Meera Pendred of First Sense Interiors
Today I am featuring the Home Tour of Meera Pendred of First Sense Interiors. Meera has recently rebranded from @artyhomestudio, which many of you may know her by. Her home has been restored and decorated on a budget and you can follow her journey to see how she has come up with some really creative DIY ideas. But first her home tour......
Hi, I'm Meera and I live in Nottingham with my husband and our 2 young children. We moved to this house a couple of years ago and I have been decorating it room by room as and when time allows. I document my room makeovers on my interiors blog First Sense, where I also share other interior and DIY projects that inspire me.
I describe my style as:
– contemporary mixed with a little vintage
– comfortable and inviting, not too precious
– a balance of light and dark
– budget-friendly elevated by an investment piece or two and touches of gold
– brought to life with plants
In short, I call it Relaxed Urban.
Meera's Living Room which you can see here, was given a revamp as part of the Revamp Restyle Reveal project. "Before the revamp, this room was utterly uninspiring and quite frankly, embarrassing. I didn’t like being in it at all." say's Meera
"The gorgeous grey wall colour is Trilby, from Earthborn Paints. I used the Lifestyle emulsion which I found really great to use; it covered beautifully and is a durable and washable paint, perfect for a home with kids and/or pets. I painted all the woodwork in Trilby eggshell."
Meera Says "The beautiful comfy DUKE midnight blue 3 seater fabric sofa and stunning ZOLA graphic mustard yellow velvet cushion are from Maisons du Monde, and the fabulous Pols Potten gold curvy ceramic stool is from Amara. It is the loveliest feeling to sit back on this sofa with my feet up on the furry footstool"
"I cosied up my SANTIAGO leather armchair from Maisons du Monde with an Icelandic sheepskin, a cushion and a pouffe."
"I bought a retro cabinet on eBay and smartened it up with Frenchic furniture paint, using the Hornblower (dark blue) colour from the Lazy range (this paint has built-in wax so takes away the need to apply wax after painting)."
“The dining room was a sea of beige when we moved in, but now feels so much fresher and livelier in white and pale grey (Little Greene Loft White and Fescue). The built-in alcove shelves and cupboards really smartened up the room, and I love how dark shelf backs (painted in Little Greene Lamp Black) make things pop. The dining table and chairs were purchased from a local antiques auction house. They’re solid pieces of furniture, but after many decades of use, were looking a bit grubby, so I sanded them back, then stained the table with a dark oak stain and painted the chairs with Little Greene Portland Stone Oil Eggshell.”
"I’m very proud of this room which I decorated shortly after moving into our home, when I had a 2 year old (for whom I was decorating this room) and a baby on my hands. I remember a few nights working on this room until 1:00-1:30am until the baby would wake for his night feed. My sole motivation? I didn’t want my lovely little boy to be in a room that had been left an ugly mess by the previous owners’ dodgy DIY attempts. I needed it to be wonderful for him. I hardly slept during the makeover, Red Bull may have been consumed. Thinking back on it now, it sounds like I’d gone a bit crazy and obsessive. But if that’s not motherly love, I don’t know what is.
The bookshelves are thick clear acrylic display racks from 3ddisplays. I love them, they’re sturdy, keep the books in place and allow the gorgeous picture book covers to take the stage while humbly disappearing from view. They are very similar to the highly fussed over Ubabub Booksee Shelf, but without the extortionate price tag."
"The walls were painted in Little Greene’s Deep Space Blue (Intelligent Matt). This blue is incredible – deep yet vibrant and rich so you feel goooood when you’re in the room and everything looks so gorgeous against it. The bedding is from Designers Guild (this set is no longer sold). The crate was purchased from Apple Crates and the yellow Newgate Dome II Alarm Clock from Red Candy."
"Our bedroom had been crying out for some TLC ever since we moved in, and we have finally managed to give it a little makeover and make it a more serene space. For a simple makeover, this has taken an awfully long time because all new purchases, even the paint, were only made during sales. Tightened belts and all that.
A few years ago, I’d won a competition for a sizeable voucher to spend at Living It Up so that was my trigger for purchasing one of their gorgeous beds for an amazing bargain. This bed is my favourite thing in my home, but the dull brown walls did absolutely nothing for it…
The first obvious thing was to change the wall colour, and we opted for a pale warm grey – Dulux Pebble Shore. I think in some settings, this colour can look greige/taupe but in our bedroom it shows up as a soft warm grey. It always amazes me what a difference paint makes to a space. The grey instantly made the room feel lovely and calm. Even the textured walls look less noticeable now."
"We’re keeping the IKEA MALM bedside drawers that the previous owners left us with because we find them very useful for storage, and also because I don’t want to buy anything now that may have to be replaced after our house extension is done in a few years’ time as this room size is likely to change.
The curtain pole was replaced by a burnished brass one that I snagged for less than £20 in a bank holiday sale. The dark grey blackout curtains were from a previous home which thankfully fit our window really well. I just had to alter the drop on them.
I had a black Scandi lamp which I was a bit bored of, but spray painting it gold (I used Montana Gold – Gold Chrome) made me love it again and it is now sitting very pretty on the bedside table!
Finally, I added a bedspread and chunky knit throw to finish the bed."
Meera has made such a lovely job of doing up her home on a budget, if you want to follow her on instagram, you can do so here
The Girl with the Green Sofa
