Home Tour: Our English Home

I’ve been meaning to show you our new home in England for weeks now but I’ve been putting it off thinking “oh if I just wait a little bit it’ll look better, more organized, etc.” I finally realized this week that homes are really always a work in progress, especially when you move every 1-3 years like we do and try to fit into all sorts of different houses! So today, here is our new home and some thoughts on making military housing look like home no matter where it is!

This is the living room when we first arrived at our new house. I have to admit, this blue carpet was really worrying me before we moved-I knew we’d have the bright carpet but was relieved it wasn’t quite as bright as I though it would be once we got here. I also hated those lampshades hanging from the ceiling and the dull wall colored curtains.

Here is the living room now! Before our furniture even arrived I bought some inexpensive lampshade locally and once our belongings arrived you know I had to put up puddling white linen curtains! (See this post for the curtain saga from the last house in DC and this post to see our home tour from our North Carolina home.)

Doesn’t the ceiling light look so much better now??

Here’s the other angle of the sectional. Having our decor really made the place look like home. The big watercolor is of the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza, Italy where we lived when we were first married. The wooden screen came from my grandparent’s tour of duty in Okinawa in the mid 1960s. (At least the military offers lots of travel opportunities!)

And of course my husband’s favorite thing to unpack was our TV-I swear he was wiring it up before the movers even left! After spending two months watching TV on laptops he was excited to get it up and running. (And figuring out how to stream college football overseas!) It’s sitting on our thrifted buffet turned media stand I shared with you a few years ago and the chair from my old office fits well there with the yellow rug (and hides the huge transformers we have to use to confert the voltage for our US electronics!)

When we first arrived we were able to borrow some furniture to use until ours arrived which was very nice, but it definitely wasn’t my style. Here is the dining room as it was when we first arrived.

Here is the dining room now looking from the kitchen.

And this is looking from the living room through to the backyard. This room got a new lampshade as well and the same IKEA white curtains as the living room along with the dining room rug and furniture just as it was in the last house.

And really, don’t fresh flowers just add something so special to a home? My sweet husband always keeps me well stocked in flowers-hydrangeas and gladiolas are my favorites!

Just outside the dining room sliding door is a patio area, we’re not finished with the space but it’s a nice place to have coffee in the mornings (when it’s not raining!) (Here’s the Facebook video of when I was staining those chairs before we moved and my kids locked me out on the balcony on accident!)

The kitchen is very bright and I like that the cabinets are white with grey counters and flooring. We’re also lucky to have quite a large refrigerator for this country (and we have an extra freezer in the garage!)

The blue geometric rug really brightens up the space and I love the window filled with plants! Lots of cooking herbs as well as a cheerful succulent!

There were shelves over the stove that I filled with some of my collection of white ceramics and milk glass. Did you know that faking milk glass and ceramic was one of my first blog posts and still one of the most popular? I guess a lot of people like the look too!

We had an unused space opposite the window in the kitchen (next to a small pantry cabinet) and we converted it to a homework station for our three boys. It’s important to me that the computer is in a public area of the house for cyber safety reasons. We also hung my DIY Memo Board up to keep track of family information-I love those colors with the blue rug!

Here’s the front of the house when we were first here, that’s the Land Rover we bought when we arrived that managed to drive up all the way up to Scotland and then through Ireland!

Here’s the front porch now. We live in a community of international students and everyone hangs their flags up-it’s amazing to see how diverse the community is! Just from my porch I can see British, Nigerian, Brazilian, Nepalese, Jordanian and French flags!

You know I had to buy some English roses when I arrived!

And of course mums! I haven’t quite decorated for autumn yet with just getting settled but mums were a must, and the plant prices here are much more affordable than then US so far I’m finding.

As far as settling in, we’ve gotten pretty used to driving on the opposite side of the road and the kids are settling well into school as is my husband into the military course he’s taking. I’m finding a new rhythm of life now that I’m not homeschooling and have my days free.

I’m still working on the children’s rooms and there’s a lot of fine tuning the home’s organization systems to be done.

Speaking of organization-I have a little secret! I’ve been writing a book!

A real live, printed book!

It’s all about organization and how to organize your ENTIRE life in a way that’s totally doable, attainable, and not a bit overwhelming. I can’t wait to share more with you but in the meantime, leave me a comment with your biggest organization challenges. The book will be going to editing and formatting soon so I want to make sure every one of your concerns is addressed in it before I send it off.

Be sure to follow along on Facebook to see all of my Facebook live updates from the move and settling into our new home overseas!