Nesting Instinct

I've always been interested in interior design. Perhaps I should have pursued this interest and developed this a career. Perhaps it's not too late. The first television programme I remember watching was the magazine style Homefront. Here I fell in love with the madness of Ann McKevitt and the infectious enthusiasm of Kevin McCloud. Many people now know and love Kevin, as I do, through watching Grand Designs but I'm sure many would be surprised to learn that there have in fact been eight series since it began in 1999.

Since Vince and I got back together in November we have been taking things slowly. In February we decided that we'd like to live together again so we had to tell our respective housemates. This wasn't as bad as we thought as they'd both thought we'd want to eventually. I set my housemate a deadline of getting out by June and he has amazingly found somewhere already and will be moving out in the first weekend of April.

Since we found out we would be living together again sooner than expected we have spent a lot of time thinking about how we will make the house feel more homely. We've wanted to decorate the living room for about two years and have many test patches on the wall but have never made the final step. Before Vince and I decided to live together again I decided that I wanted to decorate my bedroom in Dulux colours Mulberry Burst and Soft Stone. Vince compromised and let me continue to paint the room purple. However he wasn't too keen on the curtains I bought. I love them, especially as they are 66x90" and only cost me £16 including p&p (gotta love eBay). I wondered exactly how much of a bargain this was so I checked it out Dunelm Mill as they're usually pretty cheap for home furnishings. Imagine my face when I looked at this similar pair and saw how much they were! My lovely, brand new, fully lined curtains are pictured below:

Now I'm also hankering after a new coffee table and TV stand. The coffee table that Vince and I bought was about £30 in Argos. It is made of chipboard and has fake wood pattern stuck on top. It has many ring marks and ingrained dirt. The wood effect has come off in places where Vince and I stuck bits of tape to it when wrapping Christmas presents not realising it would come off. Vince has a TV stand for his rather enormous old CRT TV which is going in the spare room so we can play on the PS2 if someone wants to watch TV downstairs. So my TV, Freeview box and DVD player need to have somewhere to sit and I've been eyeing these up on eBay:

Quite old fashioned you may think, but as I live in an early 1900s factory workers' terrace new and minimal just doesn't look right. I've asked my parents to buy me the coffee table for my birthday as it only costs £60 including postage! The TV stand is a little pricier at £150 but I still think it's a fantastic offer as it would probably set you back about £300 in a high street shop. Sadly I'm pretty much broke until I get paid next Friday so it will just have to come out of next month's pay packet.