I am back … or am I? Well yes, I kind of think I am. Having taken a break from my interiors blog (which hasn’t been my choice I must add!) because I have been so busy running my cultural magazine and website, I just haven’t had the time to breathe. Having to write so much for SouthseaFolk I nearly always go to bed too late and tired. There have been times I have desperately wanted to write a post but time just hasn’t been on my side. 

So, what has changed? Well to be honest I felt I was on a real rollercoaster ride for the past 4 years. I moved to the other end of the country, I moved into a beautiful rented house but I couldn’t put my stamp on it, so my interior buzz kind of drifted.

Stress is really hard sometimes as it creeps up on you: Running so fast to try and keep up with the pace you have little warning signs that things are tough but you can’t get off the treadmill until you are made to stop! 

My life seemed to be one stress after another. My husband’s family has always been an issue and moving made that worse in some ways and made it better in others. My eldest son, we left him behind so he could concentrate on his vocation in life but that meant we missed him terribly and he missed us. My hubby had a year of anxiety and life catching up with him, so it meant a lot of our life decisions and plans landed on my shoulders and I was only too happy to stand with broad shoulders but when I look back it was blummin’ hard. I started a business with a girl and I thought it would be part-time and actually, she ended up leaving so I was left to try and make something out of what could be an amazing project but needed 24/7 care and attention. So I did what you all would do surely (she laughs) I took on the 24/7 on top of all the other stress and just tried to make everything work. I tried to make my whole life work and I did the best I could.

Did I always get it right?
Hell no! I messed up a lot. I got angry with people I cared about and lost people in my life that I know I cant get back. Thinking of them every day didn’t change the situation I was in but I just had to be strong, not only for myself but for everyone else too. 

Moving to here and now, I feel a little bit worn out. I feel a little happy for trying my best but I also feel proud for trying at life and not giving up. Although this year has been a strange one it brought the most amount of comfort I have had for a good 4 years, along with the fact we moved from renting back to owning a property, yay!

Unless you are someone that rents and understands the stress of dealing with rental agencies demanding inspections every 4 months and making you feel like you are the lowest of the low for renting and not being on the property ladder, you would never know how tough it is out there, but believe me it is brutal! 

With all that behind us, our son more settled in life and us finding a new home a stone’s throw away from our rented one, plus my hubby more on the mend, meant things have really started to settle for us. It’s a huge relief, and for the first time since May 2017 I felt I had my interior mojo back; the interior fuzzy feeling of finding the perfect paint was back baby and I have never felt more excited!

I never understood people saying they had lost their enthusiasm before until it hits you. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved wading through glossy interior pages or looking at sophisticated blogs and interiors online but because I couldn’t be creative at home it didn’t feel right. 

Something which is so true is that when you can’t paint the walls you buy furniture and art you can take with you and believe me, I did a lot of that! If I wasn’t buying for my house I was buying for my son’s flat. I am not talking big swish new furniture oh no, I am talking about vintage, salvaged and mid-century; anything lived in and stylish basically! 

Moving to our new house has been so lovely. All my life I have loved old houses and Georgian sash windows and I am thrilled to own a house that has both. Built around 1804 for a commander in the navy, it has heaps of history. It is a house that many love and remember. It has warmth and character and I feel like I never want to leave it.

It hasn’t really been renovated since the 80’s which means a lot of hard work but it also has original floors which we love and a basement which can be anything we want it to be! Currently a Lego room and my office.

Moving in and the fact it had been rented out mostly the last 40 years means it needed painting just to look ok before we started jobs – eek! So I have painted around 7 rooms but as my hands are not great I think I am going to let the professionals do the rest.

Do you remember my love of green over the past 4 years? Well it hasn’t gone away at all and I am dreaming of a green kitchen, I have even put up some paint on the walls to entice this decision. I am also  loving all the panelling I have been seeing, so going to share lots of that! Another trend I love is mid-century pieces in bathrooms and thankfully we found a piece for our bathroom on ‘Facebook Marketplace’ which I cant wait to fit. So I will be sharing lots of those ideas too and whatever else I can as my interior mojo is back baby and hopefully here to stay! Watch this space 🙂 

I hope you will come back and join my journey because that is what it is, a journey in my next phase of life. A real passion I want to share. And if I get this right (fingers crossed) it will be so much fun and joy once we get this blasted virus out of the way. 

By Louise O’Brien