The Interior DIYer
Uncategorized

Sneak peek – IKEA Family Live feature

I’m going to jump the gun and do the thing you’re not supposed to do. I know divulging such information so early will probably give me luck much on par with smashing several mirrors, but feck it. I cannot contain my excitement. A couple of weeks ago I opened my e-mail one afternoon and there sitting in my inbox … was an e-mail from IKEA Family Live. Heart palpitation central.

They were looking to feature our apartment on their online magazine. Emily Westbrooks of From China Village recommended our home {so many gushy feelings were sent in her direction. I hope they reached you, Em!}, IKEA Family Live checked out my website, liked what they saw and got in contact. Lots of excitement and chaos ensued in the general region of my face over the following days.

I had a week to photograph our apartment, complete the write up and send in all the deets. It was a bit tough as that week we had next to no sunshine. Not to mention I had to include a photo of myself. Which reminds me – thank you sooo much to those of you who left the sweetest comments in response to my seriously hairy level of self doubt re: selfies. You sure know how to make a gal feel better. 
Our home will be the November Member {lolz, I’m so immature} feature on the IKEA Family Live site, so there’s a bit of time between now and then for the dust to settle and for me to get excited about it all over again. It’ll feature some exclusive pictures of our home that I am typically too afraid to photograph. In the mean time, I urge you to check out Emily’s lovely home which was featured as the July IKEA Family Live member, and not to mention her uber fun website. 
Happy Monday homies! xx A
Uncategorized

I hope you …

This week was packed. I was a bundle of excited nerves as I submitted that exciting project I hinted towards last week {more deets on that coming shortly}. We had storms and even a tornado warning, which by the way, tornadoes are non-existant in Ireland. One even touched down = hello global warming. I also brain-stormed a very nifty project for my DIY Friday that I’m really excited about, but you’ll have to tune in next week as it’s a work in progress. Yesterday I added a new ‘opportunities’ tab to my website, which is a bit embarrassing, but I’m curious to see what comes of it. I also created a Vizify profile, which was a lot of fun creating and might just supersede my LinkedIn account. And today, I purchased myself a rather awesome bicyclette. At the risk of sounding like a dork, this bike couldn’t be more perfect. I actually was clapping in the shop. If a bike could be personified as me, this one nailed it. Wait until you see it. 
The long weekend is here {in Ireland} so kick back, relax with a beverage in hand and remember – we finally made it. Happy Friday homies 🙂

xx A

Uncategorized

Behind the scenes – Nigel Slater’s kitchen

One of my most viewed posts to date is a blog post I wrote almost two years ago about Nigel Slater’s kitchen. It’s been a hit for good reason; because his kitchen is awesome. Beautiful charcoal hues, a strong presence of wood, clean lines and those bi-fold floor to ceiling windows. I still want and need all of that in my life.
It came as a complete shock when one day I got an e-mail from Rudi Thackray – the man and genius behind designing Nigel’s set. And for good measure, he also designed Lorraine Pascal’s Fast Fresh and Easy Food set, the Aquatics Centre Entrance for the 2012 London Olympics, Heston Blumenthal’s Perfection set and The Jonathan Ross Show set to name but a very small few. Um, woah. 

Rudi saw the hype on my site about his kitchen, and got in contact looking to share some inside info and crack the illusion behind the set. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I built up some courage and asked if he had any sneaky behind-the-scenes stuff. He did.

Just for you guys, here are a few exclusive behind the scenes pictures and a slight insight into Nigel’s kitchen …

What looks like a relatively small set {in terms of TV shows}, contained within an existing back garden outside of London, Rudi and his team have us all fooled. In the picture above, you can see the step that carries through into the ‘garden’ below. 

Below I did a mock-up of what I think to be roughly the layout of the set.  I took a stab and guessed the guy in the red shirt {in the 5th picture} was standing at the set entrance. From here, the rest is guess work and that the timber walls you see in the 4th and 5th picture are faux stone walls which you can see in the doorway of the 2nd picture. 
Here I was, utterly convinced such a place actually existed. I will forever attempt to figure out TV sets now. A massive thank you again to Rudi for sharing his exclusive pictures, and for anyone curious, you can check out my original post on Nigel’s kitchen here. 
xx A