…and welcome to Dream of Home, a blog that covers home interiors, renovation and all-things DIY.
This is my husband, Jay, and I.
We’ve been together since we were 17 years old, and have been married since 2018. We’re now in our 30s (wow, that makes me feel a bit sick) and live in Chester!
By day, I’m a freelance copywriter and content strategist and in my spare time (what spare time?), I love to read, spend time with my two children and play the piano.
Our daughter was born in October 2022 and then our son was born in October 2024. Yep, October is a busy month for us, given it’s my birthday too.
Any DIY that’s done around the house is the work of Jay. He’s a mechanical engineer, which means he’s super handy at installing kitchens that were bought secondhand, re-building staircases, building stud walls, tiling walls and so much more.
Our lives are absolute chaos, trying to keep up with the house and look after two young children, so come join the fun!
What you can find on Dream of Home
Dream of Home has an entire home & interiors section for you to get stuck into, full of renovation and budget decor ideas. But food is a big part of my life too and so I’ve got a section full of tasty recipes for you to try out.
My passion is budget interiors. I’ve always been a bargain hunter and am constantly on the look out for affordable interiors for everyone. The majority of our furniture is secondhand and we love to find home decor at a bargain price or even for free.
Meet Rupert
Rupert is our crazy outdoor cat.
We’ve had him since he was 11 weeks old and he is mental. He loves being outdoors more than anything. In fact, we joke he’s a feral cat who just comes inside for food.
He’s a great hunter (which never bodes well for us) but he’s really gentle with the children, which I’m very thankful for.
And yes, he pushed the teddy off the shelf so he could sit there.
Our homes
We bought our first home in 2017. It was a 1970’s semi-detached just outside of Chester with three bedrooms, one bathroom and a hefty garage in the garden.
We knew it needed some work when we bought it, but we did NOT realise how much work.
The soil pipe inside the house had been leaking for years and rotted most of the old kitchen units. It had also rotted a joist in the bathroom that needed to be replaced.
We re-plastered, rewired and basically redid everything. We spent so much money trying to renovate our house, that we didn’t leave much for actually buying furniture and ‘nice things’.
Even now, getting a new boiler comes as priority over new decor. This is why I have my budget interiors category, trying to inspire others who can’t afford luxury home items, just like me, but want to make their home the best it can be.
We lived here for 3 years before deciding it was time to move onto our next project.
Now we live in a 4-bed in a small village just outside of Chester. It has a lovely pre-school and primary school, where I hope both children will attend, and a pub (that’s obviously the most important).
I’d consider our current home our forever home, and we do have plans to extend in the near future to create a beautiful new family space and kitchen downstairs and a new master bedroom and ensuite upstairs.
Where Dream of Home has featured
Our kitchen project has been published in numerous publications, which is so exciting! We did it on such a tight budget, that we’ve had publications such as House Beautiful, the Express and Metro cover our renovation and how we did it.
Further articles were published in The Sun and i News about our overall home renovation and how we did it on a budget.
I’ve also been featured and credited on some amazing websites.
Amara featured my post in their roundup of the top interior posts of March, and Freshome mentioned me in their post about which small changes you should make to change a room.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some wonderful brands during my blogging time. You can find out more about these on my Work With Me page.
Where to start
Articles about me
If you’re new, these blog posts should introduce you to me and my life:
• Our last home – a lowdown of the whole renovation!
• Our current home
• Our wedding day details
Most popular posts
If you’re looking for my most read blog posts ever, here they are!
• Tips and tricks for cleaning white bedding
• Why you should keep your hot water tank heating system
• Small changes to transform a room
• Blue and pink bedroom inspiration
Most popular DIY posts
• How to paint a bedside cabinet
• How to upcycle pine furniture
• How to make greenhouse shelves out of pallets
Don’t forget to find me on Instagram too!