The Interior DIYer
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New pop up shop – April and the Bear

I was invited to last nights exciting launch of April and the Bear‘s brand spanking new pop up shop at 5 Dame Lane, and it did not disappoint.

I’ve crept and followed Siobhan / April and the Bear online for a long while now, and if A&TB’s expert virtual taste was anything to go by, I had a fair idea of how fabulous the real-life shop was going to be. A truly curated collection full of the chicest, cutest, sweetest and quirkiest pieces.

I’m not what you would call a social butterfly, but luckily as the night went on I spied more and more people I knew stepping in to gawk at all the pretty. It ended up being quite the evening spent with Moya, Rincy, Ben, Nathalie and Emily, praising all aspects of Siobhan and Jamie’s shop, fueled by Teelings Whiskey and the bespoke Gizmo gingerbread cocktails concocted especially for the evening. It was quite the line up.

I took approximately 200 photos of this T-Rex wall mount last night, which was designed and created by Siobhan’s dangerously talented brother Vincent. Creativity runs deep in the Lam family. 

A special mention to Rincy who has a print of her own on display in April and the Bear [you thought you’d escape unmentioned, Rincy? I don’t think so]. Framed, at the back. Special treatment for a special gal …

… Any photo I tried to take of her print turned out truly rubbish, so I daren’t try to get a closer picture. It’s a beautiful print full of care and consideration; much like the creator. 

The evening was a flurry of photos. The two walls full of delightfully clever prints to take home were a huge hit. I couldn’t resist this one, which I’m thinking of either hanging over my desk; to remind me when a tricky email comes in, or hanging it over the mirror in our bedroom; as a mini pep talk while I’m getting ready. 

The entire space was full of so many delectable and unique pieces. If there’s one thing you do this weekend, make sure to check out Dublin’s newest and hottest pop-up shop, April and the Bear. Get in there like swimwear. 

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Working on my shelfie

I recently vented about wanting to paint over our burgundy feature wall. I love burgundy, but for some reason it was really getting to me. I was being driven insane [I know, total #FirstWorldProblem]. It was, dare I say, too much burgundy?

But in reality, the last thing I want to do was to paint over it. Even though feature walls are a bit of a faux pas these days [I’m not one to stick to trends], I still love ours. I sat down and stared at it; trying to figure out what irked me so much about it. Then I realised there was simply too much – a burgundy wall, burgundy books, red books, purple books and burgundy accents all over the shelves [which you can see a bit here]. It was too much of the same colour in such a small space. So I gave our wall one last chance before getting my paintbrush out. On Monday evening I took everything burgundy off our shelves and went strictly black and white with little pink and viridian highlights …

While I was de-burgundying, I tried to take a fresh look at our shelves. It’s tough though when you’ve been staring at the same shelves for 5 years [and can’t do much because they’re your landlords], so I tried mixing up the monotony of the layout by removing a couple of shelves to fit in larger pieces [cloche and desk lamp]. I wish I did this years ago …

I of course had to reintroduce the kitty nook back into the shelves as part of making the layout simpler and sassier. It was quite sad when I got rid of the kitty nook by putting books on that little shelf; Juniper would walk up to it and stare at it longingly. To say she was excited when it returned is an absolute understatement. She clambers onto the chair and up into her cosy nook once again.

I’m hoping you’ll also pay special attention to my obvious pairing of the pillow with the spine of Abigail Ahern’s Decorating with Style book under our Robert’s radio. Marvel at my sublime coordination skills and including a new colour in our home! I’m breaking out. Aren’t you impressed? Next I’ll be trying socks with sandals.

I’m not sold on the layout of the right shelving unit yet [as seen in the second picture]. I need to put a bit more effort into that one, but as for the left unit, I am completely game. The burgundy wall no longer fights with what’s on the shelves. The pink and minuscule amounts of viridian compliment it nicely.

You’re safe for now, burgundy wall. I’m glad we’re on speaking terms again. 

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Master bedroom makeover update – Part II

Since I last blogged about upgrading our bedroom, I’ve slowly but surely made some of the changes. Not all of them yet, but some. I didn’t think I had made a big enough change until I looked back at my before pictures. Yeesh.

That’s the thing about updating your home. It doesn’t happen in 24 hours like TV shows lead you to believe. It happens slowly over weeks and sometimes months and THAT’S OKAY. It’s only when you look back at what it looked like before that all your hard work is put into perspective. Even if you’re only half way there. 

Contrary to my original plans to completely flip the floorplan of the room, I didn’t. I was able to iron out a lot of the layout problems without having to change too much of the room. One of the biggest and best changes I made was swapping the bed frame in our room with the one in the spare bedroom. The frame in the spare bedroom was very low, so swapping it and having a low bed in our bedroom sorted issue #3 on the list of problems. 

So here’s what I’ve updated in our room so far …

– Repainted the skirting boards, window sill and door WHITE. 
– Removed the heater from the middle of the room.
– Replaced the heater switch with a socket so we can use our TV [thank you again Maria for that tip!].
– Replaced the light fixture.
– Bought curtains – nearly new! In their original packaging, but bought second hand.
– Bought a longer curtain rod so the curtains can hide the unsightly mirrors and vent in the corner [as seen below compared to the 4th last picture here].
– Disassembled the awkward AF shelves.
– Sold our IKEA bedside locker and bought two bedside lockers for 9 euro each, second hand!
– Got my hands on some red rasta pillows [not sure about the purple one though. It may go]. 
– Swapped the bed frame for the lower bed frame, and nearly decapitated myself in the process.

And here’s what’s left to do … 
– Make a cover to cover or camouflage the current wooden headboard.  
– Hang up / incorporate our [new-ish] mahogany mirror. 
– Add artwork to the walls. I’m tired of boring walls. I’ll be DIYing some artwork too.
– Upcycle the bedside tables; possibly paint them and change the knobs.
– Find a pair of matching or semi-matching bedside lamps.

Above is to show where Dad DIYer helped me remove the heater from the wall [I’m not at all confident with electrics]. Having the heater removed means we can now place our dresser in the middle of the room at the foot of our bed; where it aught to be. For the moment, in the warmer months, the heater is stored under our bed as our landlord didn’t approve of it being placed under the window. So under the bed with it for now so we don’t have to put up with it. My old skip-salvaged desk chair sits next to our dresser and cleverly disguises the absence of paint on the wall. 

And finally, what inspired it all – I saw these red velvet shoes in Forever 21 around this time last year. I bought them solely for their pretty factor. I like velvet and I like quirky takes on the classics, which as lame as it sounds, is an inspiration for our bedroom makeover. Inspiration strikes at the most unusual of moments. 
In the mean time, I’ve also been working on updating our spare bedroom on a budget, which for the most part was ready for our guests earlier this month, but I’ll be adding the final touches this week to it and can’t wait to share it! Stay tuned!