All posts tagged: industrial

New Project – Next Door@TheOldForge

Published by Karen Knox

Sometimes a project lands, and it’s almost too good to be true. This is one. When someone contacts you to design the interiors for what will become a unique, interiors focused, two bedroom holiday let in North Yorkshire AND gives you carte blanche to push yourself with the overall design, you know you’re going to have fun. This won’t be just any old holiday let, it’s being converted and remodelled from a Victorian cottage and outbuildings, attached to what once was a forge. The Old Forge, which is next door is now the homeowners’s family home. They bought these most wonderful buildings set in a large plot and enormous gardens five years ago and it’s literally dripping in history and period features. Their 10 year plan is to renovate the main family home, which they have nearly finished (bar a large extension for a kitchen/diner family room) and to convert the rest of the attached buildings to a holiday rental. So here are the bare bones of the cottage and remaining outbuildings, soon to become: …

The Industrial Shaker Kitchen

Published by Karen Knox

When the lovely Ally of Digital Diva fame, booked me for a day’s consultation last August at their new home, I walked into a house I wasn’t quite expecting. A stunning, Grade II listed, late Georgian, early Victorian stone built property, just three or so miles away from my own home in North Leeds. This isn’t what it looked like, don’t worry. This is a photo from 2015 before it was bought by a developer. The whole place had been refurbed to a pretty good standard and whilst the developers retained the beautiful period features, some of the fixtures and fittings were not quite cutting it for the new owners, Ally and James. This was their kitchen back in August 2016, with shaker style units, range cooker, large island unit, solid oak worktop, open shelving, original Yorkshire stone floor and built in pantry by the side of the restored fireplace. So all in all, the makings of a wonderful kitchen. The layout was great. No issues with that. But these guys weren’t feeling the space and weren’t sure how …

The Loft Bedroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

We did it! We have our new loft bedroom, all done and ready to rock. Four months after we started our build, i’m finally able to share the final reveal photos with you. I’m going to warn you right now, this post is PIC HEAVY. Initially I took about 70 photos. I know. That’s ridiculous. I’ve managed to whittle it down to about 30. Still far too many, but ya know what, just scroll along if any aren’t floating your boat. Here’s where we were back in September 2016: And here was my plan for the bedroom: Ok. So here we go. Do come in… The view from the landing into the bedroom. Gets me every time. Chooch the cat, can not get enough of this room. Mainly because she’s got a load of new rugs and blankets to paw at and ruin. We had to be clever with space here as we were limited with how much width we had with the two chimney stacks bookending each side of the bed. The Factorylux Maria Banjo wall …

A mirror of my very own

Published by Karen Knox

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post all about Crittall Mirrors (you can take a peep at that here) and how they are popping up all over the place. Well randomly, the following week, I was contacted by the very lovely people at Exclusive Mirrors asking if i’d like to review one of their mirrors…. …. Cue me jumping onto their site and searching for all things industrial and window related. And low and behold…. They only bloomin had one of the actual mirrors i’d written about only two weeks prior. The Rockford Window Mirror. It was fate I tell thee. I had no idea where this mirror was actually going to go when I opted for it, but ya know, sometimes you just have to find a place don’t you? “The Rockford” arrived super quickly and super safely. I’m always a little sceptical about ordering anything glass-y online, but this was really well packaged and didn’t have a mark on it (once i’d wrestled off all the layers of packaging). With me …

The Office Refit – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Remember the office refit I was working on? Here’s a lil recap: “I’m working with Visibilis, an Integrated Digital Marketing Agency. It’s my first dip into working in a commercial premises, but it’s good and am enjoying the experience of scaling up! The team of staff has reached capacity at their current office space prompting the move to a new, larger purpose-built office space in a swanky part of Leeds City Centre.” Before And here it was in March. A huge empty space, ready and waiting for its lovely, new residents. A month later, the layout had been solved, colour scheme decided upon, furniture had been ordered… You can read more about the project brief, colour scheme, layout and shopping list here if you’d like to check out the finer details. But to catch you up quickly i’ll post a few pics to give you the low down. Lots of paint + A load of brushes…. …. + Frogtape… + A design from inside my busy mind = Turned out pretty good. If I do say so myself. **performs frilly bow** At …

Lightbulb Moment

Published by Karen Knox

Remember my fancy bulb? Ya know, the beautiful hand engraved filament bulb from Vinegar and Brown Paper? Aye. That’s one… it made a little feature in my Shelfie post and a more recent post for Iconic Lights. Here’s what I gone done wrote: “It’s been waiting for a lamp to sit in for months. We were going to make something… bought the brass lamp holder (above), black fabric cable. But ya know… life… time… It never got done.” Don’t get me wrong, I love that concrete and copper lamp. Like a lot. But it was too perfect for a project I was working on at the time. So I made the greatest sacrifice of all, and re-homed my lamp in The Pod. You can just see it to the very right in this picture above. It looks very happy there. But, good news! It turns out, publicly shaming my OH for not making a lamp for said bulb, was THE best way to get him to actually make it. Get in! This is what we he needed? tools bit of …

Steel Magnolias

Published by Karen Knox

During my hunt for pieces for the Masonic Villas project, i’ve come across some great new places to shop, new sellers and some corking unique pieces. I’ve really done my homework for this project. There was one specific piece of furniture however, that almost stumped me. Almost! Before This space wasn’t quite working for me. The standing wine rack was a little intrusive here, the mirror was hung too high and the hallway was calling out for a console table to sit over that radiator. So I began the search. Our hallway console needed to be: tall enough to sit over the radiator which is 78cm high wider than 100cm, preferably over 120cm. no cross bars or anything that would interfere with the radiator no deeper than 35cm have a paired back slightly industrial feel It turns out, console tables are all about 75-78cm high. So not quite tall enough to sit over the radiator. Most are more than 35cm deep and almost all of them have shelves or cross bars. We were getting to …

Iconic Lights

Published by Karen Knox

I’ve not written a post ALL about lighting in a while. Ages actually. So when Iconic Lights got in touch to see if i’d be interesting in working with them, I jumped at the chance. Iconic Lights launched in 2011 and since have strived “to stay ahead of the upcoming trends in interior design and offer excellent reproductions of classic lights.” They’ve got a fair few key lighting pieces on their site and all within reach on the pounds, shilling and pence front. Good news. Their mission statement: “To bring affordable, high quality lighting to the masses” Sound like any one else’s? (Look to the right and read the gumpf under the picture of my ugly mug). As you may already know, our house is FILLED with lighting, secondary lighting, (tertiary lighting) we really don’t need more lighting. However, I was asked to review a selection of lights (my choice) and when I wandered around our house, deciding what to pop in my basket I realised we’d never invested in a light for our son’s bedroom. I’m …

The Bank Holiday Big Shop

Published by Karen Knox

There’s no better time than a bank holiday weekend to get moving with that online shopping list. Especially when that list is crammed with those big ticket items for the home. A BH weekend = bank holiday money saving and the more you can stretch your budget, the more amazing your space will be. Win. It was time to finally make some decisions and start placing orders for the Masonic Villas project. Come see what we we bagged (online) this weekend. “Must have” statement reading light from Bluetreesun Orchid Wall Light – 10% off plus a nice and chunky trade discount from yours truly. The finer details – all from La Redoute Some for the living room and others for the home office. All these gorgeous items had a whopping 40% off all weekend. The multi function, industrial style media unit from Swoon Editions The Anvil Coffee Table had 10% off with free delivery The homeowner’s love of crosses continues into art work choices. This poster from Desenio is perfect for the monochrome, paired back …

My concrete wall

Published by Karen Knox

As you may remember, I’m currently running a project involving magnetic plaster. The decorating, design and finishing for that project begins tomorrow, yes on a Bank Holiday. That’s what you call commitment. Thistle Magnetic Plaster, by British Gypsum’s “Rooms Made For You” I mentioned in that latest post how much I LOVED the colour of this magnetic plaster when dried. A most gorgeous concrete colour with subtle detail and organic nuances in tone. I also mentioned I was going to have one of these magnetic, concrete coloured walls of my very own. My exact words; “It shall be MINE.” I wasn’t lying. I’ve always been drawn to industrial, raw and stripped back design. My dining room wall has been like this for years. I stripped the wallpaper right off, seven months pregnant, a week after moving in… and left it. Much to everyone’s confusion. Now you can easily pick up effect wallpapers that mimic this exact look, I wrote a post about that over here last year. Anyway, back to the magnetic wall…. What I didn’t mention …