The House: The Boudoir

I am muchly enjoying the new place. It's slightly odd wrapping my head around the fact that I can merrily spread my stuff all over the house rather than having to wedge everything into my bedroom, but I'm coping ok with that. Ha! Who'd have thought I needed encouragement to fling belongings everywhere?

Now that everything doesn't have to live in my room, I'm trying to keep it less cluttered and more of a soothing space. A boudoir, if you like. The decluttering isn't going fantastically well and it's still really messy, hence the lack of stylish wide-angle interiors shots. The basic things are in place though!



I gave the bedside table a spruce up last year and although it's not a match with the shade of green of the wallpaper, it tones rather nicely. We don't want too much matchy matchy, do we? The initial lamp was from Out There Interiors but I don't think they stock them any more.




The bedding and clock are both from Asda who are doing some seriously good homeware at the moment. Bargainous prices too! It looks as if they've changed the clock design slightly but the duvet set is very much still available.



This gorgeous snuggly throw is c/o The French Bedroom Company. My little house is quite toasty warm anyway but there's something lovely about having a super soft, beautiful blanket at the end of the bed when some extra warmth and comfort is needed.



I love toile. Like, an awful lot. Surprisingly hard to find in green though - red and blue are loads more common. I tracked this wallpaper down on Direct Wallpaper.



Not gonna lie. I had a lot of fun searching for knobs on ebay. I was in mild despair until I hit upon a seller called The Barrister's Horse (excellent name!) and found approx 957685 different styles of amazing knobs. I pretty much wanted all of them but these Parisian ones were perfect for the boudoir, especially as the black matches the all the metalwork on the bed frame and hat stand.



Hat stand! Or should that be bag stand? It was an ebay purchase about four years ago and now I've got the room settled and decided that there's space for another one, I can't find the same flipping style anywhere. Gahhhh. Might have to go for a mismatched approach.



This bedside table was another little painting project. I bought it for £5 in a fit of frivolity after signing the contracts for the house and it was a gruesome shade of pink. I was gonna try and recover the fabric part but I don't think I can get it off without ruining the trim. It's still vaguely gruesome but it kinda works, doesn't it?

Also, please admire the luxurious boudoir carpet. Turns out it's very hard to pick a colour that matches white woodwork and that particular wallpaper. The bloke in the carpet shop took pity on my aimless wandering around and suggested this one. I hadn't considered grey at all but it looks lovely.



Books, glorious books.

I'll do the library next. It's nearly sorted!

#sewdollyclackett

Afternoon all! I have been at the sewing machine again. Don't all fall off your chairs with shock.

I've been meaning to get back into it a bit more but time and energy have both been issues. That fabric stash was a-calling my name though and then I saw the #sewdollyclackett challenge. Time to get my foot back on the pedal and join in! It's such a fab idea and I flipping loved Roisin when I met her in Warwick last year. If I could sew as well as her I would be a very happy lady.

I know people will be making far superior, more colourful and jaunty creations than my humble monochrome toile print dress but I was working within certain limits here.

a) I am shit at sewing.

b) I can only make one pattern.

c) I am poor and can't afford to buy any amazing funky fabric. This was the best thing in my fabric stash.

d) Did I mention I'm shit at sewing? My most used phrase whilst making this dress was "Arghhh you t****y t*****y t**t!!" (aimed at the sewing machine).

I'm hoping that the fact it's a Simplicity 2444 will score me some Brownie points. Plus Roisin is all about encouraging people to improve their sewing skills and she was mega helpful when I had my first solo crack at dressmaking with the polka dot frock. This is only the second dress I've made by myself and I think I've got a bit less shit at the whole sewing malarkey whilst attempting it, so that's all good too.

I actually felt confident enough to work in a few tweaks and v. minor alterations. As always, I hacked a chunk off the skirt length (I am a midget) but I also decided to go with a contrast waist bow rather than making it from the same fabric as the frock. Et voila, some beautiful black satin ribbon:



LOOK, I DID BIAS BINDING TOO AND EVERYTHING!



It was nowhere near as difficult as I expected and I really love the contrast it gives to the neckline and armholes on this frock. Pretty! Bless Char for texting me a helpful diagram of how to apply it to the fabric.

Hopefully some extra bonus points will be won for wearing one of my fave pairs of Irregular Choice shoes with it. These Bowtiful heels are so surprisingly easy to wear all day. Love 'em.



D'you want closeups? It was an awkward day to photograph it and some of the colouring is a bit off here - the fabric is very black and white, not washed out. But we have a horse and a pump:



A chateau!



And an eavesdropping bovine.



In true Dolly Clackett spirit, all handmade dresses should be given a name. I hereby christen this The Lurking Cow frock.

Toile

Recognise the picture? It featured in the dream post of a few days ago. Vix clearly knows me too well as she quite rightly pointed out that a pink room would have no place in any dream house of mine! I used it mainly because I was struggling to find a proper boudoir photo but also because I absolutely love toile.

For those that aren't as in love with it as I am, toile de Jouy is a type of pattern, originating in the eighteenth century in the village of Jouy-en-Josas in France. This is halfway between Paris and Versailles so was very well placed for manufacturing the sort of expensive textiles likely to appeal to the French court at the time. It generally features quite complex pastoral scenes based on a white background and is most common on fabrics but also appears on decorative things like wallpaper and porcelain.

A couple of late eighteenth century examples

I absolutely adore it in country house rooms but they usually have the benefit of being on a somewhat grander scale than your average house and so can get away with slightly more busy designs. If and when I ever get a house of my very own then it won't be anything grand. I definitely want to fit toile in somehow but I'll have to be canny about how I do it.

I think it's a bit like chintz in that people seem to go nuts with it. It can be a tad overpowering at the best of times but a quick google image search will show that it's usually accompanied by swags and pelmets and more occasional tables than you can shake a stick at. For example:

Argh, pattern overload!

This honestly makes me feel queasy

Too fussy, plus I don't understand beds with gazillions of cushions and pillows on them. You only end up throwing them on the floor.

This, toned down by several hundred notches would be really rather nice. As it stands at the moment, I think you'd develop some sort of vicious eye strain just sitting in there.


I still haven't found the perfect room so I'll have to steal some ideas and inspiration from other places instead.

Come on, did you expect me NOT to find a green one? I certainly wouldn't go for that particular style of curtain but I love the colours.

This is excessively pretty wallpaper. Not quite so keen on the white shabby chic features though.

Now this, I absolutely love. It's just so sunshiney. You'd automatically wake up happy in a room like this.

I like the fact that toile is popping up in more modern forms and unexpected places as well. It's not just limited to soft furnishings.

I like this pattern very much - it fits my love for buildings and skylines.

How glorious is this design please? I can't stop giggling at the maypole dancers. It's from the utterly wonderful tshirt website Threadless but alas it's sold out. I've got my fingers crossed that they reprint it.

Equally modern and fun is this design from Coco de Mer. It's rather raunchy, hence the small photo (don't want to corrupt any younger readers!). If I was the sort of girl that frittered that sort of money on bras then this one would top my wishlist.

My other problem is that toile designs seem most common in blue, red and pink at the moment and I don't want any of those. I prefer it in green, yellow or even in black and they're not so easy to track down. The hunt is ongoing.



I managed to source these two big pieces of fabric towards the end of last year. I think they're technically curtain fabric but it might be just about possible to make dresses out of them instead - if it's good enough for the Von Trapps it's good enough for me! I know they're both quite busy patterns but I think if I pick the right style of frock, I could look quite chic rather than a piece of walking wallpaper.