Modern Country Style blog love: Room Seventeen

I've just stumbled on a new blog - well, new to me anyway - and it's perfection! You know how it is when you see blog link after blog link and then one of them REALLY leaps out at you. That was this one for me. It's called Room Seventeen.



It's a Dutch blog but thanks to the wonders of Mr Google, it can be translated reasonably well in a twinkling of an eye. Magic, isn't it. I could just stare at these photos all day, couldn't you? The colours (or lack of!!), the texture, the way the rooms are styled. Ooooooh!

I love the branches in the rough urn and the dark, brooding walls, contrasting with the cosy armchair, complete with cushion. Who wouldn't want to sit there and pass the afternoon away reading by the light of the lamp?

Room Seventeen has a mixture of inspirational posts and privileged peeks into the author's life and home. My favourite kind of blog. There's not too little inspirational material that it feels like a diary and not too little 'real life' posts that it feels impersonal.

The content is generally plain, elegant and simple. All in a good way. In fact, 'plain and simple' probably undersells the care and attention to detail in these photos. Beautifully put together, they encompass all that's lovely about Modern Country Style.

Chrome lamps with wicker shades. How original is that? Complete clash of old and new. And pulled off so stylishly.

Thank you so much for stopping by at Modern Country Style. Please have a good snoop around and don't forget to let me know what you think!!

Thank you for all the lovely comments recently. Can you hear my heart skip?!

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Master bedroom: before and after

I love 'before and after' posts on interior blogs.....or in magazines, for that matter. I love seeing, side by side, the complete transformation. From dull to dazzling! Do you like 'before and afters'? Is it just me?!

I realised I hadn't done any specific 'before and after' posts. So...I thought I'd do my very own!

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Master Bedroom: before and after. Here is the first before shot, taken before we moved in:

List of hideousness:

Not one, but two, TWO hideous borders. Open hanging rail wardrobe thing. Flimsy tongue and groove covering the lower half. Orange pine shelving unit. What can only be described as a gaping hole in the wall (with broken glass in the bottom). Bed position breaks the room in half, visually and practically.

.....and after the renovation:

We had builders and carpenters and plumbers and electricians and plasterers and decorators in to:

rip out the shelving unit;

rip out the hanging rail;

reposition the attic hatch outside the bedroom;

remove the tongue and groove and TWO borders (!);

move the door by 90 degrees so that we could reposition the bed;

put in two large Velux windows, rather than the teeny tiny ones in before;

reposition the radiator under the sloping roof to give more usable wall space;

build cupboards to look like original Edwardian cupboards to match the age of the house;

move the light switch and light;

move the plugs from on the beams to above the skirting board;

change the door and door handle and architrave around the door;

fit a new skirting board.

Another before:

Why they chose those windows in the first place, I'll never know! The new ones make the room lovely and bright.
We had the walls painted in Farrow and Ball Light Blue, which is possibly my favourite colour ever.

It was a wonderful moment when it was, at last, completed (this along with two other rooms downstairs). The house was back to ourselves (although, I should add the workmen were fantastic on the whole).

We had gorgeous weather on Sunday afternoon. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Aren't those two days off heavenly?

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Back issue inspiration...

In a friend's car, the other day, I saw the magazine Living etc from June 2009. I had a flick through and one feature caught my eye to such an extent that I bought that issue on ebay the next day (hooray for ebay!).

The article was about a Victorian London semi, renovated by the photographer Paul Massey.

It looks quite ordinary from the outside.....

...but inside, it's scrumptious!

I LOVE that sofa. Mmmmmm.

You can see more from the article here but I hope this has been a good taster.

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Modern Country Bedroom: lighting

In the early days of choosing everything for our bedroom, I actually went as far as ordering a chandelier but it looked wrong, wrong, wrong. Far too fussy for the atticky loveliness that I wanted.

I hastily sent it back! What was I thinking?!

My second choice, much more appropriate for the Modern Country style look I wanted, was this:

A very simple oval, cream drum shade. We have it on a dimmer switch for different...ahem...bedroom moods!

My inspiration photo had this candlestick lamp for bedside reading:

I wanted the same style so, after much (very enjoyable) searching, I found a lovely mahogany version to match (but not too matchy-matchy) our mahogany sleigh bed.

I really like it's understated elegance. It's a good height, too, so casts a lovely glow.

My final light choice was for the other end of the room. This was one of those serendipitous finds that I didn't really know I was looking for......UNTIL I FOUND IT!

Light of my life, I love you!

It's a scrumptious lamp, in chrome and leather. It's beautifully articulated so can be angled any way you please. Pure lighting yumminess. It makes my heart sing when I see it.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the lighting tour of our Modern Country Style bedroom!

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Modern Country bedroom ... details

As I said in my last post, this was the first room we renovated big-style. The whole process was pretty new to me....and I was pregnant with twins at the time. Not the calmest period of my life!

After playing around with lots of ideas, I knew I wanted to go for a Modern Country style bedroom (see inspiration photos) and for our bed, piled with pillows and gorgeousness, to be the main focus of our master bedroom. Possibly, the fact that I was absolutely shattered during that pregnancy helped with the appeal of the bed! It's a mahogany sleigh bed, the very first piece of furniture we ever splashed out on. It's eleven years old now but is aging beautifully!

I thought a picture would look great above the headboard but wanted nothing too big because of the asymmetric slope of the ceiling. I chose this restful photo by Jeff Teasdale called Westwater #1. Not quite black and white, yet not quite colour, I love the way it tones in with the feel of the room.

At the end of the bed, is an old leather suitcase. This is great for storing winter bedding during the summer, as well as for adding a vintage note to the room.

I'm especially thrilled with the bed cover/ quilt (there must surely be a better name than this!). It's total luxury. It's made from thick velvet and silk and makes you feel like a princess at night (always a good thing!). The colour is officially 'Dusk', which translates as browny-grey. It's lush!

Colour-wise, I chose: white, brown, Farrow and Ball's Light Blue and a couple of touches of black. It was in here that I first started to appreciate the look of a limited palette. There's nothing bitty in this room. Blocks of muted colour are what I like best.

We even chose a Modern Country Style bin! I'm obsessed with getting the details in place!

A peaceful master bedroom is just the ticket with baby twins!

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Modern Country Bedroom

I wanted our bedroom to be completely immersed in Modern Country Style. Pared-down, simple blocks of colour and gorgeous, good quality bed linen - perfect for the attic-chic look I hankered after!

I'm so in love with the paint on the walls. I could stare at it for hours...and probably have! I chose Farrow and Ball's Light Blue - of course, not a true blue at all, but a dirty grey/green/blue. Incredibly restful, without being wishy-washy. I think it's one of the nicest colours in the world


I love clothes so I knew we'd need a lot of storage. I really enjoyed designing our cupboards. We've got 2 and a half double wardrobes and a large shoe cupboard, which you'd think would be enough for any girl (and her husband!) but I do seem to have a bad habit of expanding to fill the space I'm given!

I remember a story when I was little about Princess Penelope, who had one outfit for everyday of the year. My ultimate ambition!! (That's a joke, Mr Modern Country...).

I really adore how this room has turned out. It was one of the first rooms that we renovated so I was finding my way.

I feel that the design I chose allows the bones of the room, with its lovely old beams, to really sing.

More details to follow...

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Modern Country Style: bedroom inspiration!

Okay....back to our bedroom renovation! Just as a reminder, here's a photo of how it was when we first saw it:


Not a pretty sight!

I first saw a picture of my inspiration bedroom (along with the bathroom from the same cottage, which I also covet!) in a book called Home Styling Sourcebook: Over 30 Period Contemporary, Country and Exotic Decorating Styles for your home by Lorrie Mack.


It was my awakening!

After drooling for a while, I looked in the back of the book for the picture credits the photographer is Brian Harrison and the Stylist is David Carden. I googled these names and found the pictures on a FAB site called Red Cover (where all these photos are from).


We've got a very similar mahogany sleigh bed so that was what caught my eye. I love the cool greeny-grey-blue colour on the tongue and groove, mixed with the pure white walls.


The room has a simple atticky feel, yet it also feels luxurious, with the imposing bed dressed sumptuously, ready to sink into.


This was the definite starting point of my inspiration for our Master bedroom. It was whilst researching this room that I first really engaged with Modern Country Style. The room has a lovely old wooden beam running across its width and one of the walls is sloping so I wanted to go with the attic feeling.

Watch this space.....

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Family bathroom (after)

I didn't take any before photos of the bathroom before it was done.

It used to be aqua with hideous domed ceiling lights (one of which was broken after a football accident...). The cupboard doors were varnished wood, plain-fronted, with matching varnished doorknobs.

Here are some of the after photos:

The floor and tiles haven't changed as they are grey-green, which works well with the palette in the rest of the house.

We kept this radiator too. It's a large room and this sized radiator keeps it lovely and toasty in the winter.....there are few things worse than a too-cold bathroom.

The colour is Dulux white eggshell (not brilliant white). This is the first room I've ever painted white all over and it took me a couple of days to get used to it. Now, though, I love it. It feels serene and calm, whether I'm bathing four noisy children or relaxing by candlelight.


I'm extremely pleased with the cupboard doors and door knobs. The handles are smaller versions of the main doorknob. I really like small details tying in like that - even if no one else ever notices....

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