katie.lacy@letsgetcoffee.co.uk, Author at Modish Living

Our favourite vegan chairs for your dining space

Red heart shaped sticker World Vegan Day words stuck on cork board

It’s world vegan day this weekend on November 1st so we thought we would look at animal-friendly and sustainable furniture that will help you take veganism beyond just the dining tabletop to around the dining table.

Small with pink bow around its neck walking in grass

The number of people switching to a vegan diet in the UK is rapidly increasing. Many are introduced to a plant-based diet during Veganuary, some go back to their normal diets, maybe with some tweaks – while many carry on, and permanently switch to a vegan diet. Just recently a large UK supermarket announced they will be dedicating a couple of aisles in some stores to only vegan food products which suggest that plant-based products are definitely gaining more widespread popularity.

Maybe you just like the look of a leather chair, or you have a household with young children and fabric dining chairs are just not practical, this is where easy wipe-clean faux leather dining chairs will come in. Every colour and style is now available on the market as well as a range of different quality materials being used with some looking and feeling more realistic than others. Below are three of our favourites!

Brown faux leather dining chairs with black steel legs and industrial dining table

Photo featuring: Cleo Faux Leather Dining Chairs in Tan

Chloe faux leather dining chair and bench

This is a hugely popular design available as a single chair and also as a bench and in grey or tan. You can try a mix of both colours around a reclaimed wood dining table to achieve a very current look. Consider these gorgeous high-quality vegan leather dining chairs if you are matching with an industrial dining table or with other reclaimed wood furniture. We are becoming more environmentally aware so this is the perfect combination thanks to the sustainable roots of reclaimed wood and vegan furniture.

Grey faux leather dining bench with grey cushion

Photo featuring: Cleo Grey PU Leather Industrial Dining Bench

Turner grey faux leather dining chair

The Turner PU leather chair is beautifully moulded to offer maximum comfort for long dinners! This chair is also available in tan or grey but with a gorgeous distressed leather finish, it’s perfectly suited to sit around a rustic dining table.

Photo featuring: Turner Faux Leather Dining Chair in Grey

Lansdowne faux leather bar stool

To create a small dining or breakfast area in the kitchen, a reclaimed wood bar table with bar stools is a great investment – a place where you can sit and enjoy a snack, a coffee in the morning or a spot to sit while you are preparing food. Pair the rustic solid wood industrial bar table with a set of faux leather bar stools and achieve a modern and environmentally friendly casual seating area.

Photo featuring: Lansdowne Faux Leather Industrial Bar Stools

Quick tips to create a fun indoor Halloween party

Halloween decorations including wreath with small pumpkins and pine cones with Happy Halloween wood sign

Halloween is going to be quite a bit different this year, so we thought we would look at how your household could enjoy an alternative Halloween and how to make the most of spending it at home. We’ve put together a few suggestions on how to give a rustic dining table a quick Halloween makeover, a few activities to do and easy to set up games you can play with the kids.

Halloween table decorations on wooden table with orange plates and large plastic spider

Creative kids

If you have little ones they can still get dressed up, but maybe they could let their creativity run wild by getting them to design and make their own costume (with a little help of course) and have a go at painting their own faces.

For autumn / Halloween themed decorations you can make leaf garlands, they’re free, quick and easy….. and the kids will love to help make them. Being natural and earthy, they look fab with rustic furniture – hang some over a round wall mirror and drape fake cobwebs over chair backs, a wooden bench or the dining room or kitchen sideboard.

Platter of Halloween themed foods, including spider cupcakes and pumpkin biscuits

Spooky snacks

Prepare a Halloween themed dinner – A platter of ghouly appetizers followed by spaghetti pasta (worms) and red tomato sauce (blood) with hot dog fingers. For dessert, something as simple as cupcakes (you could use green food colouring for the sponge mix) with a cobweb piped icing and some bat or spider decorations on top would look great on the Halloween rustic table. You can also make some coloured biscuits and add spooky eyes before serving!

Bowl of green, purple and blue Halloween biscuits with wide eye decorations

Table decorations

A reclaimed wood dining table, with its gorgeous natural characteristics, lends itself perfectly to a Halloween theme! For quick and simple table decorations add some fake cobwebs and spiders or bats. If you have rustic or reclaimed wooden sideboards in your room you can dress them also – add some large candles to achieve a spooky atmosphere along with a Halloween wreath, carved pumpkins, gourds, twigs and autumn leaves.

Wooden table decorated in Halloween theme with small pumpkins on plates and in middle of the table

Halloween fun and games

Just because you can’t go out and do the normal trick or treating doesn’t mean you can’t play some classic Halloween games in your own home or in the garden. Of course, there is the traditional pumpkin carving, pin the spider on the cobweb or the tail on the black cat, alternatives to the donkey! Bobbing for doughnuts – although this may be one for the garden! String up some doughnuts and with hands behind their backs, the kids see how fast they can eat them. Just like an Easter egg hunt – do the same for Halloween themed treats – you can hide treats around the house, under your reclaimed wood bed or in the garden – you might even want to turn the lights down low for a more spooky feel.

Which bedroom colours will help you get a good nights sleep?

The clocks are changing at the weekend and we gain a valuable extra hour – yay!! But, for some, just that one hour difference can disrupt well established sleep patterns. It is a fact, based on data from sleep studies, that your bedroom colour affects how you sleep – Here we have a look at which colours you can use in the bedroom to help you settle down and sleep better, and which colours won’t.

Photo featuring: Dulwich Reclaimed Wood Bed

Blue is Best

This is the perfect colour for sleep it’s associated with calm and relaxation. In studies, people with blue bedrooms had a good quality, nearly, 8 hours of sleep. On the other end of the scale, people who slept in a purple room had the worst sleep, this colour is hard to shut out and thus prevents you from relaxing into sleep.

Available in two sizes (super king or a king size wooden bed frame) with an impressive solid wood head and footboard. Layering the bed linen and adding scatter cushions will add a cosy feel to the room, add a blue rug to reinforce the blue element in the room.

Bedroom with wooden bed and green covers, green curtains and green plants

Serene Green

Green is also up there in great colours to use for a relaxing nights sleep. On average in tests, people with green in their bedrooms had around seven and a half hours of good sleep. Green brings in nature and during studies, people tended to wake up feeling positive and upbeat. Of course, green is the colour of houseplants, a great addition in the bedroom to wake up to. With all the toxins they remove from the air and the fact they are proven to reduce stress levels. There is no better way end and start your day!

Happy Yellow

Surprisingly, yellow was actually second in good night sleep tests, with participants getting 7 hours and 40 minutes of good sleep. Yellow is a warm and relaxing, happy colour. Pale yellow is perfect as the main colour, but you can also use bright yellow as an accent colour in a neutral room to accentuate features.

Comforting Pink

Soft pink has been a traditional bedroom colour for a girls bedroom for many years – but it is a great master bedroom colour also. Blush pink has a hint of beige to it, making it an ideal choice for the walls if you have reclaimed wood bed frame or wooden chest of drawers . Use a pink armchair to create a reading or relaxation corner in your bedroom a tranquil spot to wind down before sleep. Pink also works very well with green which means you can add green accessories such as a glass table lamp on a small bedside table, a green rug and of course some houseplants to bring in elements of nature.

Peaceful Silver

Silver is a more masculine colour but also conducive to a good nights sleep. It is a great neutral colour to add accent colours to – but also works well on its own. Being a very popular colour of 2020, you can easily dress an upholstered bed with some of the many throws, scatter cushions, rugs and lamps available on the market and accessorise your peaceful haven to perfection.

Which colours to avoid

Try to avoid colours like red which is energetic, purple inspires creativity, brown represents gloom and dark grey which will add a depressing element to your bedroom. These colours are disruptive to sleep and will definitely not help you relax and settle down to get a good nights rest.

How to use Dulux colour of 2021 in your dining space

Brave Ground™ is the Dulux colour of the year for 2021 so we thought we would look at how reclaimed wood furniture pieces would work with this colour.

“Dulux colour experts have chosen Brave Ground™, a bolstering shade that connects back to nature and the simple things. A warm, earthy tone, it creates a feeling of stability, growth and potential; and provides a firm foundation for change and creativity in your home.”

Stone painted living room wall with brown pendant light and dark grey leather sofa

This gorgeous neutral earthy colour will set a sublime backdrop for many different interior decor styles. Here, in particular, we are looking at using Brave Ground™ in the dining room as we think it would make the perfect wall colour to complement a reclaimed wood dining table.

Being reminiscent of an old stone farmhouse means that Brave Ground™ would look particularly good with rustic furniture it. Use this hue as a backdrop to dress a farmhouse table with earthenware and terracotta pots. The Farringdon reclaimed wood dining table is a top pick of ours with the option to add a mix of leather dining chairs or a more rustic, but very on-trend wooden bench.

We love the versatility of this colour it will work well in a minimalist Scandi inspired dining room. It would imitate the wood panelling seen in the image below to give the room a quick bright and airy lift and leave you with a neutral canvas to work from. You can accessorise with a bamboo pendant light over the table, wicker baskets and house plants to nail minimalist Scandi style.

Photo featuring: Wycombe Oak Extending Dining Set

For an ultra-modern sleek look, we like how Brave Ground™ could be blended with bright and bold statement colours like warm burgundy and other colours with a hint of red or pink. Accessorise your dining room with rich burgundy curtains, striking wall art, a statement rug and wooden dining chairs dressed with coordinating cushions and small chair throws.

Photo featuring: Mitcham Industrial Oak Spider Leg Dining Table

Now we can look at the industrial dining space, this colour will soften the heavy black of an industrial dining table like this spider leg one. This table has been paired with a mix of grey and tan faux leather Cleo chairs so the warm earthy colour of Brave Ground™ will blend with the tan chairs and provide a neutral contrast to the black.

How to use Feng Shui to position your bed

In this blog we look at the bedroom and in particular how you can use Feng Shui to get the positioning of your bed just right to get the best night’s sleep.

Bedroom with white bed and large floor mirror with words feng shui

First let’s look at the commanding position, this is the position where you want to spend most your time when you are in the room. In Feng Shui there are three items in your house that should always go in the commanding position in their respective rooms – these are the oven, which represents wealth and nourishment, the desk which represents your career and your bed which represents you. So it makes sense that you need to place your bed in the commanding position in your bedroom – this would be so it is facing the door but not directly opposite it. Once you have this position worked out you can look at what type of bed will work best for you.

Round feng shui ornament with pebbles in a home

A gorgeous reclaimed wood double bed frame will contribute to the energy in the room as wood is one of the elements in Feng Shui. So a solid oak bed placed in the commanding position would be the ideal scenario. If you have a large king size wooden bed frame which has to fit into a smaller size room then this positioning may not be possible – so you can place a mirror which allows you to see the door when you are in your bed.

As with your sofa, the bed should be anchored against a solid wall – the wall is there to support you. The gorgeous Beam Buckingham reclaimed wood bed has an impressive solid wood headboard which will offer you additional support. This forms part of the Beam reclaimed wood furniture range which includes bespoke size, made to order, bedside tables and chests of drawers to really embrace the element of wood in Feng shui. This range also blends in beautifully with other rustic furniture you may already have in your bedroom.

Reclaimed wood bed with grey covers and blanket

Photo featuring: Beam Buckingham Reclaimed Wood Bed

You should not have any doors that open near your head when you lay in bed as this may cause you to have headaches, and if they open by your feet this may cause you to suffer from foot problems in time……And you should never have your feet facing the bedroom door – this is referred to as the “coffin position”.

Try to avoid placing your bed so that the headboard shares the same wall as a toilet or ensuite.

Photo featuring: Winchester Reclaimed Wood Bed

Ideally, adults should be able to access the bed from both sides to allow the balance of yin and yang – feminine and masculine. However, for children, it is fine to put a bed against a wall as it gives them additional support.

Try not to position your bed under a beam or sloped ceiling as it creates pressure – if you have no choice then you can soften this feature by draping fabric or painting it so it blends.

Which media storage cabinet is for you?

Girl in pink cardigan sat on sofa with bowl of popcorn holding tv remote control

Now the nights are getting colder and darker we will most likely be turning to the TV more to provide entertainment. Here we have put together a few of our top picks for this autumn, whether you prefer closed media storage or like to have all your tech on show.

Reclaimed wood industrial coffee table with matching tv unit with TV on top

The rustic Standford range

Our Standford range of reclaimed wood furniture is hand made by skilled craftsmen right here in the UK. It’s Made from 100-200 year old timbers that have been salvaged from old Victorian houses and factories – meaning each piece is completely unique.

Photo featuring: Standford Reclaimed Wood Small TV Unit

Industrial

Industrial style really is a style that continues to be popular, combine that with full of character reclaimed wood and you have some really gorgeous furniture happening. With some open and some closed storage, the Standford industrial TV stand looks stunning in a contemporary living room. To complete the look you can choose other industrial furniture items from the same range to really embrace this stylish interior theme. If you prefer a more glamorous industrial look in your home, the Tavistock TV stand is perfect for you. The black industrial legs have been swapped for a more unusual gold / bronze finish and with two shelves and a cupboard, you will have plenty of media storage space.

Photo featuring: Standford Industrial Reclaimed Wood TV Unit

Mid-century

For a mid-century / retro feel to your living room, the Rocco and Mitcham TV units really are style setters. The Mitcham rustic TV stand offers loads of style and bundles of storage in one beautiful piece of oak furniture. If you prefer something with a lighter oak finish, the Rocco could be more for you. Layer some living room rugs and get the popcorn out for the kids and you will have lovely a cosy area to watch your TV on a cold and blustery Sunday afternoon.

Photo featuring: Rocco Industrial Oak TV Unit

Modern country

For a rustic but stylish modern country look the Soho TV Unit is a must-have – with two shelves for surround sound systems or games consoles you will have plenty of open shelving for the things you don’t particularly want to see in your living room. With cut-outs in the back of the unit to feed unsightly cables through this TV stand will do everything possible to help you keep your media nice and tidy!

Photo featuring: Soho Solid Wood TV Unit

Glam

If you are looking for a high-end media unit then you can’t ignore the Derby TV Unit. This gorgeous range is the epitome of glamorous style. This TV unit allows to you see the beauty of the reclaimed wood in all its glory. The long characterful reclaimed wood shelf have been skillfully crafted from old railway sleepers, the industrial shelving will give you plenty of space to stand a very large TV with more than enough space to spare for all your TV accessories.

Photo featuring: Derby Reclaimed Wood TV Unit

Dining room storage solutions you’ll want to show off

Dining room with large white glass dresser and sideboard and reclaimed wood dining table

Here we look at a few key items that offer practical and super stylish dining room storage.

Farmhouse dining table with grey fabric chairs and large white display cabinet

Drinks cabinet

If you love to entertain and like to move seamlessly from before dinner drinks to sit down dining, then a cocktail cabinet in your dining room would be perfect. No carrying bottles back and forth and all shakers and stirrers will be right at your fingertips. For a full-on glamorous feel, we love the Blackbone industrial oak drinks cabinets – available in a smaller size and a full-height version, for the glam element you can choose either silver or gold industrial legs. If Scandi simplicity and clean lines is more your thing then the Portobello drinks cabinet is our top pick for you, crafted from beautiful light oak with a classic chevron pattern featuring on the doors. This will look stunning with the minimalist oak dining table, also from the Nordic-inspired Portobello range.

Photo featuring: Portobello Oak Drinks Cabinet

Display cabinet

A glass door cabinet is a great alternative to standard wooden sideboards – we are talking about showing off here so this is a great way to display all your best bits for all to see. The industrial Standford glass and wood cabinet has a glass front and sides so you can put your all favourite pieces on display….and with a drawer too for a bit of hidden storage. The Standford reclaimed wood furniture range is proving to be as popular as ever with statement industrial furniture for every room in your home.

Photo featuring: Standford Reclaimed Wood Glass Cabinet

Welsh dresser

Sometimes we just want furniture to feel warm and homely, this is where a traditional style reclaimed wood dresser would come in. The Chelwood dresser is just screaming out to be placed in a farmhouse kitchen and will match beautifully with other reclaimed wood furniture you already have. Produced from full of character reclaimed wood, it mixes closed storage, for the everyday bits and bobs, with a glass-doored display cabinet on the top of the unit, and with plenty of drawers for cutlery.

Photo featuring: Chelwood Reclaimed Wood Dresser

Sideboard and wine rack

For those who love wine, we suggest the gorgeous Worcester reclaimed wood wine rack with sideboard. With a generous 28 spaces for your wine collection and hidden storage on the other side of the unit, it will look stunning paired with the Worcester reclaimed wood dining table. The Worcester range is handcrafted from 100% reclaimed wood, each piece a stunning blend of white painted and natural finish wood.

Photo featuring: Worcester Reclaimed Wood Wine Rack Sideboard

How to increase bedroom storage

Large reclaimed wood chest of drawers in bedroom with white four poster bed

Winter is coming so it is now about the time when we pack away our summer clothes and get the winter wardrobe out and ready. This is a great time to look at updating storage in the bedrooms in your home. Here we have a look at how you can add storage to different types of bedroom.

Clear out old clothes and toys

Now is the time to declutter the bedrooms. Donate clothes that you have not worn for a couple of summers to charity shops… otherwise they will just continue to build up year after year and you will be forever running out of storage space.

In kids’ bedrooms, it is worth sorting through the clothes and toys they have grown out of. If your child likes to cling on to toys then have a “not sure bag”…. Sort through their toys together and have three categories – a keep pile, a not sure bag and a donate bag. Hide the “not sure bag” away for a bit, just in case!, but they will most likely never ask for anything from it and you can get rid of a few items from there over time!

Child in blue jumper holding cardboard box of toys

Toddlers bedroom

You may already have toddler bedroom furniture but find you are running out of storage space as the toys begin to accumulate. A kids toy box is probably all you will need to add to increase hidden storage, something like the Fenshaw Mango Wood Storage Bench is perfect for this. Plenty of room inside and place this under a window and there is also a nice new spot to sit in.

Photo featuring: Fenshaw Mango Wood Storage Bench

School kids / student’s bedroom

Nowadays school kids and students do pretty much everything online so they probably don’t need too much storage space! However, as they get older they will want to spend a lot of time in their room alone, with friends, doing homework or sleeping! A reclaimed wood desk for studying will match many styles of furniture they have in their room already. A large chest of drawers to store clothes and other items in, as well as a wooden wardrobe will most likely suffice.

Master bedroom

The master bedroom should be calm and relaxing, a place to wind down after a busy day. Having clutter around will completely destroy any tranquil ambience. Once you have sorted through and donated your unused clothes to charity or a clothes bank you can reorganise storage in your bedroom. For most rooms a wooden wardrobe with coordinating wooden chest of drawers will be all you need.

Photo featuring: Onslow Reclaimed Wood Bed

Guest room

This is quite an easy room as long as it is only used for guests. Really all you need to go with a wooden double bed is a small wooden wardrobe with drawers and a dressing table with drawers that can double as a writing desk. If you don’t have space for this then a narrow chest of drawers may work and could also be used as a bedside table.

Photo featuring: Luna Double Wardrobe

Easy ways to make your dining space look more expensive

Open plan dining space and living room in front of large window with large hanging pendant light

Now that we are heading towards autumn, and with winter fast approaching, we are spending more and more time indoors. We might spend a bit of time on thinking how to give some of our living spaces a bit of a freshen up and upgrade – here we look at a few quick tips on how you can make your dining room look more expensive.

One statement piece

You don’t have to go out and buy a complete new set of dining room furniture! Just adding one statement piece can lift the room, something like a dining room sideboard will make a huge difference – plenty of space to clear away any clutter, an extra surface for when the dining table gets a bit crammed (will come in handy at Christmas) and also a surface to add a couple of ornamental items. Another option is to update just your dining table – a reclaimed wood dining table will make an instant impact. A reclaimed, or rustic dining table or an industrial dining table can be paired with so many styles of chair from leather dining chairs to upholstered dining chairs and look particularly good with dining benches.

Upgrading dining room seating

If you already have a dining table you love then you can just swap up the chairs you have around it. For a luxurious look choose a combination of a rich velvet upholstered bench and dining chairs. Dining benches are definitely here to stay, plus there are so many styles to choose from. Mix soft leather chairs like the Cleo Faux Leather Dining Chair with an industrial dining bench to add some loft style sophistication to the room. You can dress a bench with small throws and cushions to glam up your seating and give it the designer magazine look.

Photo featuring: Cleo Faux Leather Dining Chair

Add new lighting

Pendant ceiling lights are all the rage – decluttering your dining room and hanging a pendant light over the table will give you a quickly achieved chic new look. You can choose one large pendant or have a cluster of smaller lights. Natural bamboo is hugely popular right and eco-friendly.

Large bamboo pendant light over large wooden dining table with white spider legs

Photo featuring: Bamboo Sergia Large Pendant Light

Accentuate features

Make the most of the features you already have – dress up the fireplace, make the most of an exposed brick wall, add an accent chair. If you have French doors to the garden dress them with new curtains. You can add some wood paneling halfway up a wall or hang some glamorous wallpaper on one wall.

Dining room with exposed brick wall with large mirror and glass pendant ceiling light

Coordinated dining room textiles

Choose your favourite colour and have fun accessorising, add cushions on benches and chairs, get a new table cloth, placemats and napkins. Place a houseplant or two in matching pots or add a coordinated lamp on your sideboard. A silver rug set below a dining table with silver accents, will anchor the dining table and give you a base colour to accessorise from. And mirrors of course always look great!