Where to shop – Page 11 – Apartment Apothecary

katy 21st September 2015

Heart of House

A few weeks ago I was asked to style up a set using the new Heart of House collection available at Argos (sadly, I was away at the time so I couldn’t take part). In the past, if I am being completely honest, I might have thought twice about this because I have never been a lover of Argos. However, I have been following with interest how Argos have transformed itself, firstly stocking Habitat collections and now the new Heart of House collection to make it far more up to date, whilst maintaining great prices.

The new collection features natural materials, weathered colours and worn timbers with chunky knits; a relaxed style that is perfect as we creep in to the autumn and winter months. I love the faded coastal hues and I have picked out a few of my favourite pieces.

1. Dorset king size spindle bed frame in putty 2. Henley touch table lamp 3. Armless fabric chair 4. Copper 3 piece pan set 5. Whitby trestle dining table

I have been thinking about getting a new bed and I love the simple design and colour of the Dorset spindle bed frame, which would work perfectly with the Henley lamp (and I can not believe the price!). You know how I have been going on and on about my kitchen makeover and these copper pans would be the perfect addition. I also adore the armless chair – such a great design and would fit so many different types of interiors.

What do you think? I love being surprised by a brand and I think the new Heart of House collection is a brilliant addition to Argos.

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Heart of House.

katy 13th September 2015

3D home planner tool

What stops you from making changes to the decor of your home? My answer would always be that I hesitate because it can be difficult to visualise the final look. Well, I have found a very clever tool that will change this. dmlights is an online shop for lighting fixtures, accessories and electrical supplies and they sell and ship worldwide. On their site they have an amazing 3D Homeplanner tool, which is completely free to use.

I decided to give this tool a go to help me plan my kitchen makeover (obviously wish I had the kitchen above but, alas, I do not!). I’ve been struggling with whether or not to remove the cabinets above the worksurface and replace them with open shelves – you can see what my kitchen currently looks like here. With the 3D Homeplanner tool I was able to draw out the exact dimensions of my room, plot where the doors and windows are and then add the wall colour and floor surface (as you can see below). As I was doing this there is a camera tool that I could position so that I could see the room in 3D (top right corner).

I could then fill the room with the furniture and lighting of my taste and choose from thousands of existing home products. I found near exact replicas of my kitchen cupboards and sink, as well as open floating shelves that I was able to add to my room layout. I then added three pendant lights from dmlights’ lighting range and the really clever part is I could turn the lights on to see how they would illuminate the room – genius!

After designing the room I was able make a 3D render with realistic lighting effects and the image was emailed to me within a couple of minutes. The first time round I wasn’t completely happy with the pendants I had chosen and how they emitted light so I was able to edit it and get a new 3D render just like that.

3D Home Planner tool | Apartment Apothecary

My ‘new’ kitchen with open shelves and Lightyears Bulb Fiction lights. After seeing this I am now considering removing the top half of the full height cupboard on the left and extending the worktop. This would really open up the space. By the way, the other side of the kitchen has plenty of cupboard space, don’t worry!

This is a game changer for anyone who does not feel completely confident about designing a room from scratch or making changes to existing rooms. It has really helped me to figure out that open shelves will look better than the cabinets I currently have and I love the idea of adding these lights to the room as an added feature; I love their soft, balanced light. It would also work really well for anyone struggling with room layout.

I will warn you though that playing around on this tool can be quite addictive!

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with dmlights.

katy 6th September 2015

Vintage jumble & prop sale

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I’ve recently had a big clear out at home and managed to sell some stuff on eBay but also realised that this is really time consuming and can be quite a hassle. I originally thought that setting up a swap shop with fellow bloggers would be a good idea but then heard Jeska and Heather talking about a jumble sale and thought it would be the perfect way to get rid of surplus stuff (whilst probably buying more than I arrive with!) as well as meeting new people. So, the Vintage Jumble & Prop Sale was born! Me, Jeska, Heather, Sarah-Lou, Melanie and Karen have joined forces to organise the afternoon.

The sale is going to be on Sunday October 4th 1.30-4.30pm at the King Edward Hall in Lindfield (24 High Street, Lindfield, West Sussex RH16 2HH). We are going to be in the main Newcombe Hall.

There’s going to be old homewares, small pieces of furniture, textiles, kitchenalia, our spare props (some vintage, some new) that we use for blog posts, as well as some handmade stuff. There will also be tea, cake, savoury snacks, flowers and plants for sale.

There will be around twenty sellers on the day (including us organisers):

– Hannah of Petal & Feast (for tea, cakes and savoury snacks)

– Sophie of Geo-Fleur (for plants and planters)

– Laura of Dirty Pretty Vintage

– Emily of Makelight blog

– Ruth of Gathered Cheer blog

– Amalia of These Small Finds blog

– Hannah of Seeds and Stitches blog

– Jessica of The Cabinet Maker’s Tale blog (handmade peg rails)

– Tori @stylingmesimple on Instagram

– Fran @franreeves (handmade ceramics)

– Donna of Fabulous Flora blog (for flowers in vintage containers)

– Zoe of Beautiful Simplicity blog

– Michelle of @michelle.foundcountryantiques

– Renie @agraylife and Eloise @eloisestyle

– Eva, Linda and Bianca

We would love to see you there for a bit of shopping, chatting, tea drinking and cake eating. Can’t wait!

Katy x

katy 4th September 2015

Kitchen makeover mood board

It wouldn’t be the start of a new season if I wasn’t embarking on yet another room makeover in my home. I did a kitchen re-style in the spring, which made me happier with how my kitchen feels, but I have always known that it was only a matter of time before I had to make more drastic changes as the current workshop and units are just not to my taste, although perfectly inoffensive and only five years old. I just want my kitchen to feel more ‘me’ and less generic.

The main obstacle with this makeover is going to be the fact that I won’t be able to do everything myself (namely fitting a new worktop), unlike the other rooms I have transformed, and it is going to cost a lot more. Therefore, it may take longer as I won’t have complete control and be able to blitz it over a weekend.

I want to give you a taste of what I am hoping for from the makeover…

Kitchen makeover mood board | Neutral kitchen | White kitchen | Apartment Apothecary

Products: 1. Mr & Mrs Teapot by Sue Pyrke from Such & Such 2. House of Rym hand towel from The Future Kept 3. Le Creuset cast iron collection in ‘Cotton’ from Houseology 4. Dipped terracotta cups from Decorator’s Notebook 5. Kitchen design by Kitchens Plus. Images: Top right – @may_be_may on Instagram Top left – Black Creet M&T Co. Middle right – Le Dansla blog

I want to keep the room very neutral: white, greys, wood, marble, ceramics. I want it to be a modern kitchen but soften the hard edges with lots of wooden chopping boards, handmade ceramics, linens, a few vintage pieces and different textures. I’m going to remove our current door handles and try my hand at making some DIY leather handles (top right image) and we are going to replace our laminate worktop with a real wooden one. I want more space to display my ceramics collection and new additions to the kitchen like the gorgeous Le Creuset collection in ‘Cotton’, so I am going to remove some overhead cupboards and add open shelving (more on that in another post).

Lots to do and lots of persuading Jules to give up a weekend or two, which is why it may take some time. What do you think about a neutral colour scheme? Do you prefer loads of colour in your kitchen?

Katy x

P.S. Don’t forget you can buy some of my favourite products from my favourite shops directly from my blog (see the full collection here). Here’s a selection that you might well see in my new kitchen…

*Written in collaboration with Kitchens Plus.

katy 3rd August 2015

Styling the seasons – August

Without consciously meaning it to, this month’s Styling the Seasons really resembles my March styling in terms of textures and colours. March was a difficult month for me and August is also going to be full of big life stuff, which means we can’t go on holiday and experience all the loveliness that I normally associate with this month. Instead, I’m hoping for a calm and quiet time hence the muted colours and soft tones of all the beautiful ceramics that I have used to style my Pocket String shelf. I do also feel that these colours reflect the way I perceive August; the grass is drying out, the weather becomes hazy and the beautiful blooms of June and July begin to fade. I always connect colours with the different months of the year and August is definitely a yellowy golden month in my mind so the natural stoneware fits in well.

Let me just tell you a little bit about some of the gorgeous pieces that I have been collecting and brought together for this month’s styling. The jug on the top shelf and matching beaker on the middle shelf were lucky eBay finds and they are Welsh Helyg pottery. The two stoneware bottles were bargains I picked up in Hastings. The two white pouring bowls, small pouring jug and large vase are four of my favourite purchases ever. They are all made by Jude Allman who is a potter based on the Isle of Wight and her ceramics are hand thrown on a wheel using stoneware clay. Aren’t they beautiful? I also love the fact that they are such functional pieces. You can find more of Jude’s pieces over on Folksy.

I bought another trailing String of Hearts vine after my July post and I like the contrast between its delicate form and the big chunky leaves of the other plant – anyone know its name?

I’m going to try to get as much rest as possible this month, which means I will only be posting here once a week but I hope to be back at the beginning of September with lots of great posts and to celebrate a whole year of Styling the Seasons! Charlotte and I are so pleased that we can celebrate the year with as many of you as possible as we are joining forces with a group of our favourite bloggers to hold a vintage jumble and prop sale on October 4th in Lindfield, West Sussex, that is open to anyone and everyone that can make it. Please do come along and buy lots of great stuff to style up your home!

Do pop over to see Charlotte’s gorgeous post this month as well as searching the #StylingTheSeasons hashtag over on Instagram for inspiration. Don’t forget to hop over to our Pinterest board with the hundreds of blog posts that have been styled and written since last September. We would love for you to join us this month and style a surface in your home to show what this month means to you. Blog about it or post a picture on your favourite social media platform and tag us in so we can see! I wrote up a few of my photo-styling tips (plus a video of me in action!) last month just in case you are new to the styling game and want a bit of guidance.

Happy summer holidays, everyone!

Katy x