organised

Nothing feels better than going to look for something and actually being able to find it – and by that I don’t mean being the winner of a great hide and seek house wide hunt.

Having moved from a house we renovated with a wonderful walk-in-robe to our current house with more limited older style wardrobes I’ve struggled for space and more specifically organisation for over 5 years now.  I’ve spent many an hour at Ikea looking for that cheap and perfect solution.  I have soft sided drawer inserts, a hanging shoe rack and all sorts of hangers that cascade to give you extra space, but it turns out all I really needed was another set of drawers.

Officially this is a sideboard.  I was looking for something more ornate than this again.  I missed out on this little gem

I’ll keep hunting for another – sigh! (just look at those legs)

 but in the end my sideboard, at the exact sum of $52 ebay dollars, was no.1 - going to do the job, and no.2 – something I could paint without a serious attack of guilt.

It started out as a very clean and functional piece but before it could be moved into the bedroom it had to change colour.  When you have timber panelled walls, more timber can be too much of a good thing.

Yes, I know the handles are different.  I can only assume one broke and they only replaced on one side… I’ve decided to embrace this as part of the history of this piece.

Fortunately the cabinet maker (stamped inside as being in Malvern Rd, Hawksburn, right near our first house) had numbered the drawers so one less job for me.  After a quick sand and a good dust with an old paintbrush I applied my first coat of Bin Zinsser shellac primer.  I used a small foam roller wherever I could.

and 2 coats of Porters semi gloss in a colour called rubble

After sanding back all of the edges I applied a stain/varnish to the exposed timber, then a coat of furniture wax.  This is the first time I’ve used a wax and I was really impressed with the way it went on,  looked to harden up the paint finish and give just enough shine to the sideboard.  And I love the smell!

The ornate section and the right hand section are one large drawer – now home to 3 drawers of shoes!

Now I’d like to get a nice timber tray for the top.  Is a lamp too much for here??

I’ve been thinking about painting both the wall above the panelling and the ceiling.  I’ve got a stencil I’d like to use (can you see my little test piece stuck up on the wall?) and then I’m thinking of painting the ceiling the same dark colour with the timber strapping picked out in white.  Oh, and the curtains -  I plan to move up to the ceiling, maybe with the pelmet (but painted to wall colour) or maybe a new curtain pole, and I’ll add a deep contrast hem to the bottom edge.  I’d love to ditch these curtains entirely for a duponi silk in a dark pewter, but that might be one dream too far.  And I’d like a rug for the base of the bed, and some new cushions too.

Have a great weekend

L

coffee table bling

Here’s the last of my 2011 hard rubbish makeovers

I found this on a busy road and nearly killed myself trying to get it into the car.  Even in its chipped and scratched state it moved straight in and has been as good or better than the old table – but was always destined for a makeover.

Sanding back didn’t reveal any wood of substance, and besides we already have wood overload with our masses of timber panelling.  I saw the table below not long ago and decided I’d see what I could do…

source

So I started sanding and it was quite strange.  Some sections stripped back (literally, I was pulling off strips of paint with my hands) and others retained the brown painted finish and I was in danger of damaging the wood if I went much further.  In the end I was only looking for a stable surface for new paint, so this was ok

I then used a silver spray as my first coat.  Despite my efforts to be light handed I still ended up with some drip marks in those corners and between the slats on the base.  I used a brush on metallic finish for the next coat in a light silver

The look was more alluminium than chrome, so it was back to the hardware store

Another two coats with a light sand inbetween and I’m pretty happy with the result.  I was surprised when I first picked up the table that the glass wasn’t broken, but it is very scratched and may still need replacing.  Apart from that, it can stay!

 

Total cost: spray paint $3.99 and 2 sample pots of metallic special effects paint (I only used half of each colour) $40

$44 is pretty good in my book

I’ve deliberately not shown you much of this room as I have plans!

 

silicone

In another story of shortcuts taken by the previous owner of our house I’ve spent the best part of the past 2 days in our ensuite

The first chapter starts with really awful silicone (I still don’t know the difference between silicone and caulk?) that was going black

and the second was the join between the floor and tiles,  just finished with grout that was cracking and falling out

After removing all of the old silicone I cleaned with a mould killer (and am still high on the fumes!) and then started scrubbing the floor.  In a Cinderella marathon I cleaned the whole floor that incidentally was so poorly laid, grouted and finished that it can’t be cleaned with any conventional mop or sponge.  Water pools in the uneven tiles and deep grout lines, and fibres from the mop tear on the rough surface of the stone.  Unfortunately cleaning often involves a stiff brush, so this time I decided to make it last and I’ve coated the floor with a tile and grout sealer.  Fingers crossed

Rather than just using white, I’ve used 3 colours

Light grey at the edge of the marble vanity.  It one of those accentuate what you’d like to see – the benchtop does now look bigger to me

White around the basin and the bath

and Ivory at the floor edge

Hopefully it all blends in and no-one will really notice it – that is the idea I guess

The colour palatte they chose still grates on me, but there’s not much I can do about that in the short term.  The combination of rustic flooring, subway tiles, carrara marble vanity and a reproduction border tile with bullnose capping is confused, but drawing on the grey as my feature and adding to that with the grey silicone and recent grey paint it’s starting to get a little cohesion.

Maybe I’ll kook for a grey bathroom rug (not a bathmat) to cover this decorative panel

I’ve tried doing my own silicone before and it wasn’t this successful, but I saw these at a big hardware store and they made all the difference

I used the 10mm first then the 8, all with the detergent spray bottle.  I also wore disposable rubber gloves and they were surprisingly good, especially if I needed to refill any areas as my fingers didn’t stick

How does your silicone look?  This is easier than you think

seven

Last month Amelia turned 7

Sorry Dear Molly for my absence – parties, crafting and enjoying the holidays with the kids have kept me far away from the computer

She decided to have a disco at home

I’ve blanked out our personal details from this invite I made in the humble ‘paint’ program.  I would dearly love to know my way around photoshop and illustrator enough to justify buying them.  I’ll put that on my to do list!

I can’t take much of the credit for this great party as we had a kids disco and karaoke company come to run the show with 2 great hosts, all the music, lights and games.  But we dressed the room with plenty I kept after my 40th disco a few years ago and a new mirror ball we found at a discount store and a downloaded spinning disco ball for the plasma.

We invited the whole class and they all came!  then a few more from last years class.  There were 26 kids bopping away and they were under the spell of their disco queen as she guided them through a lightning fast 2 hours of dancing and karaoke fun.  They hardly even stopped for food, so I was justified in my decision to basically lay on chips, lollies and pink sprinkle biscuits and little iced cakes instead of lots of hot food.

The cake was nearly a disaster!  I’d seen a great cake online that was simply a bought cake with kit-kat’s around the edge filled with smarties.

photo: flickr the great british cakery

Problems started when I didn’t have enough kit-kats to go around.  My gorgeous cousin Clare was helping me out in what became a comedy as kit-kats were falling off and the smarties became a cascade…

So I was totally astounded when the kids all gave a ooohhhhh, wow  when the cake made it to the table

Did I mention Matilda had a ball!  You’d never know there’s 3 years between them

Then there were 24 presents to open and the resounding theme was art and craft.  Thankyou to everyone who gave Amelia such gorgeous and thoughtful gifts.

Luckily I’d decided that Amelia needed a desk in her room for writing and drawing (rather than the craft table in the girls playroom)

I bought a dressing table on ebay.  When she grows and no longer fits under the middle draw I’ll just take it out

I used an old chair from hard rubbish (again!) and got to work repairing it

 

red?  because I had this in my stash.  It came from Mum, so Dear Molly was a part of this project too. x

Primer, paint and wadding

I now own an electric staple gun.   Unfortunately I did this before I saw a similar refurb (notice I’m not calling it a restoration) on BHG last weekend.  The presenter simply upholstered a piece of mdf then screwed it from underneath to the seat of the chair (sorry no image available).  This would’ve been so much easier!

Amelia loves it, and those drawers are full!

white, blue and frost

I’ve been scratching paint splatter off my glasses, my hands and even my feet for what feels like a few weeks now.  At least a few of the jobs I’ve been putting off are now finished – specifically Lachlan’s ceiling (that oops – was replastered after the re-roofing incident about 10 months ago)

I chose this picture so you can see the great bulge in the cornice (top left) where the plasterers have just packed out something that didn’t fit with filler. grrrr!  It wasn’t really obvious when it was all a combination of grey plaster sheets and cornice and white plaster, but now… hopefully when the room is complete I’ll be the only one who notices.  And those lines on the ceiling are shadows from the blinds.  I should’ve waited for morning light tomorrow for photos.

Our back dining area shelves have been incomplete for a long time too – waiting for me to decide what to do with the walls inside them.  Paint, wallpaper, stencil?  Well I decided on paint and more may come later.

So it’s gone from this

to this, picking up more of the blue I now have a fondness for

Yesterday I was standing in my ensuite looking at this (the frosted window)

and I decided I’d had enough of looking at the lace curtains in our bedroom.  Sure they serve a purpose – especially when  your bedroom is near the front door and has a line of site to the ensuite – you have to be careful and I’ve been considering options for a while now.

Plantation shutters were my first choice but we’ve been reluctant to take that step, so at $15 and removable if we don’t like it I’ve frosted the bottom windows and done away with the lace

I now have another shelf  (this too will be a work in progress, not my best styling work here!)  and I think it makes a feature of the leadlight and the whole window look more attractive.  The cupboard in the right corner was removed some time ago, as was the baby change table!

The light coming in is a cleaner, white light.  I’ve also used some Indian beaded belts as tie backs.  They’re different colours but that’s part of their charm as re-purposed items.

And now even with the lights on at night you can’t see in!

Have a great weekend

L

drum

I’ve been working on this project for some time now.  I won’t dare to calculate the hours of research, shops and businesses visited, people I’ve spoken to – all trying to source the items required to make an oversized drum lampshade.  Of course they all exist, and I’ve found some amazing products along the way – just not the size I wanted, nor the quantity or the price.  I will be trying materials from here.  They look pretty good and now stock the size I need.   Let me know if you have used these or anything similar.

I have two light fittings I don’t like in my formal lounge and dining rooms.  Some time ago I saw these images that set me to thinking

I wondered if I could take my 5 prong pendant light

take off the glass shades

and hang a large drum shade over the top

 

I’ve had it hanging at a few different levels but like it here as you can see the bronze detail of the old light fitting

It looks lovely at night (sorry the sunblind is still down after a very hot weekend) 

Now I just need to finish another one for the lounge.

This would also be a great idea if you are renting – just make sure you use fire rated materials and keep a safe distance from your globes.

hard rubbish makeover #2

Remember hard rubbish season was incredibly fruitful for me in 2011?

This is my favourite find.  It had a large bolster cushion that covered most of the detail I adored.  I left it behind after assuring the owner the chair would be well loved in its new home.

If I’d bought it second hand without meeting the owner I probably would’ve ditched the cushion but after a good airing and a bit of a bash to fluff it up it was far too good to throw away.  It’s actually stuffed with wool fleece.

I tightened these upholstery tacks and replaced some that had broken to increase the pattern on the cushion and give more depth for my covered buttons.

I’ve buttoned the cushion on both sides to allow for children, and the cushion fits the same criteria being made from an outdoor fabric (although I did choose this purely for the colour and pattern)

The chair has just had a quick clean and spray before adding the cushions

This is the same grey linen I used on my  floral cushions.  I had my buttons professionally covered with a metal shank.  The cost per button is cheaper than the self-cover kits with none of the grief and a guaranteed result.  I will never cover another button again, but I will be using many more in projects to come!

And of course this is another pop of yellow for our back room

This is not where the chair normally sits – but on a Saturday morning with most of the cushions off the couch to make a castle this was the best I could do.

Another very satisfying refurb for less than $50!

 

odd jobs

I picked up this necklace from an op-shop whilst on holidays.  I was taken with both the powder blue colour and the shape of the small bead.

It’s now two bracelets.  One for me and one for a friend.

Last year I bought this old farmhouse dresser on ebay.  It’s working really hard for our family at the base of the stairs, storing kids shoes in the cupboards and clean clothes to be taken upstairs on the open shelf.

Sorry about the side angle of the picture.  Light bouncing off everything was making this shot difficult.

Over 2 months ago I bought some paper to line the back of the glass shelves.

Just a bit of double sided tape finished off this job.

With the new year I’m starting a new list of projects…but first I need to clear a path to my sewing room!

Lx

rug.3

I’m very excited to say that my rug is now finished.

It may become a prototype for something I do again . mmmmmm maybe!

The front edge has been down for a good two months now and vacuums with ease and sits really well – even with 3 kids and their friends giving it a lot of attention

Hope the New Year is a good one for you!

Lynda x

turquoise is the new white

You may have noticed a slight deviation from the usual dm colour palette of green, white and neutrals to include turquoise.  Well now I’ve embraced several shades of this delicious colour and have found myself surprised by just how uplifting this colour can be.

Last week I showed you the new turquoise additions to the backroom

and this week I have new cushions

I’ve been following the blog of a designer who has just released her first range of fabrics.  I’ve previously posted about her here, and you can buy fabrics here

So as it turns out it was actually this fabric that inspired the changes in the backroom

I used a plain fabric on the back (linen from Ikea) and check out the colour match!  Like Caitlin I chose a simple cushion without any extra trim, frills, cord or braids – the fabric just doesn’t need it.

I’ve also trimmed my new lamps with ric-rac.  It mightn’t be to everyone’s taste, but I love a bit of kitsch

now back to making xmas presents!