Millennials eh, swanning around like they rent the place.
Chances are if you’re renting, you’re on first-name terms with both the mould and the maintenance department. Amiright? And the so-called maintenance department is actually just a one man band called ‘Johnny the mould guy’.
Johnny is also not very good at taking his shoes off when he comes into the flat but he is a chirpy 5ft 3 fellow so I’ll let that slide. For all Johnny’s faults, he’s the one who can stroke the mould without flinching, not me.
Sure, while having a handy man to fix the flaccid curtain rail that fell on your head is great and everything, I’d rather have the Victorian semi with a Kopparberg-shaped garden, ya know?
The grass isn’t always greener but in this case, something tells me it is because ya know, to even have grass would make my non-existent grass greener by default.
When you’re living in a small, very borrowed space you have to get inventive with your interior design ideas. Translation: you have to rein in your Linda Barker.
When guests have to punch their way through a curated arrangement of cushions before they can even get to the sofa area, you know you need to have a word with your ol’ pal Linda.
Also, if you’re living in a city and you own a car, then you’re probably gonna have permit charges to add to your ever-blossoming outgoings, too.
And the fight for a parking space is never pretty.
You know when you see a couple of cats getting lairy in the street, swaying their bums from side to side like Ariana Grande in concert and narrowing their eyes – well, that’s me, in a car.
I’m a well-fed lairy cat in a Ford C Max. Probably with a bit of last night’s tuna bake wedged in my whiskers but let’s get to the point.
As much as I would love herringbone tiles and pristine Aesop soap sitting in the bathroom (pristine because… it’s limited to guest-use only, ‘cos at £3 per pump that stuff needs to last), no part of me is willing to cough up for some other Brightonian to enjoy it when we’ve *eventually* moved out.
Something tells me Stephen the piano teacher from Elm Grove Primary School isn’t going to appreciate fancy tiles and brass bathroom fixtures, no offence Stephen.
That said, it’s important to me that our flat feels like home and filling the wall space with mood-enhancing prints from Desenio is a very cost-effective way of making a small space feel and look like home.
Just because you’re renting doesn’t mean you can’t feel inspired by your living space. And as someone who is at home a lot, I rely on my surroundings for balance and motivation.
When I was selecting prints to go in our flat, I considered the bigger picture (sorry, yeah I used terrible dad pun, I can’t come back from that).
I want the prints to be evergreen and to complement whatever space we move into hereafter. So, where the Linda Barker in me was eyeing up the brighter showstoppers, I wanted to make sure I chose prints that were timeless, earthy and versatile.
After a six hour long Desenio marathon (easily done), the first print I went for was this nine arch bridge poster. It reminds me of the Ouse Valley Viaduct in Haywards Heath – I commuted to London for five years and I always looked forward to going over this bridge.
It’s a beautiful open space, you can see miles of rolling countryside and as mushy as it sounds, a sight like that on an otherwise monochrome, fart-scented journey to-and-from work is very welcome. It also reminds me of Harry Potter which has nothing to do with the commute and everything to do with my obsession with Professor Sprout et al.
Now I see it, I can’t unsee it. The second print could pass as Hedwig’s doppelganger which is either totally coincidental or my HP obsession goes way deeper than first thought.
JUST. LOOK. AT. IT. If Paul Hollywood were an owl, this is what he would look like.
For all those times I feel less than astute, I’m gonna look over at the white owl poster and hope that it sends me some sort of wisdom via an inaudible squawk that I’ll probably do on its behalf.
I needn’t explain myself to the neighbours. They’ve been there for two years, if they don’t know me and my variety of bird-like noises by now then they’ll never know me.
I also picked up a gold frame for this one since I went for black frames for the others and I thought Paul ‘Hedwig’ Hollywood deserved nothing less than to be sheathed in gold.
Finally, I went for this modern art, hand-drawn figuratone poster to break up the nature / wizarding theme a little bit. The spell had to be broken at some point, guys.
I wanted something a little different and abstract, that way if I did want to experiment with a gallery wall, I would have just enough contrast to do so – whether that be through different prints or frames.
As much as I’d love to be a creative oracle who could just throw some prints together and make it work, the Alexa Chung of interiors I am not. I need some planning and thought behind it so, I tried to stick to a ‘nature’ theme, with similar colourways in order to create some kind of visual harmony and balance with my collection.
Desenio is a unique destination for beautiful and affordable designs. It also happens to be great for giving you inspiration for creating your own galleries and showing you templates that could work for a variety of spaces.
Even if you don’t want to rub the landlord up the wrong way by adding to the marks on the wall (ahem, guilty), the prints look just as boujie leaning against a wall, a piece of furniture or a picture ledge. Experiment!
I’m already eyeing up the highland cow poster and, let’s be honest, the entire range of botanical prints.
Though winning Joe round is going to take some work. He’s already given me due warning: it’s him or the 50x70cm pink tulip we don’t need.
I may not have a garden – or a small decked area to sit my herringbone-white body this summertime – but you know what I do have? A lounge wall with a kickass personality. And that’s good enough for me. Love you bye.
This post is in collaboration with Desenio ~ words, photos and love all my own.
