This Global Home | Day 4: Uganda
Hi! I am Allie. I am married to Billy and we have two awesome boys (three and one). We live in northwestern Uganda and just recently reached our two year mark of living here! Our home doesn't have a true right angle in the whole place, and our small town doesn't boast much for decorating or shopping, and online ordering is a thing of memories here (as is Hobby Lobby!) ...but I like to try and use what’s available to make a space that is inviting and homey! I can't wait to see how all of you lovely ladies decorate your home! This blog is like having a virtual cup of coffee with new friends, thanks for being here! Connect with me: BlogInstagram
This was the first picture I took of our house - before we even knew if we could rent it! Since then my plant loving husband has filled the front of the house with plants and beautiful flowers. He rocks.
The house was bright green, with a nice orange trim along the baseboards. I
reluctantly
decided to change paint colors... ;) And that was it all decked out for Christmas last year!
We live in a land of amazing local carpenters - and no furniture stores! I found couches similar to this at a friend's house and took a picture and handed it to a carpenter. To keep finding cushions simple, the couches are the dimension of a single mattress. And the back pillows are stuffed with some local pillows and a ton of fabric scraps and pieces of foam we ripped up and stuffed in! I used napkins from a local craft shop in Arua, and sewed them to make the decorative pillows.
This is just what my living room normally looks like. Ha!
The layout of the house was pretty interesting, utilizing an odd back hallway to get to the kitchen - and our awesome landlord was cool with us knocking out some bigger doorways and a door from the dining room into the kitchen. We love arches and the open feeling of big spaces. Also, there is a big hole in our ceiling where an electrician fell through... it's just one of those things I haven't felt like tackling to fix. :)
The kitchen comprised of a big hearth, and a metal sink when we got the house, so a local mason built some brick cabinets, and did a concrete countertop for us. A carpenter built the doors for us, and with the warping of wood with the weather here, not one of them will shut anymore! :) We put up a long metal pole in the hearth to use for hanging pots and pans. Storage is super limited, so we needed to get creative with the space!
Baskets are a plenty here in Africa, so this wall comprises of the top of a laundry basket, some locally made baskets, and some potholders. Gotta use what you have around!
The odd back hallway that runs nearly half the length of the house... it even has windows into the living room and dining room. We turned the far end into my kids play area. The PLAY word is made from cardboard and I taped/stapled fabric scraps to them.
Our bedroom! The bed is a locally made bed, we used bamboo to hang up our mosquito net, and my sweet friend Liz sewed me the curtains made out of drop cloth from Lowe's! I like to hang lamps from drop cords... it makes the rooms feel bigger to me!
This was my husband's fun idea - using some wire mesh to give me a place to organize necklaces and earrings. I used shower curtain hooks to hang everything up.
We decided to use bamboo as our curtain rods throughout, and attached everything to the wall with some rope and nails.
Our house is actually pretty dark inside. The direction the house is built doesn't let in sunlight very well... natural light is a huge mood boost to me, and we wanted a space FULL of it! We added on this back porch about a year after we moved into our house, and it might be the most used space in our home! We used clear panels in a few places in the roof of the porch to let in even more light!
This chair is so FUN! We saw something similar in a hotel we stayed at... it’s a local wheelbarrow turned comfy outdoor seating! Cushions are from a single foam mattress that we cut up to fit, and I sewed a cover for it.
Nice picture frames are harder to come by where we live, so I grabbed a stick from outside, some string and some tape and taped up some of our favorite family photos here in our dining room.
When we moved into our house, there was one tiny closet in the whole place... so finding useful ways to store stuff is always fun. Billy and I made this shelf by drilling holes through some painted pieces of wood (our local carpenter did this part) and we used tiny sticks to give the wood shelf some stability and keep from sliding down the rope - and we used some small brackets to attach it to the wall.
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