Removing Garden Decking…

before and after, DIY, garden landscaping, landscaping, Makeover, recycling, Renovation

Or, where big spiders really live…

When we moved to our current house, the prior owner had been a bit of a gardening wizard. She even opened the garden to the public in the National Garden Scheme whereby money is raised for charity by allowing the public into homeowners private gardens. No pressure then to try and keep up her good works!

Fast forward a few years, and I think the garden is not quite what it was – although I do try hard to keep it up. One area especially had become very tatty, some decking next to the house. England is just not a good place to have wood as flooring outside; there is just too much water and damp, and it becomes slippery, green and needs a lot of TLC. So for a few years I have dutifully stripped it back and re-oiled it each year, but even that did not really help it survive. It started bowing and felt quite unsafe, so the joists below had definitely started to rot.

Here it is already looking quite tired:

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Ikea Hack – Bookcase Unit – Part 2

before and after, Decorating, DIY, hack

How to hack a Kallax or two….

So it seems ages ago that I started on the Ikea Hack, which you can read my plans on here. I spent 3 afternoons at my sisters building away, and it took ages to get around to photographing it due to flu, distance and time! However, here it is finally. Apologies in advance for the photos not being totally crisp, but the room has very little natural daylight so my flash was needed a lot…

Ingredients

We went down to Ikea and spent ages looking at the bookcases they had available. On reflection, we decided to forego the breakfront effect and go for a freestanding simple piece that could take all of her LP’s, books and more. LP’s are deep, so they fit best in this type of storage system. Kallax units seemed the best as they are extra deep.

As you can see they are very modern and graphic. But they baskets are nice made from rattan and palm leaves, and give a future option for storage.

So we bough one 16 x cube Kallax and one 4 x cube horizontal Kallax. We then headed home and I put them all together (top tip, electric screwdriver…)

Putting the Units together and joining them

The larger Kallax went underneath and the horizontal one was put on top. This made the unit a good height. Obviously it needed to be secured into one safe piece, so on the rear I used fixing plates at regular intervals to keep it secure.

Once that was done, we also added simple 2 x 4 wood batons to the base at each end and in the middle so we had extra height for the base board we wanted to be attached. I also added felt pads so that the piece can be easily slid on the wooden floors without catching and causing damage.

Now this was done we measured the sections we would need cornice for; top and bottom would be the same piece but inverted. On the front of the piece is a double width horizontal section of front shelf where the two Kallax units meet, and so we measured this to make sure we got decorative moulding to cover it. You can see this wide section below.

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Master Bedroom gets a makeover

before and after, Decorating, Interior Design, Makeover

Farrow and Ball paint and things lurking under the stairs.

This week I was browsing a paint department, and happened upon a discounted 5L tin of Farrow & Ball’s ‘Brinjal’ matt emulsion. This leaves me with 2 thoughts:

a) I need to get out more and stop loitering in paint departments when I have free time.

b) Loitering in paint departments can be seen as serendipity when bargains are to be had.

Anyhow, onto the paint… This is the most intense dark aubergine with red rather than blue tones, and I have always dreamt of doing a room in it. Like an Olympian athlete I launched myself toward the paint pot it at high speed, and clutching my bargain I sped home. I also managed to secure some bargains on some anthracite emulsion paint on sale, which have been stashed until I decide what to use them for, no doubt they will appear soon in a post…. (and if you don’t want to read through the procrastination and details, scroll down to the bottom of the post for the before and after photos.)

This is what the colour look likes… wow, it’s dark…

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Photo: Brinjal by F&B photo from Farrow and Ball Decorating with Colour by Ros Byam Shaw

The Existing Room

The Master bedroom is already shades of Khaki, (this paint is called Drab), with aubergine accents, but it has been like that for quite a while, so I thought I would use the paint to overhaul the room. The ceilings are really tall, and the expanse of white from the picture rail upwards to the ceiling sort of annoys me, as the rest of the colours get lost in the room as the eye automatically goes up to the brightness and it is so WHITE. I love aubergine, so decided to paint out the khaki walls with the new paint, but to leave the wardrobes as they are. So I am sort of reversing the colour scheme. I am happy with where the furniture is and accessories, so it is just a case of the walls and woodwork being changed.

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Planning Christmas table decorations

Christmas, Decorating, Ideas

Yes, I am really a bit sad, I freely admit it! I spent this afternoon messing about with the dining table, china, glasses, cutlery and so on, so as to plan upcoming Christmas entertaining in advance.

We have 3 lunches to do over the Christmas period, including the biggie on Christmas Day, and rather than go into a spin with table decorating on the actual mornings themselves, (when I am supposed to be concentrating on cooking), I thought it better to know what I would put on the table for each occasion in advance.

Lunch Number One

This table is styled with fresh whites and greens. There are lots of natural elements in those colour ways on the table. A large footed glass bowl of hydrangeas has raffia curled around the inside to hide the stems. Faceted tea light holders in clear glass bounce light around and don’t block eye levels. Two porcelain flower shaped tea light holders add more candle glow. The table has two linen runners on it, one natural laid in one direction and a pale lime green going in the opposite direction.

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Plaster Dipped Christmas Flowers

Decorating, DIY

With the festive season fast approaching, here is a sweet and simple little plaque to make from plaster dipped flowers, ribbon and a slate or wood backing. You can find the fully detailed tutorial on how to make the plaster dipped flowers here.

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Chalk Paint on Fabric – Vintage Chair Upcycle Project

before and after, chalk paint, DIY, Makeover

FINDING THE RIGHT CHAIR

My mother appeared with a chair a few months back that she had rescued from going onto a bonfire. It was in a pretty bad way, with ruptured springs, very dark wood which is not really my cup of tea at the moment, and a needlepoint that had definitely seen better days. She told me I should try and do something with it, so I chucked it into a corner and sort of ignored it!

However, I have been itching to try the chalk paint on fabric method, so decided that this should be the guinea pig of a chair, and if it did not work it could always head back to a bonfire. On the plus side is that it is a pretty shape, and the carvings are actually very good, so it was worth a try. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, so started out by painting the wood of the chair and sorting out the saggy seat. I removed the very crusty edging braid and refixed all of the underside webbing elements with my trusty staple gun.

The painting started out in a buff chalk paint, it looked OK with the needlepoint, and if I had waxed it and added dark wax into the crevices it would have been very typically shabby chic. But I felt I should push it (and myself) more. So I left it alone for a while and had a think.

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TV Cupboard makeover

before and after, Decorating, Makeover

After the recent sideboard makeover, I thought it would be a while before I did another one, but then I was sitting watching TV and realised that this corner of the sitting room is really a mess. In our old house I had a lovely huge Chinese cupboard that hid the telly, but we could not bring it with us as the dimensions were just too big, so I sold it on to the house buyers. In this house, I usually hide the TV when it is not on by dragging an armchair in front of it. The TV sits on an old painted trolley, and it is too big for it, and the machines/wires look plain horrid. In fact TV’s are really ugly to the point that in both the magazine shoots of my houses, the photographers either asked them to be hidden or removed – so it is not just me that thinks it!

This messy corner irked me so much that it totally ruined my TV viewing, so I started to scour eBay for a quick solution.

Ugly TV, boxes and wires

Hiding the issue

I found this little beauty for a bargain £9.99 on ebay, and it was very local so cost nothing for delivery. It is really well made, but quite old fashioned, and the mahogany was very scratched on the top. However it does have pretty brass handles.

As I loved the effect of Graphite Annie Sloan chalk paint that I used on the recent sideboard, I whacked on a coat to the TV unit, and then clear wax to finish and seal it. They look like mummy and baby now…

Being painted

Waxed and finished

I then hid all of the wires and TV boxes inside and placed it in the sitting room corner instead of the messy trolley that had been there before…

Phew, I can now relax and watch the TV rather than staring at the wires and mess around it……. such is the life of a slightly OCD decorating person…

Junk shop mirror makeover

annie sloan, before and after, chalk paint, Decorating, Makeover

another bargain find

Whilst buying the sideboard for a makeover, I found this mirror at the back of the same shop. For bargain price of £10 I snapped it up. I had been hunting for one for my guest room that I recently did a makeover on.

It is dark, badly varnished and very large. But the frame within a frame and shape is interesting, and it has carved details as well. Hmmm… potential I thought. And for £10 It would be rude not to…

Large and with a good shaped frame

Carved roses joining the two frames

I had been looking for a large mirror for the Guest room makeover I did recently, and this looked like it could really work. I had spotted a couple in OKA with insert frames that I loved on a recent visit, but it they were so expensive that I just could not justify it….

The Hercule £425

The Holland House £995

on with the paint

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Junk Shop Sideboard Makeover

before and after, Decorating, Makeover, Upcycling

FINDING A JUNK SHOP SIDEBOARD

The Armoire which caused so much chaos, see prior story about internet fraudsters, was finally sold to a lovely local lady. This left a gaping chasm in the hallway, and I needed to find something in which I could store art paper supplies, and general ‘stuff’. I trawled local ads and ebay, looking for an Architects Plan chest. But a) they are really expensive even in dire condition and b) the depth dimensions are large, and It would have been a little too deep for the space in the hall. So I needed something long, waist height so it did not interfere with the visual diagonal line of the banisters and with multiple storage options, oh and also to be as cheap as possible. The local charity shops proved fruitless and I was beginning to look online at more expensive and new options. But I do like a bargain, so that was not really doing it for me….

So I set off to a shop in my town that has house clearance stock and opens at strange random times. It is a hit and miss affair, but this time I struck gold. I found a dresser base style sideboard in full-on orange pine, all for under £80, brilliant!

Here is the offending item pre-makeover:

The sideboard is modern pine, solidly made but way too orange and dull.

GETTING STUCK IN

I felt like something dramatic was needed for the sideboard, and found some graphite Annie Sloan chalk paint left over in the stockpile. I gave it a really good sand and two coats of paint. This is the point when you start something and you always think “Uh oh…”, but there is no going back once you have begun! I used about a 5th of an Annie Sloan pot of chalk paint for the whole sideboard, (and that was 2 coats), and the half a tin of clear wax. I recommend dipping your paintbrush in water each time before you dip it into the chalk paint, then swirl it once before applying the paint, this creates a much smoother paint finish than neat chalk paint.

The original drawer handles were really pretty cup shape ones in aged brass which I thought would look great against the graphite, so I kept them, and added new matching knobs to the two cupboards.

A coat of clear wax was applied all over once the paint was bone dry. I also gave the top surface area another coat to add extra protection (my family brutalise the furniture a lot so better to be safe than sorry). I let it dry overnight and then gave it a serious rubbing to buff the wax up to a sheen.

THE RESULTS

I LOVE it! The grey is not totally 100% solid, so it has an interesting effect. And I have a fabulous huge surface area to play with for dressing. So I started with some glass domes:

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Guest room overhaul part 1

Decorating, Makeover

I have a small second spare guest room that is languishing at the top of the house, and one that tended to get used as a dumping ground for all the things I mean to sort out one day, but never get around to doing. I needed to make it dual purpose as both a room with a piano for my daughter to practice in, (thanks to my godaughter who has lent us one…) and also as a workable spare room.

The room is in the eaves of the house, so it has an angled ceiling and walls, and a dormer window. It has always been a cream and pale blue scheme, with patterned sisal carpet. There is a cunning daybed which opens out either into 2 x singles or into a double, (and this is only used at Christmas and Easter when relatives overflow, as we have another larger guest room for visitors to use throughout the year).

The shelves made it really cluttered to add a piano into the mix, so I had a serious purge and cleared them all out and removed the shelves. I then worked around the existing carpet, bed, artwork and chest of drawers to come up with a new scheme that was fresher and more spacious. I wanted to keep the paintings which are by family members, they already have a blue theme in their colours, plus beautiful maple and gilded frames.

The mission:

To spend as little as possible on raw materials, and to refresh the room using whatever I had lying around the house. I did a rough moodboard to keep my mind focused.

Decorating:

I found a great wallpaper called ‘Charlotte‘ to use on the back wall where the shelves once stood. It is a light blue paisley on white and cost only £18 a roll from B&Q, plus it is paste the wall paper which is amazing, (first time I have used paste the wall paper and it is SO easy). It took less than an hour to whack it up and I only needed one roll. I then repainted the remaining walls in First Dawn by Dulux, which is pretty much an exact match for the pale blue used in the wallpaper. The woodwork was all repainted in Farrow and Ball’s Wimborne White, which is quite a bright white for them. The room instantly looked fresher, brighter and bigger.

Total cost: £56.41

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Emma Kayne

The Department of Designs

makeover

Removing Garden Decking…