All posts filed under: Outdoors

Our outdoor space – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

When we bought our little house nearly seven years ago. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but in terms of its location and the surrounding area, it gave us everything we actually needed. Or should I say, it had the potential to. Our house, 2012. Estate agent’s pic Earlier this year I wrote a post showing you all of the rooms inside. What they were like when we moved in and how they look now. You can have a nosey inside here if you like. The one space we’d never tackled fully was the outdoor space. A front and rear garden with a long driveway connecting the two. Pretty standard for a 3 bed semi. Rear garden, 2012 – Estate agent pic We had done plenty to the rear garden over the past six years but never dealt with any of the building work and nitty gritty. Our driveway was a crumbling mess, drainage being a real problem, the front garden was on a slope and retained water like a sponge and the steps to our …

Time for the BIG garden overhaul – The landscaping has finally begun!

Published by Karen Knox

It’s time. Finally! After 6 years of being in our normal, average sized, 1960’s semi-detached, family home, we’ve done all of the big building jobs inside. Which can only mean one thing; it’s time to tackle the outside! And it couldn’t have come at a better time as our driveway was falling apart. Let me walk you through some of the garden projects we’ve done to tart up the space whilst eagerly awaiting the big overhaul. Back in 2015 You can see what a bad state the driveway was in then, another three years on and it was becoming, well, embarrassing. Summer 2015, The Chalkboard Wall The outdoor blackboard worked a treat to disguise that ugly concrete brick wall for a few years, but after the loft extension in December 2016… … our outdoor space took a hammering and was completely neglected during the epic 17 week build. I gave it a little budget revamp as part of the #UKHomeBlogHop in Summer 2017. It got us through Summer 2017, but 2018 was the year we …

Let’s talk about white UPVC (and how to paint it)

Published by Karen Knox

I know a lot of you guys hate your own white UPVC, because you were all messaging me this week on Instagram when I was sharing my recent DIY project on Insta Stories. I’m not the only hater out there it seems. Once the talk of the town, white UPVC doors and windows revolutionised the whole glazing and door industry back in the 80’s. Maintenance free, double glazed units were fitted in nearly every house and home in the country. However, it seems there’s not a lot people out there that still want their white plastic frames and doors. Not in their current state anyway. Including me. There I am standing in front of my door, fake laughing for a MADE.COM shoot. Praying they won’t use this one as i’m so embarrassed by the front of our house. I’m super proud of what we’ve managed to do inside our little 3 bed semi, but the outside was always last on the list. And this year is the year for that. If you remember, we’d already …

Aluminium Door Making Spaces Home Update

Out with the old – In with a new aluminium sliding door

Published by Karen Knox

I do love sharing projects with you guys, especially the ones at our place, as you get to see just how normal our house is and how the smallest of changes can make the biggest of differences. This is certainly one of those projects! Photo from last summer’s #UKHomeBlogHop We’ve finally got rid of the horrendous French doors that lead out onto the garden. I’ve always hated them, but when we moved in, it was at the bottom of a very long list of priorities to sort. They don’t look too bad in this pic above, that’s mainly because I’ve styled the crap out of the space, but the reality was they didn’t close properly, they were too small for the opening and they let a whole heap of cold inside. Before Updating the back of the house is something we’ve been putting off for ages. It was a faffy job, needing the old walls knocking down before the window co could fit the new, much improved door. Our first choice? An aluminium sliding door, …

A mini makeover (for Chooch the cat) with Sandtex Rapid Dry Paint

Published by Karen Knox

I have a theory, and I’m not 100% sure if i’m right, but I put it to you, dear readers, that interiors nuts, home-birds and people that rather like being by themselves (me) are cat lovers, whilst fans of the great outdoors, fresh air and company are dog owners. What do you think? Is this a load of crap? Or am I onto something here? It will be no surprise to see I’m a cat mummy. I really couldn’t hack the needs of a dog. I like dogs, don’t get me wrong, but i’d never want to walk own one. Despite my son, aged 3, saying we should take Chooch back to the “animal shop” and get a refund and buy a dog instead. Because she stood on his foot the week before. Fair enough. Our recent Garden Makeover from earlier this month Chooch was rescued from the RSPCA on my 30th birthday, eight years ago now and she makes me laugh (and curse) every day. She’s put up with a lot over the last few years. …

My Summer Style with Primrose - Garden Makeover #UKHomeBlogHop

My Summer Style with Primrose #UKHomeBlogHop

Published by Karen Knox

Welcome welcome one and all to my small part in this summer’s #UKHomeBlogHop organised by the super sexy Kimberly Duran of Swoon Worthy. There are 27 of the UK’s best interiors and home design bloggers taking part in this “hop” and we’re all sharing with you our summer style for 2017. Big thanks to Kate from Fabric of my Life for sending everyone my way. For those of you that are new to Making Spaces (and if you’re a nosey bugger), you can have a snoop around our house here. In the meantime, let me catch you up. We completed our loft conversion at the beginning of the year which gave us a great new second floor to our 3-bed semi. You can read all about the 17 week process over here. Oh my god, i’m so ashamed. Don’t judge me. What it didn’t leave us with, however, was a very nice outdoor space. The scaffold and building work had taken its toll on our patio, driveway and lawns. It was a complete disaster zone. So much …

The Coach House at Middleton Lodge #designupnorth

Published by Karen Knox

The hubster and I have just got back from a mini break. I thought you guys would like to see where we stayed as it’s just a little bit special. Middleton Lodge is a Georgian Palladian mansion set within 200 acres of open countryside, on the outskirts of Middleton Tyas, a small village in North Yorkshire. Designed by the architect John Carr, it was built between 1777-1780 for George Hartley Esquire. Today, Middleton Lodge is now home to the Allison family who have lived here for nearly 40 years. Their home however, is also available for hire for private wedding receptions, functions and film location shoots. A short walk away from the main house is The Coach House. Originally built for the carriages and horses of George Hartley Esq, it’s now the ground’s hotel, restaurant and bar. The horse-shoe shaped building has that perfect Georgian symmetry and proportion, with rounded archways, feature windows, pale brick walls, and original beams. With the flowering beds in the central courtyard and the April sunshine beaming down upon us, this spot was like its …

Black Beauty

Published by Karen Knox

If you’re a person of a certain age, you’ll be humming the soundtrack to this right now. If you don’t know what i’m on about, well bully for you for being young. **blows raspberry** My Black Beauty isn’t a horse (I don’t really like horses. You can’t see both of their eyes at the same time. Creeps me out). Our Black Beauty is our new swanky and very sexy, black gloss chiminea from chimineashop.co.uk. We’ve never had anything like this before. Oh I tell a lie, we did reuse our old washing machine drum as a fire pit. But to be honest, it’s wasn’t the luxury outdoor heating experience I was hoping for. It stank, was really smokey, looked just like a washing machine drum and man, it got hot. So I was really excited to finally own my very first chiminea. Something fit for purpose. Before selecting one (turns out there are loads to choose from) I spent a fair amount of time reading up on the pros and cons of Cast Iron, Steel and …

The (not so great) Outdoors

Published by Karen Knox

There’s one bit of our house that we’ve just not really tackled yet. It’s our awful outdoor space. Not all of it horrendous by any means, some of it is pretty nice actually. See. The offending area is our driveway and rear patio. Ya know, the non green areas. If I have just one more tradesman knock on my front door and ask “do you want your driveway doing love?” I am going to lose my bloomin rag. Mark my words. (But actually, yeah, I really do want my driveway doing.) A photo of our gross driveway from last year So why haven’t you done it then? It’s not because we’re lazy arse sods, it’s because we were going to have an extension down the side of the house, so it didn’t make sense to spend time and money on a space we were planning to build on. So we’ve just put up with the concrete/tarmac/slab disaster and focused on all things indoors. I honestly need a medal for putting up with this ^ We did make some …

Pantone Spring Colours

Published by Karen Knox

Remember I introduced you to Pantone’s Colours of the Year in January ? Since then i’ve seen Rose Quartz and Serenity popping up everywhere. From artwork to marketing, interiors and fashion, even influencing a current Making Spaces project. Pantone have since released their “colour report” for Spring 2016. A palette chosen by top industry experts to compliment and contrast both the blush pink and iris-y blue. “Like a serene sunset, flushed cheek or budding flower, Rose Quartz reminds us to reflect on our surroundings during the busy but lighthearted spring and summer months.” “Weightless and airy, like the expanse of the blue sky above us, Serenity comforts with a calming effect, bringing a feeling of respite even in turbulent times. A transcendent blue, Serenity provides us with a naturally connected sense of space.” The “Transporting and Transformative”optimistic palette is no shrinking violet. This ten strong colour canvas is rocking some real stand out colours, ready to add a spring to your step this Spring 2016. As you probably know, I’m not the biggest “brights” fan for interiors. I love colour, but …