New Suite Virgins

Here is something you don’t know about me…. I’ve never owned a brand new sofa or suite. Seriously!

The first home Roy and I moved into came furnished with an old Chesterfield suite (Looked nice but was damn uncomfortable!). We then inherited some soft squishy blue sofa from family and later a gorgeous oak framed set that lasted us years but died spectacularly when I sat my large pregnancy bum down on one end and it conceded defeat and collapsed (not my finest moment).

After that there was the orange duck filled suite (never again, those damn feathers got everywhere), a catalogue fake leather thing which I’m not counting as new as it was so naff and broke (yes broke) within a week. Now we have a quite nice honey coloured suite that I got in a house clearance sale for £60 but would have paid £300 for easily.

There you go, my somewhat murky sofa past. What we have at the moment is actually ok but I really am looking now for something that fits the room and the family properly. It may be my Yorkshire roots or frugal mindset but I do balk at the idea of paying out for brand new when I know I can get cheaper. The difference is of course that if I want quality I am going to have to pay for it.

Having not really done the whole suite browsing thing I’ve been quite surprised at how reasonable a suite is nowadays. When we first moved in together a brand new suite was a luxury that we just couldn’t afford. HelloSofas for example have a wide range of sofas which tick all of our boxes and won’t have us eating baked beans for the next twelve months.

Being a new suite virgin however I am asking for your  sofa wisdom. What is your top piece of advice for choosing a suite? We have no pets but do have two small monkeys, Roy and myself to seat. I’d love to hear what you think the must do and must not do points are when sofa shopping, particularly online.

sofa

 

Photo Credit

*Remuneration has been received for the writing and posting of this post yet the content is my own and true to my own thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Room for Improvement

When a lovely gent working on behalf of Moneysupermarket waved £50 in front of me and asked if I fancied taking part in the Room for Improvement campaign I was unlikely to say no. You can find more details about this fab idea here however in a nutshell a select few were asked to titivate an area, redo a room or perhaps renovate a piece of furniture with just £50. The focus of the project was to show what you can actually achieve on a budget.

With £50 at my disposal my first thought was to do something for the boys, or Roy or the kitchen perhaps however it was my the long suffering husband who put his foot down and said I was to use it for something just for me for a change. With this in mind I decided to breathe some new life into my office.

I work as a freelance writer from home and seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time at my desk which as it happens is the one area of the house that has never been paid a lot of attention, until now.

Before:

 Workspace before

And after….

desk after

Small changes have made a heck of a difference!

My first purchase was for £20 and is this fabulous solid (and actually very comfortable) desk chair:

£20 chair

I adore the idea of having an older piece of furniture with a bit of history to it in my home.

Next up was Rymans where I found this faux leather desk tidy. It is bigger than it looks and has helped to clear up space on the desk.

Desk tidy

Off to Wilkinsons where I found these fabulous frames which I’ve filled with writer-related and motivational quotes, all of which make me smile!

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To the right of the desk you’ll see my water glass and carafe (Jamie Oliver) which is made from recycled jam jars. These cost me £0 as I used some Kenco coffee reward points to treat myself.

Kenco reward

Flowers are a must and this jar used to have rice in it but has now been repurposed. The lovely flowers were given to me by a lovely friend.

After all of this I had £6.01 left so bought a memo block, hardback notebook and this extremely used “Things to do” pad from Wilkinsons once again.

 Wilko stationery

 

This left me with 3p which I have put into my shrapnel jar; pennies make pounds you know! Am I pleased with the transformation? Thrilled would be a better description and I’m glad Roy convinced me that I wanted to do something just for me. With a bit of shopping around and re-using I think I’ve created a much more practical, motivating and quite frankly gorgeous work space for myself.
What do you think?

Whenever I take on a project like this I always set a strict budget because firstly it keeps the spending under control and secondly, I feel it gets the imagination going!

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*I was provided with £50 to take part in this challenge – thanks Moneysupermarket!