Autumn nesting makeover.............

For me, somehow autumn seems to be a much more appropriate time for a 'spring clean' than spring.

The coming of the long nights and cold weather always make me want to snuggle down and nest, and it was with this in mind that I cast a critical eye over the house last week.

Working from home has many advantages, but a major disadvantage is that 'work' tends to spread through the house like a miasma. If every surface in the workroom is covered with work in progress, it is so simple (and tempting) to start an overflow area just about anywhere else. Up until a few weeks ago the dining rooms was full to bursting with doll molds and casting gear.
One of the spare bedrooms is also chock-a-block with work related stuff.

So in the spirit of our ongoing downsizing, and having the benefit of an uncharacteristic surge of energy, I set about a major clearout and cleanup starting yesterday. The lounge was looking very unkempt and unloved and the dining room was just plain messy. Although the many boxes of doll molds have gone, there was still lots of other stuff which needed to be rehomed or cleared out.

I spent all day yesterday and several hours today, systematically clearing and cleaning, and generally making the house feel more like a home again, rather than a storage facility.

Gone is all the clutter which gradually accumulates in any home.
Gone is all the dust and debris (much of the blame for which can be laid at the paws of Small Dog)
Gone are all the boxes of 'stuff' - either sorted through and recycled/binned or rationalised and put away.

It's like having a whole new house. And having restored it to a relatively pristine state, I can see more clearly what is needed to complete the makeover. So I've been doing a little shopping list to aid my winter nesting preparations.

First, lighting. I've decided to replace the uninspiring floor and table lamp in the lounge with something more........mood-enhancing.
Second, soft furnishings. Small Dog likes to snuggle down on a cosy blanket of an evening, so we have a couple of fleecy throws which take the chill off the leather sofas in order to protect her paws from hypothermia. When we bought them we thought they were the perfect colour.

But they're not.
Not at all.

In retrospect they're quite a boring, depressing shade of dark red, when what we need is something lighter and brighter, more crimson or arterial blood red.

Ditto scatter cushions - ours are now sadly outdated, and although two of them were bought because they were reminiscent of the fur of an Abyssinian Guinea Pig my daughter had when she was young, they're now definitely past their best.

Third, occasional table. We have a ratty, tatty old thing which weighs a ton and looks horrendous. However, we've attempted to replace it several times before and hated just about every table we saw.

And we saw many.......but none of them quite fitted the bill

Too modern or too old fashioned.
We don't want anything with glass in it.
It's got to be light enough to move around easily without causing a hernia but not so lightweight that it's flimsy.
Not too big and not too small.

Suggestions on a virtual postcard please.........