The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Super sweet unusual partyware from London ceramist Reiko Kanieko. I love these delicate ceramic ‘Arctic’ champagne flutes and water tumblers that would usually made of glass but in ceramic somehow take on a more luxurious feeling. Also how lovely are these tiny geometric petal hors d’oeuvres plates that can be tessellated for effect. The plates are £6 each whilst tumblers start from £12.

Well… kind of… it is week three and we still have a LONG way to go with the prep… our bathroom work starts next week [3 weeks behind schedule] – you always hear that phrase on renovating shows and I always wonder “how??” – but it’s reality I guess… decisions take longer than you think and schedules need to be juggled…

As organised as we have tried to be it seems it will take as long as it takes. Remaining optimistic about the situation I figure it gives us a bit more breathing space to get things right and take it a little slower to make the correct decisions.

So – we have begin prepping the rooms for painting and decorating – we ripped up all the carpets in anticipation hoping and praying that we would find wood – and we did! It felt so good!

The floor is mostly in good condition but as neither of us has ever done anything of this scale before it is overwhelming to think about how to begin. I had always imagined you would rip up the carpets and off you go! But there are nails all over, some of the boards are loose… and there is carpet glue and sanding and glazing to tackle [trying not to think about this one]…

The lovely window panes were covered in thick layers of decades old paint which we tackled in every possible way – chipping, hand sanding, electric sanding… so we can begin painting them again!

We also discovered beautiful brass window latches that were buried under the years of paint – so wonderful and glowing to reveal [with an enormous amount of Brasso and brawn]!

That along with long weekends of tile shopping [NOT as exciting as it sounds] we have both felt pretty drained working all the hours we have spare.

BUT with our builders booked and reasonable quotes received, happier and warmer weather spent working with our balcony windows and doors wide open we can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh – the one respite has been the paint testing! Glorious shades of dense Farrow and Ball that will one day adorn our walls – shades of Elephant’s Breath, Pigeon, Mizzle, Pavilion Gray, Oval Room Blue…

I’m not as much of a fashion person as I am a home person and would rather spend £50 on a Jonathan Adler whale jar than a handbag (i think I might have lost a little perspective on this) but when I saw Baggu’s simple leather shoppers in an array of candy colours [new editions to their classic black and tan colours] at the New York Gift Fair last month – at even £120 a tote, I found it very hard not to justify a purchase. Stylish, enormous and classic, these bags are so beautiful in person. Baggu also sell super covetable crescent shaped purses in the same colours cleverly made from the offcuts!

If a leather Baggu isn’t in your budget their signature stylish useful reusable and fold-able nylon shopping bags are available in over 50 colours and prints. At £12 a pop you can have one of each!

They also affordable ipad cases, laptop cases, rucksacks, zip bags and book bags…

Coveting this lino-cut print by James Brown for our new cloakroom/ cupboard [i love the thought of cloaks being in the cupboard]. £35 unframed.

One week into our renovation and I can honestly say, “I hate DIY”. I have never been more exhausted, frustrated or close to tears on a daily basis as I have been this past week. Maybe its the miserable weather – cold morning trips to the dump and trekking the cavernous freezing halls of overpriced B&Q, the sanding that feels like you are getting no-where, constant budget watching and the frenetic knowledge that we only have 3 weeks left till our move in date and only weekends to work on the project. Waaah! Everyone say’s “it’ll all be worth it, knowing you’ve done it yourselves” – really???

So to take my mind off the chaos that is our lives I have been taking the odd half hour to calm myself down by thinking of what will undoubtedly be the part that “was worth it” – the shopping!

Since we began the process of buying the flat – I have been fixated on one thing that I think is hugely important to the feel of a home – the lighting. Not just the design but more importantly trying to capture the right brightness and glow of light that we will be living with every day. I’m not sure how much thought people usually give towards the light source but it’s something that I am bordering on obsessive with at the moment.

Traditional incandescent or filament light-bulbs have been hugely popular in restaurant and hotel interiors over the past few years – rendering environments cosy and intimate with the soft light they cast. The quality of the light emitted from incandescent lights as opposed to other harsh unnatural lights are the closest you can get to the warmth of sunlight – doesn’t that sound like something you want to live with?