Issue 03: June 2025

New hallway, new job, and a pub in need of a bit of love.

I bloody love June. It’s usually a month in which the weather plays ball, meaning the busy days renovating and working are peppered with evenings and weekends in the garden. This June has felt like a perfect concoction of calmness mixed with productivity since starting my new job, we’ve celebrated mine and John’s first wedding anniversary, and praise the renovation gods: the hallway is almost at completion.

Progress Peek:

The hallway is so close to being finished and I’m so excited to see and share the final result with you! This week was my first week as Head of English, so I’ve had many a late night where I’ve finally arrived home, and the progress made each day has been such a relief because it means that I don’t have to stretch my evenings into early mornings painting ceilings. Thank goodness for our painter and John: the dream team. The panelling is all completed and the painting only has a few touch ups to go, so we’re just waiting on the carpet to be fitted. It’s totally transformed the space already, and if you saw my post yesterday you can see how the colours are looking now the grey/blue has gone. It feels lighter, calmer and much more in keeping with what a Georgian hallway would look like. I’ll share a full before and after soon…

Farmhouse Finds:

Palette pick: Queen’s Gambit by Coat paints. I read something the other day that said buttery yellows were a new trend for the second half of this year, and ever since I saw this particular one (which isn’t in your face – it’s more subtle and calming), I’ve wondered if I could get away with painting an entire room in my house yellow. I would never have considered it as a shade, but I can kind of see how it could work in a room like the playroom or a kitchen, or maybe even the garden room (when we finally get around to doing that!)

A brand I’m loving: Lovely Lemons. Full disclaimer here that this is actually my friend Lucy’s brand, but she made me a sign for Everly’s bedroom and it’s so gorgeous, I needed to mention it. She makes all of her signs herself, and after I chose the font and colour, she printed Everly’s name on linen which just looks so feminine and pretty above her bed. I’ll share it on my story later this week.

In The Details:

This month we submitted our application for listed building consent to change the family bathroom – a sentence that sounds simple but actually involved 617 Word documents and a minor existential crisis about tile choices. The dream is a bathroom that feels like it’s always been there, but in a very clean, fresh way. Something that screams Georgian class but has better plumbing and no strange mystery smell lingering from beneath the grout lines.

Meanwhile, we’ve been eyeing up the garden with a mix of aspiration and restlessness. Last year, we did the garden quickly on a tight budget of a couple of hundred pounds, just to make it feel like ours and to be a space we could hang out in. All that really involved was buying some paint and some plants, but this year, we have loftier ambitions. We’re going to make it feel a lot more regency heritage listed building-esque with a central path and borders, and also add a fire pit for those gorgeous summer evenings (as long as I don’t jinx it by saying this and make the weather run far, far away.)

And just because there’s not enough going on, John and I have also been discussing the garden pub and how to elevate it. It was never finished but it’s been low on the priority list, and we’d like to add some wall panelling, some pictures, and maybe some vintage signs, all to make it feel more homely and ‘pubby’. That’s something I’ve noticed about renovating: it’s never finished. Even the finished rooms are never finished because I keep adding things to them (like a new kitchen accessory every week.)

Photo of the Month:

Our almost completed hallway. What do you think of the colours? It took me so many samples, and honestly when I saw the darker colour go on the panelling one night when I came home from work, I didn’t love it. But colours play tricks, and it was the old grey/blue next to the taupe which was throwing me off. Now that old colour has gone, I really love it and think it’s the perfect neutral to feel calming and Georgian, without taking the focus off the tiled floor, which is the real showstopper.

Around The Farmhouse Table:

I asked you guys on my story, “What’s your guilty pleasure when you’re home alone?”

Here’s what some of you said which I absolutely loved:

• “I practise my singing in the kitchen and pretend I’m in a music video!”
• “I eat a full chocolate trifle!”
• “I talk to my plants. All of the time.”

Looking Ahead:

Between carpets, planning forms, and my first week at my new job, it’s been a whirlwind. But it’s all good because the hallway is taking shape, the kettle is always on, and I only have 2 weeks left until the summer holidays, which means I have plenty of time to get stuck into numerous new projects…

Until next month you beautiful bunch,

Shanice 🤍