So one really, really hard night when we were knee deep in kitchen renovation, I received the most amazing PM on Instagram. It was from the super lovely Cassie Pryce. Cassie is a freelance stylist and writer and was enquiring as to whether our bathroom had ever had a professional photoshoot.

With the risk of sounding like a complete and utter cliched wally, for me it was a dream come true. Having always been obsessed with interiors, right back from the days of Changing Rooms,  Home Front, House Invaders, and Anne Mckevitts ‘Style on a shoestring’ I was completely made up.

The next thing I know we are talking details and this is where the real me kicked in…

Like many, and as you have probably seen, I am interiors Instagram obsessed. Every day I scroll a mile with my thump whilst liking and drooling over the many beautiful homes. Each month my home Magazine subscriptions arrive and I dream of owning such amazing spaces. My home wasn’t one of these, and surely they would realise it! Argh!

Then Cassie requested some warts-and-all photos of the bathroom. Lets face it, does anyone’s home really look like their Instahome?! This was it, this is where the truth would come out. She would see the bathroom and decide it just wasn’t magazine worthy after all. I admit at this point I put off sending the photos through. I didn’t want my bubble to burst.

So that was that, dream over and back to reality.  I was so mad at myself. This wasn’t actually the real me. The real me pushes herself, no matter how scary (I do aim to blog about my craziness at some point, I just don’t want to scare you off before I really get started)!

So thats what I did, I got the ‘ole camera out and clicked away, hair dye stained grout and all. With my new found confidence, I also decided to send over some photos of the new kitchen! SCARY STUFF.

A few days later Cassie emailed… our bathroom AND kitchen had been, ‘snapped up’.  It was happening, an actual photoshoot, for an actual magazine and it was of OUR BURROW! Cassie and photographer David Giles would be rocking up on the 10th of May!

The weeks that follow were a bit of a blur, re-painting walls the same colour, doing jobs in rooms that weren’t even going to be photographed, spending hours stalking magazines in fine detail, spending far to long researching hand washes and many, many hours styling, re-styling, polishing kettles and moving plants an inch to the left and back again! But why was I doing this?! Cassie was a stylist and would anyone really care that the shelves in a random room were black or grey!? Then I realised, I still didn’t feel worthy.

Don’t get me wrong, I was excited but the obsessive in me just wouldn’t let things go. Even the night before I was sure she would be disappointed and I would see it in her eyes and what if they were snobby or mean, what if I looked a total dingo in the photos, what would I feed them?! YES, I am that person… hence the need for more Yoga in my life!

Anyway, before I scare you away it’s time for me to tell you how totally nuts I had been. Cassie and David were just amazing. Genuinely lovely people who just made the experience for me. They were complementary and David was ever so patient with my gurning as soon as the camera was pointed at me. They made me and our burrow feel worthy and damn proud of what we had achieved.

I  didn’t want the day to end, it was so interesting watching them work and the details that go into styling and photographing a home for print.

So you can have a break from my waffling here are a few sneaky peeks from the day…

The kitchen was shoot first….

Sunshine and everything! Our home is featured in winter editions, so bear in mind how beautiful the day was and that I was wearing wooly tights!!!

Then the bathroom in the afternoon…

I know i’ve said it but I really do want to give credit to Cassie and David, it really was the stuff dreams are made of for me and it could have gone so differently had they not been as yummy as they were…

So there we have it, our surreal day behind the lens.

A few people have asked me ‘why your house’ and the truth is, I don’t know. I still imagine many people will see the shoot and think they could do better but do you know what… sod it. We’ve done good, we are proud and we are worthy of being in a home mag!

I believe our Kitchen and Bathroom are featuring separately so keep an eye our in this Autumn/ Winter editions of ‘Style at Home’ Magazine.