s brown, it makes the whole place look even darker than it already is… but the landlords love it, and don’t want us to change it. If I had my way, I’d rip it up and replace with with engineered wood from Carpetright, but unfortunately we can’t – so I’ll have to make do with finding a bloody big rug instead!

This is a collaborative post.