Customisable wallpaper

I’ve had this thing with huge world maps since I lived with friends at university, one of whom stuck one up above the dining room table. Without fail the map inspired conversation about where we had visited, where we dreamed of going, plans for the future and so on. At times we would find ourselves drifting off whilst staring at the map: “Is China really that big?”, “Where’s Chile?”, “Shall we go to Argentina?”.  Ah, those carefree students days!

When I saw this dining room with world map wallpaper I instantly wanted to copy the idea in my own home. Imagine the cool dinner conversations…

I would like to introduce you to Wallpapered today who make a huge range of different types of wallpaper from the classic (swooning over quite a few of them) to striking nature murals and one of their most popular wallpapers are maps, whether they be world, antique, street – all totally customisable. You can even upload your own image to be made into wallpaper!

Over to Wallpapered to tell you more…

Why do you think wallpaper has made such a resurgence in the past few years and managed to shake off its ‘old-fashioned’ label?

Wallpaper is such an exciting industry at the moment, with new designers, developments in technology and constant innovation pushing it forward. There are fewer rules now, and customers are deciding what works for them rather than being dictated to. At Wallpapered we really embrace this ethos, encouraging customers to create wallpaper that suits exactly what they’re looking for.

We’re also constantly inspired by the creativity of interior design being showcased online. We keep discovering great new blogs and beautiful Instagram accounts (and then wonder where the day has suddenly gone!) – the online community is so important for keeping the industry exciting, pushing the boundaries and inspiring new ways to really personalise peoples’ space.

Map wall coverings are hugely popular at Wallpapered, why do you think people have such an affinity to maps?

Our wallpaper maps are definitely one of our top sellers. I think people have always been drawn to maps; not only do they show us from A to B or make us more aware of the world we live in, they’re also really beautiful artworks in themselves. It’s nice to understand the world around you, where you are, where you’re going and where you’ve been.

World map wallpaper | Apartment Apothecary

Customised local area map wallpaper is a perfect way of adding character to any room.

Everyone loves to make their house a home and to create a space that’s really unique to them. Is this a philosophy you follow at Wallpapered?

Yes, definitely. It’s a way of thinking we really share with our customers. We constantly aim to provide completely bespoke wallpapers for our customers –that’s what they want most from us. It’s great because their requests inspire us and keep us on our toes.

We did this amazing project recently with Ballindalloch Distillery for the Macpherson-Grant family (and their rather lovely grounds!) The custom made map showcased the area around Ballindalloch and the addition of a family tree illustrating the growth of the family over many years. We really enjoyed working on this project and you can read more about it here.

Map wallpaper by Wallpapered | Apartment Apothecary

Personalise your map wallpaper with a family tree.

What makes your wallpapers unique?

We pride ourselves on producing wallpapers that are unique to each customer. Whether that means uploading some of their own imagery, adding a logo to a wall covering or matching the map colours to a sofa; we really try to go above and beyond to make something a bit more special.

In practical terms we print on a non-woven paper that’s much more hardwearing than traditional wallpaper. This means it’s more durable and really easy to hang. Our wallpaper’s are 100% natural and wipeable; which is ideal when that child with mucky paws decides to embrace your newly hung wallpaper. We have a guide of what to expect here.

What advice would you give to someone trying to choose the right wallpaper for their home?

There’s such a great resource of inspiration out there: it’s always fun spending an afternoon going through blogs, Pinterest or your favourite interior magazine and gathering ideas. Ultimately, it’s about what works best for you. It’s a big decision, so we understand the importance of getting it right. If our customers are struggling to pick between a few choices, we send out samples – so they can tack them up on the wall and live with the look for a few days. This always seems to solve the problem and help them arrive at a final decision.

Brick wall wallpaper | Apartment Apothecary

There is a cool tool on the Wallpapered site that allows you to put up your chosen wallpaper in the context of a room, which is always helpful so you can work out the size of pattern etc. This could help with choosing one of Wallpapered’s huge range of texture wallpapers (got to love a brick wall!). Image: Design Therapy

Putting up wallpaper can at times be intimidating, what advice can you give to my readers?

We print our wallpapers to your exact dimensions – so there’s absolutely no waste (and no drama) when it comes to putting it up. We’ve made our whole process really user friendly, as we know customers can be put off by a difficult application. We’ve also got a really useful ‘how to hang wallpaper’ guide, so don’t worry – your space will be looking amazing in no time.

If there’s someone reading this interview considering wallpaper but needs that one last push, what would you say to them?

We think there’s a wallpaper to suit everyone and every home. At Wallpapered, we love chatting to our customers and ensuring they’ll be happy with the final product for years to come. So if you’re slightly hesitant or unsure, we can take you through the stages, give you all the information you need, and our design team can mock up a prototype for you so you can visualise it. Easy!

World map wallpaper | Apartment Apothecary

Thanks so much for the tips and advice! When I move to a house, wallpaper will be the first thing I choose. Can’t wait!

Katy x

 

*This post was written in collaboration with Wallpapered.

My new shop

Today, I am launching my new Apartment Apothecary shop. You can now buy some of my favourite products from my favourite shops right here – it couldn’t be easier.

To celebrate the launch I have £150 to give to one lucky reader to spend in the shop if you make a purchase today (although, I bet you will want more than one thing!).

It can be difficult to find the time to traipse around the shops to find what you want, even online shops, so I have done the searching for you and hand-picked products that I love, own or want for myself, so hopefully you will like them, too.

To help you along your way and to give you a taster of what you will find in the shop, I have chosen a collection of “I NEED these in my life'” products or you can see the full range here.

Just click for more details, add to your cart and buy! The prices include delivery charges.

I will leave you now so you can have a good look around the full shop. Do let me know what you think and good luck on winning the £150 to spend!

Katy x

P.S. In future, you can access the shop by clicking the image in the right hand side bar or the SHOP button at the top of my blog page. The stock will be ever-changing so make sure you check back.

 

Styling the seasons – May

A bit of a soppy Styling the Seasons this month as May is birthday month for my husband-type, Jules, so it’s all about birthday breakfast in bed in our newly made-over bedroom.

I am guilty of taking those closest to me for granted sometimes but Jules and I have had such a tough year dealing with what has felt like a life’s worth of problems, which has really made me focus on what an amazing partner he is and how lucky I am to have him and the positivity he brings to every problem we face.

So, I want to make his birthday this year extra special and it always starts with breakfast in bed. It usually consists of croissants stuffed with ham and cheese and a good coffee. I have added flowers left over from our Styling Spring At Mine event in a little bottle Jules bought me recently “because it looks like an apothecary bottle”. Do you know that’s how we met? We were in a bar with mutual friends and he was drinking beer from a really nice bottle. I mentioned to him that I liked the bottle (thinking it would look really nice with flowers in it, not paying him any attention whatsoever – ha!) and he replied that he thought it looked like an apothecary bottle. That was it, he had my attention and I had a name for my blog 😉

The month of May also signals the beginning of warm days. We always have Jules’s birthday party outside and it is usually beautiful weather. Therefore, I have styled my Coco bed for warmer nights. Gone is the winter duvet and in its place is a lightweight summer duvet. My new gorgeous Lazy Linen from Loaf is absolutely perfect for the Summer months as it is wonderfully cool and light. The heavenly texture of this crushed Belgian linen and the dusty pink Scrunch cushion are perfect for the brighter mood that this time of year brings with it. I have also added a flat sheet, which feels so luxurious and is really practical for when it gets too hot.

Styling the Seasons - May | Apartment Apothecary

Styling the Seasons - May | Apartment Apothecary

Styling the Seasons - May | Apartment Apothecary

Styling the Seasons - May | Apartment Apothecary

I had finished taking photos and turned around for a few seconds and look who was ‘asleep’ next to the croissant! The new rule with the linen sheets is no Otto on the bed but he’s not in favour of that rule, as you can see.

Styling the Seasons - May | Apartment Apothecary

“Actually, I am awake, if there’s any of that Croissant going begging…” And, no, I couldn’t resist that sad little face, he got a piece of croissant in the end.

Charlotte and I would love for you to join us this month and style up a surface in your home and show what May means to you. Style your dining table, a shelf, hallway table, balcony, sideboard, kitchen worktop – anything you like. Either blog about your styled surface or post an image of it on any social media platform and use the #StylingTheSeasons hashtag.

I can’t wait to see what this month brings…

Katy x

Shop the look

Oooooh, by the way, you can now buy some of the lovely products that I use or recommend in my posts directly through my blog. I will be officially launching the shop on Wednesday so I will tell you more about it then, as well as giving one lucky reader £150 to spend, if you buy something on that launch day.

For today, I’ve picked out some lovely boards like the one I have used in today’s post – if you like the look of any of them, click to see more details, add to cart and then buy it right here! Price includes delivery.

April – a review

I’m still reeling from the absolute floral chaos of yesterday’s Styling Spring At Mine event. It was the second Styling the Seasons event that Charlotte and I have held, the first being a Winter craft party at Liberty, but this time we teamed up with at{mine} to hold a Spring wreath making workshop. I won’t go into too much detail now as I will do a proper post about it with the official film photographs that take a couple of weeks to process. However, I couldn’t resist showing you a handful of some of the amazing creations from the day…

Styling the Seasons April review | Apartment Apothecary

Top row from left: Tamsyn – The Villa on Mount Pleasant, Fran – Fall for DIY, Teri – The Lovely Drawer. Middle row from left to right: Heather – Growing Spaces, Ia and Helena – at{mine}, Isabel @isabelmatysiak on Instagram. Bottom row from left to right: Catherine – Borrowed Light, I tried to pretend the middle one was mine for a while as I didn’t quite finish mine but it’s actually at{mine}’s, Emily – Makelight.

And here is my May Day posy that I made in the pretty Rose and Grey flower jars that they gifted to our guests. I hope everyone will be joining Lou from Littlegreenshed on May 1st in the ancient tradition of making up a flower posy in a jam jar and hanging it on someone’s front door anonymously to bring cheer. Find out more on Lou’s blog here.

Styling the Seasons April review | Apartment Apothecary

But back to the other wonderful Styling the Seasons pictures that have been going on this month. Here are four of my favourites, all so different, yet caught my attention immediately (also totally crushing on Lucy’s house, gorgeously styled with those zinc planters)…

Styling the Seasons April review | Apartment Apothecary

All from Instagram: Top left: @reneerichellodesign Top right: @koltorpsplan Bottom left: @todayiamstyling Bottom right: @capturebylucy

What a lovely month it has been and I can’t quite believe it is over so soon. Thank you to everyone who joined in our Styling Spring At Mine competition or who just styled up a surface to brighten up their homes and our Instagram feed. We would love you to join us in May by styling up a surface in your home, whether it be your dining table, sideboard, desk, bedside table or your bed itself as I will be doing. Try to show us what May means to you through your styling. Either blog about your styled surface or post a picture of it on any social media platform using the hashtag #StylingTheSeasons. In the meantime Charlotte and I will be planning some exciting prizes and a Summer celebration as we would love to meet even more of you as it was such a pleasure at yesterday’s event.

For more styling inspiration pop over to these gorgeous blog posts that were written this month:

Wild RubusLobster and Swan / Lapin Blu / Cate St. Hill / Makelight / A Quiet Style / Growing Spaces / The Lovely Drawer / LittlegreenshedTea with Ruby / Coconut and Bloom / Beak Up Crafts / Becoming Gezellig / Something I Made / The Vintage Good Life / The Ordinary Lovely / Gathered Cheer / Geoffrey and Grace / Celebrate Creation / The Villa on Mount Pleasant / The Fairytale Pretty Picture / Thevintagehousethatcould / ling yeung b / Made by Molu / Hannah in the House / Camellia Rose / The Cabinet Maker’s Love Tale / Fall for DIY / Janice Issitt Lifestyle / Little Maldod / Borrowed Light / Seeds and Stitches / Lotts and Lots / Apartment Apothecary

I’ll be back on Monday with my Styling the Seasons post for May!

Katy x

 

Combining different styles

In the past I have always tended to stick to the same style of interiors and to what I know and love. One of things that I love most about blogging is I am constantly being inspired and introduced to new styles, looks and ideas. When the lovely folks over at Habitat asked me to style up one of their new collection armchairs in my home, I saw it as a bit of a challenge to bring together an eclectic look.

The Abel armchair is curvy and deep with Scandinavian style legs that give it a mid-century feel. I teamed it up with an Ercol pebble side table (that I found in a skip last year!) and my G-Plan sideboard, which highlight the mid-century vibe, as well as a House of Rym cushion and my Turkish Kilim rug that add pattern and colour to the look. I love mixing different styles and textures in my living room as it makes it feel more cosy and less generic than it would otherwise, bearing in mind I live in a new build flat with no architectural features or character.

The grey works well with my painted floor and is a perfect neutral to be layered with textiles.

Habitat armchair | Apartment Apothecary

I’ve now got my eye on the Askem grey wool sofa as Otto has ruined our sofa (I should have been so much stricter about not letting him up on it!). I’m going to have to start persuading Jules…

Katy x

P.S. You can buy House of Rym cushions and blankets in my shop

*This post was written in collaboration with Habitat