Where Light Floods In

So what did we get up to last summer that took up so much of our time and energy from the garden, and that up to now still is our main preoccupation (although definitely tapering off now)?

All but a few odds and ends of the house renovation have been completed and the most recent weeks have been spent decorating and recovering our house away from the builders, converting it from a building site into a home. Slowly but surely we're getting there starting from the back...

This room is the newest addition to the house and it sits where a decking area that was raised from the rest of the top patio used to be. When it was completed and cleaned the temptation was there to keep it minimal with just furniture and not fill it with plants. We've always thought that this would be a nice place to have breakfast (and it is!) as well as hang out near the garden but still protected from the elements. And it is a conservatory after all, it just wouldn't be one without plants don't you think so?

A select few now take pride of place in the room, the only place in the house where plants can be generously found especially we've made that resolve not to overwinter many plants in our house again like we used to.

When we decided to go for the renovation we also opted to let go of most of our old furniture as well as radically reduce our 'possessions', to feel almost like we're starting anew, letting go of the past and starting fresh. And it's amazing how much junk one can accumulate through the years, actually make that two. The endless sorting out and trips to the recycling tip and charity shops were exhausting but invigorating at the same time. However, if you let go of too much you can also feel like you're losing touch of memories so I'm glad a few things did survive the mass cull and is now on display again. Like here where the Hopper print is that used to be in our old dining room and the pair of miniature Chinese terracotta soldiers that we bought, not in China but in an interior shop in Stockholm a few years ago.

And speaking of Stockholm we bought this pair of Jordi Labanda plates there (whose work you're likely to recognise even if you just occasionally flick through fashion magazines. I'm a big fan ever since I got hold of his book Hey Day) back in 2005. Despite liking them they remained wrapped up and stored away until recently when suddenly, the plates fitted in the new colour scheme of this room which is...

Colour pop! I actually wanted an all white room (white white everything white!) but Gaz wanted colour so we compromised and went for colour pop. Both of us are pleased with it and is very cheerful to look even if its gloomy outside. The scheme of this room is also a reflection of the scheme of the rest of the house.

We're both gardeners, we have pets, and it's a white room. Is it easy to maintain? Yes! It depends on the material you choose, make sure they are wipe easy and you have two important things by the door - a boot scraper and floor mat.

Now talking about good timing the people from The English Lamp Post Company offered to give us a boot scraper to try out and review and I must say it's a very good scraper and I'm really pleased with it as far as boot scrapers will go! It does what it's suppose to do very effectively, with a good grip on to paving so it doesn't move around when you scrub off dirt from your shoes. And for a cast iron product (which tends to be ornate) the design of this model is simple enough that it can fit in their surrounding perfectly, from contemporary to the traditional. Double thumbs up from us!

So cleanliness starts from a good boot scraper and then a good door mat. Choose wisely when it comes to indoor door mats especially if you play with soil and mud on a regular basis. If you can go for a microfibre one, it does what it claims and is machine washable too.

Twinkles and Knickers approve our doormats too!

What about the plants that now resides in this room and what made me choose them? I mentioned about the first batch of plants that were selected before and their selection criteria. As a follow up to that post (which makes this post a Part Two) a second batch have been selected since then which now completes the lot that will now keep us company indoors during winter. They are:

Agave toumeyana var. bella

Cycas circinalis

Agave parryi

Chamaedorea radicalis

Agave colimana, front and another Agave at the back whose species name escapes me

Big pots - Philodendron 'Xanadu' to the left, Butia archeri to the right

Remember Mas Que Nada? Some of them made it indoors to continue their summer vibe!

Agave attenuata - flawed but pretty enough to still make it in

Most of them will go back out again in the summer, if I can be bothered to shift them out that is. And perhaps one or two will be changed/replaced/repositioned from time to time to vary the display and keep the interest going. After all, change is a good thing even in just small doses.

Pachira aquatica

And to cap off this post is this Pachira aquatica, looking comfy where it is now but actually was an effort to get there and has a back story to it. More on that on a future post soon!

Slowly, indoors are being sorted. If you notice anything untidy outside beyond the glass pardon us for now. We'll sort that bit out early next year.

Mark :-)

Posted in: conservatory , exotic garden , garden blog , garden design , interiors , winter