before as our wee guest bedroom which often became a dumping ground This post contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. I hadn't planned on creating a new workspace, it kind of just happened. One day, during lockdown, I mentioned how I'd like to work in our small guest bedroom as it's at the front so gets more sun, and wondered if we could swap them round. David wasn't overly keen and it did seem like a hassle/some top procrastination, but a week or so later we were looking for things to do and it suddenly seemed like a great idea!
This definitely marked the end of an era. Moving to a much smaller room meant packing up the side of my business I'd been falling out of love with to make sure there was room for all of the important stuff for moving forward. It was absolute chaos. I had instant regrets when both rooms were filled with piles of disorganised EVERYTHING. Why did I have so much stuff?? A day of work later and we had the layout of my new workspace! At this stage I decided I wanted to paint everything a muted green so I ordered a tin of Rust-Oleum Bramwell which we used on the desk, shelf and wicker chair. The chair was actually in the garage from when my parents were clearing out - it used to be in my nursery/bedroom growing up and has constantly changed colour. I covered the cushion with a fat quarter of gorgeous liberty fabric from eBay. I also found half a can of matte gold spray paint from a previous project in the garage, which David used to spray my old bright pink IKEA file shelves with. I love how they turned out! My favourite mini DIY that happened was the clock. This vintage frame was used for displaying brooches and the hands were taken off an old clock which didn't suit the new space. Those, combined with some floral fabric, make a fun but practical addition to my wee gallery wall. The botanical prints are all from CowParsleyCo on Etsy. Keeping to the botanical theme, I treated myself to some custom coasters from Flower Resin - they are made with daisies, ferns, pink petals and gold leaf. So perfect! My desk candle is from The Candle Bothy, I love the cucumber, ginger and mint scent, plus it's a bonus that the label matches perfectly! Last but not least, is my lovely new pink velvet desk chair. I wanted to have a comfier space to sit as I'm so bad for going downstairs to work from the sofa in the living room. I can safely say it has increased productivity by 100%. It's my focus zone, but I can sit with my legs crossed and draw or cosy up with Daisy. I'd seen these in TK Maxx years ago and always wanted an excuse to buy one, but because it was during lockdown I managed to find a similar one on eBay. Everything else we already had, it just needed a bit of reorganisation. I really love it and it's become a place I'm excited to spend time in. So cosy and inviting! As for the old studio, it's now a guest bedroom/gym/games room which makes for a much better use of space.
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TA-DAH! It might have been over 6 months since we finished our hallway makeover, but it still feels fresh and new every day! I'm so pleased with how this turned out, especially as it was the final piece of the puzzle in terms of making our home fully our own. I started a moodboard aaages ago, because I can never resist a moodboard, but since the hall was going to be quite a big job for us, we saved it until last. Before Some more details This post contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
If you've seen any of my interiors posts before, you'll know we love to challenge ourselves to DIY, upcycle and thrift as much as possible. This has meant most of our makeovers were done on tiny budgets, but this is the first where we admitted defeat and paid to get the stair carpet fitted! Other than that, this was a classic team Jilly and David job - I did most of the tedious banister painting (Autentico Versante Matt in Menta) whilst David was in charge of tiling the floor. David also removed the old shelf/clunky storage heater that didn't do much, and put up our beautiful floating sleeper shelf (eBay £30). This turned out to be a much bigger job than expected as he wanted it to be super secure, but it's so worth it as it really opens up the space and adds character. Meanwhile, I was rummaging through the house and garage to see what I could use to accessorise. I love this old spindly chair, but I'm not sure where it came from! We already had the drawers in the hall but they look much more at home in the new colour scheme, which is actually pretty neutral for us. I wanted the space to feel as light and airy as possible, so knew all the brown woodwork needed to be painted. The floor tiles were a big part of the inspiration for keeping it a more natural colour palette (£25.63m2 from Tiles Direct). Originally we were going to stick with just mint and greens to add colour but the pink snuck in through some of the accessories as I felt it added more warmth when paired with cosy lighting and touches of gold. The frames were mostly from charity shops and feature a mix of my own illustrations and photos, with some Etsy prints mixed in. (Let's Dance from PrintPunkStudio / Elton John from CarrissaTanton / Blah Blah Blah from StelleDesignStudio / Work Hard & Be Kind from mboldnstudio). The beautiful Weaver Green rug was an early birthday present, it's made entirely from recycled plastic bottles! The mirrors are vintage - the one above the chair belonged to my great grandmother and the other was only £10 from Fancy That?. The glass light shades also have a vintage look but are actually just cheap ones from eBay. I also found the seagrass baskets on there which add a nice contrasting texture. Finally, we wanted to add some plants but I've tried keeping them alive in the hall before with no luck - there's just not enough sunlight sadly. So I've cheated and got a few lovely artificial plants from IKEA which definitely bring some life to the space. It's quite hard to write a post like this without it becoming a list of products sometimes! I hope you've enjoyed seeing our hallway makeover, I'd love to know what your favourite part is? This post contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links I'd had some bar ideas on my Garden Inspiration Pinterest board for ages now, but it just seemed like one of those never-going-to-happen projects. We've had this empty, unused corner of the garden which I decided would be the perfect spot for one so it was time to convince David. I showed him lots of examples and he said if I did a sketch of how I wanted it to look, mainly using the scrap materials we already had, we could do it. Yesss!!
I can't believe how it's turned out! It's just so real. I initially thought I'd just be getting a fold down pallet shelf or something tiny. In the end we used a bunch of stuff from our garage junk collection - 3 pallets from materials deliveries, trellis for the roof (from a bin store David made), osb countertop (leftover from a garage repair), and the roof posts and monoblocks were salvaged from a skip trip. Of course, with David being a landscape gardener he was able to magic up a lovely patio base, then he constructed the bar using my drawing as a guide. I was in charge of the stools and all of the painting (so much painting). The stools were £12 because of a lucky voucher situation, and I already had foam to use for the tops leftover from another project. I covered the tops with this tropical leaf tablecloth (£6.99) which inspired the colour scheme. The paint cost £24 with lots leftover. The colours are Paradise Petals by Johnstone's and Seagrass by Cuprinol. We did most of the work in a weekend, then I was just waiting for my solar lights to arrive to have fun with the styling. They look so pretty but sadly aren't working, so I've got to return them or I'd have taken a twinkly night-time photo. The other accessories were mostly just things we already had - the chalkboard frames are repurposed from my old tradeshow display. I did buy the floral garland on eBay though. Amazingly, in total we spent around £60! I hope you like our DIY bar! We can't wait to have some friends and family round for cocktail nights! I'll share the rest of our garden makeover soon. JillyJilly turned 6 in May. I didn't have any business Birthday celebrations as, truth be told, I'd fallen out of love with my business some time ago. I had been wanting to make some big changes but wasn't sure where to start or what I was actually aiming for, so it all seemed incredibly overwhelming and much easier to just ignore it. Despite business mentoring in the past, I'm rubbish when it comes to listening to my own advice!
I closed my shop at the start of lockdown. I was worried about sending parcels which were non-essential when the postal service was struggling. I was becoming very aware of making 'stuff' and the whole process - from supplies arriving in unnecessary plastic packaging, wasteful seconds etc. I was making more sustainable choices in other aspects of my life so I wanted my business to match up to this too. After taking some time to reflect I decided to start over - rebuild, refresh, rebrand. So let me introduce you to the new JillyJilly! My new branding was actually inspired by my new workspace, we created this using existing bits and pieces with the help of some leftover paint. My old branding was pink, mint and lilac so it felt like a nice transition to a softer, nature inspired palette. The hand drawn typography feels a bit vintage, and I liked the playfulness of a reversible logo. Since you're here, you've probably already noticed this is a whole new website. There's no longer a shop, though there will be a shop for the digital download products I'm working on. One of the main focuses now is design and photography services for indie businesses. I've spent time putting together examples of some of my favourite past projects, along with pre-priced packages for these services. I'll be using the blog a little more as I've already got a few DIY projects to share - these were always the most popular in the past! I want to be able to share more personal content featuring the things I'm most passionate about. A mix of thrifty finds, upcycling, home interiors, adventures and my favourite small businesses. I'm feeling so excited about my wee business for the first time in ages! It's so nice to be back. Mafalda Media is a Dundee based digital marketing agency which offers social media management and workshops. The brief was initially to create a minimal monochrome logo which could develop as the brand grew. Later on, I designed the graphics for Mafalda Media's social media planner which was a full printable workbook with calendar pages. I was also asked to design digital assets for use through social media content. This included illustrated icons for Instagram highlights, templates for creating quote graphics and countdown numbers for announcements. We then had a photoshoot to create mock-ups for the workbook pages so they could easily be adapted in future. Jilly created stunning graphics and photographs for the launch of our website and social media platforms, Jilly was great to work with. When it comes to branding and photography we recommend Jilly to our clients every time" If you'd like to book a branding project or photoshoot you can do so here.
Vegan Dundee is a lifestyle blog which features reviews of the vegan options available at local cafes, bars and restaurants, as well as vegan brands and events in Dundee.
The brief was just for a super simple cute and contemporary logo to go with the laid back style of the blog. We considered more obvious 'vegan' shapes but went with the geometric design as it gives a fun yet sleek look which suits the blog website layout. This was then used to create a business card design which was kept minimal, using the same triangles on reverse in a scattered layout, along with another handwritten style font emphasising the relaxed and personal vibe. If you'd like to book a branding project you can do so here. These images were from my illustrated giftware shop which I ran from 2014-2020. The brand photography was colourful and quirky to reflect the designs, using a range of props to create a soft, dreamy aesthetic.
JillyJilly products were featured in a selection of publications over the years with these lifestyle images making it to print. These product photographs were also the reason I was selected by Etsy UK as a mentor for their 2017 education programme. If you'd like to book a photoshoot you can do so here. #MyDundeeChristmas was a community social media challenge I worked on in 2019 in collaboration with Mafalda Media and the Dundee Etsy Team. The aim was for local indie businesses to boost their social media by following a series of daily prompts for the whole of November, with guest host days and prizes to be won.
The graphics were an important part in spreading the word as we wanted it to look really fun and festive but not too 'Christmassy' as we began promotion in October. We started with the prompt list which was also printed as square flyers. I then designed a printable planner for those taking part to plan out their posts, and a series of countdown and cover graphics for use across social media throughout the challenge. The Dundee Etsy Team is a community group for local Etsy sellers who hold meet ups, workshops and events. Etsy teams cannot use the official Etsy logo but may take inspiration to make their own team branding.
This meant that orange needed to be a key feature of this branding. This was then paired with a mix of fonts associated with craft - typewritten with a vintage feel, calligraphy and 'papercut' style. Over the years I've also created promotional graphics for the Dundee Etsy Team events, workshop hand outs and goody bag accessories. These all have different hand drawn elements and patterns for a creative mismatched vibe but use the same colours and fonts throughout to keep some consistency. If you'd like to book a branding project or for some custom graphics and workbooks, you can do so here. Blushberry Botanicals is a luxury vegan cosmetics brand based in Scotland. They create a range of products using natural ingredients and small batch processes. The brand identity features a 'blush berry' sprig as a signature icon with contrasting fonts for a balance which reflects the minimal ingredients and the handmade nature of the products. The addition of a logo sub mark allows branding versatility whilst still being instantly recognisable. This brief required packaging design which would evolve with the growing product range and work across multiple label types. The colours reflect the key scents of each product and the soft watercolour gives them a fresh look. The client also required illustrated elements for use on the website which could also be used on social media infographics. After completing the packaging design we moved onto the product photography. We wanted to bring the scents and flavours of each item to life. It was a lot of fun sourcing and styling with these props to create vibrant and evocative imagery. I'm delighted with my brand design and product photographs and will continue to use Jilly for future collections. I receive compliments on my packaging and photos all of the time and have been featured in several press publications too! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Jilly If you'd like to book a branding project or photoshoot you can do so here.
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