Am I dreaming?! Our latest renovation project | The cottage renovation of dreams
OK, I have a bit of a spiritual question for you today 😂
Do you believe in the Law of Attraction? ….anyone?
Without bogging you down with woo-woo, it’s the concept that positive thoughts bring positive results into your life. If you think about your dreams and believe they will happen, you’ll attract the people and opportunities your way. Ask. Believe. Receive.
Whether you’re into it or you think it’s a load of hocus pocus pony 😂 hear me out…
About 3 years ago, I sketched a vision board.
I doodled every single dream I had for my life at that time, which included:
Ditching my then full time job
Working my own hours, when I want, where I want – Freedom!
Swapping my job for creative work
Running a successful interior design company
Having an inspiring home office space to work in
Going to fun events, meeting likeminded people
Passing my driving test and having my own car
Yoga classes on a beach somewhere
…plus so many other things.
About 2 years after I produced it, Neil and I found ourselves clearing out this box-room ready to start our home office renovation. We were moving furniture ready for the plasterer to do his thing.
As I was shifting bits and pieces, I turned to Neil and said….“Omg, look what I found. I totally forgot about this!”
I happened upon my vision board. It had fallen into oblivion behind the back of some furniture with a neat layer dust all over it…
…and woopsy… the radiator had a minor leak, destroying two corners.
As I looked over my doodles again, I was shocked 😱
Most, if not ALL of the dreams I wrote down 3 years ago came to fruition in some form or another.
I’d quit my job
I was about to build my dream home office
I was running a successful interior design practice
Plus so much more…
But what spooked me out the most?
On the areas where the radiator leaked, destroying parts of my vision board (top and bottom right corners) none of those dreams came true.
If my memory serves me right, underneath the waterlogged page I’d written “Yoga classes” “Passing my driving test” and “Owning a thatched cottage as holiday let somewhere people can unwind”.
Yep, none of those came to be 😂 I’m ashamed to tell you how many failed attempts I’ve had at driving!
But it proved to me that there’s power in writing down your dreams.
Whether you believe in Law of Attraction or not, it worked for me and it can subconsciously navigate you. Plus, it’s really fun!
Spookier things started happening…
A few weeks after this realisation, the office work was in full swing and I decided to ramp it up a touch, to put visualisation to the test.
I took part in a group online meditation/visualisation class. I was curious, although I have to admit my nerves were awful before the class!
The teacher was great and really got us all in the zone.
We entered into a deep meditation, the deepest I’d ever gone before (normally I’m a “10 minutes of Headspace” kind of meditator and then worry about what I’m emailing a client moments after!)
As we were in this lucid state, the teacher told us to:
“Visualise yourself 10 years from now. Where are you? What are you doing?”
I visualised myself as a 40 year old. I was unbelievably happy and content. I had nice jeans on (lol not sure why that was a necessary detail but it came up!) and I was standing in a renovation property.
The room I was in felt like a conservatory. It had half height brick walls, the rest windows. Outside, the sun was shining with views over the most beautiful, established garden.
I wasn’t alone in the visualisation. I was rolling out paper plans with a team around me. It felt like we were getting together to discuss changes to the property – and we were laughing and having fun while doing it.
I woke up when the teacher called us all back, and thought to myself “I could do with a new pair of jeans” and thought nothing of the rest of it... It just didn’t seem that eventful.
That is until I got an email from a potential client a few weeks later…
They were in the process of purchasing this jaw-dropping worker’s cottage about 25 minutes away from Neil and I, and they wanted my support to create the best interior layout and dream design with their budget.
I took one look at the photos the potential client sent to me and I knew instantly this was an extremely special property.
The properties I tend to be brought in to design are usually 1930s renovations, Victorian renovations, or 1950s family homes. House styles that make up 70% of the UK housing stock. And while I love working on these property types because I’m more familiar with their make up, this cottage is another level of challenge for me with its complex layout. It has amazing bones, tonnes of character, and the owners themselves are just the most open and friendly people to work with 💛
In their words:
“It’s going to be a huge amount of work, but I know we’ll have lots of fun together doing it.”
I couldn’t agree more 🙏🏼
Fast forward many nights of excitement, me flicking through photos of the house again and again, mentally rearranging the floor plans, anxiously waiting for a confirmation on their sale and a confirmation about our work together…
…and then the day came. The sale had gone through, we’d officially been brought on board and Neil and I drove up to visit our new clients and see the house for the first time in real life. In all its glory. It’s a total beauty, let me tell you.
Driving back, I took a sharp intake of breath as it dawned on me. This was the place I stood in my visualisation. This was the room 👇🏻
I’m tremendously excited to be working with the owners to carry out extensive renovation work and create their dream family home with a Modern Traditional style. It’s the start of a long but very exciting journey for all of us but stay tuned to our blog and youtube where I’ll be sharing more stories about the project.
Will you write down your dreams today? I want them to come true for you ✨
Fi x
