Guest Post: Jess At The Hoppy Home

I’ve been following Jess on Instagram for a few months now & absolutely love her. We have vowed to set up a business in ‘moaning’ which I’m pretty sure is going to take off & turn us into millionaires soon but until then, I’m just lusting over her home as well as her live-in bunny (hence The ‘Hoppy’ Home) called Scarlett who has free rain over the house & is pretty much on a mission to chew anything/everything including the skirting boards & Jess’ handbag. She’s a fellow neutral lover like me & has the most incredible kitchen & bathroom so read on to hear & see more…

Well here goes! Without making this resemble a dating advertisement, Hi my name is Jess- but you’ll find me on IG under ‘thehoppyhome’. I’m a Yorkshire girl, living just outside of my hometown York with my other half, Mat, and our little house rabbit, Scarlett. Both feature heavily on my page, predominately when Scarlett has destroyed something and Mat is complaining about my love for white and sh*t crack – but honestly don’t let that put you off . I’ve created the hoppy home  – see what I did there – to share the journey of our home renovation and share some of the ‘DIY’ hints and tips that I’ve learnt along the way.

I think it goes without saying I love interior design and anything home related. Even when I lived in my sisters’ attic – semi-converted attic at that! I tried to be as creative as possible, upcycling along the way to make my room as homely as you can make such a space. Then 3 flats and 7 years later, we finally bought out first home – hold tight I am getting to my main purpose of this guest blog post appearance!

It was not that long before first seeing our home on rightmove, when I upped my instagram stalking for ideas and inspiration; which was when I came across Charlottes stunning page. I am a big lover of neutral interiors and accessorising to give it that something different. After seeing Charlottes main bedroom, I instantly stopped scrolling and I began by me admiring Charlottes lamps (some of which I am now the proud owner of), then the bedroom wall colour…….and a good few (hundred) photos later I was a THTMM addict!

For me, I get a lot of my inspiration from Instagram, as much as I love Pinterest for ideas, it doesn’t offer the personal and interactive platform. Instagram makes aspects of stunning homes, like THTMM, seem achievable through reading blog posts and being able to ask ‘ooh where is your lamp from please?’ and ‘love that shade on the wall, what colour paint have you used?’  This is exactly what I wanted to create and share from our renovation.

Which leads me onto the crux…our house…!

Oddly, the first image that caught my attention was this wooden archway; with a path leading to the front door (‘Wizard of Oz’ picturesque, just not as clean or long…) this took you to the bay windows and front porch and that was it I was already in love.  Mat wanted a new build; I wanted a ‘project’ so like any good relationship with compromise, we ended up with an entire renovation job. I loved all the high ceilings, high skirting boards – not sure if that’s an odd thing to notice – especially as I missed the fact there were no plug sockets – then there were the fireplaces in each room. In my head this meant more places for candles and what Mat describes as ‘tat’. Looking beyond the red carpets and gloss panelling from when we first stepped into our now, beloved home, I imagined how beautiful the hallway and landing could look, with lots of windows and natural light – which I LOVED!

Without being disrespectful to the previous owner, the pink and maroon bathroom and separate tiled toilet were probably two of the most ‘undesirable’ rooms, needing A LOT of work. We knocked down the wall between them, bringing the door out into the landing to make this one room – which is now completed and we love it.

The kitchen wasn’t to our taste at all – which was what we wanted – one we could justify ripping out. Well we actually are yet to rip out the original kitchen, as we moved the kitchen into what was the dining room leading on to the conservatory – to make this more of an kitchen dining room space! Along with these three rooms all three bedrooms have also now been completed – although does it ever end I wonder?

Which leaves the below on my list to tackle…

• Living room – where we want to put in a log burner and get some built in units
• Downstairs toilet – which is acting as my DIY cupboard
• Conservatory – which one day I would love to change into more of an orangery style room – if my other half reads this he will be thinking – dream on!
• Garden and garage – if I bundle this as one – it makes my list seem less daunting!

My 5 quick tips for any self-renovation project:

Paint – we found paint to be quite a cost; you can get many shades of costly paint brands mixed at local outlets for about half the price!

Stress management – this isn’t really a tip for DIY but more your own sanity… things will overrun in terms of cost and time, especially on more ambitious projects (the bathroom) – try be realistic and think of the end goal, if it overruns a few weeks, you’ll soon forget about the fun of washing yourself in a bucket once you have your dream bathroom ready.

Try to enjoy it – it’s easy to forget that you’re trying to create a lovely room whilst spending countless hours monotonously scraping decades of wallpaper that seems to have been applied with some kind of NASA grade space age glue, impossible to remove more than 1cm at a time! Also pray that some of the ‘trendy’ styles of the past never resurface.

Look around and ask – I have personally found the IG and home community to be extremely helpful and welcoming. Many people will happily display where they found certain pieces and even discuss bits with you. I always click through to their posts and comments as well, hoping they expand a little more or that someone else has already asked the same question I had.

Get going with your own IG  – I have found since having thehoppyhome, the community is far more receptive and helpful. I’d also say creating a ‘non personal’ account helped gain followers, a lot of people do not like to follow a proper name as it feels a little ‘stalky’ but with a more generic and nice sounding title, you’ll find a lot more interaction. As well, don’t be afraid to post stuff, no matter how small or if you feel that it doesn’t match up to some other accounts, everyone has different styles and budgets, it’s not about how much you have spent to achieve the end look, but more how it all comes together and that you’re happy with it.

Hopefully by seeing some of the images of our home and some of the tips I’ve put on thehoppyhome IG, you can draw inspiration and hope for your own projects. I also plan on setting up my very own thehoppyhome blog soon so watch this space! If you have any questions, please get in contact! 🙂  Lastly – thank you so much to THTMM for having me!

To see more of Jess’ home head on over to her Instagram here.