house tour: front verandah

I've shown bits and pieces of our house, but thought I would do a little series of house tour posts. Our photos are currently stuck on our wet computer while we sort out what to do-is it worth fixing it? Get a new one? See if we can buy parts on ebay and get a non apple company to fix it for cheaper… Decisions, decisions.

First up is the front verandah in its entirety.

Since we've been here we've painted the railings white, painted the french door white, sanded and oiled the floorboards, and fixed a small but long term and persistent leak in the eaves, and replace the rotted boards (caused by the leak).

Still to do

· recover cushions on the lounge in a white/natural fabric (or maybe navy?)

· replace the hardware on the doors-it's a bit worse for wear in the harsh, salty conditions

· change lights to non rusted out versions

· replace the missing posts from the railing (they are painted and ready to go, we just need to putty up the existing railings)

· get a small table for the lounge area

· repot the magnolias into a nicer pots

· possibly an indoor outdoor rug under the sitting area

· freshen the windows and front door with a new coat of paint (they look a little tired now the doors and railings are bright white

Plus we are looking at painting the whole exterior this year, so the blue will be changing-probably to a grey or grey blue. When we paint we will also get rid of the yellow facia and eaves (and paint the replaced boards). They will be either white or navy.

For most things we will wait until we have painted. Partly to save up for the expensive paint job coming up, and partly so we are decorating for the finished product.

This is one of my favourite places in the house. It gets gorgeous morning sun, and I love having breakfast out here, or reading and having a tea in the morning. It’s also shady and cool in the afternoon, Great for a nap, reading or drinks with friends.

What do you think?

hallway art

After 18+ months of living here, we have finally hung some artwork. And we hung not 1, not 2, not 5 but 8 pieces of art. Late in 2012 I found a beautiful Rifle Paper Co calendar with gorgeous images of foreign cities. L and I have travelled fairly widely through Europe and a little beyond, and straight away I realised I had a pretty amazing wedding present with the framed prints that helped to tell our story. And then Young House Love went and copied me...

Anyway, on our wedding day I gave L my surprise gift and the watch we had chosen. He loved them luckily. I hadn't framed them yet-I didn't make it to Ikea before the wedding, but I convinced L to drop in on our way back from Yamba, where we picked up some Ribba frames (YHL did give me that tip!).

A quick before for you. Nothing too exciting to see. 

We have been to 7 of the cities together, L has been to 8, so those were the ones we used. After a bit of a play around we fit all 8 and I love them! We used Command Velcro strips on the rec of a friend, and they are amazing! I used 4 on each, it probably didn't need 4, but I wasn't sure and didn't want them falling down. They are very secure. All the wall sections were a bit different in widths, so I had to do a bit of tongue poking out, head on side measuring and sketching, but I'm so happy with how they turned out.

I walk out of our bedroom and see London and Paris multiple times a day.

I walk from the lounge room to our front door and see Istanbul and Rome.

I leave the study and see Cairo and Amsterdam.

When I walk down the hallway I see New York. L has been, I have not, and it is high up on my travel wish list (it is a long list, with new and repeated visits!) It's like it's my vision board (although I'm hopeful it being at the end of a long hallway isn't too symbolic...).

We also put Sydney up, it's closest to the front door, and is behind the door when it is open. It's more there for balance I guess. It gives us an excuse to go to Rio, Tokyo,  Bankok or Moscow so we can swap it out.

These were some of our favourite cities, we lived in London, I visited Paris and Rome twice (with L once), Istanbul is an incredible city, (and Turkey is one of our favourite countries), Amsterdam is so fun and crazy and beautiful, Cairo is so full of history-the pyramids blow my mind, and we have so many amazing memories linked to these cities. Plus the artwork is gorgeous.

quilt shopping

I've been hinting about the need for a new quilt cover for our room for awhile now, but L didn't see the need. Although I still like the one we have it is only a Queen size for our Queen bed, and I would like it to be King size. We recently bought a new bed for downstairs, so I figured it was a good time to shuffle this one to another bedroom, and have a nice new King sized quilt on our bed. Plus it's been about 2 years-time for a change. L came on board as recently he has had a few crazy dreams about spiders and snakes in the bed and is blaming the patterns on the pillows. It would be ok if he didn't start trying to kill them by whacking them!

I've had a few ideas, and I'll check them out in person over the weekend.Initially I was all about colour and pattern. We already have a plain white quilt cover in the blue bedroom, and our current quilt cover is mostly white too.

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But I think I have changed my mind, and will go for white, and bring in colour through sheets, cushions, blankets  and other items like art and books and pretties. Considering we still have to paint the room, and don't really have a full plan in mind, and the fact I keep changing my mind might make this a much wiser option.

I would love linen, but it's probably out of our budget at the moment. But I can dream...

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Hmmm, it's definitely time for us to do some work on our bedroom.

laundry inspiration

Now that our laundry update planning is definitely underway I've been looking at lots of lovely laundries, so I thought I would share some with you. There are a few kitchens-but just turn them into laundries in your mind. Here's a refresh of our current plans:

This first one is one of my favourites, and a similar layout to ours, but ours won't have windows. It feels so nice and bright and clean!

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Another favourite, again with a similar layout. This one also has no natural light like ours. We wouldn't have a potting station at the end. Look at that amazing storage!!

Not sure of the link-it's a fake one from pinterest

I like the green flashback and the dark handles on the cupboards. All three of these so far have had similar cupboard doors. I like the mix of cupboards and shelves, but don't think I would want clear glass in the laundry.

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Similar again, but silver pulls.

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I'm seeing a theme here.... 

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Another kitchen-so simple-very clean and fuss free. All just stainless steel, white and wood. It's a bit more modern.

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Maybe an expedit on the opposite wall for some extra storage.

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Have you seen any nice laundries? Which is your favourite? What would you incorporate if you could? 

christmas planning

Did you know that yesterday marked 3 months until Christmas?

We will be hosting our first Christmas this year, which is exciting and a bit nerve-wracking! L is a shift worker in the health field, and in addition to some early morning starts (4 o'clock wake up this morning), late night finishes (one shift finishes at 11pm), middle of the night call outs to work, and regular weekend work, they have to cover public holidays. He has last Christmas off, so he'll have to work at some stage over Christmas this year.

For Christmas 2011 I left him alone up here, and I felt awful, despite cooking him a ham and shortbread, and driving back early on Boxing Day, and the knowledge that I would have been alone on Christmas while he was at work.

We've had a tree the last few Christmases, but it's only been small. Our ornaments have been mostly glass, white, silver and a little gold, and I think I'll stick with that kind of theme again this year-I'm not massive on lots of red and green, and with our purple lounge room, kitchen and dining room, and blue exterior it will keep it from being a colour explosion!
Here are some of my inspiration ideas, mostly to DIY (which is the ONLY reason I'm already thinking of Christmas!!!)

Wall bunting:

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link- a fun Sydney blog-this is her DIY take on tassel streamers

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The next two are from the same etsy shop, but look easy enough to DIY

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Table decorations:

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The Happy Home Blog 

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DIY 3D guestbook alternative

While trawling websites, I also fell in love with guest book alternatives. We did have a beautiful wooden guestbook also, which was made by a fantastic Australian Etsy seller called Lorgie. A friend  took polaroids and people signed the book. But I also wanted something else-something that wouldn't get put away on a shelf.

I loved the idea of people signing jenga pieces (some very tense nights have been had over jenga in our house!), and thought it would have been really fun to play in years to come, and look over the messages. It was up there for a long time.

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Similar to hanging tags on branches, but with a modern twist.

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Mad-libs would have been funny to look back on, but as our wedding was a cocktail ceremony, people weren't going to be sitting at a table for long periods of time to fill them out. 

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There are just so many options out there, for whatever your interests or wedding theme or personal preference. 

Eventually, I went with a 3D Hearts frame. Simple, easy to DIY, and something we can have on display. 

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I reused the punch from our  tea bag favours to punch the hearts, mostly in white, but a few in blue. 

I then used my rotary paper trimmer (usually used for cutting up my school laminated resources) to score the hearts down the centre, from point to point. 

Using Kikki-K adhesive dots on one half of each heart I stuck them down, alternating which side of the heart was stuck down. 

The hardest part was working out the spacing, and keeping it consistent. I think I made it as hard as possible, but I printed off two pieces of graph paper, and taped on across the top, and slid the other across as I got to each row. 

 

I found a shadow box frame at Typo (that place always seems to have whatever random thing I am looking for lately!) in a whitewashed finish, to place it in. We haven't hung it yet-we need a bit of an artwork plan...

I'm so happy with how it turned out!

paddington love

Until last year I didn't know Paddington in Brisbane existed. This year I have been there half a dozen times already! I love taking friends and family there when I see them in Brisbane. It doesn't hurt that my  wedding dress boutique is in Paddington either! It's hard that I am in MAJOR savings mode for the wedding! :( So many pretty things.

I tried on MY wedding dress today for the first time. It was a bit surreal, and now my wedding seems real. Not just some distant concept. Realising the other nights that it is next month was a bit scary too!!

I go to drop into a few of my favourite shops-I'm lucky I don't live close by I think! Blake and Taylor is one of my favourites. I wish I could have the whole shop, including all the beautiful furniture.

I picked up a little wooden caddy for the kitchen. It was constantly annoying me that we would have salt and pepper dropping on the shelf, and a yuccky oil mark from the bottom on the olive oil bottle. Not anymore!

I also picked up two sweet clay charms, with french quotes on them. Not sure what I will do with them yet.

There is only one happiness in life, it is to love and be loved
I love you to the depth and width and height my soul can reach

I love walking around Paddington, and seeing all the houses that are of a similar era and style to our blue house, that are already done up. I find it so inspiring, and great for ideas. I took a few pictures on my wanderings-excuse the awful iPhone shots!

I kept going up to the Antique Centre. I love how every time I go there are different things to see. Again, I would love to take so much of it home with me! Here are a few things that particularly stuck out for me. Again, bad iphone pics, TERRIBLE lighting, and not much room! Sorry!

Love this-but would have to paint it to get it into my house!

Pretty silver

Beautiful old wooden furniture!

This makes me sad. My grandparents had this exact sideboard in their dining room, it was an oiled teak, with a matching table. I didn't want it at the time, and didn't think it was very practical-partly I was moving between addresses regularly, and they were mostly smallish share houses, and partly because it was so delicate-you couldn't put hot or cold things directly onto it, you couldn't spill water onto it... So it was sold. For a really low price, because we just needed to get rid of it, and it was in a country town. I wish now I had kept it.

Just like my grandparents' old sideboard

Being a bride, of course I am going to love the bridal fashions! Last visit I showed L the frilliest, puffiest, laciest ones I could find and told him they were my dress. He was not impressed.

I'm home alone for a few days, and have a few plans to complete. One is a house job that involves paint (and is already trickier than I hoped!) and the other is a wedding job that involves a sewing machine. Let's see how we go!!

I'll be back again next month Paddington! :)