Dip Dye Love

For a while now I've been searching Doha for pastel coloured dining chairs. Do you think I can find them? No! I could have ordered them on line and had them shipped over but the cost and hassle of doing that was not going to work...well it wasn't going to work for Mr D.

After scouring Pinterest for some inspiration, I came across a new trend in DIY...dip dying.

This is going to suit me perfectly, we've got white dining chairs that I can now customise to get the look that I want without having to spend a fortune doing it.

So stay tuned for me first foray into DIY....well if I'm being honest it will be Mr D doing the actual DIY and I will project manage from the sofa.

x

Breakfast Nooks

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That being the case, breakfast would certainly become my favourite meal if I was able to enjoy it sitting in one of these divine breakfast nooks. Large or small, breakfast nooks are the perfect way to make use of that extra space in your kitchen area.

Image sourced here

Image sourced here

Image sourced here

Image sourced here

Image sourced here

Running Wild

I have always been partial to a hint of animal print, as long as it's done the right way. I first fell in love with animal print stair runners after seeing this photo of Kristin Van Ogtrop, editor
of Real Simple Magazine.

Kristin Van Ogtrop

Ever since seeing this photo, I've stumbled across some amazing homes where the stair runner has been the focal point of the entryway. To me these stair runners add flair without tackiness and can turn quite a traditional space into an elegant contemporary feature.

Image Sourced from Here

Image Sourced from Here

Image Sourced from Here 

Image Sourced from Here

It's All About Chevron

We have been living in our current house for 18 months now. When we first moved here from Abu Dhabi, Mr D and I both felt we wanted to live in a small compound as we had come from an extremely large compound in Abu Dhabi, you couldn't even really call it a compound it was it's own mini city of sorts and we LOVED it but wanted a change in Doha. Big mistake....huge!

Our little compound here in Doha is TERRIBLE! We live in a brand new house but you'd think it was built circa 1982, the finishes are shocking, we have huge power outages every other week, the house is ruled by a large tribe of ants and really I could go on and on but I won't, otherwise I might start to cry!

So for the last 18 months, pretty much since the day we moved in I've made it my hobby to go house hunting! And let me tell you I've found some absolute shockers in my journey and some beauties! One of my all time fave houses here in Doha you can rent for a mere $20,000 a month!

You may ask why we haven't moved out? Well it's really hard to do that here in the Middle East, you see you pay your rent in advance and you have to sign on for a 2 year lease which means we paid 2 years rent in full the day we moved in and unless we leave the country and our visa is cancelled we'd never see that money back again so we're stuck here for another 6 months.

But that's ok, I can live with it because I have something much nicer to look forward to! A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a new compound being built on the other side of Doha - about 20 minutes drive from where we are currently. The house is brilliant, very modern, great finishes, you can tell that a westerner has designed it and it ticks all our boxes! There are 200 currently for rent and Mr D and I have all our fingers and toes crossed that there will still be some available when it comes time for us to move.

What gets me most excited about this new house is 1. it's literally a 2 minute drive to Sadie's new school and 2. it means I get to RE-DECORATE!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!

We are keeping our furniture because I love the pieces we have collected over the last 3 years which I mix up with pieces we bought from Ikea (yes Ikea sells more than just ugly pine furniture!) but I'm going to re-do the soft furnishings...new curtains, rugs, sofa covers, throw pillows, paint the walls etc...

My current fave trend at the moment is Chevron stripes, they are very in vogue right now and I love it because it plays to my obsession with stripes and my love of mixing both traditional and contemporary. I've been collecting images for inspiration and hope that by this Christmas my new abode will resemble the following...

Images

1. Real Living

2. Unknown

3. Unknown

4. Unknown

5. Unknown

6. Where the Sidewalk Begins

7. Cote de Texas

8. Domino

9. Real Living

10. The Decorista