In our house we have a dark navy wall and I wasn't sure what to do with it but thanks to all the lovely people out there on Instagram, I now have some fabulous ideas. But let me take you back a step or two...

As you can see from the above picture, the wall is high, inaccessible and it's on the way down to the first floor from the second floor, which is where our son resides in his teen cave. There's also a spare room up there and a good sized bathroom which we're all currently using as the tiles are falling off in our ensuite - but that's a whole different story/blog post.

The reasons for painting the wall this colour when we recently had the hall stairs and landing decorated were two fold:

• First, I had noticed large hand prints appearing on the previously white wall, where said teenager was obviously coming down the stairs, leaning on it and leaving his DNA;

• Secondly, this is the same colour as a wall in the "new bit" of the house and I liked the idea of tying the two together, as they are about as far apart as they can be. Why I liked the idea of that I don't know - sometimes I have these crazy thoughts.

Having acquired the navy wall, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. A selection of mirrors seemed the obvious choice. I have this lovely mirror which was hand carved by my Great Uncle Frank.


When he was alive, he carved frames for portraits of the Queen and he also helped to restore the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel after the war. So it seemed fitting to use it somewhere in the house and I like that there's an emotional attachment to it already - but I wasn't sure if this was quite the right place.  This is the sort of look that I had in mind - even if not these actual mirrors - first from Cox and Cox




But then I put it out there on Instagram with a plea for help and the ideas and suggestions came flooding in, all of which were fabulous! So I would like to say thank you to everyone who responded. I've tried to mention as many of you as I can below but sorry if I've missed anyone out.

Instagram is such a lovely social media platform that I didn't mind asking for help.  I put out a special plea to Erica Davis of The Edited who is just brilliant at this sort of thing and she came back in a flash with fabulous suggestions. If you haven't done so already, do check out her blog. I'm in love with her new living room which you can read all about here. This is what Erica suggested...


Rockett St George Ju Ju hat feather wall hanging, which is a Cameroonian ceremonial headdress. It's not something that I would have ever thought of but the scale, colour and texture are gorgeous. And Rockett St George is brilliant for all sorts of home ware and furniture so if you haven't taken a look already, do pop on over. Although be warned...you might never leave!





My friend Nat (nataliejsingh) suggested the pineapple wall sconce from Abigail Ahern which is also featured in this month's Living Etc magazine in an amazing house, every detail of which I love.

Other suggestions came in thick and fast and included a neon sign (Annie from my _life_in_lipstick) Emma from (deacsem), which I very much like the idea of, although being suspended so high up I'm not quite sure how the practicalities of that may work. Maybe the teenager with the arms long enough to reach up there could help. He very much liked the idea of a neon sign, as long as it wasn't the word "Love".  Of course that's exactly the type of word I would suggest.


This "Good Times" LED neon light from Love Inc is right up my street. Maybe it's the colours! Or there are these knitted word options at seventyseven84 which can be made to order in a whole host of different colours.


Moving on, another friend (nemithelabrador) suggested a pink flamingo and I came across this one, also at Rockett St George - he's so cool!


the Pedlars "expect nothing" print which again was a fabulous suggestion. We used to have a Pedlars franchise in our Selfridges but it disappeared and I had all but forgotten about it, so it was good to be reminded of it again.

Gold, or chartreuse framed pictures or paintings were also suggested by Pics1112 as they look so good against this colour wall - again another brilliant idea to put into the melting pot of suggestions.

Sally (Sally Todd), Lula Belle from Glamour in the County and Angela from Willeys World all suggested statement pieces, a large print in a white frame, or a favourite quote painted in white or gold so we are inspired each morning as we come downstairs to start the day. Janet Bell is an artist who lives in Beaumaris in Wales and I love her work, particularly the colours in this "early morning frost" picture, which would look great against the navy wall...


There was also the suggestion of a metallic stags head - OK so this isn't metallic, but rather hazel. I've linked to all of the Rockett St George animal heads here for anyone who fancies a closer look.



...and Sian from blondpolkadots suggested a big mirror so that I could see myself catwalk style before I went downstairs - great idea, although I felt that I would probably fall down the stairs due to the shock of looking in said mirror first thing in the morning.

I loved all of the suggestions but now the issue is deciding what to go with. Maybe a little bit of a lot of the different ideas - a gallery of ideas perhaps, a tapas of artwork, mirrors, neon signs and animal heads.

And the teenager's favourite so far? This "Churros" sign that we spotted (whilst eating Churros) on a pre-birthday shopping trip for him. I'm happy to put it into the melting pot although it might inspire my choice of breakfast on a fairly regular basis, which might not be such a good thing.