First Impressions's

love the stripes makes such a statement
 

I love hallways and foyers, we have a side entry that everyone uses and we rarely use the "Official" front door.   They give you a chance  to set the style and mood of your home when people enter. I would say my home has a relaxed country feel with a dash of a Hampton' s  I was a bit of a Shabby Chic fan years ago but am over all the fussy floral but still love my white furniture.  My colour palate is mainly neutrals and my favourite colour is blue, but I am loving a lot of the grey schemes that are around and I have painted a few pieces of furniture black. I love a good  bargain and their is nothing more fulfilling  to me than buying something at an auction or clearing sale or second-hand store and then taking it home renovating it and finding a place for it in your home. 

What a transformation

  I also change things regularly much to my husbands disgust, I have now learnt to do it when he is not around, and this is hard as he never leaves the farm much.   When I want to move something that's too heavy for me and only have a small window of opportunity I call my neighbour and she pops over, (thanks Jude she gets me now.)
 
I remember years ago when my husband worked for a Cotton Merchant and was regularly away on business, I wanted to change our bedroom to a " Traditional English Manor" I sewed the curtains and bedspread weeks in advance, red toile print with co-ordinated stipes put away in the cupboard and hid tins of red  paint in the shed.  So when he left my friend came over and we started to paint the bedroom fire engine red with a white picture rail. (Ok this was when changing rooms first aired on TV back in the early 90's )OMG no one told me I need to undercoat it took five coats had to race down and buy more paint and took forever to dry.  He was away for two days and just finished it 1/2 before he came home we couldn't sleep in it for two days as the paint fumes where so strong.




How to create a Hallway

 Ok  back to hallways  I'm addicted to pinterest it is the best place to get inspiration or find out how to do something. I have a board just for Hallways and entry's, even if you don't have a hallway you can create one by positioning your furniture, e.g.  place your lounge inline with your front door then on the opposing wall add a mirror hall table and couple of chairs either side "ta ta"  there you have it hallway. I also love stripes and love the horizontal ones at the moment, they make such a statement, I painted a hallway and staircase at a house we owned at the Gold Coast huge job but OMG loved it.  But as I have got older have come to the realisation that living with four children  7 dogs and 3 cats and  a husband that never put things away and living in an environment that is always dusty I have de-cluttered a lot, I find this hard as I am used to styling my furniture, I think this comes  from having my business, slow and steady can't rush this process. 

Love this mudroom

 I love multi- function entries like the one on the left how cool a place for everything and would be relatively easy to put together. No excuses for kids not to put their things away when they walk inside.

I am not a trained interior stylist I just know what I like and love nothing more than looking though magazines or other forms of media to get ideas, also after 14 years of boarding school fees and now university I am always sourcing thing at the cheapest possible price, sorry some might not agree with me but if I can get a copper vase at the $1 shop that looks exactly like the $190 one from some other place will buy the $1 shop, also who would have thought two years ago copper would be the next big thing?

But it was a sad day when I realised that I had enough furniture, I literally couldn't fit another piece in and that was a hard pill to swallow but I still cant go past a bargain or a really nice piece that needs a home, I have started putting it away for my children.  I tend to buy or make accessories now for the style or look that I am trying to create.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has given you some inspiration on what you can do, I think I might be going to mask off some horizontal lines in my hallway will keep you posted.

P.S.  I would also like to add I did this post all by myself no IT support (family who are sick of me asking how do I do this) its not very fancy but hopefully over time will be able to get the hang of this.
                                      
                                                            Bye for now Maz xx

How cool is this for a farm house mudroom



I think I feel some stripes coming on



This is my Hallway at the moment, I brought an old bedroom suite at garage sale $100
separated the mirror from the dressing table painted it black, used the bedhead in sons room
the side tables in my bedroom, love a bargain.

I can feel some inspiration coming on will keep you posted on the outcome.

Images from this post have been collated from Pinterest and my own personal images. If you would like to find their origins  you can find them in my Pinterest folder Maz Lifestyle