Emma Parkes personally hand-painted her entire cottage, using DIY hacks for just 1,500 bucks
Emma, who has done all of the work herself, began DIY-ing her home as a way to deal with the grief of suddenly losing her dad in 2020
Not content with the drab surroundings, Emma Parkes, 49, has turned her bland cottage into a multicoloured paradise—and she managed it on a small budget. Parkes, from Shropshire, who works in special needs education, moved in 16 months ago with her daughter Poppy, 18, and her son Ralph, eight.
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Keen to make the place feel more homely, she stripped out the old carpets which revealed rustic floorboards, which she then painted white, with permission from the landlord. Picking a “feminine and uplifting” colour palette to replace the magnolia, the mum-of-two added pops of colour into every room—spending a total of £1,500 on the renovation.
Picking a “feminine and uplifting” colour palette to replace the magnolia, the mum-of-two added pops of colour into every room—spending a total of £1,500 on the renovation. Pics/Instagram
“When I first arrived, the cottage was all magnolia, but structurally sound,” Parkes said. I knew I wanted to inject colour with a boho style with plenty of plants throughout the house.” The first room Parkes tackled was the lounge, where she spent £800 overhauling the furniture with “retro” secondhand buys and creating a feature wallpapered wall.
She said, “I first decorated the lounge with a colour palette of green, pink, and soft pink and vivid pink. The walk-in fireplace also had exposed brick which I freshened up with some white paint and I created a feature wall with wallpaper gifted by Lust Home. I removed the curtains and replaced them with a natural branch with plants hanging from it; I’ve also created this in my bedroom.”
In the kitchen, Parkes spent just £200 and used her creative skills to paint a bright pink and aquamarine mural across one of the walls.
The single mum said, “The kitchen was the first room where I painted one of my murals on the wall. All my murals are hand-painted and original. It is very much floral-themed and uses bright but soothing colours. The use of plants continues into the kitchen where I’ve hung a reclaimed ladder from the ceiling with flowers hanging from it.”
Parkes, who has done all of the work herself, began DIY-ing her home as a way to deal with the grief of suddenly losing her dad in 2020. “I’m a single mum and work full time so it can be hard to achieve the work I do on my home quickly, I dip into it as and when I can.” The mum credits her “creative thinking” for being able to carry out the renovation on such a small budget.
This is not your table
A bride considers having a separate ‘anti-vax’ table at wedding for relatives
The last two years have seen weddings disrupted, cancelled and shrunken in size due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But as restrictions have eased, the industry has opened back up and brides and grooms have been able to get on with planning their special day. One bride has shared how she’s unsure whether or not to have a separate table at her wedding for all of the unvaccinated guests.
Heidi, the bride from Sydney, appeared on the radio show Kyle and Jackie-O on KIIS 106.5 to discuss her dilemma. Heidi told the radio hosts how she’s tying the knot in March of 2022 and a few of her relatives haven’t had the vaccine. She said, “I’m thinking do I have a special ‘anti-vax table’ so all the other guests are a little bit more at ease with having people that aren’t vaccinated there or do I not worry about it?”
Does your fingerprint match this island?
Located off the coast of Croatia, in the Adriatic Sea, Baljenac is a tiny island covered by a series of dry-stone walls that make it look like a giant fingerprint when seen from above. Pic/ Facebook.
Wrong number leads to 20-year-old friendship
One Florida woman’s phone folly inadvertently spawned a friendship with a Rhode Island man that’s lasted for more than 20 years. “He’s a very nice person, I love him to death,” Delray’s Gladys Hankerson, 80, told Today of the accidental relationship.
Burglars knock a hole in the wall, steal Lego
German police are looking for witnesses after burglars broke through the wall of a toy store to steal dozens of Lego sets. The theft took place over the weekend in the western town of Lippstadt. The burglars left about 100 empty cardboard boxes.
Acc to survey, Australia is the drunkest country
Organisers from the Global Drug Survey asked more than 32,000 people from 22 different countries. Participants from Australia got drunk an average of 27 times over the course of the year—almost double the global average, which was 15.
Dad gets famous for going clubbing with daughter
An iconic dad has become an internet celebrity after taking his daughter out clubbing—and people are swooning over his dance moves. TikTok star Talia, @taliasc, was on holiday with her family in Madrid, and decided she wanted to hit the tiles so she put on her dancing shoes and prepared to head into the night. Then, her dad offered to go with her, wearing his best shirt, spectacles, and sweater vest—and together they danced the night away, as the Daily Star reports.
Scientists make plastic cup out of salmon sperm
Researchers at Tianjin University in China have developed a sustainable, biodegradable plastic derived from salmon sperm and vegetable oil, which might just be the most viable solution yet for the world’s imminent plastic pollution problem. The promising substance was created by extracting strands of DNA from the sperm of salmon—though the stuff could come from just about any living thing—and dissolving the genetic matter in water with ionomers.
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