All posts tagged: renovations

Our bathroom makeover with Tikamoon

I’m so pleased to share with you another makeover done in CASA PYLA. This bathroom makeover and this kitchen makeover were two of the biggest jobs in phase 1 of CASA PYLA. Luckily, the previous Owners had started renovating the bathroom a bit and it didn’t look as bad as the kitchen. However, it was far from being finished. Bearing in mind that it was only a 3-month project before we take everything apart and move the bathroom somewhere else, I did everything I could to create a modern, bathroom for people staying in CASA PYLA over Summer. The bathroom before Here is how the bathroom looked when we bought the house. The previous Owners had already re-tiled the walls with these dark grey tiles below (which was lucky!), but a strip of tiles was missing all around the room. The walls and ceiling were painted in an old pale green and had a few holes. Last but not least, there was no shower screen, bathroom floor, tap or shower fitted. What did I do? First, I filled …

Before & After: Our white, minimalist bathroom makeover

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

This has been a long time coming but here is our white bathroom makeover. This is probably the most drastic makeover to date in our home. Although, if you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen our new renovation project: CASA PYLA where the kitchen was quite a beast too (more of this later). Basin, shower, and toilets were fitted at the end of June ’18. I finished painting the walls literally 5 minutes before our first guests arrived. We couldn’t lay down the floor tiles on time so as a temporary/emergency solution, I bought some waterproof plywood sheets to lay on the concrete slab and we fitted some lino on top with double-face tape. Unfortunately, over the Summer, we got a leak from the toilet pipe behind the newly fitted plasterboards walls and had to cut into the wall to replace the faulty part. At that stage, I was hugely grateful we hadn’t fitted the electric underfloor heating and floor tiles yet. Eventually, bathroom renovations resumed mid-October. We installed the Warmup underfloor heating system (you can see …

Kitchen renovations update

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

I know I owe you a full-length post on our kitchen renovations but for those who followed our adventures on Instagram, dealing with the Swedish giant hasn’t been plain sailing. Besides the 5 weeks delay, they also managed to deliver seven kitchen doors with the wrong finish. Mistake that we sadly noticed only when the doors were fitted and the protective film was off. An expensive mistake that costs me 200 euros to get the guy back to take down the wrong doors and fit the right ones. Sadly, I’m pretty sure that it is not something that IKEA will refund, despite the fact that the mistake was made by their kitchen planner at the time of my order… On the plus side, I absolutely LOVE our kitchen. It’s becoming my personal laboratory to create and test new smoothies and green juices recipes. Soon, I’m hoping to tackle protein balls so if you have any great recipes, please share!! The new layout works perfectly for us. Steve and I can be both in the kitchen without being on …

BEFORE & AFTER: Our minimalist, beachy hallway makeover

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

I’m excited to finally show you some of the renovations I started in our home in France before our Summer holidays. As some of you know, our holidays home became our main residence when we relocated to the beach in France after twenty-three years in London. When we bought the house about twelve years ago, it was really in a sorry state. Yet, both of us could see the potential of the house which had a good layout and came with a 2175 m2 private garden. For Steve, who grew up on a farm in New-Zealand with a lot of space, the garden was everything. To this day, the outdoor space we have is one of the things I appreciate the most (that and living close to the beach!). Since it was 12 years since we renovated the house, it was time to freshen up a few corners… THE BRIEF: Turn our entrance and hallway into a welcoming, summery space with a beachy feel, Add storage to put away things we use often, Make it easy to clean THE …

Our home renovations Part 1

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

These past few months, I mentioned several times that we were planning to renovate the bathroom which is a real eye-sore (you will see that I wasn’t joking in a few weeks). Unfortunately, we also had water damages just before last Summer. As we needed to take off the oak floorboards Steve and I had painfully glued twelve years ago, I thought it was time to make a few design changes to make the kitchen work better for us. So today, I’m going to take you through the first steps of this renovation project, what they involve and the mistakes I feel I made when I designed our kitchen twelve years ago. There will be also a small section about the renovations of our hallway which took place a few days later. THE KITCHEN RENOVATIONS Our previous kitchen was a single counter running against the wall and fitted with a SMEG hob, a SMEG oven and a dishwasher. The fridge was a large American stand-alone fridge (very similar to this one). We also had a vintage …

How to create a mood board for your home in 3 steps

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Creating a mood board is one of the most exciting steps when re-designing or refurbishing a room. If you’ve gone through major renovations before, you know that while it is a creative project to start with, it can also be stressful as you rely on other people/tradesmen for the project to come together and one thing you can’t control is what others will do. We always hope to work with tradesmen who are professional, conscientious and who will deliver on time but sadly, it is not always the case. The trickiest thing is finding reliable and available tradesmen that can do the job on time and within budget AND nurture the relationships while they work for you (in case you need them in the future)…but let’s focus on the fun part of a project ;-) Why should you aim to create a mood board? A mood board is a great way to show your tradesmen what your vision is for the room rather than emailing them thousands of pictures from Pinterest. It will give you a better sense of …

Décoration chambre ado: un re-looking inspirant dans des tons doux et apaisants

Mila’s bedroom makeover

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Teen’s bedroom makeovers are very gratifying and enjoyable. It is a great opportunity to do something creative with your child (even if you hire someone else to do it). They may even become house proud afterwards. That’s what happened with Mila. She now loves her bedroom so much that she really looks after it. She does her bed every morning, puts her clothes away in the evening and burns scented candles while doing her homework. Her bedroom is now the most welcoming, feel-good room in our home. Following Mila’s desk makeover, which many of you loved (thank you!) I have now tackled the rest of her bedroom makeover. My goal was to ensure her bed would be warm, comfortable for wintertime while feeling a bit more luxurious. A few months ago, we installed double-glazing which has made our home a lot warmer, cosier and secure. A pricey but necessarily evil home improvement. However, unlike the other bedrooms in our home, Mila’s room is exposed north and sees the least amount of sun. Since Mila didn’t want to …

Fresh look in our dining room BEFORE & AFTER

Our dining room renovations Part 1

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

And just like that…Summer was gone. We moved back into our home after a whole Summer away and I’m now looking at the house with fresh eyes to see how to finish our dining renovations and what projects we can (budget permitting) tackle. For now, let me show you what we did recently in the lounge and dining area rather than focusing on what need to be done