Friday, 9 September 2011

A New Home - A New Linen Closet

Our little cottage hasn't a linen closet or 'airing cupboard' built-in anywhere. Our old home had a lot of built-in storage and we have a lot of linens! So we needed to improvise.
I bought this little bookcase on eBay, originally sold at IKEA, and decided it needed a simple make-over in order to house our linens just outside the bathroom on the landing by the stairs.We collected it from the seller and washed it all, inside and out. Then began the process of searching for the perfect fabric to make a curtain for it. Initially, I wanted to use a piece of vintage fabric - oh I have a lot of that! And finally using a vintage piece might be a good idea, rather than continuing to hoard it.
But while searching for storage containers for the bathroom I stumbled across this fabric at Laura Ashley and fell in love.
Laura Ashley Portland Fabric in Cotton/Linen Blend
Not only was this stunning material available for my project, it had matching/coordinating storage boxes and wallpaper, too!
The colours are gorgeous and the design so perfect - large, shaded-blue flowers on an ivory ground. Mixing up traditional design with modern style. For certain this was a winning combination. It was as good as sold.

I purchased a meter of the fabric and a set of the storage boxes (sadly, now sold-out) and the lovely salesgirl also provided me with a very large piece of the wallpaper as a sample, at no charge.
The result is a curtain for the bookcase and some storage boxes to keep the bathroom soaps, medicines, etc, all in three tidy boxes. (More on how the wallpaper is to be used in another post.)
Here are some photographs of the finished linen closet. Total cost about £75.00.
We are still quite bare in the house - nothing up on the walls yet, and still with a lot stored in boxes, but it will all improve in time.
You can see some of the fabric hoard under the beds in the background! Oh and naturally - there are tons more linens - of the vintage kind - under there, too!
More to come - watch this space!
xxx
Maggie