If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I love decorating my apartment and making small changes and home improvements to keep the space feeling fresh and exciting. These are never big changes (as we live in a rented apartment), but even small changes can have a big impact and don’t have to cost a lot of money. As we are not living in our ‘forever home’ yet, we don’t usually buy expensive pieces of furniture or anything like that, but at the same time, this is our current home so it needs to be as nice and comfortable as it possibly can :).
Anything that we do invest in for our current home can also transfer to our ‘forever home’ one day if we think it is worth it. Some people are of the opinion that it is a waste of money to decorate a rented apartment. I disagree with this – why would you not make your home as enjoyable as possible to be in? At the end of the day, you spend every single day in it………
We have recently picked up a few nice home bits that we absolutely love. They were all very inexpensive (some more so than others) but they make a big impact on our apartment. I thought it would be useful to share these with you and include a few little DIY tricks that I used, which are simple but effective.
Søstrene Grene Navy Velvet Chair
For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you will know that a couple of months ago I got a pink velvet chair from Søstrene Grene, which I am completely obsessed with. Søstrene Grene are such a great brand – they make decent quality products at a really affordable price (we all know that these are my favourite kind of brands).
The only annoying thing about Søstrene Grene is that you cannot shop for their products online. They do have a website with an online catalogue where you can browse through their latest product releases, but you can’t actually purchase anything from it. If you see something you like on their website, you have to visit the store and hope that it is in stock.
Like everything, the pink chair moved around my apartment until I decided to use it at my dressing table (replacing the little, wooden Ikea stool that I had previously used). When I was last at home in Ireland, I popped into Søstrene Grene and noticed that they had the velvet chair in a navy blue colour (one of my favourite colours). Navy and velvet is just the best combination ever. I bought the navy chair to use at my desk to replace a cheap old plastic one that had been ‘temporary’ for far too long. I find that it is always better to replace rather than add if you can, in order to avoid over cluttering which can easily happen in a small space like an apartment.
Now that I have both the pink and navy chairs I am actually undecided whether I want the pink one at my desk or my dressing table or vice versa. Hopefully I will resolve this very first world problem soon! (eye roll). For now, it is making a nice reading corner in my bedroom.
The navy chair that I got actually came with black legs, whereas my pink one had wooden legs which I way prefer. To make the blue one fit in with my apartment and give it more of a millennial feel, I actually spray painted the legs of it gold. This was such a quick, easy and inexpensive way of making this chair look so much better (in my opinion anyway, lol)
Søstrene Grene Pink Wall Shelf
Another item that I purchased from Søstrene Grene was this little pink wall shelf. I couldn’t believe how cheap this was (around £7!!) and the design of it is so simple but it works really well. Shelves are such a great way to display things in a nice way without adding clutter, and if done properly they can make a really nice feature in any room. I have put this one in our bedroom but it would work just as well in a living room with a nice plant, some books and a candle on it, or in a kitchen with some pretty crockery on it.
Marble & Gold Side Table
Marble tables are a trend that came back round last year in a big way!! I really have been enjoying this trend but marble is so bloody expensive!! I have pined over many marble tables in the likes of West Elm and Anthropologie to find that even a small side table can cost a couple of hundred pounds!
So, window shopping was all I ever done when it came to marble tables… that was until I was in a random shop in Abu Dhabi (looking for edible glitter to use on a cake lol). I googled where I could find edible glitter in Abu Dhabi and the results led me to this shop that literally sells everything from baking equipment to small pieces of furniture.
When I went there, the first thing I spotted was this hexagonal marble slab just lying on the ground looking a bit sad and lonely. Across the room was this little gold stand that looked like it would make for the perfect companion to the marble slab. My inner Del-Boy appeared and before I knew it I was negotiating with the shop owner to have the marble slab attached to the gold stand in order to make my perfect side table. By some miracle he agreed to do it and the following day I picked up the side table of my dreams for less than 50 quid. You can see it in the picture with my chair above and as a beside table below 🙂
I took it home, polished it up and I am delighted with it. I have actually just spotted something almost identical on Swoon Editions for £200!!!! In fact, I think mine is even nicer lol and for a quarter of the price. The one on swoon editions is actually a wine rack but you could definitely use it as a side table if you prefer. I will link it down below so you can see how similar they are.
So those are my recent home purchases and my tips on how to make some home improvements on a budget. I’d love to hear if you have any home improvement tips for me too :).
You can also read my last homeware blog post here if you would like too.
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