Powdery pastel kitchen

Source 1, 2, 3

I love the use of powdery pastels in Møbel Pøbel's renovated kitchen, they bring such a lovely fresh sense of spring and summer romance... The perfect place to make the gorgeous looking rose and yogurt biscuits!

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What colour did you paint your kitchen?

"What colour did you paint your kitchen?"

We painted two walls in Crown Kitchen & Bathroom Mid Sheen® colour Oxygen. The remaining two walls we painted in Crown Kitchen & Bathroom Mid Sheen® colour Pure brilliant white.

"Steam proof, super tough and stain resistant mid sheen emulsion. Added Mouldguard® prevents the build up of mould so your walls stay fresher for longer. Grease marks can be wiped away. For use on walls, ceilings, wood & metal. Breatheasy® 99% solvent free."

A much needed improvement on the old white walls...




To see all the before and after photos of our kitchen check out my Facebook Page photo album My Kitchen - A Transformation


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Pretty Pastel Style by Selina Lake

This week I'm reviewing Pretty Pastel Style by Selina Lake, from illustrated lifestyle publishers Ryland Peters & Small and CICO Books. Selina Lake is a freelance interior & lifestyle stylist based in London, and has featured in many magazines and catalogues. Selina is also the author of 'Romantic Style' and best selling 'Homespun Style', both shot with photographer, Debi Treloar. I chose to review this her latest book as I adore pastels and I love Selina's style!

Pretty Pastel Style, decorating interiors with pastel shades is about decorating with pastels in a new modern way. Featuring inspiring homes from around the world, illustrating the fresh direction these subtle colours are taking, from rooms painted top to bottom in layers of muted tones to understated spaces, where soft pastel hues can be found in everything from vintage china to a state of the art oven.

The book is split into three main chapters, starting with how to combine the "Elements" of modern pastels, vintage pastels, handmade pastels and simple pastels. In this chapter Selina shows us how modern pops of neon invigorates pastels, layers of chalky hues give depth and how saturated shades mixed with pastels give a sophisticated feel.

The second chapter "Details" Selina covers colour palettes and patterns and shows us how pastels don't need to be girlie or frivolous but can be pale and interesting and superbly versatile, whether you introduce them in bold blocks or simply dotted around for splashes of pretty, witty colour. How furniture and lighting are basic ingredients of any room but as well as being practical they can also be pastel-pretty with a simple coat of paint. How to incorporate pastel fabric from cheerful ginghams, faded chintz or retro repeats and whimsical ways to display flowers. In display and decoration Selina shares ways to display ceramics, sketches and how moving collections around can quickly give your room a new feel.

In the third chapter "Spaces" Selina reveals how pastel shades can be used to bring today's modern interiors to life in spaces for cooking and eating, living and relaxing, sleeping and bathing, children's spaces, creative workspaces and outdoor living! From a chic modern kitchen that has been softened with easy, breezy pretty pastels to living rooms with dusky, cheeky and muted pastel tones that add personality. To softened pretty pastels that create a perfect soothing atmosphere in the bedroom and mellow hues that bring playfulness to the functional space of a bathroom.

Pretty Pastel Style, decorating interiors with pastel shades by Selina Lake is a gorgeous hardback book full of lovely unique, inspiring decorating ideas. At a recommended price of £19.99, I think this hardback book is a great buy as the modern use of pastels in textures, patterns and styles in each room is just so inspirational and is full of beautiful photographs!

Some of my favourite shots:

Display and Decoration

Creative Workspaces

Display and Decoration

Nicky Grace cushions

Craft materials in a creative corner

Please note that my opinions are my own and I am not paid for these reviews (apart from receiving a free book, of course!).

Pretty Pastel Style by Selina Lake is published by Ryland Peters & Small and is available from www.rylandpeters.com

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Featured in Prima Spring Makes

Back in January the queen of styling Selina Lake and the beautiful interiors and still life photographer Sussie Bell came to my house to shoot my craft room.I can't tell you how excited I was and had such a lovely morning chatting all things craft, interior and pretty pastels with the lovely ladies! I then had an interview over the phone with the sweet Melodie at Prima Magazine which resulted in a six page spread in Prima Spring Makes, available now...

"Prima Spring Makes is packed with stunning creatives covering all skill levels, featuring a huge variety of crafts from crochet to card-making and projects for your home. It is fantastic value, at only £3.99 and has over 100 ideas for things to do, all beautifully presented."














Thank you Selina, Sussie and Melodie!

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Tea? Free downloadable prints

On Saturday I shared my Cake? postcard free downloads and today I am sharing with you some Tea? artwork you could use to adorn your kitchen or my DIY tea tray!
Feel free to print them out for yourselves...









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Tray Prints

I designed a few prints for the centre of my picture frame serving tray I made for 91 magazine, in the end I chose a grey and white diamond print and used the multicolour diamond print for my plate. Feel free to download the prints to use in your own craft projects...















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Gluten free apple frangipane tart

Yesterday I share with you the tray I made for 91 magazine, so today I am sharing with you the Gluten free apple frangipane tart that I served on my new tray...

Gluten free apple frangipane tart (makes 1 tart)

Ingredients

• 200g gluten-free shortcrust pastry
• Gluten free plain flour for dusting
• Olive oil for greasing
• 85g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 75g (2 1/2 oz) caster sugar
• 100g (3 1/2 oz) ground almonds
• Grated zest of one lemon
• 1 tbsp Ameretto
• 600g fresh apples
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• Sieved icing sugar to decorate

Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160c fan) / 355F
2. Lighly grease the pie tin
3. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 8mm thick
4. Lightly press the pastry into the tin, (I use the end of a teaspoon to get a neat fluted edge) and trim.
5. Lightly prick the base of the tart
6. Line pastry with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans
7. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes
8. Remove paper and beans.
9. Lightly brush the tart with some of the beaten egg.
10. Return to the oven for a further five minutes
11. Cream the butter and sugar using a food mixer fitted with a paddle
12. Gradually mix in the ground almonds, beaten eggs, lemon zest and Amaretto till well blended
13. Spoon frangipane mix into baked tart
14. Keeping the skin on, chop the apples into quarters. Chop out the core of each quarter and then slice the apple quarters thinly
15. Start layering the apple slices onto the tart until the entire top is covered
16. Dust the top of the tart with the 3 tbsp caster sugar
17. Bake for about 30-35 mins until the tips of the apple slices have become slightly singed and the frangipane has risen and cooked through.
18. Leave in tin on a wire rack to completely cool
19. Lightly dust with icing sugar

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Craft Feature in 91 magazine

Issue 6 of 91 magazine is out today! an online magazine for the vintage style and craft lover. Featuring Homes, Style, Vintage, Shopping and Crafts.

"91 Magazine was launched in October 2011, and is a quarterly online magazine, published by interiors and lifestyle brand, Patchwork Harmony.

Collated by a range of fantastic creative people, it features news, style tips, shopping ideas, interiors, features on craft and vintage style and proudly supports small businesses, designers and crafts people."

The Spring/Summer 2013 issue is packed full of lots of great content like the Vintage guide to Bath, the beautiful home of photographer and blogger Natasha of Candy Pop, a yummy sounding hazelenut blackberry torte and a fabulous interview with style Queen Selina Lake, to name a few.

So I am delighted to tell you I have a craft feature in this fabulous edition, a DIY tea tray made from an old picture frame I picked up in a charity shop for a couple of pounds...









You can check out the new edition here!

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Exterior Ideas

After

Before

I love a good before and after photo, so when I discovered Back to Front Exterior Design I couldn't stop looking at all the before and after photos. I was so inspired and amazed at the transformations they had done, like the one above of a 1960’s house with a rather harsh frontage and bland exterior that they added a new traditional gabled front with a feature leaded porch too. Transforming the old tarmac front to be gravelled and lawned.

I also love the way they transformed a classic 1960’s British property in a lovely quiet cul de sac with great bone structure but very brown and uninspiring into a light, bright and fresh faced family home, carefully extended to fulfill modern family living with a classic contemporary facade.

After

Front door detail, After

Before

I was so inspired by the amazing exterior transformations that I stared a new Pinterest board exterior Ideas!

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Cake? Free downloadable prints

Yesterday I did a Get the Look post on my baking corner. So today I wanted to share with you some pretty artwork you could use to adorn your kitchen with! Feel free to print them out for yourselves...












Have a sweet day!