My Home – dining table styled with candles, antlers and flowers
My office….when it’s tidy.
My cheap and cheerful bedroom
My favourite bedroom at RedAgape Guesthouse
The Parlour at RedAgape Guesthouse
My dining table at home
My daughter’s gallery wall at home
Gallery wall in my daughter’s room
My kitchen at home…plus an awesome vintage map
My son’s room – with an awesome vintage map
My colour coded bookcase at home
My daughter and I finished the gallery wall in her bedroom over the school holidays, so I thought I’d share it with you. We had talked about adding a gallery wall for a while, so we had already collected most of the bits and pieces. When we found the watercolour print from IKEA, a couple of weekends ago, we finally felt motivated to get started. This is such an affordable way to decorate a wall. We created the large triangle artwork ourselves using paint and washi tape on canvas and the silhouette was from a craft project I started last year.
The Pokemon illustration was drawn by my eldest daughter and most of the other pieces we had already. We also used some washi tape to fill in a couple of the gaps. This is really easy to remove when we get tired of it or find something better to replace it. 
The watercolour IKEA banner is perfect on the wall! But my favourite thing is the pencil illustration above the side table that my daughter drew herself. I love the shading in the hair and bow. 
Dining Room at RedAgape Guesthouse
When it comes to interior design, layering is all about what we include in a room to make it feel complete. For example – cushions, throws, books, curtains, candles and magazines are all objects we include when we layer our spaces. I believe the most interesting and welcoming rooms are those that have just the right amount of layering.
A bedroom at RedAgape Guesthouse – layered with lamps, books and pictures
Getting that right balance of layers into a room is really important. Too little and a room can appear very cold, clinical and unwelcoming. Or too many layers and a room may feel cluttered and disorganized.
My table at home layered with books and flowers
Ok, so getting the balance right? Firstly, I hate staged rooms. Don’t layer with items that serve no logical use in a space. Don’t sit a lamp on the dining room table if you don’t intend to use it, or coffee table books in the kitchen unless you plan to read them. When layering occurs organically then it’s more likely to look natural. I’ve added lamps to both side tables in this bedroom along with reading material, layered with purpose.
Layered bedroom at RedAgape Guesthouse
Try using different patterns and textures in your layering, but make sure there is a connection between layered objects. The striped throw on this bed adds interest with a contrasting pattern to the florals, but works well because the green stripe ties in with other green elements in the room.
The Parlour at RedAgape Guesthouse
Layering with cushions! Ahh…my favourite type of layering. A lounge with no cushions is so boring and sad. Once again, try mixing patterns and textures. It’s been suggested that you shouldn’t have cushions in the same fabric that match your lounge. While I agree, it’s hard because lounges are often sold with matching cushions. I think the only exception to this rule is when the cushions serve as a structural component of the lounge.
A coffee table at RedAgape Guesthouse
And don’t forget your coffee and dining room tables! Add books, flowers and coasters with different heights and textures. A layered coffee table is a warm and welcoming invitation to come on in, sit down, and make yourself at home.
My Home – dining table styled with candles, antlers and flowers
I am always on the lookout for affordable ways to decorate my walls at home. I don’t believe that beautifully styled homes are reserved only for those who can afford the best of everything. I dislike snobby interiors (and people) and sometimes the challenge of a limited budget can yield the best results!
Framing napkins is an easy way to fill some walls. We bought these Rory Dobner napkins at the The Liberty Department Store, when we were in London at Christmas. I couldn’t bear the thought of using them as napkins, so I found some square frames at a cheap shop and hung them on the wall. 
My bedroom is a great example of how to decorate walls on a budget. We have recently moved into a fantastic new home, but having invested so much money into the house we need to be sensible about the amount we spend on furnishings and decor. I can’t justify the $$ for a new headboard right now, or the stunning wallpaper I’ve got my eye on, so I have hung an IKEA print as a temporary option. Inside Out Magazine featured my bedroom on their FaceBook page a few weeks ago and my image received over 3000 ‘likes’ and was shared 170 times. Stoked! 
I love handmade, so making my own wall decor was an obvious option. Wall banners are a fun DIY project and can be custom made with words or quotes that have meaning to you. You do need to be able to sew in a straight line and have a little patience with the hand stitching, but overall, they aren’t difficult to make. Please visit my Wall Banner Tutorial for instructions on how to make the banner pictured below.
I made the wall banner in the image above to fill a blank space on the wall in our bedroom. It was quick and easy to make and extremely affordable. The “have fun, regret nothing!” wall banner below, is also handmade and hangs in the rumpus room. 
I’m currently working on a gallery wall in my daughter’s room, so stay tuned! It will consist of more affordable, handmade and creative ideas to decorate your walls at home.
There are many ways to repurpose vintage wooden crates. I’ve seen them used for toy storage, magazine racks and shelving. I really like using them as planter boxes. Obviously, you need to line your crate before you fill it. This vintage crate, that originally housed ammunition cartridges, is now home to three little succulents. 
This vintage dairy crate was the perfect size for my Peace Lily that was already in a pot. The plant, the pot and it’s base are concealed inside, so it was simply a matter of putting it into the crate. Too easy. 
Oh man, i love my colour coded bookcase! When we moved house a few months ago my sister-in-law unpacked our books and was more than happy to oblige with my request for a ‘colour coded’ bookcase. With so many beautiful book nerds in our family we have accumulated a decent number of books, so my SIL had plenty to work with. She went beyond what i expected when she organised them by colour and SIZE! Yippee! Since then I have been rearranging and fine tuning. 
I do have a tendency to be a little OCD about some things. Not everything, but there are certain things where I’m very particular. For example, I need like the cushions on my bed arranged in a certain way. If even one cushion is just slightly out of place, I have to fix it. My bookcase is another one of those things. 
It’s becoming a bit of an obsession, to the point where I don’t like anyone borrowing the books. My hubby is currently reading one of the ‘white’ books and I’d be lying if I said the gap in the white section isn’t annoying me. It’s getting to the point where I’m considering buying books based on their spine colour. That’s normal, right?
Seriously though, it may be a librarian’s worst nightmare, but colour coding your bookcase is the best way to keep your books looking neat and tidy. Bookcases have the potential to become an eyesore if they aren’t organised. A colour coded bookcase can actually become a feature in your home as well as a practical place to store your books.
My daughter asked me where a particular book was the other day and I responded, “I’m pretty sure it’s in the middle of the reddish/orange section.” And sure enough, it was! Proving that there may be some method in my colour coding madness. 
I love monochrome interiors and I’ve using black and white as the base for mine and hubby’s bedroom for a while now. Black and white is easy to work with as long as you vary the tones and textures so it doesn’t look too stark.
Black and white also works well if you have males in the house that don’t really want their bedroom looking too girly. It’s the main reason I use monochrome in the bedroom….BUT, pink is really pretty and over the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to sneak a little into the bedroom. And according to Real Living Magazine this month, I’m on trend! Fancy that, and I didn’t even know.
I added pink by changing the pillow cases from white to blush, white and charcoal covers from Country Road. Changing your pillowcases is a cheap and easy way to update your bedroom, but I’ll be honest, the idea isn’t my own. I follow The Stylists Splash on Instagram and she is constantly changing the look of her bedroom by updating her pillow cases. Great idea!
The other pink touches in the room were items I found during a quick hunt around the house. A pink candle, some flowers, pencils and soap. Hubby also bought me perfume in a pretty pink bottle for Mother’s Day, which ties in perfectly. He did ask me a few days ago why his side table was looking so girly? But I think I’ve managed to limit the pink to an amount he can live with.
And the best thing about this room is that it was all done on the cheap!! All of the throw cushions, except one, I made myself. I used a cheap print from Ikea as a headboard until we can afford a proper one. The black trunk is from a secondhand shop and all the other bits I already had on hand. The only new items purchased were the Country Road pillowcases.
