The Interior DIYer

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Amara Interior Blog Awards – best DIY blog nominee

Firstly, if you were brought here via the Amara Interior Blog Awards, welcome! My name is Alex and as you will soon find out, I am very awkward in these situations. Secondly, if you were the person[s] who nominated me to be included in this years’ awards, thank you! But at the same time I can’t help but sing to myself “one of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn’t belong“.

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from the Amara Interior Blog Awards to say that someone nominated my blog in the best DIY [and craft] category. I was equal parts confused and equal parts blown away as this is a proper award thing. There are so many incredibly talented bloggers nominated so I’m all here like, whaaaaaat. But at the same time I’m going to try my hand at some self promotion. So, please … 

Only if you want to. See? Awful at self promotion. I have no delusions, I know I haven’t a hope in hell, but being along side such strong bloggers is really humbling and I’m going to give it a shot. Only the top 5 nominated blogs from each category will be invited to the awards night. There are so many bloggers nominated that I would just die to meet, so being in a room full of them, to me, would be is pretty immense. So please vote for me if you’d like to see moi with my big hair and awkward social skills at a fancy London ‘do. Or don’t! I don’t mind and won’t hold it against you.

If you’re new around these parts, you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest!
Only if you wanna.
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Snuggle up with this week’s Sunday Times

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Nell and Conor, the creative couple behind Snug, all about their Snugboro home and [srsly] striking furniture business. I learned all about the intricate process and thought that goes into each one of their pieces. All of which were designed out of necessity after building their Wicklow home by hand. The effort, skill and thought that Conor and Nell put into each piece is incredible.

Available in today’s Irish Sunday Times in all newsagents, countrywide, you can read the whole article about this ultimate design duo. And if you can’t get your hands on a copy, head over to their site to have an oogle. Happy Sunday, friends xx

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Work in progress – living room

Today it’s a Bank Holiday Monday here in Ireland [all kinds of yes], so with my extra morning I decided to switch up the living room a bit. Not much, just a little to freshen up what we’ve been sitting staring at for over five years. 

The wall behind our TV had been bothering me for a while in regards to unbalanced things were at this end of our living room. Bad unbalanced. Not chic asymmetrical. The TV stand is in the same place as when we first moved in – smack in the middle of the wall. So to mix things up, I swapped the TV stand with the bar cart, aligned them a bit better under the shelf, and moved some of our artwork and accessories around …

So far, this is a temporary set up. A work in progress. There are a few things that still need to be fixed, changed, found and hung. Some of which are …

– artwork for over the TV
– hang more artwork / frames in general
– hang up our Karlsson flip clock
– possibly find some artwork for behind the bar cart
– paint the TV cable white
– possibly update our landlord’s coffee table [that can be easily reversed]

After repainting our living white last week after it being beige for 4 years, my black and white artwork hanging above the TV didn’t stand out as much as it used to. I’m on the lookout for adding some big, dark pieces above the shelf to balance the weight of the TV and make this wall feel a bit more finished. I’m half thinking of stretching some velvet onto a canvas, or just painting another piece myself. I also want to get an old ladder to display all our blankets and throws to place on either the left or right adjoining wall, because we have a hella lot of throws. 

With the changes I made this morning to our living room, all I did was simply move around things we already had. To me, the pictures don’t look like a big enough change to warrant a blog post, but it definitely feels cosier and a better thought out layout. I find it strange [and disappointing] when you photograph something and it doesn’t capture the feeling that goes with a space. I guess you’re just going to have to trust me when I say it feels much cosier and put together in real life. Almost as if adults live here xx 
p.s. For anyone who’s extra observant today, no, I didn’t travel back in time between the before and after photos. Our flip clock tends to show the wrong date, so I made an effort to fix it for the after photos to today’s date, the 3rd. Not the 4th. Such detail. Big wow.