At Home With Helena @theblossomshome

This week I'm at home with Helena the lovely lady behind the very popular home instagram account @theblossomshome where she shares stunning images of her beautiful modern country styled home. Read on to learn more about Helena, her home, lifestyle, and top tips for home styling.

 

Tell us about you

Hey I’m Helena, a 25 year old Chartered Accountant. I live with my boyfriend, Matt, and our dog, Martha in Leyland, which is just outside of Preston.

 

Tell us about your home

Our home is a new build property and there were 8 houses built as part of our development. One of the main things that drew us to our house is the open plan kitchen/dining/family room at the back of the house which we just fell in love with. We moved in during February 2021, prior to which we lived in a flat in Central London so we are loving having all this extra space and a garden!

 

How would you describe your home?

I would describe my style as modern country – this is quite hard to achieve when living in a new build home so gradually we are adding bits of character where we can and I just love love love modern country style accessories. To be honest it actually took me a little while of living in our home to discover my true style and taste – initially I was buying quite bold and on trend monochrome pieces, whereas now I’m into much more timeless and rustic effect homeware.

 

Which is your favourite room in the house?

This is a hard one! I think it would have to be our living room. We tried to add character here by building in a log burner (an electric one as we don’t have a chimney) and cabinets/shelves either side and it really transformed the room. We also recently had shutters fitted into the bay window of the room and it’s just made it feel such a cosy, homely space.

 

How does your home reflect any passions or interests?

As well as being a huge interiors lover, I love fashion and you’d probably be able to tell this from my dressing room. I was so keen to have a dressing room so that I could have all my clothes, shoes and bags in one place, and I also have my makeup dressing table in here too. It doesn’t often make it to Instagram though as it’s never the tidiest of rooms haha!

 

What are your favourite items in the home?

Definitely our Neptune dining table and the sofas in our front lounge. We only got both of these in the past few months and they really elevated the modern country style of our home.

 

When you moved into your house was it the finished article or was it a project?

Erm it probably wasn’t either – I'd describe it more as a blank canvas. A new build provides such a great base for adding your stamp as everything is new and every wall is painted white. So many people have been so surprised at how many things we’ve wanted to do as they say ‘how can there be so many things to do, you live in a new build?’, but making it your own definitely is a project! You just luckily generally don’t have any huge building tasks, they’re more cosmetic.

 

What renovation and decorating have you done?

 

We’ve done panelling in 3 rooms and before that neither of us had picked up a single tool in our life! I watched lots of youtube videos and lots of home accounts have great tutorials so we’ve definitely picked up in skills in that area. One tip I now mention to everyone is panelling itself isn’t actually that hard, but before you begin please make sure you check you don’t have really uneven ceilings or skirting boards because if you do then no matter how accurately you measure up, it’s going to look wonky. We also wallpapered in one of the spare bedrooms and again neither of us had done that before and it actually turned out pretty well.

 

Have you had any DIY or styling disasters?

I had a bit of a disaster when we were putting together my dressing room – we ordered all of the wardrobe units from Ikea (and there were TONNES of boxes and parts) and that same Friday night we began putting them together. Only once we’d built one entire wardrobe and tried to stand it up did we realise that I had ordered wardrobes which were too tall for our ceilings.... (who knew Ikea did 2 different heights?! Clearly not me!). My boyfriend wasn’t best pleased with me and our local Ikea didn’t have replacements in the correct size so the next day we had to hire a van and drive all the way to Leeds to return the boxes we hadn’t opened and buy new ones. It was a pretty time consuming and expensive mistake.

Another one is probably when I panelled the entire living room and painted it black. It lasted about 3 months and then we ripped it off and painted all the walls beige instead.

 

What is your top home styling tip?

Just take your time! Like I mentioned earlier, it took me quite a while to find my true taste. I know from experience how exciting and tempting it is to buy everything before you move into a house based upon trends etc that you see online, but then 6 months down the line you realise how you actually want your home to feel and then you want to change everything. It’s pretty expensive to then have to do that so I would definitely say spend some time living in a space first before you make any huge decisions.

 

Is there anything in your home that you couldn’t live without?

Apart from Matt and Martha of course, it’s my Dyson airwrap! An absolute game changer for me and I definitely couldn’t be without it now.

 

They say that every home tells visitors a story about who lives there. What do you think your home says about you?

We both love spending time at home and I would hope that you could tell that by the homely feel and effort that we’ve put into creating a place that we love. You’d probably also be able to tell how crazy we are about our dog from the number of dog toys and treats that you’ll find in there.

  

 

The Home Edit

 

Lived-in or showhome?

Show home

 

If you could only paint your walls one colour, which one would it be?

Dulux Egyptian cotton – the perfect greige colour.

 

What is your pet hate when it comes to your own or other’s homes?

Such a niche one but it came to mind straight away – people leaving Christmas lights up year round.

 

Favourite front door colour?

Sage

 

Carpet or Floorboards?

Floorboards – you can always add warmth through rugs

 

Kitchen table dining or formal dining room?

Kitchen table dining – I love open plan!

 

High gloss or rustic?

Rustic (I’m desperate for us to renovate our kitchen!!)

 

Wallpaper or Brick Walls?

Brick walls

 

Want More?

If you enjoyed being at home with Helena, 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 Helena's instagram account here. It's well worth a look!