Grubby, Scruffy

I'm a big believer in grubbiness and scruffiness. I am usually a bit grubby, a lot scruffy. I think houses, cottages especially should be a bit grubby, a bit scruffy, a bit mismatched. I think furniture should be USED and that end tables and dressers should be beaten to death and that there is always room for inherited furniture. My dresser is the one my mum bought in Cambridge in 1979 and it was used then. I painted it white but it's old. As hell. I love it. When I was wee I had the bookshelf from my dad's old room and the desk I've always had in my room was originally in my great-grandmother's house. These are not deeply beautiful antique pieces. They are, as I said, beaten, and scruffy and a bit grubby. I am having to redo my room so as to have a larger bed and I love buying sheets and mattresses and pillows but the bed itself is an issue and a half. I want something beat. It's very hard to find pictures of beds and bedrooms that look beaten and old and fun without ACTUALLY being a Zara Home Catalogue or Anthro and while I love both in small doses I'm just not that hip.

Images via Summer at Design Is Mine and cottages for sale in Wales and the Lake District