Today I’d like to share with you a post Jacqui wrote for Period Living magazine as the first in her new 3 part series:  Unusual Uses for Everyday Items.  Which, you may have guessed, is all about reinventing and repurposing things which we all have in the home and giving them a new lease of life in a completely different way.   I’ve shared a teaser below, but do click through to Period Living see the full post.

Most objects have several uses if you think outside the box a little and it makes your home just that little bit different and quirkier, as well as making great presents.   We all use calendars and teacups so I thought let’s start with a couple of ideas for their alternative uses.

Teacups

Teacups have endless uses apart from that magical brew. I filled a hanky sized piece of calico with children’s play sand and tied it in a knot and then covered it with pretty fabric. Sitting in a teacup it makes a perfect and unusual pincushion. A teacup is also a great way to display small garden flowers tied in a little posy- or plant a small succulent for a really cute potted house plant.   Read more…

We’d love to hear if you have any unusual uses for things in the comments below!

Do also check out our full ‘How To Make a Tea Cup Pin Cushion’ post.

Hollie x

Never miss a post: follow us on Bloglovin’!

‘Unusual Uses for Everyday Items’ by Jacqui Brooks

Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Jacqui and Amelia Brooks

Jacqui has contributed to the Period Living Magazine blog again and this month is the final instalment in the 3 part series on styling current interiors trends using vintage pieces.  This one is my favourite so far- I love the images and both trends are very big at the moment- Jacqui looks at how to style animal inspired pieces and arguably THE biggest trend of the season- house plants.

First up- Animal Inspired Interiors:

Animals and birds are everywhere – from vases to lamps to statues to bookends, and they are such fun and bring a touch of whimsy to your home. This collection is a mixture of vintage and new, mainly birds, but Fred the dog gets a look in as he is hard to resist, and is always popping up in my vignettes.

Tips for styling animal inspired pieces:

1. Pick a colour theme to help unify the display.   Warm greens and yellows are given just a dash of spice with a hit of red in the lampshade and tapestry picture.
2. One of the golden rules is to vary the heights of your objects so the eye moves about to explore. Vintage books with their subdued colours are perfect props for adding height, and easily obtainable from charity shops.
3. Handmade items add a quirky and individual touch such as this bird lamp by ceramicist Ami Derbyshire inspired by vintage china but given a modern twist.   The little yellow bird is hand made by textile artist Abigail Brown, often using vintage fabrics. She does a magnificent pink flamingo which is top of my wish list of covetable items – a real conversation piece!

Head over to the Period Living blog to read Jacqui’s tips for styling house plants.

If you didn’t see the previous two posts, you can read them here: Styling Dark Walls and Sunburst Pieces and Styling Copper and Indigo.  I’d love to know what you think- have you found the series helpful?  Is there anything you’d like us to cover in a future series?

Have a lovely weekend all.  I hope the weather is better with you than it is with us at the moment!

Hollie x

How to Style House Plants and Animal Inspired Interiors by Jacqui Brooks

Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Jacqui and Amelia Brooks

Here’s a little taster:

Indigo interiors

This wall colour is Basalt by Little Greene and it makes a fabulous backdrop for a collection of vintage china and accessories. These plates belonged to my grandmother and I love to display them but I don’t want my sitting room looking like granny’s front room so a backdrop of inky blue gives them a contemporary look and perfectly combines vintage and new for a personal and unique home.

Tips for styling indigo pieces:

Hollie x

Never miss a post: follow us on Bloglovin’!

How to Style Warm Metals and Indigo Using Vintage Pieces

Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Jacqui and Amelia Brooks

A belated happy New Year!  Hope you all had a lovely break for Christmas, ours was hectic… to say the least, but once we’d made sure all of your lovely gifts were on their merry way we did manage to take some much needed time off to recharge.

To start the year off I’d like to share with you a post which Jacqui contributed to the Period Living blog.  Last year, I had a meeting with a couple of the lovely ladies from Period Living to discuss upcoming ranges and they asked if we’d like to become a contributor to their blog.  We, of course said yes!  We settled upon the theme of how to style vintage pieces in a contemporary home, so each month we’ll be sharing our tips for two different trends.   Our first post looks at dark walls with a pop of colour and also sunburst clocks and mirrors.  Here’s an excerpt to give you a taster:

Dark walls with a pop of colour

Dark walls, from grey through to blues and aubergine colours, have been on trend for a while now and are set to continue. Dark grey is a good neutral base for adding pops of colour.

Tips for integrating vintage:

1. Unify old and new by picking a colour theme and limiting the colour palette: this example shows dark grey walls with a pop of mustard yellow.
2. Eliminate pattern from walls and furniture to instantly make a room look fresh and contemporary.
3. Base the scheme on a special vintage piece: the starting point here is the vintage mustard yellow velvet framed print with the addition of a contemporary chair in the same colour.
4. Add black accessories and furniture for a sharper more structured look.

Head over to read the full post: Styling Vintage Pieces and do come back to let us know below what you think!

Hollie x

How to Style a Contemporary Home with Vintage Pieces by Jacqui Brooks

Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Jacqui and Amelia Brooks

Amelia bought these vintage brass scales from Kibworth Antiques Centre with some birthday money from her Grandma but we are still waiting for a cake! In the meantime I thought I might attempt to make chutney with my vast quantities of unripe tomatoes – it can’t be too difficult can it?

Jacqui x

Photography: Amelia Brooks/ Styling: Jacqui Brooks

‘Styling with Vintage Brass Scales’ written by Jacqui Brooks

But what we were was most impressed with was the quantity of garden accessories from chimney pots to cast iron garden tables and chairs.

Unfortunately we didn’t have room in the car to purchase any of these but we did manage to fall in love with a few bits. No visit to an antique centre can be complete without a purchase, even if it’s only a small memento of the day. I bought this gorgeous green vase specifically for tulips and here it is filled with green and white parrot tulips, viburnum opulus and alstroemeria – quite delicious!

Hollie bought a lovely pale green jug and she is very honoured to have the first of my bright garden tulips in her bouquet.

An added bonus was lunch in the cafe/bistro attached which is called Christian’s and we were very impressed with the food.  There was a good choice on the menu and my beetroot salad was lovely, with chips, of course.   I can recommend the chips as I am a chip expert – I have chips with everything, if possible.   There is also a lovely outside decking with tables and chairs but it was a bit too chilly for that, despite the sun, we were up north after all!

Jacqui x

Harrogate Antiques Centre by Jacqui Brooks

Image Source: Audenza

Flowers are such a quick way to give your home styling that instant hit, that we all need sometimes, to refresh the senses.  And this book shows you how every conceivable container can be used from simple vintage glass bottles like this vintage style bottle vase, to the most magnificent urn.

Image Source: Audenza

I particularly love the green wooden steps with bird bud vases, perched precariously:

Image Source: Audenza

If you like these quirky bird vases, you will love these zebra vases.

Image Source: Audenza

Swan vases also feature in the book and are Amelia’s favourite- she has a burgeoning collection of them:

Image Source: Audenza

Hence why we sourced and now stock a stunning swan vase in two different colour ways, which are made in Stoke on Trent and are a modern take on a mid-century classic design.  They are just perfect for easily creating a striking floral arrangement.

Image Source: Audenza

I don’t feel so bad now about my large collection of vintage bottles, vases, jugs, urns etc.  They are home accessories, but with a purpose.  And, perhaps I need to be more adventurous and group my flower arrangements together to give more impact.  I will certainly experiment this winter with amaryllis bulbs planted in big glass containers (as shown in the book) as I always have a problem with them flopping over with the weight of the flower heads.  I have just purchase some amaryllis bulbs from Sarah Raven, so I will let you know how I get on!

Jacqui x

The news that our house was going into the January issue, then of course meant that we had to get the house looking Christmassy.  So, by the time Christmas rolls around, we will have done Christmas 3 times already this year!  Homes and Antiques wanted to have some wrapped presents in the shot too, so Amelia and I got a little crafty with this and made a festive woodland scene to decorate the side of the box.  We will be doing a post on this, to tell you how we did it, but suffice to say, it’s a fiddly job!

So, as you can imagine, we have had a busy week preparing for it, we have only just re painted the sitting room, so everything had to be completely re arranged, re hung and re styled, not to mention the fact that my mum washed what seemed like every item of soft furnishing, kitchenware, ornament and surface!  It did at least encourage us to get a lot sorted- all those little jobs like pictures that have been sat waiting to be hung for months are now finally done.  In fact, we didn’t end up going to bed until 3am the night before! Partly owing to the fact that we have a lot on with the business at the moment in the run up to (dare I say it) Christmas and partly because all three of us are a bunch of perfectionists!

Homes and Antiques is undoubtedly one of our favourite magazines, so it was perfect for us that they chose to feature our house and one that I think is actually a good fit for the mag as well.  We were never going to be featured in a minimalist, contemporary and fuss free mag were we!  Our home is full, (literally bursting at the seams) with antiques, quirky ornaments, one off handmade items and plenty of colour, which we realise is not to everyone’s taste, but it’s just the ultimate compliment for us that a magazine like Homes and Antiques to want to feature it.  All of the styling, decorating and interior design is the work of my very talented mother and I hope that seeing her home, her absolute pride and joy, being featured in a magazine will give her confidence a much needed and well deserved boost.

We can’t wait to see the feature- they did also photograph the 3 of us, so do keep an eye out for us in the January issue!

Hollie x

By Hollie Brooks

Moving on swiftly, I am having a new bay window fitted today and I am so excited at the thought of another room being nearer completion.  I can finally decide on the colours to use and can start to visualise how it will pull together.  Whilst clearing out the sitting room for the big event today I started to have a play with objects and pictures to get a feel for the style I wanted.  Or should I say non-style because I don’t think I readily fit into any category except possibly eclectic, I like to have bits from everything and mix it up.  So I thought I’d offer a few tips on home styling whilst I was having a play.

Memories are the biggest draw for me so I do like to have a certain amount of photos and family heirlooms (not in the monetary sense, their only value is to me) mixed in with the new and vintage finds.  These white shelves in an alcove had a grouping of mostly off white objects along with sepia photos, and my much treasured Persephone books, but I felt I wanted to inject a bit more colour and drama for the winter months.   I like to link by colour mostly and then play on the juxtaposition of height and shape to give a pleasing overall effect.

Above is my first vignette – such a lovely word, don’t you think?  The starting point was a lovely framed flower print that my daughters bought for me in Bruges, then I added a lovely shabby chic photo frame from Audenza that I had put a greeting card into and then, of course, my home grown blooms in a gorgeous charity shop vase.

This is another variation on the theme but with a lovely Vernon Ward print as the starting point which I bought at auction.  It was meant to be for Audenza but I’m afraid it was misappropriated, as I couldn’t bear to part with it!  Such a gorgeous frame, as well, don’t you think?  The style of these two is very much romantic country and I find it very pleasing.

Another vignette of the same shelves but with a warmer, richer feel to it.  The clock was left to me by my grandmother and is a treasured piece along with family photos and a gorgeous smelling candle from Emma Bridgwater’s lustre range.  Another great little home styling tip is to glue beads to the end of ordinary push pins and use them to pin up postcards, or old greetings cards.

More family photos grouped with a candle stick I bought from a charity shop.  I painted it that lovely 1930’s green and crackle glazed it to age it.  The bell jar is from Audenza and very much part of the new explorer look hitting the style trends.  It shows that you don’t need to buy into a complete look – just pick the pieces you like and mix them up.

I love the grey colour of this back drop and think it will be the colour of the walls in the sitting room, unfortunately it was a colour I mixed and I have no idea what from.  Old postcards can be put up on the wall (with washi tape) and changed as and when you feel like a revamp.  Isn’t the bunny lamp delicious, another beautiful piece from our quirky lighting range?

Hope you have enjoyed my tips on home styling and maybe it will inspire you to have a change round.  If you have any tips of your own, I would love you to share them below!

Audenza x

By Jacqui Brooks

Most things are growing well but I’m finding it hard to cut them as they are still such babies and I have a horror of any more gaps in the garden.  Even the alchemilla is tiny and would only do justice to a cream jug, if that, and the euphorbia oblongata would need a thimble!  Hopefully the cosmos and zinnias will be of a reasonable size soon to cut and bring in but even then I don’t have the foliage, although I have planted quite a number of annuals for foliage but it’s all going to take time and I am very impatient.   So at the moment I can only dream and drool at flower blogs, particularly Flowerona which is very delicious and is always a feast for the eyes.

As you can see I am trying but the containers are shrinking.  The Moroccan tea glass is filled with dianthus ‘Green Trick’, which is very lovely, clematis ‘Julia Correvan’,  arancus ‘Horatio’ and some fern.  The little yellow vase, which I got cheap because it has a chip, has my pride and joy as the star – a climbing rose called ‘Sunrise’.  At the moment it’s looking good but the pruning bit is going to test me as I don’t really understand rose pruning.  The girls have booked me a morning course in rose pruning at Barnsdale Gardens, Rutland in October so hopefully I can do it justice – there is nothing worse than a leggy rose!

With the gorgeous budgie vase, which was a present from the girls, I had to cheat and use bought peonies and antirrhinum as the stars and filled it up with astrantia, geum,  choisya, aquilegia seed heads and salvia.  It’s far too busy and not at all tasteful but I love it.

Jacqui x

Cut Flowers by Jacqui Brooks