Get to know Me

My name is Sarah-Jane, or ‘SJ’ as my friends know me and I am a full-time mum, blogger, Instagrammer, freelance brand consultant, holiday rental property manager, and events organiser. I’m all-encompassing and constantly on the go, I love a project and often juggle far too many balls!

I live in a village a little way outside of London with my husband Matt, my three gorgeous children James, Riley, and Scarlett and my small menagerie of animals. We have two wonderful dogs called Percy and Sky, two loving cats called Apollo and Bailey, two cheeky little Shetland ponies called Tommy and Kenny, four egg-laying chickens and one rather noisy Cockrell called Colin!

As a family, we love being active and enjoy nothing more than getting stuck into new adventures, whether it be on camping trips, holidays abroad, or quite simply, weekend pony rides and long dog walks to the pub. Weekends for us are always busy, if we are not socialising with friends or family, we are in the garden tackling the flower beds and up ladders cutting back the ever-growing climbing plants which surround the house! We enjoy life and believe every day should count!

Our home is our sanctuary, a place where many happy memories are formed and where my most cherished possessions live (my children, my man, and my animals). So when it comes to making our house a home, our home, I can think of nothing better than to make it the place that I love.

Why the blog?

My blog began in June 2016 when we moved out of our house and into an onsite static caravan. We were on a build journey to transform our rather dated, cold (we had no central heating, just electric oil heaters, and a coal-burning stove), and unstylish house into a 21st-century family home which is now warm, comfortable, technologically driven and interiorly rather slick. Throughout the whole 8 months, I diarised the unfolding of our build and experiences as a family. I shared my pictures through Instagram which was the springboard to ‘Just A Little Build’. We are now living in the house (and loving it!) and slowly furnishing it room by room.

With the build now complete my blog primarily focusses on home interiors, lifestyle and any new projects which we decide to embark on. There are a few exciting projects in the pipeline such as the renovation of our holiday home in Cornwall, leathouse.com, a Scandinavian-style home office and an entertaining space at the end of the garden.

Get in Touch

If you would like to get in touch, just fill out my contact form.

17 Comments

  1. June 17, 2016 / 11:46 am

    Hi guys, if you are looking for any resin bound stuff let us at 365floors know. Its transforms drives and gardens.

    We are on facebook as well as insta which you started to follow 🙂

    • June 19, 2016 / 8:54 pm

      Thanks Bill, will check it out – thanks

  2. Terry
    December 30, 2016 / 6:59 pm

    Hi all
    Your work looks great,

    I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction to get a quotation on your rear glass large panels

    Do you also have any recommendations for the type of glass you selected

    Keep up the good work

    Thanks
    Terry

  3. March 8, 2017 / 10:19 pm

    Hi there! My husband and I have thoroughly enjoyed following your build on instagram and have taken a bit of inspiration from you also – our door knocker arrives next week! Your home is just beautiful…I don\’t know how you do it with 2 boys!!
    Good Luck with the arrival of your daughter, such a special time.
    Oh I suppose I should mention…if you are ever in the market for some gates and/or gate automation, feel free to check out our website http://www.g8systems.co.uk, we\’d love to work with you 😉

    Thanks
    Lauren x

    • March 20, 2017 / 5:20 pm

      Hi Lauren, apologies for the delayed reply (having a new baby has slowed me down somewhat!!). We are definitely on the market for an automation gate system so perhaps you can help?

  4. March 20, 2017 / 5:15 pm

    Hi SJ,

    We are an innovation agency based in London currently looking at new ways of documenting home renovations through social media. We are looking for some experts to have a short and informal conversation with and stumbled across your profile when searching on Instagram. I couldn\’t find your email on the blog but if this sounds interesting please shoot me an email and I can give you some more info.

    Lovely blog by the way!

    Best regards,
    Carolina

    • March 20, 2017 / 5:23 pm

      Hi Carolina,
      Thanks for getting in touch. Yes, I would be interested to hear more. My email is [email protected] so please send over for more info! Thanks, SJ

  5. Mary
    June 9, 2018 / 1:37 am

    Hi SJ, just stumbled on your blog tonight and enjoy reading your rollercoaster journey. We are at the tail end of your build ourselves (stressful!) with no experience whatsover in redecoration/renovation. I was interested on the lighting you have in the bedroom you have as your profile photo. May I ask what it’s called?

    Thanks!

    • justalittlebuild
      Author
      June 9, 2018 / 9:43 am

      Hi, I bought our bedroom lights Wayfair and it’s by a company called Dar lighting x

  6. claire johnson
    October 26, 2018 / 3:30 pm

    Hi just a little build, well i totally fell in love with your little boy room and so i copied it and its nearly complete apart from the christy junior bedding (cosmos throw) its sold out everywhere…. but i will not give up .. thank you so much for the inspiration love claire

    • justalittlebuild
      Author
      October 26, 2018 / 4:22 pm

      Ah, I’m so pleased!! I hope the throw comes back into stock as its so lovely and one of my favourite things in his room!

  7. Susan quinn
    November 14, 2018 / 8:06 pm

    Hi love your front door where was this purchased ..love the blog

    • justalittlebuild
      Author
      December 6, 2018 / 11:32 am

      Thanks! We got our front door from a company in Poland, along with our windows.

  8. Rachel
    January 8, 2019 / 6:44 pm

    Hi I was just wondering if you had done an interiors course?? Thought I read somewhere that you had? I’m keen todo one and would be grateful of any recommended courses. Thanks x

    • justalittlebuild
      Author
      January 11, 2019 / 7:59 am

      Hi, it was just a day workshop with Lauren Gilberthorpe Interiors (last January – there’s a blog post on it!). I did think about doing more of a course but never got round to it!

  9. M Raj
    March 28, 2019 / 10:41 am

    Hello SJ, Very Nice website and great useful contents. Thanks. Quick question about the flooring, you have mentioned that you should have gone for Polished tiles in the living/kitchen room. Isn’t it riskier for when it is wet especially for kids? Isn’t it too cold in winter?
    Please can you give some suggestions for bright and natural or lapped finish tiles?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

%d bloggers like this: