The picture I have in my hallway, as you first walk through the door.
I don't know about you, but I have been feeling a little out of sorts with the state of the world recently. Maybe its my age, but I am just sick and tired of all the doom and gloom every time I turn on the TV or radio. It can get you down if you allow it to, or make you feel anxious and fearful. When the headlines are full of war, poverty, social unrest, political debacles and so on, it is more important than ever to ensure that your own space offers comfort and joy to you and your family.
Your home should be your refuge from the darkness of a volatile world. It is the place you escape to after work each day. Perhaps, like me, its the place where you work from. If that is the case then it is even more necessary that it should be a sacred space that nurtures you and supports your highest good. That isn't always the case though and sometimes it can seem as if our homes are part of the problem, not the solution. My own house has sprung not one, but two leaks this year. The first leak coming from the bathroom and down into the hallway. The second leak happened when the boiler overheated due to faulty parts that had to be replaced. None of this was a catastrophe. It was just inconvenient and time consuming, but it did give me the opportunity to reassess my home and the perfect excuse to redecorate!
So this year, I have been up to my eyes in rollers, brushes, paint, wallpaper and paste. It has been very hard work, especially as my wrists are still healing from the riding accident, so its been tough on them, but also a good exercise in their flexibility. What started off as a quick lick of paint in the bathroom turned into something more significant. To begin with I decided that I wanted more pink in my house. None of the rooms were pink before, but pink has always been my favourite colour, so I decided to paint the bathroom in a soft ballet slipper pink. I did it back in the summer and it looks so pretty and feminine.
A couple of weeks after finishing the bathroom, the boiler leaked in the kitchen, so then the kitchen needed to be redecorated too. Luckily I already had the wallpaper I'd picked out for it a while back, so I just needed to choose the paint colour. I picked out a gorgeous old gold paint that reminded me of the ochre on Stirling Castle. It went beautifully with the wallpaper, which was a champagne background with glittering golden trees. It took over a week to do the kitchen, as I had to keep resting my wrists so they didn't swell too much. However, once it was finished I was absolutely delighted with it. I added mirrored butterflies to one corner, so it looks like they are flying up and away, plus I gave all my old uplighter lamps a makeover with golden butterflies on the shades and glittering fairies or butterflies clamped to the stand. The glittering trees on the wallpaper and the mirrored butterflies bounce the light around the room and lend a feeling of whimsical enchantment.
I wanted the room to have a magical atmosphere, like stepping out of a glowing wintry forest and into the warmth and comfort of a castle, like Stirling or Camelot. Once my Celtic ornaments and arched mirrors were back in place, the kitchen looked like a different world!
I was so happy with how the bathroom and kitchen had turned out, I knew that I wanted to touch up the living room and get my hallway redecorated before Christmas too. I always have themes whenever I am decorating. Originally the theme in my hallway had been Gothic, with wolves and bats and gargoyles. Sadly over the years, many of these have been broken and so I decided I would come up with a new theme entirely for the hall.
I did some pondering and I thought about how I wanted to feel each time I crossed the threshold into my home. I wanted to feel like I was leaving the drab and dreary everyday world far behind and entering into another realm entirely. What gave me that feeling? Well, Scotland obviously, but also - Narnia!! Each time I walked into my house, I wanted to feel like Lucy stepping out of the wardrobe and into Narnia for the first time, with the snow and the forest and the magic that awaits. Now that I had my theme I could begin.
I used more of the same glittering trees wallpaper that had proved so effective in my kitchen, then I painted all the doors and frames in soft white gloss. They had been forest green before, so it took a few coats to make them white and snowy, but I got there in the end. Then I added an iridescent bead curtain, hanging down the side of the stairs to look like an icy waterfall. I added a few iridescent icicles interspersed with the bead curtain strands, and a pretty humming bird hanging from the ceiling.
Then I set to work transforming things I already had with a couple of coats of glitter paint. First I painted all the banisters so that they glimmer in the light. Then I added glitter to my woodland animal wall plaques: a wolf, hedgehog, hare, owl and stag. These now look like the animals of Narnia, twinkling with a fresh fall of snow. I added glitter paint, amethyst and rose quartz crystals, and two little sparkly birds to an old bird-feeder sunshine-plaque to make a wintry bird's nest. Next I pinned a white frosted leaf garland by the side of the door and placed a pure white squirrel climbing a snowy branch next to it, so that it looks like it is climbing up the frosted-leaf doorframe.
To complete the Narnian vibes I hung my jewelled crown and a rainbow pastel-coloured unicorn horn on the base board, and surrounded them with more mirrored butterflies left over from the kitchen. Once all the wolf and sparkly stag pictures were hung back in place, with a couple of new red fox pictures too, it all began to look very magical and wintry. Then I placed the picture at the very top of this post, of the famous Narnian lamp-post in a snowy forest, opposite the front door so it is one of the first things you see as you come into the house.
I couldn't be more delighted with how it has turned out. Now the whole downstairs of my house is like a wintery wonderland, with sparkly pictures and accessories, creamy white faux fur soft furnishings and whimsical bits and bobs dotted around. I love it! It really is like stepping into Narnia each time I come home, or when I come downstairs in the morning. It makes me smile and so happy to see it all. As November is my birthday month I have asked for a couple more things to add to the theme - just a finishing touch here and there, but which will really give the space a sense of enchantment and wonder.
I'm so glad that I did it. It was hard work. I couldn't have done it without my mum, as she is a whizz at wallpapering! It was certainly worth the time and effort it has taken. I feel like I now live in Narnia and the Highlands combined! I'm not planning to do anymore decorating this year, but I do already have all the things I need to transform my bedroom into a shimmering pink haven of feminine tranquillity, so that's next year's job.
Sometimes you have to create your own enchantment, especially in the place you call home, which is the buffer that protects you and your family from the dangers and volatility of the outside world. It's the one place where you get to decide how it will look and what sort of feeling and vibe you want it to give to you as you walk in the door. Choosing glimmering, glittering wallpapers was the best thing I could have done for such a small house, because it really makes the most of the light, bouncing it around and just gleaming! I love how warm and glowy and glamourous it looks, and how wintry it is without seeming cold and stark. Most of all, I love how other-worldly, whimsical and enchanting it is now. It truly is a magical home!
What can you do to bring more enchantment into your home?
Serene Blessings,
Marie x
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