It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of interior decorating. This is something which, upon reflection, I seemed to have always enjoyed. Growing up I shared a room with my youngest sister and we were constantly moving furniture around and ‘decorating’ our room. Every month our bed would be on a different wall, or we would find a random roll of wallpaper on sale in Laura Ashley to create a ‘feature wall’ lol. I would always take it a step further and wear our mother down until she would buy us things like plastic boxes for our shoes (I know these are very popular now, but I kid you not, I used these as an 11 year old child! Lol) and I still use them today! I knew I was right when I convinced mum that they were a good investment! In fact, I feel like the shoe boxes deserve their very own blog post. Let me know if shoe storage is something you would like me to write about.
I often find myself sitting in a hair salon, for example, or in someone’s home, thinking of ways that I would decorate it if I could lol. Does anyone else do this? I can’t be alone!
One of my absolute favourite things to do is shop for bits and pieces to decorate my little apartment. I could easily spend hours just browsing around stores like West Elm, Anthropologie, Oliver Bonas, Zara Home and not forgetting IKEA of course! Dan absolutely DREADS the words “let’s go to IKEA”. I often get around this by bribing him with a 1 Dirham (20p) ice cream lol. It works every time! I don’t always necessarily go there to buy something specific (like most normal people). I just love to go and ‘have a look’. The Ikea we have here in Abu Dhabi is always really quiet, unlike most IKEAs around the World, so that always makes it even more inviting.
Anyway, back to the topic……….. One of my more recent homeware store loves is H&M Home. I’m not sure how long H&M Home has been in the UK, but it certainly wasn’t there when I lived there. I discovered it in Abu Dhabi last year and have been absolutely obsessed with it since!
I have always been a fan of regular H&M for the clothes but everyone knows that the quality is not always the best. However, I must admit that I find the quality of their homeware stuff really, really good! But with high quality comes a higher price tag too. Whilst it doesn’t exactly have the same kind of prices as West Elm, for example, H&M Home is definitely a bit more expensive than what I expected. That said, it does seem to be a little bit less expensive in the UK than here in Abu Dhabi (like everything!). All of that aside, H&M Home have absolutely nailed it with their stock. Their pieces are always bang on trend, and you will find it difficult to walk out of there without spotting something you want to buy! Well I do anyway lol…….
Since discovering H&M Home, I have picked up a few bits and pieces which I really love, so I thought I wold share those with you.
Instead of just showing you images of each item I thought it would be more helpful to show you how I use / style them in my home.
Not many things stay in the same place for long in my apartment. I like to move things around, and I am constantly chopping and changing. I could spend hours placing things on a set of shelves only to change it all again the next day. Anyway, this is how things look today……..
Gold Basket
When I first spotted this gold basket, I knew I loved it, but I wasn’t quite sure what I would use it for. Determined to find it a home, I ended up using it for blankets / light throws which we keep in our living room. I think it is a practical and pretty way to store this kind of thing because blankets are something that you don’t always use, but you don’t want to store them away because as soon as you do that, you can be guaranteed you will want it lol. I just like to keep mine here, in arms reach but tucked up tidily ?
Gold Tray
This was one of the first pieces that I ever bought from H&M Home and since then it has moved around my apartment like a cat (not that you would ever find a cat in my apartment…. I am terrified of them.….. embarrassing, I know)! I never quite know where I want to use this, but I am happy with its current placement. I use it in my kitchen to store some chopping boards and little bits and pieces like a salt pinch pot and oil and vinegar bottles. Again, these are things that I like to keep out of my cupboards as I reach for them on a daily basis, so it is handy to keep them tidy on my worktop and this tray is perfect for that.
Candles
I am a big fan of candles in my home. I am very particular about scents, but for me, the packaging of a candle is just as important as the smell. Candles are something that sit on display in your home so they should look nice! There is nothing better than a candle which smells absolutely amazing but also looks beautiful. I have been really impressed with H&M Home’s selection of candles. Their packaging is simple and chic and they smell good too! Here I have one from their current range and the gold one was a Christmas edition (which I have not lit but I think it just looks very pretty and it has a lid so the smell is contained).
Mini Glass Vase
Like most people, I adore plants and fresh flowers in my home. If I get a bunch of flowers, I won’t necessarily always put it into one vase. Sometimes I like to split it up into a number of smaller bunches of flowers that I can dot around the apartment. Sometimes there may only be a single stem in a glass or something like that, but I love how this looks. This mini glass vase which I got from H&M Home is just perfect for me. I love the gold rim but it still looks really simple. Like everything, this moves around my apartment very regularly and will usually just contain a little sprig of whatever I can find lol. Currently it is sitting in my kitchen on the gold tray that I mentioned earlier, and contains bit of greenery which I pulled out of a bunch of lilies that I got last week. They are on their last legs now to be honest; I need to throw them out lol.
Cushions
Cushions are one of my favourite things to buy from H&M home. They have so many gorgeous prints, materials and colours to choose from. Currently I am using two grey and white textured cushions and two of their dusky green cushions in a velvet material which I am absolutely obsessed with! They have the velvet cushions in so many different colours. They have a pink / blush colour which I think would look amazing in a bedroom that has a grey and blush colour scheme.
Teacups
As much as I love candles and flowers, pretty crockery is one of my absolute favourite things to buy. H&M Home ALWAYS have the cutest cups and saucers, and pretty little bowls and jugs. The teacups that I have are also one of the first things which I got from H&M Home, and I am so, so impressed by the quality of them. They have a gold finishing which, to be honest, I was expecting to come off in the dishwasher. Usually crockery like this has to be hand washed to maintain the gold paint, but unwilling to hand wash cups from H&M, I have been putting them in the dishwasher since the day I got them and they are as good as new!! I have other more expensive cups that have not lasted as well!! I am so impressed with these and I love how they look. I got 2 pink and 2 grey tea cups and they come with matching saucers, but I like to mix and match them and use a grey teacup with a pink saucer (crazy aren’t I?!).
I have also recently repurposed two other teacups that I got from H&M to house a fat round cactus, as well as a mini aloe plant, which I pruned off my larger aloe plant. I wasn’t sure how long this would last but it is doing okay for now….. we will see. I just thought these cups were so so cute. One of them says ‘you are amazing’ and the other says ‘I know’ lol and I think the plants look so cool in them.
So that’s it for my favourite H&M pieces. They don’t always stock the same pieces between stores but they usually have very similar things, so I have linked below what I could find.
Let me know if you too are a fan of H&M Home or what your favourite homeware stores are. It will give me an excuse to go and ‘have a look’.
SHOP THE POST
