Do you paint the woodwork something other than white?

Well, I am afraid the only answer you are going to get from the Skinny Pig girls on this front is ‘absolutely, a million times yes yes yes!’

By tying in the colour of the skirting, window frames, doors etc with a colour which compliments your wall colour, or paper, you will create a much more cohesive design and it just seems to tie the whole room together a little better.

I have included a few photos here of schemes we have done and I’ll add more as we get them.

Give it a try, you can always change it if you don’t like it!

P.S - can you tell we like a bit of grey, blue and yellow?!

Jazzy Wallpaper

So what does everyone think of jazzy wallpaper? Personally I am a big lover, as is Meghann. There are so many fabulous designs and colours out there and I think it can literally make a room. That’s not to say I have paper in every room in the house but it’s nice to have some here and there and it helps makes a real statement. I love people going in to our downstairs cloakroom - they may not like it but at least they go ‘wow’.

These are a couple of rooms from my house, they are not 100% finished (I’m ditching that grey chair as soon as I can afford a new one!) and I’m yet to actually fully raid our stock for accessories, but you get the drift!

Money, Money, Money…

Hi guys, just a short one today.

Over time you will come to realise that of Meghann and myself, Meg is the super creative one.

Somebody once said to me, if you ever employ somebody to do something, make sure they are better at it than you. That of course makes sense, you want to pay somebody to bring added value to your team.

Now I don’t employ Meghann, we are partners, but since we started Skinny Pig, what has become obvious is that it’s very important to play on your strengths and take a step back if somebody is better at something than you. That is why I let Meg do the creative bits now and she lets me do the bits I am stronger at…it works well that way.

Anyway, I wanted to share this with you because I wanted to show you something Meghann did which is just brilliant. It is a floor of 2p coins in resin which she put down in her office. How fabulous does this look.

I just take my hat off to people like her who think outside the box. Here I am agonising over wood or carpet, striped or plain and Meg dives in with a floor full of coins. Bloody genius!

I won’t say I don’t know where she gets it from. Her mum Sheila was a brilliantly creative lady and even redesigned the cockerel for Cornflakes back in the day, how amazing is that!!!

Whilst we offer a free mini-styling guide for your home, we are also able to offer a comprehensive interior design service. Email us at info@skinnypiginteriors.co.uk.

Keeping it real, or faking it?

This article is about using plants in a room but before I begin I’d like to introduce you to John Bear.

John is a Golden Doodle who just kept growing and growing! We decided we wanted this particular breed when we met a 6 month old female and found out what she was - we had been agonising over what breed to go with for ages before that. We thought she was so lovely that we made the decision there and then - fast forward a few weeks and we had our very own John (I was also 6 weeks pregnant, must be bloody mad!). The most loving but stubborn git you will ever meet. But…we love you John Bear x

Anyway, I digress, John just happened to feature in my photo and it felt rude not to introduce him!

In this article I’d like to talk about the merits of plants in a room, both faux and real.

The photo above of my hallway has very little greenery, partly because it had only just been decorated here but also because I was unsure about what would and wouldn’t survive in such a light deprived room. Look how characterless it looks though!

So picking up a tip from a friend I have started combining faux and real - it means I only have to worry about a few ‘real’ plants but I can also hide the fact I do have some plastic ones in there.

The picture below is the same hallway - still not quite finished but defo looking a bit more complete with my terrarium, faux and real plant combo. I am always amazed at how different a few plants can make a room feel. I’ll post another pic when the shutters are in and I’ve got my faux hanging plants in too!

Another benefit of combining them is that you can then get away with more intruders! When it comes to your faux plants lets face it some can look a bit crud - more plastic fantastic than faux chic but sometimes if you haven’t got a big budget you can’t spend big bucks on super duper quality faux plants. So I have also found that by combining them you get the best of both worlds and the more you have, the less your eye is drawn to one particular plant. I also find that putting my faux plants up high also helps add greenery and they are less likely to be spotted! Can you guess which is which in my kitchen?

Check out our faux plants (some shown in my kitchen below) but also keep an eye out at Home Sense down their faux plant aisle - every so often you can grab an absolute bargain!

And finally, a shout out to my friend Katy @artbykiki who created our mini felted John (on the shelf in the kitchen). I try and credit myself with Katy’s success as I was the first one to ask for a mini of a pet after I saw her other beautiful felted creatures but the reality is that she is just so ace at what she does that everyone wants one of her creations. Keep doing what you do lady!

“To be bold, or not to be bold?”

We had a man come and measure up for shutters today and as he walked around our house he said ‘It’s so nice to go in a house where the walls aren’t a tone of light grey.’ Little did he know the trauma I go through every time it comes to picking a colour.

Other than the odd feature wall and bit of fun wallpaper I have often chosen a muted colour for my walls and always wished I’d been braver, so this time, when decorating our living/dining room I decided to be different and go for the risqué option. I’d been inspired by one particular room at my brothers house which is decorated in a very dark blue with lots of plants and dark wood, but his ceilings literally touch the heavens whereas our house is an old cottage…so would it work in our house?!

After much deliberating and about 50 samples on the wall (not the cheapest past time is it!) I decided to go very dark grey in the dining area and very dark blue in the other.

So 2.5L of each colour bought and Paul the decorator with paint brush in hand, the colour started going on. Was my boldness a success…well yes…err, and no. Let me explain…

The dining area looked fabulous and in the first few days after I took great pleasure in placing my wall hangings and plants in front of it, looking at it from different angles and literally revelling in my choice (does anyone else do this or is it just me?!).

On the other hand, the blue looked dreadful (I just want to point out that the photo above makes the blue look nice but in reality it really didn’t work at all!) and every time I walked in to the room I felt a pang of regret. Not content with my partner telling me I’d get used to it, I dug deep in my piggy bank, bought some more grey paint and batted my eyelashes at Paul the decorator. Well, hurrah, within a few hours the whole room had turned dark grubby grey and looked fantastic! The carpet is ordered, shutters in matching dark grey ordered (on 16 week lead time - lets hope I don’t change my mind on the bloody grey in that time!) and the pictures have started going up on the wall.

The moral of the story is…being bold with colour doesn’t always work, but it doesn’t always go wrong either. It is also one of the easiest fixes if you don’t like it, so be bold and experiment. You might surprise yourself!

On a slightly separate note, we have just become a stockist for Earthborn Paints. These guys are fabulous and the collection of colours are really different from anything else I have seen. A combination of grubby earthy tones and Mediterranean greens and terracottas. They also have a range of furniture paint and breathable exterior paints for older buildings…hurrah! Paul, get your paintbrush…poor sod.

Not only that but they are available in a number of finishes including claypaint (this makes me super excited) and have no horrible smells or nasty emissions, super important for me as my two children have breathing problems.

A picture wall to suit you…

In my opinion (this isn’t to say my opinion is gospel BTW) there are two ways of creating a picture wall… matchy matchy and the throw everything at it approach.

Firstly let me explain the differences.

A matchy matchy style normally has the same frames, but different. They are normally of one style and colour palette, they may be hung uniformly and more often than not the spaces in between are measured in mm fine detail. The pictures within them may also be of the same colour or style. Everything needs to be just so, otherwise the effect is lost.

The throw everything at it style is a more eclectic approach, the frames don’t match, the spacing is uneven and wonky and the pictures are a combination of styles and colours.

This is definitely my preferred style at the moment. Lets be clear, my design preferences morf and change all the time so what I may like this week could be out the window next week when I realise it has become too mainstream!

My picture wall is made up of pictures of the children, us, our parents and a couple of pictures I happened to like. The bulldog canvas is an original which I bought from a back street in Austria some years ago when me and my mum went to the Christmas markets (that’s a whole other story). I absolutely love it and am determined to get back there and get myself another one if I can remember the street (we had a few too many gluhweins) and she is still there.

You may choose one style over the other for a multitude of reasons, I previously had matchy matchy in my new build house because everything was geometric, I had stripey carpets and white walls and it just worked. In my cottage everything is wonky and not only that but I have accumulated a mix of frames and pictures which I want to have on display and I don’t have that many useable walls, so this option works. I also have two small children and neither had the time nor inclination to do battle with them at the same time as a ruler and spirit level.

The truth is both styles work, one needs a bit more thought than the other but choose a style that suits you and please share your results on our Instagram page to inspire us! Every idea is inspired by something else we have seen and so it’s so lovely to see what other people have done.