This year has been far from Rock ‘n’ Roll. Around this time last year, I was craving a slightly slower pace to life but I never could have imagined how 2020 would have panned out.

In a year where we were asked to stay home, we did just that. Our personal space became more important than ever and the more we stared at our own four walls, the more we felt we needed to make a few changes.

So, like many people, we tried to make the most of the downtime by cracking on with some home improvement projects. Here’s a little look back on some of the highlights and seven ways that we made our house a home.

1.     Created a Home Office

Our 2020 flirtation with DIY all started back in March, when I was catapulted, unexpectedly, into home working overnight at the start of the pandemic.

Ever since we moved into this house in July 2018, our spare back bedroom was one of those spaces that didn’t really know what it was. It was just a bit of a dumping ground, with a daybed, a desk and a continually expanding pile of clean laundry waiting to be put away. Truth be told, we thought this room might have become a nursery / child’s bedroom by now but that hasn’t worked out. So, it sat neglected without a purpose and was really quite a sad little space.

The onset of the pandemic provided the motivation I needed to create a home office – a more usable and inviting space, whilst freeing up the dining room table that had become my makeshift workstation in the first couple of weeks of lockdown. 

I started by hanging some framed prints above the daybed. These were prints I’d collected over the last few years and that had been gathering dust, staked against the wall in hallway waiting for me to be brave enough to pick up a hammer. Things escalated quite quickly and before I knew it, I had hung my first gallery wall. It brought a welcome splash of colour to the white walls of this Plain Jane space. We also hung a black metal shelving unit and pinboard I had picked up in Sostrene Grene last year and had never gotten around to putting up. Right away, that made a big difference, giving the space a bit more personality – it also made a much more interesting Zoom background!

I ordered a couple of cheap Billy bookcases from Ikea. Lockdown meant they took a while to arrive but by July, they were assembled and I promptly began faffing; creating a rainbow book display on one and a more muted display of books, magazines, odds and sods on the other. We also hung an Ikea mirror that had been in the garage for well over year, which helped to make the space feel bigger, and I picked up a cheap rug on Amazon to break up the expanse of grey carpet. Et voila, we now have a bright and cheerful home office.

I worked my notice for my last job, spent a couple of rather unsettling months freelancing and then started a new job virtually, all from this room. It really has been the most surreal of years. It’s been such a gift to have this space this year though and I know how lucky I am to have it – and to have a job.

Whilst it’s still a challenge to set your boundaries when working from home, having a space that you can close the door on at the end of the day does really help. Stealing an office chair from work (with permission) is probably one of the best things I did this year too. My back has certainly thanked me for it.

2.     Gallery Walls Galore

Not content with one gallery wall, I set about banishing the blank walls in our house bit by bit. The biggest labour of love has been our staircase gallery wall, which we initially started hanging in June and which has continued to grow and evolve over the last few months.

The staircase gallery wall was something I wanted to do as soon as we bought this house. The staircase is the first thing you meet when you open our front door. Inspired by people like the lovely Lisa Dawson, I set about collecting and framing my prints and curating my collection. You can read more about the process in my gallery wall blog here. I even made some of my own art too; who could forget the Corona Mona?

I would go as far to say that our staircase gallery wall was the catalyst for beginning to add more colour to our home. Up until that point, everything was pretty muted in varying shades of white and grey. But the splash of colour – and the hopeful messages in much of the artwork I collected – did something quite spectacular; it really lifted my mood. As time goes on, I’m becoming braver with colour and as we move into 2021, I hope to build upon this and add more colour throughout the house.

I’ve gone on to create other smaller gallery walls in the dining room and our master bedroom, while hanging over prints and pieces of artwork around the house – there’s barely a bare wall left now. This is the one change that’s made the biggest difference and added the most personality to our home.

3.     Became a Crazy Plant Lady

Perhaps it was suddenly being trapped inside 24/7 but at the beginning of lockdown, I decided the house would benefit from a little more greenery and I set about becoming a bone fide crazy plant lady. I was so enthused at the beginning that I filmed my own plant time lapse videos. I think colleagues and friends thought I was losing it at the time but there was something so magical about the way the plants’ leaves moved that mesmerised me. Since then, the indoor jungle has continued to expand but there have also been quite a few casualties too. I’m learning to play to my strengths and will focus on my less needy plant babies in 2021.

4.     Budget Room Refreshes

In the summer, we took on perhaps our biggest project to date: a budget DIY refurbishment of our kitchen. I was tired of the grubby cream cabinets that were impossible to keep clean and wanted to shake things up. With the purse strings a little more constrained, we couldn’t afford to get a whole new kitchen fitted but after some research, we set about giving the space a bit of a ‘glow up’.

This probably deserves a blog of its own but in short, we primed and painted the kitchen cabinets changing them from cream to F&B Hague Blue and changed the door handles from the inherited white ceramic knobs to lovely new brass ones from Yester Home. We sanded and varnished the countertops and painted the walls from magnolia to Ammonite. The colour change has made such an incredible difference. I even dislike the floor tiles less, as there’s now a contrast between the walls, cabinets and floor.

We spent under £250 on paint and materials and over the last few months have added a few more decorative touches. It did take a lot of time, effort and patience but it was well worth it.  

In the autumn, it was time to take on the utility room – another floor to ceiling magnolia and white space that was just crying out for a bit of colour. We freshened up the walls, turning them from magnolia to Ammonite in keeping with the kitchen. The cabinets were an unoffensive plain white gloss, so we left them as they were but spray painted the handles gold for a more contemporary look.

I painted the brown laminate garage door in F&B Sulking Room Pink to match the back door we’d painted the previous summer but the major change came with the removal of the white tiles. I had shopped around for a while but eventually found my pink zellige tiles of dreams at David Scott Tiles. I’m proud to say I did the tiling all by myself – I’m definitely getting braver when it comes to DIY as time goes on and hopefully will continue to get my hands dirty with some more home improvement projects in 2021.

Then it was just a case of adding a few more decorative touches; a rather fabulous pink jungle rug that was a steal at £50 and a Habitat green shoe rack both from Argos; a scaffold shelf from the lovely Plane and Sanded, some peg rails from H&M Home to hang the floor brush, dust pan and other odds and sods you need in a utility room and a few prints (naturally).

5.     Carved out little cosy corners

In 2020, I finally nabbed my peacock chair of dreams, having lusted after one for well over two years. And not just that, but I also picked up another little Rattan beauty (both from local seller, Tee & Pee Abobe) and created two little reading nooks – one on our landing and another in our bedroom. I didn’t do much reading in 2020 but hopefully that will change in the year ahead and if nothing else, these cosy corners have helped to create a more homely space.

6.     Hello new carpet

In perhaps the most monumental change to the house this year, after much scrimping and saving, in November, we finally said goodbye to the stripy carpet of doom on the stairs and landing and hello to a lovely new, fresh, natural and neutral sisal look wool carpet. The gallery wall is no longer fighting with the stripes and I don’t get a headache every time I look at it. No offence if stripes are your thing – plenty of people love them, they’re just not for me.

From start to finish, Lisa and Mark from Mark McCallister Carpets did a wonderful job. I couldn’t recommend them more highly, if you’re local. Their prices are really competitive and their mobile showroom takes all of the hassle out of choosing samples, particularly in the current climate.

7.     Adding decorative touches

The other changes have been much more subtle but cumulatively have helped to make our house a home. From dried flowers and pampas grass to charity shop buys and Gumtree finds to finally getting bare light bulbs covered / light fittings hung and swapping the boujie inherited chandelier for a more understated rattan shade, we’ve well and truly put our stamp on this space.

We haven’t quite transitioned from minimalist to maximalist but slowly but surely, we’ve added a bit more personality to our home and it really does feel more like it’s ours.

We’ve plenty more yet to do but with another lockdown already under way, perhaps we’ll get to it. For now though, I’m going to sit down with some bubbles and say goodbye to 2020. This is the first New Year’s Eve in the eight years together that Dom hasn’t been working. It won’t be Rock ‘n’ Roll but I’m happy with my lot and grateful for all that we do have.

Here’s to a better 2021 for us all. I don’t know about you but I’d happily trade my former Rock ‘n’ Roll life, along with my hammer and drill to be able to see - and hug - my family and friends. x