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With spring on the way (well almost at least) our focus is turning towards getting our home ready for the warmer weather. Admittedly a big part of that has to do with our new bi-fold doors that we had installed a couple of weeks ago.

They’re amazing and we’re desperate to actually start using them! As it’s still a bit chilly and we can’t yet be dining semi-alfresco, we can at least try to make the most of our new and improved dining area.
Now that the room is slowly starting to take shape, it’s about time we have some fun and start to think about adding some more of the finishing touches to the room. We still have some more building work to complete, but by adding a few more items and personal touches it’ll hopefully make the room more inviting and improve our dining experience.
One of the main areas in this room that we need to improve upon is our lighting – or rather lack of it. The only lamp we have in the room is our large floor lamp next to the sofa. We still desperately need a lamp for the ceiling, where at the moment there are just a few cables poking out of the ceiling, but we do now at least have a fab new lamp on our sideboard.

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s really large and feels in proportion with the sideboard & room. We love the shiny copper finish which works really well against our dark wall (which is still rather bare) and even the inside of the lampshade is has a shiny copper finish.

We already had the two copper vases, so the lamp really complements them well. Another new addition is the decanter (it’s Judson from Habitat). We still need to fill it with something delicious, but it’s an ideal addition to our little drinks tray next to it.

Over the weekend I put my baking skills to the test and made not just one pretty amazing looking pavlova, but also some delicious homemade bread. I’m not the worlds best cook or baker (don’t expect to see me on the Bake Off any time soon), so I’m pretty chuffed with what I managed to make!

The pavlova looks great on the marble cake stand and it definitely tasted as good as it looked.

Our new wooden serving board and marble cheese board – they’re from Habitat, too – work really well together. I think we’re going to be serving a lot more bread and cheese around here from now on (oh and yes, I have a thing for cheese boards, you can see our huge DIY Cheese Board here)!

It was nice to spend a weekend doing something other than DIY and needless to say this was much tastier than dirt and dust, too!
What did you get up to at the weekend? What’s your guilty pleasure (mine is definitely cheese)? We’d love to know if you have any lighting tips for our bare ceiling!
Zoe says
What is the beautiful blue paint on the walls? It’s the sort of colour I’m after for our master bedroom… if I can convince the man indoors!
Christine says
We call the colour “Little House On The Corner Blue” – it’s real name is RAL 5008 which just sounds a bit boring. ;) We had it mixed at our local Dulux Decorator centre. (We shared a before & after paint project post here) It’s by far the most daring decorating decision we’ve ever made and I’d definitely recommend going dark to anyone! Everyone thought we were mad when I said we were going to paint the room such a dark colour, but now everyone loves it, too!
Cx
Arati Devasher says
Someday I will have them bifold doors and a private garden and a dog!
Christine says
Ohh, we still need the dog, too!
Cx
Stu says
It’s great to see somebody else taking on as many jobs as the other half and me and good inspiration to keep going! I’d advise against the dog until the painting is finished though…we were doing some painting outside last week and as soon as we’d done, the dog went and sat where we’d painted and we hada stripey dog for a day or two ;-)
Christine says
Glad we’re not the only ones doing so much work Stu! Always makes me feel better that we’re not the only ones who spend more time covered in dust and dirt than not!
Love you dog story – give him a canvas instead and you could have “dog bum” art! ;) We’re still arguing about the kind of dog to get, so it may take a while yet!
Cx