At Home With Katie Chesterman @home_shabby_chic
This week we are at home with the very talented Katie Chesterman, the lady behind the stunning instagram account @home_shabby_chic
Katie shares her daily and family life along with her ongoing home renovation decor images. She is very creative and you will love the colours and design projects she shares.
Tell us about you
Hi there! I’m Katie.
I am married to my most favourite grown up in the world, Chris (known on Home Shabby Chic as Mr Muscle) and we have two beautiful children Poppy, 8 and George, 6, a fluffy double doodle called Mollie and two moggies; Mabel and Clover.
We live in a village just outside of Worcester and we love all it has to offer. Lovely neighbours, canalside walks, dog friendly pubs and a home grown veg and eggs stall just a couple of doors up the lane! We spend more time in our wellies than shoes and that’s just the way we like it.
Tell us about your home
Our home is a detached 1970s build with great potential. Currently, it requires heaps of love, a bit of imagination and even more patience! It’s a work in progress but I get the most lovely vibes from it. It feels like home. I love that we have a mainly glass back that looks over beautiful trees and fields.
How would you describe your home?
I love all things pretty and I am not sure I have a style to be honest! Anything goes but when I see something I love, I will then ‘build’ an entire space around it. I do love a bit of shabby chic, a touch of scandi style and a cosy country vibe. I’m not one for greys and gloss, personally. I am more for any shade of white going and rustic woods. I do love natural textures such as oak, wicker, wooden ladders.
Which is your favourite room in the house?
That’s a tricky one for me as I change my mind with that, often. I love our bedroom. Its calm and relaxing in there and our super king bed from Loaf is literally one of the best things we have ever bought! But then I love the cosiness of our family sitting room and the individual styles of my children’s rooms (when they are tidy which is almost never!) oh and our cloakroom has a wallpaper that the children chose and it makes me smile every time I go in there!
How does your home reflect any passions or interests?
My passion is my family and interiors is a great interest or hobby of mine. I have walls of photo frames and I love updating those regularly with new snaps of our adventures together. We get the felt tip pens out each year and draw an updated picture of ourselves (and the dog) and they are in pride of place in our cloakroom!
What are your favourite items in the home?
I love my baby pink KitchenAid. I have had it for 7 years now and Its definitely a firm fave of mine. Hubby often jokes that in a fire, of all the material things to save, I might just go for that first! I also love my big circus sign with lights. It was the first thing I bought for our current house and I think it sums us up perfectly!
When you moved into your house was it the finished article or was it a project?
Oh gosh, most definitely not the finished article! We sold a very large 7 bedroom farmhouse in the sticks and downsized a lot. The house came up for sale in the area we wanted to be and we snapped it up within an hour of viewing it with big plans. Trouble is, I am probably the most impatient person I know!
Have you done any renovation?
Rather a lot in the 12 months we have been living here! We have bigger plans for the house – it is certainly a work in progress. So far, we have updated things all around the house. There is a large stone wall that runs throughout the house that was frankly, awful. We had planned to plaster board over it entirely, but instead we painted it in Farrow and Balls Pointing and it transformed the look of it. 12 months on, I would go as far as to say, I rather like it now! Especially as the 1970s ledge has been removed and we are currently sprucing up the fireplace within it which I love.
I have also been busy with upcycling! For example, Hubby and I made a beautiful wooden ladder (that was skip bound!) in to a feature above our kitchen island. I love it! The kids and I decorate it according to the season and we have had great fun getting creative with that. We had a great display over Easter and we have just finished a Halloween display. I have big plans for it at Christmas!
We currently have new flooring going in all over the ground floor of the house and a crittall style glass wall and doors which I am super excited about.
Have you had any DIY or styling disasters?
Oh yes. Some, hubby is still in therapy for! One that particularly comes to mind…I decided it would be a good idea to paint the brick on the outside of the house during lockdown. All of it at the front of the house. It was a really big job that hubby really didn’t want to tackle, but he did! After two days of painting, I declared I hated the colour. After a slight (actually really quite big) erm, hissy fit shall we say, from hubby, he agreed with me and he started again with a much better colour. In my defence, I had told him the colour didn’t look right before he started!
What is your top home styling tip?
Find an item that you love and work around it. The rest will come together nicely and almost naturally, then. I also think one of the most important things for the enjoyment of a space, is lighting. I always say, lighting should be in layers. Personally, I go for a lovely cosy warm light in lamps, candles and fairy lights and it always sets the right tone for me!
Is there anything in your home that you couldn’t live without?
Oh so many things! I love my pink bar cabinet. It was one of those really random and unexpected finds on ebay. There weren’t many pictures of it but I went for it, got a bargain and it really paid off! Its fabulous! I love my KitchenAid. Oh and I love an open fire. It’s great to light it on a cold day and you can smell the wood for days. Mostly, I love the personal things we have all around our home – I have memories and snaps framed all over! I even have a glass cupboard of all my children’s cake toppers plus their clay and playdoh masterpieces from over the years.
They say that every home tells visitors a story about who lives there. What do you think your home says about you?
I hope that people find our home warm and inviting as that is how we are as a family, too. I think our creativity comes across here and there too!
The Home Edit
Lived-in or showhome?
Lived in
If you could only paint your walls one colour, which one would it be?
Tricky! Pointing or railings – both Farrow and Ball!
What is your pet hate when it comes to your own or other’s homes?
I hate my stairs and bannisters! Work in progress.
I am the type to go in to someone’s bathroom and if the loo roll isn’t the right way round, I might accidentally change it!
Favourite front door colour
Mine is Farrow & Ball – Nancy’s Blushes! Love it.
Carpet or Floorboards
Both!
Kitchen table dining or formal dining room?
Both!
High gloss or rustic?
Rustic
Wallpaper or Brick Walls?
Brick walls
If you enjoyed being at home with Katie, 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 see more of these "at home with" interviews here