My cottage in the woods ...

We have lived in our Victorian 'cottage in the woods' for over 25 years now.  We bought it as a renovation project with the intention of moving on before we had a family.  But as we progressed with the project, extended the house, bought a bit of extra land and basically fell in love with our little oasis of calm on the edge of a busy town, we decided to stay!

A few weeks ago we did some decorating.  Nothing major.  We spent so many years renovating an extending that I don't ever want to go back to that kind of work.  But the house did need a lick of paint.  Some of my lovely blog followers asked me to share the results.

We are so lucky, as our little cottage stands by itself on the edge of the woods in a little hamlet in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at the bottom of a bridlepath.  It does get a bit bumpy and muddy in the winter but every time I drive home down our lane I feel happy.  It is a good place to come home to!

We have a painted kitchen from Cotteswood of Oxfordshire, it is a shaker style and has been in over 20 years and has really stood the test of time.  It hasn't dated.  We upgraded from wood worktops to granite a few years ago and changed the floor from traditional terracotta to cream porcelain but the kitchen units themselves are still as good as new. They are handpainted and we had a very talented lady - Nicola from Picked Onion Furniture come and re-paint them for us.  We used Farrow & Ball paint on the units and for the walls we chose from the Dulux Heritage range.

Next up was the lounge.  It is only small and we have always struggled to fit the right furniture in, we have a conservatory too which really adds space and opens up the downstairs but for watching TV we like to cosy up in our lounge!  I am not a confident 'interior decorator' so I kept it simple and chose Caliko from Dulux for the walls throughout downstairs and the hall, stairs and landing.

I discovered a new home accessories company recently online, via Instagram, and purchased a few new bits from them - take a look at Kirsten & Belle.  I purchased my new cushions from John Lewis and Laura Ashley.

And here are a few shots of our pretty garden.  It is surrounded by woodland and trees and we have really developed it over the years we have been here to a place where we love to spend time but that is easy to maintain.  

Our 'treat' this year was a Lay-Z-Spa' which my son went and bought and set up for us. It is proving to be a very relaxing addition to our garden.

And no post about our home would be complete without sharing our beloved pets - we have Pebbles a 13 year old Siamese cat and then two West Highland White Terriers.  Katy is 5 years old and her half-sister Bonnie is 2 years old.  My sister in law also has two westies and Bonnie's full sister so it is busy when we help each other out and they all come to stay.

I still need to finish decorating upstairs, in particular our bedroom, but that will have to wait until post GCSE's now.  

There is a lot of history in our house which I researched many years ago when we were trying to identify the ownership of some land we wanted to buy.  I will share a few snippets in another post, it is quite interesting.

​I hope you like it!  I love living here, I never feel nervous about being in a cottage with no neighbours and although it is by itself, civilisation is very close by.  

Love
Michelle xx
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