katy – Page 62 – Apartment Apothecary

katy 29th June 2015

Cafe curtain tutorial

Last week’s Ask Apartment Apothecary was about blending a work space within a guest bedroom. One of the things I suggested was hanging a cafe curtain at the window. I have done exactly this in my home office as it is perfect to diffuse direct sunlight, which can be a real problem on a computer screen whilst I work. It also adds a soft, yet minimalist, touch to a work space. Most importantly, it costs very little (I used an old sheet!) and is a very, very quick sewing project.

Here’s how…

You will need:

Lightweight fabric at least 2 cm wider and taller than the part of window you want to cover.

Lightweight fabric for the curtain tabs – each one needs to be 4 x 12 cm and you will need one for every 10 cm of fabric along the top of your curtain panel.

Contrasting or matching thread, fabric scissors, pins, chalk and a tape measure

You can also add a trim to the bottom of your curtain panel if you fancy (why not try lace, pom poms, crochet) or add some pretty embroidery.

Step by step

Step 1 – Measure your window and cut a piece of fabric allowing for a 2 cm seam allowance all round the panel. Press a double hem on all four sides of the panel – fold over 1 cm, press, then fold over 1 cm again to hide the raw edge and press. Pin in place.

Step 2 – Choose either a contrasting thread or matching (I chose a soft blue to give my panel a bit of definition and it is the main colour in the room where this curtain will hang) and stitch all the way round the panel.

Step 3 – Measure the top edge of your panel and figure out how many tabs you will need, based on having one for every 10cm, or thereabouts. Mark with the chalk where the tabs will be positioned. Cut a piece of fabric for each tab measuring 4 x 12 cm. Press the edges over (about 0.5cm) and fold in half lengthways and press.

Step 4 – Sew down the open side of the tab.

Step 5 – Pin the tabs into position, laying the two ends of the tab next to each other, not on top of each other, as this will be easier to sew and it will hang better. Press the curtain.

And finally, to hang the curtain you will need a piece of dowelling and two cup hooks either side of the window frame. I still need to paint mine!

And please indulge a brief moment of floral appreciation…I cut these variegated Hygrangeas at the end of last week from a plant on my balcony and they are making me so happy. Plus, they are in a new jug that I bought at Ardingly antiques fair. It’s the small things.

Happy sewing!

Katy x

katy 26th June 2015

Ardingly antiques fair

I’ve been wanting to go to Ardingly antiques fair for a while as it has been recommended to me by a few people. Sarah-Lou and I had planned to go back in February but I had to cancel at the last minute so when my friend, Agnes, suggested we go this month I jumped at the chance. I love a lot of antiques shops in London, but it can be so difficult to find a bargain.

We had a very specific list of things that we were looking for so we were both very focused and there was absolutely no time for taking nice pics. I managed a few last second snaps on my iPhone as we were leaving but I have not captured how great this place is. Pop over to Junkaholique and Geoffrey and Grace for more aesthetically pleasing accounts of their visits to Ardingly.

So, the fair takes place every couple of months on a Tuesday and Wednesday in Sussex (the next fair is 21st and 22nd July). It costs £20 to enter on the first day and £5 to enter on the second day. We went on the second day to avoid the larger entrance fee even though there is less stock on the second day. However, there was SO MUCH to see and buy even on the second day I don’t think we made the wrong decision. We drove from south London and it took us about 1 hour 15 mins, leaving London at 6.30am to get to the fair just before 8am, which is when it opens. This worked perfectly as we dodged the traffic through London and it meant that we had enough time and didn’t feel too pressured as the stallholders did start to pack up from about midday. We drove back to London at just before 1pm so we missed rush hour on the way back – it really was easy.

We took cash (although there was a machine there), water (it was sweltering last Wednesday) and bags (so we had free hands to rifle through stuff) with us. When we first arrived we were pretty awestruck as it is HUGE and we had absolutely no idea where to look first. We slowly figured out what we were dealing with after a lap of the grounds and began to get our bearings. We did a recce, made a note of things we saw along the way that we were interested in and wanted to go back and have a look at.

Agnes was looking for:

– bedside table

– coffee table

– lamp

– home office chair

I was looking for:

– planter for lavender on my balcony

– blue and white china

– anything else I liked the look of!

Pretty much everything has price labels on, which was really useful, as we could figure out if we were interested without having to get into lengthy a conversation with the seller, which always ends up with me feeling like I have to buy it whatever the price – pathetic, I know. We always asked for the best price and did manage to get reductions on everything we bought. We could leave large pieces with the seller until we were ready to leave although did get a bit lost trying to make our way back to things we had bought!

In the end, after much walking around, resisting temptation, chatting it through over cheese toasties, we ended up with a pretty impressive haul…

And our haul is below… Agnes did really well and managed to find a really comfy and cool looking office chair for £25, a bedside table that used to be a washstand, not dissimilar to mine, for £40, a vintage deck chair for £25, an Ercol coffee table for £120 (we knew this was pretty pricey but the only other option is eBay and after paying for a courier and dealing with the hassle we thought it was worth it), and a little bread board for a couple of pounds. I got a massive bread board that I can use to take blog photographs on for £15, a zinc planter for £10 and some beautiful blue and white china from a French seller – jug, two bowls and two platters, for £35. All in all a pretty successful day’s shopping. And, we managed to fit it all in the back of a small car!

Ardingly antiques fair | Apartment Apothecary

What we bought.

I will definitely be going again. It’s not as cheap as I thought it would be but I’d like to try out the first day of the fair to see how different the quality of the stock is. Also, I think if you stick to the outer circuit of sellers, you can still find some bargains.

Katy x

katy 25th June 2015

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plant colour pop

For this month’s Urban Jungle Bloggers, Judith and Igor have asked us to choose our favourite plant (just one!) and take a picture of it in front of a colourful background to make it ‘pop’. The hope is to create a vibrant, colourful gallery of shots, ready for a long, hot summer – it’s so hot today! – and then UJB will be back in full swing in September.

The only problem with this month’s theme is that I’m not really in to bright colours. Instead, I have chosen a brightish blue, which goes really well with the pink and green of my current favourite plant who usually lives on my balcony. Can someone please tell me what this plant is called?! I love the pink spears and it is the one I find myself staring at when out on the balcony.

Urban Jungle Bloggers | Apartment Apothecary

I painted the backdrop, that I made from our old puppy guard, in Farrow and Ball’s Lulworth Blue.

A couple of weeks ago we took down the puppy guard that we built when we first got Otto to stop him slipping through the gap under the glass on our balcony. Now that he is almost 40kg there is no chance of that happening so I made this photo backdrop from the wood that we used for the guard. I can paint it any colour I like according to what I am photographing. I also bought an enormous wooden bread board from Ardingly antiques fair yesterday, which is what the plant is sitting on. More pics of our haul from yesterday to come this weekend.

Pop over to Happy Interior Blog and Joelix to see Igor’s and Judith’s creative take on the theme. Hope they both have a wondrous summer!

Katy x

katy 23rd June 2015

Ask Apartment Apothecary – combining a guest room and home office

So, I have done a lot of list-making, a lot of paper shuffling, a lot of flicking between tabs but not much blogging the last couple of weeks. My rhythm has been broken by numerous events and commitments but I have a pretty clear run through to Summer from this point onwards and I am really craving getting more hands on again and doing some fun DIY’s, so watch this space!

One of the other things that I have let lapse is my Ask Apartment Apothecary column that I really enjoy but there has been so little time. I STILL have a queue of questions from some of my lovely readers about issues in their homes that they need help with. I’m going to start today with one from Cate.

Cate has a beautifully stylish home that she shares snippets of over on her blog. However, she has a specific issue that she wants a bit of advice about. In her words:

“My second bedroom is a lovely, light room with a big sash window, but the main problem I have is that it has two functions – a bedroom for guests who come to stay from Airbnb (twice a month roughly) and a home office with our computer and all my architecture and design books I’ve picked up along the way. It needs to be a nice, calming space that’s fairly anonymous and doesn’t have too many personal bits and bobs for guests, but it also needs to work for me when I work from home. So how do I tie together the bedroom part with the office part so it’s once cohesive room, where one doesn’t overpower the other?”

Here’s a photograph of Cate’s room (totally jealous of such a lovely, big, bright second bedroom!)…

It’s actually a really great room and I was surprised when she said she wanted to change it. However, the main problem, as the room stands, is that the ‘bedroom’ and the ‘office’ are too distinct. So how can Cate bring the two together?

1. Blind

At the moment the shelves and the blind, which are the same colour wood, are very dominant and very clearly define the office. I think Cate needs to get rid of the blind altogether. It doesn’t work with the rest of the room and is a bit too ‘officey’. However, proper lined curtains, needed for blocking out the light for guests, are extremely pricey. What about a cheap white blackout roller blind that is completely rolled up except if someone is staying? Add to this a linen cafe curtain to soften the window and for practical purposes to diffuse light on a computer screen. Cate could choose a light grey linen for the window that would tie in with the bed and bedlinen bringing the two sides of the room together. I’m going to do a tutorial for this on Monday so keep an eye out for it.

2. Shelves

Cate wants to keep the shelves but they are screaming ‘office’ at the moment because of their colour. Painting them the same as the wall colour will help to make them less obvious. However, she also wants to hide the books, which is very tricky if you need direct access to them. Shelves can be made to look more streamlined with storage boxes or baskets but this isn’t really suitable for books that need to be used. I would suggest replacing the shelves with a vintage wall cupboard – this would lose the office vibe of the shelves and the books could be hidden behind closed doors. This sort of cupboard or this one, that could be painted, would give more character to the space above the desk and tie in with the beautiful bedside table.

3. Accessories

Another easy way to add warmth to a room is by using soft textiles and art work; these will also help to unify the two parts of the room. By adding more art prints and a new cushion for the desk chair, Cate could easily add more softness to the room.

4. Office storage

Cate really wants to be able to store away her office stationery, printer, books but she only has a few drawers in the desk to do so. If she wanted to take her mini-makover a step further she could think about a major DIY project. What about replacing the desk and shelves with an ‘office’ cupboard?! I know there isn’t an inbuilt cupboard in Cate’s bedroom like the one below but she could convert an armoire-type cupboard. Have a look here for ideas.

Home office in a cupboard | Apartment Apothecary

Image via Stijlbloem blog

Or, a bit more understated, if there is room at the end of the bed for a chest, it could provide valuable office storage space that can be shut away and serve as a handy seat/extra surface in the room. The printer could be stored in this, too. Take a look here for an example of what I mean.

Hopefully, a bit of food for thought for Cate. Whatever she does, I can’t wait to see the updates because I know it will be super stylish, as always! I’m off to Ardingly antiques fair so I will report back on Thursday with how I get on (hopefully having not spent too much money!).

Katy x

katy 19th June 2015

Livingetc House Tours

I had the best day last week with a group of other bloggers as we were invited by ao.com to take a tour of some of the amazing houses that have been featured in Livingetc magazine. Nosing around beautiful houses? My dream day.

I liked something about each house, even if it was just the space, although there wasn’t one that I would class as my ideal home. However, all of the houses were full to the brim with inspiration and I was able to take ideas from them all. Here are some snaps I took whilst wandering around, sucking up all of the interiors goodness. I wonder which style you will like the most…

Boho Victorian terrace

Light, bright and airy with so much character, soul and zingy colour.

Modernist white cube

Concrete wall and floors with cool mid century furniture and pops of colour.

Grand five storey Victorian mansion

I couldn’t capture the extraordinary interior of this home as I was a bit awestruck at the pure ecelecticism. I only managed to pick up my camera at the more ‘ordinary’ parts. To see more pictures that represent the house better pop over to Kimberly’s blog, Swoonworthy.