Valentines Wreath

I've fully embraced the whole front door wreath thang the Americans have got going on (is it more of a 'thing' in the UK now?). This is my 5th wreath since moving stateside.  I'll be making one for July 4th next! haha!!

I had been wasting time on Pinterest trying to find inspiration for a Valentine's wreath, but despite the billions of wreath ideas out there nothing appealed to me. I think it may be  because wreaths are inherently a little naff?! Oh well, I'm going for the kitsch angle of naff. Then this gorgeous chandelier from The House that Lars Built popped up on my Insta feed...(follow her if you like bright shiny things like I do)

A trip to the craft store to purchase one wire heart (floral dept) and x3 boxes of paper straws and some at home hot glue action my wreath was made.  Do you decorate for Valentine's day? Are you a fan of wreaths? 

My girls & I love it of course, husband yet to comment.  Valentines Day is a kitsch holiday anyway, right?!  

Leather and cork coasters

In my previous life (living in UK) I didn't have coasters, I would have balked at the idea of even owning one.  Possibly due to the 'granny' image or the fact my sitting room was so small we didn't have a coffee table, and therefore no need for a coaster.

Another country and a new perspective; coasters are in my good books.  

Esme & I made these ones a while ago.  One got eaten (seriously) by a friends little boy and one recently got ripped. Cork is great for coasters but these weren't quite durable enough.

Using leather leftover from having a pair of chairs recovered I've made a new batch. More durable and rather more sexy don't you think?!

First up cut out squares of cork and leather (you can get scrap bags of leather from craft stores which would be perfect for this) using an X-acto knife . Mine are 4" x 4".

Glue the cork and leather squares together using a good quality glue.  Don't worry if the squares don't 100% match up, you can trim them up when the glue has dried.

Using masking tape mark out your pattern. I went for geometric, my current love is anything geometric...

A great little craft project which takes no time (hour or so) and uses readily available supplies.  

Any suggestions what to do with the rest of the leftover leather?

Craigslist Credenza

I'm a fitful Craigslist user. Some weeks I am scouring everyday in the hope of hitting the jackpot (you know when you find that item) other weeks I can take it or leave it. Thus allowing myself the illusion I'm not a compulsive bargain hunter.

This particular purchase was found on a random flick through day. Everyone needs a credenza, right?

Here is the original image from Craigslist.

Not the best picture, but a bad Craigslist pic is a good thing.  It can often disguise a hidden gem that only you, with your trained eye can spot.  Also it can mean less interest (those without your superior 'eye' pass it up) = plenty of wiggle room on the price.  It was the chrome legs that sucked me in...

I wanted to paint it mint green. The best colour match was a Valspar spray paint called Mellow Spring. I love the colour but won't be using Valspar spray paints again. 5 cans later its still not the best finish but I feel guilty enough about the environmental impact of those 5 cans, not to mention the light dusting of Mellow Spring on everything in the garage.

To cover the laminate top I ordered PSA walnut veneer and edge banding to fit around the sides. It was worth a shop around on the veneer as the same product seems to vary greatly in price.

Having lightly sanded the cabinet all over I covered the chrome base and loosely cover the top. I applied one coat of primer to the cabinet then went all out with the 5 cans of spray paint.

The next stage was the application of wood veneer.  As there was wood involved Mr. got in the mix (I think woodworking is considered more manly than regular re purposing).  After much deliberation with decided to do the edge banding first. 

Ironing on edge banding

Using a Stanley knife we trimmed it down to be level with the top.

Smoothing down veneer with homemade scraper

Sticking down the top piece of veneer was a little more tense. Its pretty sticky stuff so there is no margin for error. Having cut a piece bigger than needed, we started by lowering the middle down then applied pressure outwards, smoothing as we went.  Mr. fashioned a veneer scraper from a scrap of wood which he used to smooth out any air bubbles. Fortunately there were just as many air bubbles on his side as mine! They did all come out.  I then did the final trim around the top.  We were both very impressed with the results. The edges are extremely neat and it could pass as a solid piece of wood.

Several coats of beeswax and orange oil furniture polish (the best BTW) and we were good to go.

Just look at those edges and corner!

Beautiful wood

Break down of costs

Credenza $60 (advertised as $100)

Walnut edge banding (plenty leftover) $22
Walnut veneer (inc shipping) not all used $60
Spray paint $25

Total cost for one-of-a-kind credenza = $150

Not the cheapest piece but I can see it being of use to us for many years to come. 

Alice xx

Which Rug?

We are on the home straight in terms of our house renovations - whoop whoop!!! We are about to pull the trigger on the engineered hardwood floors and once we've laid those we are finished, well on the inside of the house anyway. The garden is another story.

I decorated the front sitting room about a month ago (post to come) and since then I have spent a disproportional about of time debating what type of rug to get. I think it may have something to do with the fact I don't work or get out much.....

Of course I would love to have one from my very talented cousin Lucy Wassell but sadly she is way out of my price range (she designs rugs which are hand tufted in the UK). 

I have narrowed my choices down to a few options.

1. Ikea Stockholm rug A bargain at $299 for a massive 8'x11' rug.

Source: Emily Henderson

2. Rugs USA Homespun Medea Chevron Rug Currently on sale at $309. 

Not sure I am 100% sold on the black/white/chevron theme. A little passe non? 

Source: RugsUSA

3. Vintage Kilim Rug This is a beautiful rug made in a traditional style from goat hair no less! Also a very good price at $259 for a large rug. Would it make my house smell of goats?!

 

Source: Ebay

4. Anatolian Turkish Classic Antalya Kilim Rug. Another ebay find. I think this is my favourite, typical as its the most expensive at $599! Although this type of kilim rug is a bit 'trendy' at the moment so that gives me slight reservations. 

Source: Ebay

So what do you think? I would love some thoughts. I am determined to make a decision, soon.

BTW NO ONE is allowed to go and buy 'my' rugs from Ebay ;)  

Alice x

  

DIY kitchen makeover part 2

As I mentioned in Part 1 painting the existing cabinets was the way to go for us. I hummed and ahhed for a while about painting (white) vs. staining them dark. I opted to go light as the kitchen area is quite compact and so can be a little dark.   

Finished kitchen

Now before I get into the nuts and bolts of the job let me just tell you, it wasn't that bad. Yup, you read me right, painting the kitchen cabinets wasn't as painful as I had anticipated. I broke it down into jobs I could do in a couple hours either in the mornings whilst the girls were at school or in the evenings.  Having said that painting the cabinets was only really a half of the job of renovating the kitchen. As with every job the list of snags is endless.

Here is a list of the jobs, each of which took between 1-3 hours. I tried to do something everyday, however small, just to keep momentum going.  I think it was about a month from start to finish.

1.  Remove existing hardware and take off cabinet doors.  Label the doors so you know what goes where.

2.  Empty out cupboards. Pack away all non essential items (you're not gonna be baking cakes over the next few weeks)

3.  Clean cabinets. The nice guys at BM recommend good old TSP solution.

4.  Clean doors & draws

Before cleaning

Scrape out crud whilst cleaning

5.  Fill any holes with wood filler. Caulk any joints (e.g. between top of cupboards and ceiling)

6.  Sand cupboards with medium grit (180) sand paper.

7.  Sand cupboard doors.

8.  Wipe doors with tack cloth. Apply one coat of primer (I used Benjamin Moore Fresh Start Primer). Always paint the back of the doors first just in case they mark when you turn them over.

Use a brush over any indents/grooves then a foam roller

Don't forget to prime & paint the sides.  I bought a load of these painters pyramid's to rest the doors on. Well worth the money.

After one coat of primer

9.  Wipe cupboards with tack cloth. Apply one coat of primer.

• NB: the guy at BM said I only needed one coat of primer & one of the Advance (satin finish) paint. In retrospect I would do 2 coats of primer to get a better coverage.

10.  Lightly sand doors (fine grit, 220 paper) & wipe with a tack cloth.  Apply first coat of paint.

11.  Lightly sand cupboards (fine grit, 220 paper) & wipe with a tack cloth.  Apply first coat of paint.

12.  Wait at least 24 hours before applying second coat to doors & cupboards.  The finish was pretty good after one coat. Where I had used the brush was ever so noticeable which is why I did further coats. 

13.  I did a third coat on the doors for good luck & because I had enough left.

14.  Leave well alone for at least 3 days; the longer the better for your paint to 'cure'.

15.  Attach doors to frames, much easier and quicker if there are two of you.

16.  Attach handles.  I made myself a template for the drill holes from card stock to save myself measuring each one. It really saved time, and stress!

The bar handles were from Glidrite via Ebay. They are solid stainless steel and half the price of the exact same handle from big box stores.  Again I shopped around online for the hinges and found the best deal at Build.com.  It really is worth a little bit of time to shop around online; I saved over 100 bucks on the handles and hinges.

17.  After a week stock up the cupboards.

18.  Stand back and admire your work!

Love my tumble weed!

Other changes

• Replaced the glass slider which leads out to the garden.  Luckily we have great handy friends who helped us; that is one heavy door!  

• Several months ago we ripped down the central bank of cupboards above the island. Wow, what a difference that made. Light now streams into the kitchen and you can actually see from one end of the room to the other without having to bend down.

• A ceiling mounted extractor hood is now in place. I choose this one by because of price and size.  As with all DIY projects its never straight forward; Mr. had to cut the central column of the hood to get the height right (the ceiling is lower in the kitchen). Any excuse to get out the power tools.......

• Will put in the same LED recessed spot lights as we used in the dining area. Unfortunately the 'well' in the ceiling is structural (why??); to remove it would have required ripping out the ceiling and replacing all the rafters.  We copied our friends 2 doors down who have the same feature and highlighted it with a hidden rope light. It gives off an ambient light and does make the ceiling seem a little higher.

• Open shelving replaces the cupboard next to the sink. We used Ekby Jarpen/Bjarnum from Ikea as they can be cut to the desired length and the brackets fitted neatly into the notch in the granite left from by the cupboard :)

I'm very proud of my succulents grown from cuttings!

• Added pull out inserts to the pantry cupboard.  

2 deep draws and 2 wire baskets. Both from Ikea. Contrary to popular believe you can get Ikea inserts to fit regular cabinets!  This is now home to all our dry goods; the pull outs mean you use every inch of space.

The all important before and after...

Before

After

So there you have it. Large exhale of breath, the kitchen is done!

DIY kitchen makeover part 1 - Billy becomes built ins

Redoing a kitchen can be a pricey affair.  After doing rough costings for completely replacing cabinets, changing door fronts verses painting with a few new inserts it was a no brainer to go for the painting option.  Even with an Ikea kitchen as the replacement it was considerably more expensive.  Our cabinets were a non offensive style with not too much chintz about them and the doors were in reasonably good shape, good enough to take paint.


The counter tops had been replaced by the previous owners so they didn't need changing. Although the granite would not be my choice its practical and still desirable in our area (gotta think about that resale value!).  

We switch the function of the rooms when we moved in; the previous owners had the space adjacent to the kitchen as a TV/family room and then the dining area through and arch way in the kitchen which was effectively part of the sitting room. We now have a large eat in kitchen/dining area and a TV room off the more formal sitting room. For us it seemed logical as we spend most of our time in the kitchen area.

Saturday morning craft activities

It made sense to tackle the dining end of the room first; the built ins along the end wall could store kitchen items whilst I painted the kitchen cabinets.  There are 4 Billy bookshelves with plain flat trim in between. 

Spacing out the cabinets

I choose the slightly deeper 15" cabinets as its a long room. We decided on 4 as that was the best fit for the space.  The tricky bit was attaching trim to the top and making it appear seamless with the doors which we wanted at either end.

Door on left with replica trim on center cabinet

Trim surrounding cabinets

After caulking, filling and painting the joins are now seamless(ish).  I did an extensive online search to determine the best paint to match Ikea white, apparently its Valspar Dove White.  Its pretty good, not exact. If you want an exact match I would recommend taking a shelf into HD or Lowes and getting them to color match it.  NB. the trim we used came already primed, winner!

We are so pleased with the end result. They are Tardis like in the amount they can store. So much so I need to get thrifting to fill a few empty gaps.

The handy husband installed recessed spot lights and a new fan, we opted for the same one as we have in the bedroom from Minka Aire.

Finished trim

If you are considering adding a 'Billy built in' I would strongly recommend getting the doors. We opted for the full length doors with glass inserts (link here).  You can hide even more junk behind them; one side we have the router and all those nasty cables hidden & the other the girls craft/coloring supplies.

   
It is a night and day transformation. It is now a light, bright and modern functional space.  What a relief to get rid of that hideous yellow! So here is the before and after. You can just see we also squared off the arch into the hallway.

Before

After

 Yes you can spy tools still lying about!  There are always snags to complete (trim around new sliding door).

If you want details on how to convert the bookshelves or any other info get in touch.  

Part 2 of the kitchen makeover to follow soon...