Creativity zapped!

Just thought I'd share with you the view from my desk today!!!

Oh and November, 

.... seriously, how did you come around so quickly!

Progress

The laying of the carpet was finished today. We opted for a durable coir from Kersaint Cobb with a herringbone pattern. We had thought about simply painting the floors, but with extending our office into the basement we decided to go for the warmer option!!

With regards to the decor I'm looking to keep it simple, opting for a classic black & white combo with the addition of some natural textures. I don't think I could ever tire of this look and it's versatility. Like most people, I'm prone to phases of being drawn to particular shades and colour combinations, so for me, keeping the bones of a space fairly neutral is a must, to which I can accessorise and add colour depending on what's inspiring me at the time. 

I've had the image above in my 'workspaces' file for a long time, still not sure of the source unfortunately (so please help out if you can!) but I love how the simplicity of the room lets the decorative furniture do the talking. Simply replacing the flowers and type of vase would be an easy, yet effective update to the space.

All in all, some lovely workspaces where I'd feel right at home.

Images (clockwise from top): The New Anthology, Solid Frog, {oops!}, Sacramento Street, Mackin Ink

Today's Delights

This gorgeous book which was delivered this morning.

Creative Walls by Geraldine James.

I found it hard not to sit down and read it from cover to cover!

Little peeks of wonderfully creative homes and stunning imagery.

Very inspiring indeed!

This calligraphy found whilst immersing myself once again in Delight By Design.

Blair's blog never fails to enchant me.

The Hydrangeas in our office.

Am I weird when I say I could stare at them all day?!!

Ok, perhaps a little bit, but the varying shades of the petals really are amazing.

Definitely one of my favourite flowers without a doubt! x

All other images: my own

A new month, a new(ish) desk

I woke up today and decided my desk needed a fresh new look.

This is what it looked like this morning (cleared of course!!)

It started life as a pine table which I painted up at the start of the year and the idea was to change the wallpaper under the glass top from time to time which I also had cut to fit.

Whilst it's still officially Summer here in the U.K, the nights are slowly getting darker and I felt like lightening things up around the office.

I used Ribbed by Ferm Living under the glass...

It's funny how changing one little thing can make something feel like new...

...and this is what it looked like this evening. I'm really pleased with it's new found lighter look!

Time flies doesn't it?!

I can't quite believe it's been three months since my last post and that it's coming up to a year since Steve and I set up our business, Coachhouse 8 Ltd. It's been an exciting time and a big learning curve for us both so far and what with work and little jobs still to do around the office, the blog unfortunately came bottom of the list . Now, with things a little less hectic, I'm really looking forward to sharing my daily inspirations and loves again on 'An Hour From Eight' . Even though there are days when I still feel like I'm chasing my tail we have managed to tick quite a few things off our list. One of those things was to tackle this.....

The yard out the back of the office was completely overgrown and we could see it's potential as a space to sit on a warm day for informal meetings with clients. With the help of my dad and his garden tools (which were far superior to ours!) the weeds were shifted and we were left with a nice area in which to add a bit of colour.

This is how it's looking now. 

I picked up the number 8 while we were on holiday in Devon.

I'm not going to pretend I know much about gardening but this little guy was on his last legs in the garden centre. The lady gave me it for 90p and told me it would probably flower again next year but once planted it started to thrive much to our delight. The flowers are such a gorgeous shade of blue!

Larry loves the yard and is able to spend so much more time basking in the sun than us.

Seeing as we only rent our office, we tried to be as economical as possible when sorting the yard area. We re-used the existing paving flags and just rearranged them in a more convenient location and added a number of pots for some bursts of colour.

Larry.

A day in the office

A few images of our little workspace...!!