Our garden makeover has been a lot slower than the interiors - turns out plants take quite a bit of time to grow! It's an ongoing project, especially now that I'm studying garden design and have lots more elaborate ideas. We've been working on bits and pieces in stages with a couple more big changes planned, I thought I would share where we're up to now as I've had so many lovely messages when I post snippets on Instagram stories. 

Last year David started by digging out a border along the wall on the lefthand side with old wooden sleepers as edging. Our garden sloped down to a weird triangle point which was previously just mushy lawn, so the soil which was dug out for the border was used to level this out a bit. My Nanny is a keen gardener and so took cuttings of their lovely plants for us to get started. One year on, and they are looking beautiful! The bees seem to think so too.

We left it like this for a while as we were deciding what our best quick fixes would be. Then, one weekend last July, we transformed it all! David began by doubling up the fence slats which gives us much more privacy and stops Daisy peeking through to bark at the neighbours. We painted this in Cuprinol 'Coastal Mist' which made such a difference. Though it did take three coats! This was used for the trellis too. Next up was painting the concrete block wall - if we weren't trying to do this quickly and on a tiny budget David would have rendered the wall first. 

After that we just added a selection of solar string lights (eBay), hooks and hanging baskets. It's quite strange accessorising a garden really. The metal wall decorations belonged to my late uncle, as well as the ceramic plant pots, mini bird table and wooden chairs. David cut a palette in half which we painted with leftover fence paint, it's really handy as a wee drinks table for if you're lying on the picnic blanket or in the hammock. Our hammock (also eBay) was a gift to ourselves at the start of lockdown and honestly it's one of the best things we've ever bought. So comfy and relaxing, it fits both of us in and the stand can be taken apart to fit in the shed.

Since then we got a second hand gazebo which has made a lovely sheltered seating area for the evenings, decorated with my vintage fabric scrap bunting. Of course we then made a cocktail bar which was a lot of fun! Now we just need some more sunshine to enjoy it all. 

Next on our list is French doors. David is keen to get them fitted before winter as the back door has seen better days. After that he wants to patio the area which is currently gravel but that will probably be next year. Oh, and I've still got to paint the wall behind the bar which is the back of the garage and goes around to the side.

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​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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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?