Yet another year has passed by in a flash and it’s time to reflect and look back over the last 12 months with my 2019 blog review. I remember being full of beans last January ready to tackle the year ahead. However, my mojo is taking a while to return this time around. I seem to want to stay in permanent holiday mode, binge watching box sets, eating chocolate and ignoring the world outside!
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2019
With my home decor repertoire growing by the day, I was keen to transform some of the rooms in my home that I had originally decorated circa 2013/14. Having learned so much about interior design since then, it was so satisfying to turn the ideas swimming around my head into reality.
I kicked the year off with my master bathroom makeover to banish the boring beige in this room. This was my most viewed blog post of the year.
Bathroom Before
Bathroom After
I took the plunge and painted the white ceiling in the same rich teal as the walls, and I have to say, I don’t think I would have had the nerve to see it through without Andy’s encouragement.
Next in line was my porch makeover, where I continued with the colour palette I’ve chosen for the house (you can see this in last years review post). I added a little boho touch to this room, which is a style I love.
Porch Before
Porch After
In this space I also tackled banishing the white ceiling, as I intend to do in every room I makeover from now on.
The next room on my list was the downstairs toilet which was in dire need of a personality injection.
Loo Before
Loo After
I added some colour to the walls and transformed the sink unit from boring to roaring with a painted leopard print effect (I will be doing a DIY post on this soon).
And the fifth wall of course got the Caradise treatment with the leopards from my print escaping up onto the ceiling!
Meanwhile outside, Andy has been slowly but surely building a man cave at the bottom of our garden. He’s determined to crack on with this in 2020. You can see the progress so far on my Instagram highlights
Whilst Andy was busy with the man cave, I gave our gazebo a budget refresh by adding some colourful finishing touches. And I was gifted my first homeware items with some gorgeous Denby mugs also in the pic below.
Caradise Home Accessories
As planned in 2018, I added a homeware shop page to my blog this year. Hopefully, I will be able to put some more time into this page in 2020.
Hallway Magazine Feature
Probably the most exciting thing to happen in 2019 was my hallway shoot for an interiors magazine. I was contacted on Instagram by freelance photographers Beautiful Homes In The North and the lovely Katie came all the way from Whitely Bay to take photos of my lil’ old entryway!
The feature was published in the January edition of Your Home magazine and talks all about our hallway renovation. This is the only room in the house where I was happy with how we originally decorated it, helped by a little refresh in 2017.
Social Media
I hit my goal to reach 2000 Instagram followers by the end of 2019 at the beginning of 2020, so I’ll take that one! I’d love you to add to this number. You can follow me here.
I also now have over 1000 followers on Pinterest, and you can join them here.
Other Stuff
Andy and I also set up a property development company in 2019 and renovated a bungalow. I may do a blog post on the renovation, but you can see it from beginning to end on my Instagram story highlights.
You can see the kitchen below during the start of the renovation.
And as if we hadn’t done enough home/garden grafting, we went over to our house in Bulgaria and carried out some work on landscaping part of the garden with stone in order to create a low maintenance outdoor area.
PLANS FOR 2020
Room Makeovers
I’ve no intention of putting the brakes on the makeovers in 2020, as you’ll know if you watch my Instagram stories. I’ve shared the plans we have for renovating our living room and kitchen diner to better compliment how we live in the space. Follow me on Instagram to see the plans we have for these two rooms as they unfold!
I’ve already created a mood board for the living room which I’m super excited about and will be revealing on the blog soon. Join my e-mail list to get my new posts straight to your inbox.
I also plan to do a glam budget makeover of our bedroom this year and frankly as many other rooms as I can fit in!
Social Media
My goals for the year of course include the continued growth of my Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook following. I would especially like to get more interaction from the viewers of my Instagram stories.
The Blog
I plan to focus on increasing my blog traffic this year by diving deeper into search engine optimisation (SEO), and in turn growing my email list.
It would also be nice to do some more collaborations in 2020. I may take the plunge and reach out to some brands.
Well I’ve squeezed a fair bit into this years blog review. I hope the next twelve months will be as exciting and busy as 2019.
I’d love to hear ideas you’d like to see on the blog in the comments below!
Interior design nut, self confessed neat freak, and budding yogi. On a mission to banish all of the white ceilings in my home.
