Real Home Tours: Carrie's Colourful Casa
Welcome to week 8 of Real Home Tours. In week 1, we visited Sandra in her Welsh seaside sanctuary. From there, we hot-footed it to Hythe to stop in on interior designer Lisa. Week 3 was all about Lauren's beautiful home in Essex and in week 4 we were treated to a nose round at designer Kate's location house. In week 5 we popped over to Suneiah's beautiful home in Australia and were back in the UK again, visiting Vicky in Brighton for week 6. Week 7 was all about Amy's calm and cool home with pale hues and bags of style. This week we are at Carrie's Colourful Casa.
Caroline has a unique and recognisable style favouring bold and bright colours and patterns which she uses to great effect in her lovely home. Caroline runs the popular Instagram account @carrries_colourful_casa make sure you check her out after the tour. Let's get started...
Tell us a bit about yourself
"I’m Caroline Cumiskey, a Stay-at-Home Mum and part-time Content Creator."
Tell us a bit about Carrie's Colourful Casa
"I live in a semi-detached home in the suburbs of Cheltenham with my Husband and two daughters."
Describe your interior style.
"I would say Colourful, eclectic mix of traditional and modern. I love bold colours – bright blue and yellow feature heavily in my décor but I do also use softer pinks and white as a backdrop."
Have you done any work to the house since moving in?
"It was a 3 bed, 1 bath home with a galley kitchen when we moved in 10 years ago but 3 years ago we had a large back and side extension. It is now a 5 bed (1 downstairs) and 3 bath house with a large open plan kitchen diner."
Have you done any DIY or upcycling?
"We do all the decorating ourselves and have done panelling in one room and hope to do more. Upcycling is my passion so most of the furniture that could be upcycled has been! I thrifted many things to keep the cost down and actually got quite a few bits for free! I painted and re-upholstered our dining chairs and 2 of our island bar stools. 2 coffee tables, dining table, dining bench, 2 chest of drawers, 3 desks… it’s a long list! I stripped the laminate off our utility cabinets and painted them as well. My husband is always worried when he gets home from work what piece of furniture I may be in our kitchen waiting for me to upcycle! I have promised not to get anything else before Christmas now! I have got a beautiful arched dresser that I haven’t started on yet."
What are your favourite features in your home?
"My log burner – which we put in straight away 10 years ago – I live in front of it in winter! As it’s not a period property it does lack traditional features so I’ve tried to a character through my décor choices. I loved the large garden and even after we had the extension it is still a really good size."
Are there any features that you don’t like or would like to change in the future?
"I would love to have a proper hallway that connects the front door to the kitchen but the layout and position of the chimney wouldn’t allow it without major structural changes. We did make the hall slightly bigger when we had the extension but it will never be my dream hall!"
Where do you get your interior design inspiration?
"Instagram is a huge source of inspiration as well as interior magazines and Travel. I worked in the Travel and Hospitality industry for 15 years (until I had my 2nd daughter) and lucky enough to visit some amazing Countries. I feel in love with some of the colours in these places - the blues of Morocco and Greece, the oranges and reds of Kenya and South Africa etc."
Anything else you’d like to share about your home…
"My home is not to everyone’s taste – even my mum looks are me strangely sometimes when I talk to her about what I’m doing next - but the only people who matter are my husband and I (and my kids but they don’t actually care.) So I refuse to decorate for the next homeowner or Karen from Instagram who doesn’t like my bright blue kitchen. My home is unapologetically me (Mr C is very laid back about most of my ideas)".
