Dinning room art from an unlikely source

We have two lovely big walls in our dinning room that I've been meaning to create a gallery wall on for, well, the two years that we've live in this house. Yep, that's some of said art tucked in the corner on the floor.

We will eventually put a huge door in the back wall that leads out onto the deck ... if we ever get around to building it that it is. The good part about this plan is that Handsome Handy Hubby doesn't care how many nail/hook holes I put in the back wall.

I've got quite a stockpile of framed photos which I had planned to used to create a gallery wall. My grandmother also recently gifted me with 6 beautiful paintings of various local beaches which I thought would make a lovely arrangement all hung together. But the majority of them were in big heavy frames which is why they are tucked in the corner of the room waiting to be reframed. Or like the one peeking out of the left on top of the sideboard that has had it's frame removed.

And then one day, I found this ...

 

This canvas print is GINORMOUS! The same width as the dining table.  I ummed and I ahhed and I went back to the store where it was languishing about three times to look at it. Then I took Handsome Handy Hubby to check it out and see if he liked it ... and I needed his car as it was too big to fit in mine.

 

He liked it ... we brought it home ... he hung it for me.  I LOVE it!

 



You know what I love even more?  It cost $50!  Yep, you read that right.  Just fifty bucks. Can you believe I questioned whether I should get this for almost a week before 'splurging'?  Can you guess where it came from? Shall I tell you?  OK ... you know I couldn't possibly keep something like that to myself! The Reject Shop! They had this and two other styles when I got this a couple of weeks ago and I noticed they now have another batch of completely different styles.  It's a very light canvas and not on a supper thick frame. However, the quality of the print is excellent and I can't imagine how much it would cost to have a canvas this size printed from one of your own photos.

So, I'm very happy with my new dining room art. Gram's painting are also at the framers now so I'll have to decide where they are going in a couple of weeks.

Have you got any sources for great art bargains?

Lighting Up the Kitchen

I love great lights.  We don't have many of them, but I love them.  It's one of those décor items that I get stuck on, I don't want to commit to an expensive purchase in case I get it wrong, or don't like it once it's in.  Does that happen to you too?

I was like that with the lights for over our kitchen bench.  I wanted something that would make a statement but not be annoying.  I definitely didn't want just down lights (or can lights as they are sometimes called).  I'll tell you the story, but I just want you to know it has a happy ending.

I loved the aqua Colored Seedglass Pendant from Shades of Light, but I just couldn't find anything here in Australia that I liked at the right price.  And since I've had trouble with light shades bought from the USA before, this was one thing I really wanted to buy locally.

So, way back at the beginning of the year when we started our kitchen renovation, we agreed that we would hang 3 of the Ikea Foto pendants over our kitchen bench.  I bought them when we ordered the kitchen but I've been secretly looking for something that I love ever since.  I wanted something to fit with our coastal style, that didn't distract too much in an already busy kitchen and dining area leading out onto a deck, and that would be too low for my tall Hubby to live with as he does a lot of the cooking in our house (love that man!).

Skip forward six months and my wonderful Hubby was finally ready to do the wiring and get the Foto pendants installed.  Yeah, it's taken us that long to get this kitchen reno done, but we have done  it ourselves and sometimes that's just how long it takes. 

Anyway, Hubby was just about to pull the trigger on finally getting the lighting done when, at the 11th hour, I had another idea.  As soon as it crossed my mind I could just about hear him groaning with dread.

You see, I was browsing through one of those eclectic junk stores that sells everything from Aussie souvenirs to kitchen wares when I came across these beautiful huge clear glass jars.  They were super cheap and I loved them, but figured I didn't have a use for them so I left them behind.

The very next day, I kid you not, I was browsing Pinterst and came across this DIY for a glass pendant light made from a jar at Vintage Revivals.  I just knew would work with these fabulous jars to produce exquisite lights at fraction of the cost of something from a big lighting store.  So, I screwed up my courage and told my Hubby about it, showing him the picture of course.  Yes, he groaned a little, maybe even rolled his eyes, and I know he thought I was crazy.  But you know what, he went along with it.

And it all worked out happily for my wonderful new kitchen ...

I adore these lights!  They are unique, the clear bulbs are awesome, the light they shed is warm, inviting and beautiful to work by.  If only my photography skills were up to the task of capturing them really well.

 

They're a little wonky due to the jars not being 100% symmetrical in their making, but I can live with it.  Just adds to the not mass produced feel that I'm loving about them.

 

As for how we made them ... Hubby did it so quick that I didn't even get a chance to take photos!



 

So, instead of giving you a written blow by blow, do what I did and check out the video instructions by Vintage Revivals.

 

The scariest part of all this was drilling the holes.  I had this great idea to place the jars inside a big plastic tub and that way if it shattered the glass wouldn't go everywhere.  That turned out not so stable.  So, what did my oh so brave Hubby do.  Sat cross legged on the deck with the jar between his legs.  I was so nervous!  I mean what if a jar shattered and cut an artery or heaven forbid his man bits!  Of course, none of this happened and in about 10 minutes flat it was all over and done with.

 

What did it cost us?  Well, here's the budget breakdown.

 

Jars - $25 each - yep you read that right!

Pendant fittings - $15.90 each

Light globes - $7.50 each - we used this one from Bunnings

Total for each light = $48.40

 

All in all, that's three beautiful big pendant lights for less than $150.  Beautiful bargain!

 

  

 

Have you DIY'ed any lights?  What kind of results did you have?

 

Participating in my first link party at ...

Custom Quilt Cover

No matter what you call it ... quilt, comforter, doona ... some kind of warm bed covering is a must in winter.  As you can tell from the title up there, we call ours a quilt.  To quote a phrase from Sherry at Young House Love, I've had a "Dude, Get On That Already" morning and finally finished the quilt cover for our bed.

A year or so ago, Handsome Handy Hubby and I finally bought ourselves a custom size quilt from Aussie Wool Quilts.  We were sick of the nightly tug-o-war with a standard king size that left one of us (usually him) out in the cold.  It was the best decision ever and I can't believe it took us so long.  I can't recall exactly how much it cost us, but it wasn't a ridiculous amount and it was worth every single dollar to be warm and cozy every night.  Even when we have the added little body of our daughter sharing some cuddle time in the morning.

There was just one problem ... a custom size quilt meant a custom size cover.  I can sew, a bit.  So after searching for and failing to find somewhere online that I could order a great one, I decided to make my own.  So off we trotted to Spotlight and picked out a fabric together.  I got home and got started ... and then I stopped.

And this is what our bed has looked like for about a year.

 

 Yes, we both have kid art from Mother's and Father's day on display beside the bed.  It makes our little girl happy and gives me the warm and fuzzies.

 

It was certainly keeping us warm, but it wasn't quite as pretty as it could be.  Oh yeah, you noticed there's no throw pillows did you?  Well, my Hubby is a practical guy and just can't see why you would put little pillows on the bed that you're just going to throw on the floor and then have to pick up every day.  I'm not prepared to argue about that one, so we don't have any.

 

Back to the quilt cover.   Today, I had the house to myself so I finally decided to get on that already and finish the quilt cover that I had actually started last year.  And here it is ...

 



There's so much light coming into the room that it's difficult to get the colours right but the pattern is a soft greige, light aqua and soft white combo.  I love the way it's come up and it's soooooooo much better than that big plain quilt smacking you in the eye as soon as you even think about looking in that room.

Why did it take me so long to get around to it?  Welllllll, although it's just a big bag, working with this much fabric is hard!  Hauling it around and trying to measure it out is the first challenge.  My only option was to do that on the lounge room floor.  Of course, this meant the lounge room had to be tidy enough that I could lay the whole thing out.  I've been working on keeping my home tidier and today I finally didn't have to spend time putting everything away before I could get started.

Next project for this room ... replace the curtains that I put up two years ago thinking 'they'll do for now until I find the right ones'.  Well, I finally found the right ones, now I just have to save up the money.  My gosh curtains are expensive!  Then the bedside tables ... then creating the walk in wardrobe and ensuite which is a whole other saga.  For now, I'm just happy with my quilt cover.

SHOUT OUT: Teal & Lime

Thanks to a link at Centsational Girl I recently discovered a wonderful, new to me, blog - Teal & Lime.



Jackie has such a wonderful decorating style, very readable and friendly style of communicating and has given so much wonderful information for free that I just had to document for posterity just when I came across Teal & Lime and the impact it's had for me.

I started by signing up for and watching her Crash Course and I've spent a few days devouring Teal & Lime's archives in every spare moment, the three things that have helped propel me forward are Jackie's Crash Course video series, and two posts in particular; 7 Steps to Create Your Whole House Color Palette + Worksheet and How to Create Your Decorating Accent Color Palette.

For me, the real defining moment of discovery was the way Jackie has constructed her style statement. She broke it down into three sections - my style is ...; to me that means ...; and my style isn't ... This really helped me clarify what I'm working towards and come up with my own style statement.

My style is crisp, coastal (without being clichéd), softly tailored and incorporates some vintage pieces. 

To me this means fresh, fun, handmade, suitable for a young family and incorporates vintage art deco pieces with quality low end items with a high end feel due to our budget constraints. 

Our home feels welcoming, relaxed, open and fresh.

My style isn't country, rustic, shabby chic, minimal or sleek.

I also used her wonderful colour palette posts to define my palette as follows:

• Neutral -Dulux Vanilla Quake 1/2 - a lovely true grey which changes from almost white to deeper grey with the light
• First Bold - Dulux Timeless Grey - a deeper grey
• Second Bold - Navy - haven't settled on a colour yet as it's more likely to be a lounge colour than a wall colour
• Accent Colour - Dulux Zenith Heights 1/2 - a lovely light clear aqua - though I'm thinking of tweaking this to Rainwashed if I can find the formula for it here in Australia. The only walls this is currently used on is my laundry and also the back of my built in bookcases.
• Accent 1 - Aqua - in varying shades from teal to sea glass
• Accent 2 - Coral - I love how this combines with aqua to create what I think is a coastal vibe but without using the standard red white and blue.

At a time when I was stuck and felt like we had put down the first layer of our home (floors, walls and kitchen) but I was struggling to move forward from there Jackie's wonderful generosity with her information has helped me move forward. For that I cannot possibly thank her enough.

As an added bonus, I've also been led to a couple of other great blogs which I'm making some time to explore and connect with.

My First Reupholstery Attempt

I've had three reupholstery projects on my to do this for ... oh ... about 5 years now.   Yep, I've been procrastinating big time.  Well I've finally finished the first of them.  Ironically, it's the most recently purchased item.

More than a year ago now I bought this sweet little chair with the intention of recovering it to go in Little Miss's room.  It would give me somewhere besides the floor to sit for bedtime stories and middle of the night calls.

Excuse the iPhone pics but they are all I took in it's original state.  I loved that it was little and low enough to the ground for both of us to easily use.  But it was dirty, torn, well past it's prime, and while I love vintage, this was old fashioned.

A bargain at around $20, I can't believe it has taken me more than a year to get around to finishing it.

Bye bye old fashioned and hello gorgeous!

I love how this little project turned out.  The fabric was an eBay purchase and I love it.  The graphic, colour and scale just make me smile every time I see it.

Is it perfect?  Nope.  Do I love it anyway.  Oh yes.  And bonus, Little Miss loves it as well.

I got about half way through attaching the new fabric when it became abundantly clear that my little craft staple gun just wasn't going to cut in.  In fact, it just stopped working at all.  I left that little chair sitting in my dining room unfinished for about two weeks while I agonised about what to do.  Eventually I just had to get it done and that meant parting with $40 for an Ozito Staple Nail Gun.  Best $40 bucks spent EVER!

This little thing rocks.  It packs a big punch in the staple gun arena but is so super simple to load and use.  About a dozen staples later and voila!  Our little chair that had languished in no man's land for a year was suddenly ready for use.  It saves my knees and back at bed time that's for sure and I think it adds a cute little touch to the room.

Next on my hit list for Little Miss's room - the bedside table that's a functional hand me down, but could use a little fancying up.

Pinterest Inspired: Light Shade

I don't even want to think about the hours of my life that have disappeared since I discovered Pinterest.  All of those hours have been very happily spent yes, but have they really achieved anything?  Every now and then.

 

I honestly can't recall where I first can across the idea of using old book pages to create a light shade. But when I searched Pinterest I found this and an idea was born.  My gratitude to Allison Patrick of Zipper 8 Lightning who creates such wonderful items using old book pages and provided the "Pinspiration" for this project.

 

 

So, not too long ago, I decided to get on with it and create this lamp shade.  I love how it turned out.  It was super easy to make ... though it did take some time.  Just a rice paper shade (I used the Ikea Regolit which cost $6.99), an old book (I'd just donated all my unwanted ones so purchased one for $2 at my local thrift store), and some school glue ($2.95 from the local news agent).

 

To cut out all those circles I borrowed a cutter from the wonderful Karen.  A stellar Stampin Up representative (and my wonderful Aunt).  Then I just started gluing them on at the bottom and worked my way up.  I glued only the top edge and overlapped them because that's the way I wanted them to look.  I did line all my text up (mostly) straight so that you can read little snippets on each circle.  I also used some of the chapter titles, page numbers and a blank circle here and there to add interest.

 

 

 

I knew exactly what lamp stand it was going on before I event started.  I've been carting around this floor lamp that was my grandmothers for years. Can't tell you how many homes I've had it in.  It used to have a 50's inspired shade, but that went when I moved more towards art deco furniture and décor.  Since then, this lovely lamp has been languishing in various sheds, garages and junk rooms until now.

 

 

For a few dollars and about 5 hours of gluing while I was watching TV at night I love how it's turned out.  Now I jut have to figure out what to do with the stand itself.  The base and little accent on the end of the curve is woods that's been painted brown at some stage.  The curved arm moves so you can position the light at various heights.  It's metal and I thought it was black, but when I pulled it out and looked closely the black is coming off and it's gold underneath that.  The gold is also scratched showing bare metal so I think that was it's original colour.  I've put this project off for so long because I just can't decide what to do with the base - black, turquoise, copper, dark grey.  I just can't decide. Any suggestions?

 

Kitchen: Slow going

It's been a while since I posted about our kitchen progress.  That's because it's been a while since there has been any.  Between work, life and the weather it's been slow going for the last few weeks.  But that's all about to change.  We have definitely made some good progress and tomorrow, the stone bench tops are due to go in.  My hope is that once that is done, the rest of the work will happen quickly.  Dare I hope that we'll be finished in another 2 weeks?  And by finished I mean not only having everything functional, but moving all the kitchen stuff out of the laundry, all the laundry stuff out of the other places I have it stashed around the house, painted, styled, and photographed.  Hmmmm .... maybe three weeks.

Kitchen: Worse

Every renovation gets worse before it gets better right?  We're definitely at the worse stage.  There's plaster missing, half built cabinets stacked up, tools littering the floor.  But there is also lots of progress.  The wiring is where it needs to be, the frames for the cabinets have been built and most of the cabinets are together.

Come on in ... that's right, we have a door ... kind of.

The old tile backsplash wouldn't come off neatly ... so the plaster had to come out with it

The frames that the cabinets will sit on ... and a couple of cabinets in situ

Rather than use the legs that came with the Ikea cabinets we decided to build 30mm MDF bases for them to sit on.  It'll make things more stable, add some strength and help hold up the hugely heavy stone benchtop that will go on the island bench.

 

A close up of the chaos that will eventually become the oven and cooktop

This is where the fridge and walk in pantry will be.  That's the pantry walls there on the floor.  Oh, and we'll plaster over that sliding door of course.

Looking at the dining area ... yes, we're eating in the lounge room for the duration.

Order will emerge from the chaos ... eventually!

Most of our preparation work is done.  Handsome Handy Hubby has the plumbing to move as we are relocating both the sink and dishwasher.  The plasterer will be here to set the walls on Friday which should mean I can paint on Saturday and we can place all the cabinets on Friday.  The appliances arrive on Friday (hmmm, where on earth am I going to fit them!) and the stone bench top (a drama for another post) will be measured up once that's all done.

Deep breath ... carry on!

Kitchen: Progress?

I should have taken pictures this morning!  Why?  Because this morning we had an empty room that I had cleaned.  It looked huge!  Sure, it showed us how much plaster we were going to have to remove and replace, made us think about where the light switch was going to fit and no, we haven't yet taken out the plumbing from the old layout.

But now?  Well ... here's where it's at.

Handsome Handy Hubby arrived home with the sliding door and immediately started going about moving the arch 20cm to the right and installing it, the old kitchen was sold on eBay and picked up in the afternoon, just an hour before all the Ikea cabinets were delivered and piled up in the corner.

Next up ...

• cleaning up the mess from pulling out the plaster
• checking all the Ikea items to make sure they match the delivery
• unpacking all the Ikea items to check for any damage
• ongoing work with the door way
• putting all those Ikea cabinets together - thank you Handsome Handy Hubby for my baby drill that also came home from the hardware store with him and to my Dad who I've got booked in to help me out with this step

The kitchen renewal begins

We're doing it ... renovating the kitchen that is.  After a year and a half of living in this house and doing not much since we moved in, lots of discussion and floor planning, we've hit the go button and are renovating the kitchen.  Completely!



What we started with

What we currently have



Where we're heading ... I can't even give you a great mood board for this as it's in my head.  But, the elements are white cabinets, stone bench tops, a walk in pantry, glass splashback with picture shelves for art and cookbooks and our existing beautiful bamboo floorboards.  And hints of aqua and turquoise to bring in that beachy vibe that I'm aiming for in the whole house.  In my head it looks beautiful ... let's hope it turns out even better!  Phase 2 will include turning our super wide window into a pass through out onto the deck. But that's going to wait until we rebuild the deck.

What we'll be doing (other than retiring sentences that start with the letter W)

• Pull up the bamboo flooring which Handsome Handy Hubby laid himself
• Pull out the existing kitchen ... everything is going
• Move the arch which leads to the lounge about 20cm to the right and square it at the top
• All new appliances - pyrolytic oven, induction cooktop, glass range hood, dishwasher, double door fridge & freezer, undermount sink
• Ikea cabinets all round with lots of drawers
• Building a step in pantry
• Re laying the floors

The layout and spacing will be similar.  Floor plan to come ...

It's going to be interesting as we're doing all the work ourselves and so it's going to have to fit in around work and family commitments.

Will there be disagreements?  Yes.  I'm a planner, a scheduler, a list maker.  Handsome Handy Hubby is a wing it kinda guy.  So, my calendar of when things are going to happen freaks him out, and I've just got to take it one step at a time and not expect it all to go to plan.

How will we keep ourselves fed while we have to kitchen?  The fridge will relocate to the laundry, the washing up will get done in the laundry tub, and we'll be eating a lot of BBQ and salad ... thank goodness we are doing this in summer!

Both of us are thankful that we've waited a year and a half to do this. Why?  Because we've gone through a number of ideas for the layout and finishes over this time and finally come up with what we believe will work for function, look fantastic, cause as little disruption as possible when doing it ourselves, and keep the costs down as much as possible when doing a full kitchen renovation.

Let the chaos begin!