First Furnishings: William Morris & Living Simply

It's Spring 2015

With the final fix done, it's time to make The Fleepit habitable overnight - the main aim - a retreat for days off and stay-cations.

I might have said it elsewhere but my aim is to attempt William Morris's credo: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

So that is my motto for any purchases but I also want to use or re-purpose things that I already own or can source 2nd-hand.

This is made easier by our previous ownership of a holiday-let so we have enough crockery and bed-linen to "see us out" as old people say.

Now for the photos:

Living room: sofa, armchair & footstool Fyfield from Debenhams; cushions Ikat from Wilko

I love this 3-seater sofa and armchair, bought in the sale with an online discount. They were delivered far too soon so they spent a long time in the plastic covers with the removable cushions back at base.
The armchair fabric is currently really popular so it might date but I don't care. It would have been too much on the sofa as well so a neutral shade works better.
Can you see that sofa and foot stool is a nice shade of mushroom - definitely brown tinges? It's described as grey in the catalogue. Alison & I saw it in the shop so we knew what colour it was but there were a few complaints on the web-site. "See before you buy", people! It's the only way.
I'm undecided about the footstool. Sometimes I love it (with it's concealed storage) and other times - not so much. There's always stuff on it when you want to put your feet up or feet on it when you want somewhere to put stuff.
The cushions are plain on the back and will work well with the curtain material I've got in mind.
The rugs are from ebay. Did you know it's really easy to get large rugs on ebay for less than £50. I needed something to cover up the concrete and grotty floorboards. They'll get a lot of muck on them over time so I'm not fussy at the moment - these fall into the "useful" not "beautiful" category.

Bedroom - nothing new!

In the bedroom there are no new purchases!

Bedlinen and cafe-style chairs from the holiday-let.

Curtains from the patio doors in our last family home.

Another rug plus a pine bed from ebay.

Although all the items were previously owned, apart from the chairs which don't really work well as bedside tables, I really like this room as a "camping" bedroom.

Hallway - blind material Akerkulla from Ikea

This blind for the full-length picture window: new black & white fabric made into a blind using the skeleton of the old worn-out blind that used to be in the kitchen at our last family home.
Also we have 2 plain woven runners both from Ikea (Osted) but one is new and one is from ebay. I would have waited to get both on ebay but we were eager to be able to sleep over and I didn't think ahead.

Kitchen - island and microwave; rug Osted from Ikea

The combination microwave is essential as it's the only means of cooking food - bought in a Sainsbury's sale.

The kitchen island is one we already from Ikea (no longer available). This was bought after I swore during cooking my first Sunday lunch at our curatage - the kitchen had no worktop and I had a melt-down. As I very rarely swear, we decided to splash out on this lovely island that I used to stroke, lovingly! Since we moved to the vicarage it's been languishing in the garage so I'm very happy to have it put to good use here.

There's also another sneaky new rug - although I'd been looking for some time, a flat-woven rug of the right size just didn't turn up on ebay.

The fleepit is now habitable (don't mention the bathroom - eek) and we sleep here overnight for the first time! It's Spring 2015.