A new found love of interiors
I've always had an interest in interiors but I don't think my heart was really in it until the last couple of years, when my husband Steve and I finally finished our London flat, sold up and made the move to Manchester in spring last year to, what we like to call, our ‘forever home’.
It’s a 5-bedroom detached 1930’s house in a leafy countryside suburb on the outskirts of Manchester and it feels properly grown up. I never thought we’d own such a beautiful and large house, to be honest, and it’s all due to lucking out buying our first home in an upcoming area of London five years ago.
Above: Our bedroom in our London flat...
Our flat in London was large by London standards and was a 3-bedroom top floor Victorian maisonette with a wow-factor kitchen and our own garden in South London’s Forest Hill. I know, our own garden – in London! We were really lucky to find it and we rented it for 3 years before our landlord offered us first refusal on buying it – one of the best opportunities ever to happen to us! It had already been gutted and done up and was freshly painted when we moved in as renters so it was still pretty new when we came to buy it.
Above: The garden in our London flat...
When we first moved in, we didn’t have much spare cash so furnished pretty much the entire flat with cheap Ikea furniture that we didn’t love but just thought it would do as a bed to sleep in, a wardrobe to hang clothes in etc. At the time I wasn’t that bothered and just wanted to get as much as we could for the money we had! I still have that frugal mentality and think I was born with the bargain-hunter gene (my Mum, Dad and sister are all the same!) but these days, I largely consider a bargain to be an affordable piece of retro furniture or homeware from a local charity shop or vintage store that I'm going to treasure rather than a giant haul at Ikea (although on occasion of course, I love that too).
Above: The lounge in our London flat...
Steve and I have a massive love of retro, particularly 1960’s style, but weirdly we both only properly got into this with furniture over the last few years. In the London flat, we gradually began to faze some of our Ikea furniture out and replaced it with bargain retro finds, largely from Ebay or that we found when exploring in villages and towns outside London. The flat, which was pretty much all white when we bought it, began to get some colour as we slowly started painting it, but it was only about 4 months before we put the flat up for sale that we completely finished the decor inside and were happy with it.
It feels odd writing this now and thinking about the way we lived in our London flat, which wasn’t decorated instantly once it was ours and featured lots of furniture we didn't really like, compared to how we’re living in our Manchester home now. As soon as we got the keys to our new house, we began painting, wallpapering, sanding and ripping up carpet and when we left London, we sold the remaining furniture we weren't keen on to make way for both modern and retro new furniture that we loved. The excitement level for our new home was off the scale.
Above: The 'wow factor' kitchen in our London flat...
Don’t get me wrong, our London home was a lovely flat and we were very happy living there. We made it homely and friends always commented on what a gorgeous flat it was. We already had some of our retro homeware in it that’s in our home now, such as our 1950’s boat bar and modernist teak sideboard, and back then, I had already found my love of grey paint and injecting a splash of colour.
Above: My office in our London flat...
The issue I think for us was that we always new our London flat was never going to be our forever home and it was just a stop-gap. Our plan was always to move to Manchester, which is where my family live and where Steve has always fancied himself living since we met 12 years ago (he is definitely a token 'Manc' and even asked me if he'd got a Manchester accent after about a week of living up North), and I think deep down I was always waiting to get my creative interior juices flowing full steam when we got here. A house I knew I'd be planning to stay in for a long time and where I'd fully enjoy the fruits of our DIY labour... and the price tag of some of my favourite wallpaper!
It’s funny looking back now when I am SO into interiors it’s untrue – I love the thrill of finding a new lamp, vase or cushion that you know will be perfect for the space you were looking to fill, the pleasure of faffing with objects around the house and moving them from room to room and the joy of painting and wallpapering being finished in a room! I can’t believe I never followed any interior accounts on Instagram before, as a lot of my free time is spent perusing them now, and when the new copy of 'Living Etc' hits the doormat each month I can't wait to rip the packaging off, sit down with a cuppa and indulge in some interior therapy.
Above: My first 'Dotty's Decor' Instagram post in May 2016...
I started my “Dotty’s Decor” interior Instagram back in May, in the run-up to us moving into our new house, and started posting pictures as we began planning the design of our rooms. I’ve used Instagram for years on both a personal level and for the food and travel section of my blog and I really have noticed it grow so much over the last couple of years. The interiors world on Instagram has been a real eye-opener for me as there is such a friendly and active community on there and for inspiration, it really is a huge rival to Pinterest. I get so many ideas and tips from my fellow interiors Instagrammers and I love the creativity and passion that others put into their home, just like me. I’ve also found that there are others who have a rather large obsession with pineapples, palm trees and all things tropical just like me!
Above: A glimpse of our new house - the tropical inspired guest bedroom...
Since I’ve started my “Dotty’s Decor” account I get such lovely comments and messages from people about our home. It really does inspire you and gives you a boost of confidence that you might just have a skill and an eye for something you didn’t know you had. All the new followers and likes are exciting and it’s mad to even think people are following the pictures of our home when really, it’s just our house!
I feel such a huge sense of pride in our home and love showing it off to friends and family when they visit. With this new found passion, I hope one day that I can start to help others feel like that, who don't have the time or inclination to create the interior for their home, but know how they want it to look and just want it to reflect themselves. I think, and have been told, I have a good eye, a strong sense of style and am knowledgable, and I’ve already helped my sister create a fabulous new loft bedroom, for which I put together a moodboard, product list and styled the room, and you know what, it looks amazing! I really impressed myself and more importantly my brother-in-law, who didn’t really understand what it was I was doing and was just glad it didn’t feature any pineapples or palm trees. The full reveal of that to come on the blog soon…
Follow me on @dottysdecor for regular interior updates.
