During lockdown, we inevitably spent much more time at home than usual, which means that all the little irritating things in our home (which I later got used to) now irritates me again. That, and other new things.

We have done more things in our home and in the garden during lockdown than we’ve done in the more than three years we’ve lived in this house. It’s beautiful! As I’m sitting here, the drill is lying on the patio, ready for its next challenge! We also got to hang quite a lot of things that have been waiting to be hung on the walls for more than a year.

Here are a few things we’ve changed or added to our humble home in the past five weeks and I must say, I love how our house is slowly, but surely becoming home.

We moved this chair from the baby room (which has become a study during lockdown) to our room. Elian still co-sleeps in our room, so there’s no use for it in his room at this stage. But, the chair might stay. (We bought it at Coricraft’s clearance centre in Silverton, Pretoria – what a bargain!)

After much contemplation, we finally decided to hang these three cow heads, made by a local entrepreneur, in our TV room together with this old, round mirror which we saved from an empty commune. I so wish I could give you the entrepreneur’s name, but he’s moved on and we have no way of contacting him again. But, he certainly had a hand in making our house more homey and bringing the countryside – which I am so fond of – into our city home. We love supporting local artists and entrepreneurs for things like this and now is a better time than ever to support local businesses.

Just before lockdown, we were lucky enough to install this lovely fireplace from Hydrofire. It’s added a lot of warmth to a pretty large room. We decided to place the large mirror next to it as we could not really find a better place for it. In the end, I think it works.

Wikus made this mobile for Catha just after she was born. Two years later, we’re using it for Elian too. The beanbag underneath it comes from the same commune we got the round mirror from and I covered it with a blanket that I crocheted when I lived in a flat in Queenswood, Pretoria and Wikus worked on a farm outside of Thabazimbi. Oh, how much time I had on my hands back then – pre-marriage and pre-kids. I suppose one day there will be time for things like this again!

We have also moved tables and lamps around to suit our current work structure for the period of lockdown. This lamp from Five Past Five Design works perfectly well in our bedroom where I’ve set up a desk for myself as I often sit and work here in the evenings while Elian is asleep. It creates the perfect, soft light – almost like a nightlight, which we don’t have.

These two water paintings were done by my mother for Catha’s room and, well, life happened and we never hung them until now! But, alas, here they are. Aren’t they beautiful? If you’d like to see more of my mother’s work, follow her on Instagram: @art.heart.rini.

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What have you changed in your home these past few weeks? Please share with me as I am always looking for more exciting and new ideas!

XOXOXO