The Interior DIYer
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Decorating for fall

Autumn has well and truly landed here in Dublin and I for one am not complaining. This past week I’ve been trying to figure out why I love autumn and winter so much, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’ve concluded it’s a mash of the following …

– It being cold is a great reason to hide under a duvet on the couch and watch 100 movies.
– Candles. All of the candles.
– Hot beverages such as mulled wine and hot chocolate. 
– I’m 1,000 times more comfortable under a pile of sweaters, scarves and coats vs. being in a summer dress with my bingo wings flapping about.
– Further to the above point, I prefer to be cold than hot. 
– It might snow. Even just for 5 minutes.
– It gets dark early [which mostly sucks], but there’s something about it being dark out and lights being on in shops and in people’s homes. 
– Autumn and winter call for decorating our home in two very different styles, both of which I love.

I decorated our apartment a little this week in preparation for autumn and Halloween. I feel this year that my decor is just a bit … meh. Probably because I didn’t make anything new, but simply raided my accessory hoard for autumnally appropriate pieces [aka, every skull ever] and decorated a bit lazily by adding some leaves that I hope have been spared from dog pee. 

I’d like to do something a little more special with our bar cart and do something unusual in the hallway too, but the cogs are still turning so it might be the Eve of Halloween before I have a decent idea. 

So what about you? Do you decorate for autumn or Halloween? Do you find it a bit too North American? [I’ve heard people here referring to decorating for autumn and spring in that manner, but it’s all I’ve ever known. I love decorating for any season, especially when it comes to the winter months by mixing things up a bit – something to break up the monotony of the darker months].

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#WCW – The Makerista

I’ma let you finish, but first I want to share something with you that’s been on my mind since I saw it earlier this week. Can we take a moment for the dining room of blogger Gwen Hefner, aka, The Makerista. I was made aware of it earlier this week and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. I mean srsly you guys … 

Black walls, bright accents, that mural, the romantic lighting, panelled walls, the deep reds, geometric table mats, sleek chairs coupled with an antique table, gold accents and a perfect juxtaposition of old and new design all melded into one. Let’s not forget, it’s decorated for Halloween. 

I now know what I want to be when I grow up; Gwen’s dining room. Yes. A dining room. 

All images are via Gwen’s A Spooky Supper Setting blog post on The Makerista. Although, truth be told, I’d friggin’ love to claim them as my own. In a hot second. I’d have no shame in that whatsoever, but you know, internet rules. 
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Darker bar cart and an autumny update

Autumn is beginning to creep up here in Dublin [not complaining]. The weather was awful this weekend so we were stuck indoors and I had the perfect opportunity to faff about our apartment and nest* to my hearts content. One area I’ve been stink-eyeing for a long time is our bar cart. I’m forever pinning beautiful images of effortlessly styled bar carts, and ours always just kind of looked like a toddler emptied its pockets onto it. 

I moved stuff around, added things that had been hidden in my styling stash and attempted to create a pretty vignette. It’s not completely there [yet], but I’m a lot happier with it. 

Another reason I was prompted to get my cart in order was I got a cheeky and unexpected parcel last week from a wild mane-d vixen, that made me squee. Simply entitled “to my gothic princess“; two Crystal Head Vodka skull glasses. Talk about SWOONWORTHY [they’re actually quite difficult to photograph, but trust me, they’re simply amazing. See one with black absinthe … for photo purposes. They’re amazing, thank you Kimbo xx We’ve already broken them in :P]. 

Whilst I was autumnizing our living room I took out my roller and quickly added a patch of berry paint, which I’ve been kinda dying to add more of to our apartment so I tested to see how it would look behind the TV. I love the idea of dark walls accented with white and bright accessories to balance things out. I think it might work well, but I’m concerned about how dark it will look come winter. I adore it, but I’m still on the fence especially re: possible seasonal affective disorder. At the very least, perhaps I’ll do something about that unsightly cable? As it is, it really brings a certain je ne sais quoi to the look I’m going for. Don’t you agree? 

When in doubt, #CropItLikeItsHot.

*No, I’m not pregnant. I’ve heard of this ‘nesting’ that occurs during pregnancy, and quite frankly, I’ve been nesting since the age of 17.