grown-up furniture + Olive & the Fox £100 giveaway

When did you know you were truly a grown up?
For women they say the answer is often linked to the first time you were verbally harassed by a man in the street. In that case, I knew I was getting close when a red-faced man followed me home from school in my knee socks and mini skirt, breathing heavily. And when a similarly crimson man came into the shoe shop where I worked Saturdays and sweatily asked me to model boots for his gaze. On each occasion though, if I’m honest, I only felt like the very vulnerable child I really was.
Perhaps it was that time a mother first told their child to ‘look out for that lady‘ when rushing by on a bus – referring, of course, to a proud, if incredulous me. I really knew adulting wasn’t going to be for me when I first had to deal with that putrid liquid that forms in the bottom of the bin by myself.

Some people put adulthood as commencing the day they became a parent, first feeling that burden of guilt and responsibility settling down  on their shoulders.  I’m not convinced – not least because there’s a tiny part of me that suspects I’m really building Orla’s Sylvanian Family collection up all for myself, & I’ve known one to many a man-child who spends more time on the x-box than his kids do.

There is one milestone that is undeniable, though: you are truly, most definitely an adult when you decide to buy proper, non-Ikea furniture and expensive duvet covers & lamps.
I’m not slating Ikea, btw: I freaking love their PS collections, and on rainy grey days their everbright, meatball-scented interior is my escape-route to happiness. But there are certain things – wood-laminate wardrobes, those awful fold-out potato-sack futon beds – that we buy from necessity, and not from delight. Few of us dream about a LACK table when growing up, furnishing the Pinterest board of our future forever home.

Buying grown-up furniture represents reaching a certain point in life: it means you’ve got some disposable income and feel settled enough in your space to invest in things that will stay with you long term. It means you’ve established a sense of your own taste, and have worked out the errant red-MDF-bookshelf kinks of your self expression (Rory.) In short, it means you’re incredibly privileged – but it’s also arguably a better model than the disposable, replaceable consumerist route. I like the idea of choosing things that will stay with us, in our family, for forever. For life, I suppose.

Since moving last year, R & I have gradually shed the skin of our younger selves and replaced all of our student-age furniture with things that are a little more ‘us’. It’s a nice feeling, to know that we made this home together, & it represents our time together & our combined tastes – by which, I mean of course, that R has basically conceded to my greater wisdom ;).

He’s picked out the Roxie chair from this post’s sponsor, Olive & The Fox as the next big purchase on our wish list, & I couldn’t be more proud. It’s like the lovechild of our individual aesthetics – my quiet simplicity, his love for a subtle 60’s reference. It’s a chair for bedtime story cuddles, for kitten naps and late night wine-soaked conversations. It’s a chair that we can’t really afford, and, as usual, will end up costing us far more than I make from these sponsorships and giveaways on the blog. [Note to self: stop working with  lovely shops. My next giveaway needs to be with a fishmongers just to keep me away from temptation. ?]

Aaaanyway, you, lucky thing, can win a £100 voucher towards your favourite Olive and The Fox product. I’ve put together a few of my fave picks below just in case you want to spend it on me to give you some suggestions. Head over to their site to check out their full, beautiful range, and start planning your grown-up interiors too.

Enter below. Open worldwide –  closes in one week, winner selected at random. 

olive branch // lady’s mantle // Roxie chair // Bailey stool // concrete pendant lamp // Elmo desk lamp

a Rafflecopter giveaway


CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNER @THETEAPOTEXPLODES, WHO ENTERED VIA INSTAGRAM.

Have you bought any grown up items for your interior? When was the first time you realised you were truly an adult?

Ps – the winner to the Alfie’s Studio giveaway is finally up – sorry that took me so long! If you weren’t the lucky one, you can still grab 10% off by signing up to the Alfie’s Studio newsletter, here.