At Home With Hannah @the_capesthorne
This week I'm at home with Hannah, the bunny loving lady behind the popular home decor instagram account @the_capesthorne where she shares wonderful images of her home in the Midlands. Read on to learn more about Hannah, her home, lifestyle, and top tips for home styling.
Tell us about you
Hi, my name is Hannah and I live with my Husband Matt and two bunnies – Nibbles and Sparkle, in our three bedroomed detached home, in the Midlands. We have lived here for just over two and a half years now and we absolutely love it. We live on a quiet estate on the edge of a town, not too far from the countryside. We also have lovely neighbours, who are more like friends – which always helps doesn't it.
We both work full time - I am an Income Officer and Matt is a Maintenance Engineer.
I love all things home, DIY, baking, crafts and walking (but not all at the same time!). We enjoy holidays/breaks away in our touring caravan, exploring the beautiful UK countryside and coastal towns.
We are partial to watching the F1, property developing programs, Gogglebox (myself and Matt are definitely similar to Pete and Sophie) and the odd Netflix series.
Tell us about your home
We live in a 21 year old home, so I guess you could class it as a fairly new property!?
When we moved in, we found the original brochure of the different styles of homes that were available when the developers started to market the homes on our estate – this is where our Instagram name ‘@the_capesthorne’ came from.
How would you describe your home?
I would describe our home as modern, with a little bit of country thrown in.
Which is your favourite room in the house?
Ooo decisions, decisions... I have a couple of favourites and there are certain aspects of most of the rooms in our home that I like. If I had to pick one, I think it would be our bedroom. It was definitely one of the rooms that ‘wowed’ us when we first walked in, as we hadn’t seen anything as big as ours, within our price range. It wasn’t to our style when we first purchased, as it had wooden laminate flooring. But when we renovated, our bedroom it soon became a cosy room when we added carpet and decorated to our taste. I also love our console table, with mirror above, which also seems to be a firm favourite with my friends on Instagram too.
How does your home reflect any passions or interests?
Myself and Matt are quite creative people (well I like to think so anyway). There are not many things Matt can not put his hand to, when it comes to DIY. We work together to come up with an idea/design, Matt cracks on, whilst I supervise.
I also enjoy papercrafts – two of the pictures on our wall in our bedroom were made by myself and I enjoy making handmade greeting cards.
You may also spot that I have a collection of bunny ornaments throughout our home, I don’t think there are many rooms that don’t have a bunny in them.
What are your favourite items in the home?
Favourite items – fancy asking me this question – I love all the items in my home! I definitely think it has to be my bunny ornaments, console table, mirrors and fireplace in our living room.
Bunny ornaments – need I say anymore – I just love bunnies!
Console table – a lovely feature that we added to our bedroom and the opportunities are endless when it comes to styling it with home decor accessories and faux flowers.
I have three different styles of mirrors in our home and I love them all – rectangular, circular and even church style (as Matt likes to call it). I think they add character and dimension to any room.
When we first moved in, we upcycled our fireplace and even though we would like to replace it eventually (this word is used a lot in our home) we always wanted a fireplace in our living room. I think it makes a nice focal feature.
When you moved into your house was it the finished article or was it a project?
Definitely a project and there are still plenty of things we would like to do – if only money grew on trees.
When we were selling our previous home and looking for our current home, we said we wanted a property that didn’t require as much work, as our previous home. However, we fell in love with our home and when we first put the offer in, we said it would be a long term project.
What renovation and decorating have you done?
Matt used to be a painter and decorator by trade, which comes in handy. So most of the rooms have been decorated, but we haven’t got round to painting the downstairs WC, main bathroom or en-suite yet (how awful does this sound – work life gets in the way sometimes) it is on the list, I promise!
We also decided to add extra kitchen cupboards to our utility, as our kitchen isn’t the biggest and we required extra cupboards. We painted the tiles in the utility – which looks so much better. We also changed the kitchen sink and tap, as the plastic white sink was beyond past it. Finally we changed the flooring from lino (again beyond past it) to the laminate recycled from our bedroom.
As mentioned previously we upcycled our fireplace. It was a beech wood colour previously which had marks on it, so we painted it white, which is more in keeping with our style.
When we decided to renovate the hall, stairs and landing, my Dad plastered the ceiling (as it was artexed and cracked). We also spent many hours stripping and sanding the paint off the bannister and added a shelf above the radiator in the hall – using a scaffold board.
During lockdown Matt made a Bar for our garden, along with planters.
Most of Matt’s skills were self taught from when we renovated our first home, so it’s nice to see him continue with this and build on the skills he has learnt previously. He fitted a new kitchen and bathroom in our previous home and many more besides (but these were his biggest achievements).
Have you had any DIY or styling disasters?
Not as such, we very nearly drilled through a pipe when we were putting up the shelf in the hall.
I also made a mistake when I chose the kitchen sink. I went for the cheapest stainless steel sink that had a bowl and a half – it scratches so easily.
What is your top home styling tip?
My top home styling tip would be to keep it simple, but effective. You can’t beat a few home decor accessories and faux flowers.
Is there anything in your home that you couldn’t live without?
Our downstairs loo and utility – these were two of our ‘musts’ when we were looking to buy our home.
We were fed up of having to let visitors use our main and only bathroom upstairs, in our previous home.
The utility is also a bonus too, we like it separate from the kitchen and further away from the living room, so Matt can hear the TV when the washing machine is on.
Finally, I definitely couldn’t live without Matt, he he.
They say that every home tells visitors a story about who lives there. What do you think your home says about you?
I’d like to think that visitors would believe that our home is welcoming, clean (most of the time, take us as you find us), cosy and loved.
The Home Edit
Lived-in or showhome?
Definitely lived in!
If you could only paint your walls one colour, which one would it be?
I’m a neutral girl, so definitely magnolia (apologies to those who aren’t fans)
What is your pet hate when it comes to your own or other’s homes?
My husbands floordrobe! Paperwork and magazines left out.
Favourite front door colour?
White – although I do love period properties that can pull off a brightly coloured front door
Carpet or Floorboards?
Definitely carpet for me – can’t beat a fluffy carpet under your toes and it adds that extra cosy feel
Kitchen table dining or formal dining room?
Both – our previous home had a kitchen table in the kitchen, now we have a dining room
High gloss or rustic?
Both – but edging more towards rustic
Wallpaper or Brick Walls?
Again both – I love a feature wall when it works and pulls off
Want More?
If you enjoyed being at home with Hannah, you might like to take a look inside other popular home styling accounts on instagram and find out more about the people behind them. You can view more of these "at home with" articles here
Catch up with Hannah's instagram account here. It's well worth a look