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? 

laundry plans

After all of our work downstairs in the garage we've decided it's time to look at doing something to our laundry.

This is what we currently have to work with.

It does the job, but there are some pretty big flaws. 

-It lacks effective storage

-It has zero bench space

-It's open to the garage, meaning that it is impossible to keep clean-there is often sawdust, dirt, potting mix, glass clippings, leaves etc blowing into the laundry

-There is a lot of wasted space

There are a few problems to start off with. The washer and drier are on a fake dividing wall, behind the dividing wall? Nothing. It's just storage space (basically empty now apart from golf clubs and a bike). 

So, our plan is to build a wall between the garage and laundry area (where the step up in) to divide te two areas, and knock down that fake dividing wall to open up the space.

We will then have a galley style laundry, with everything along the existing exterior wall-we wont be moving plumbing, but we will be able to have the washer and sink up one end, with the dryer on the wall. Then will be a nice big bench, with lots of cupboards underneath, and a tall cupboard at the end for linen. We will have either open shelves, or cupboards, or a mix on the wall above the bench. L has been busy planning, and we have knocked up a bit of a sketch. Things might change a bit between now and then, but this will be our basic layout. 

Because it will be such a wide space, I think we will be able to have cubbies or shelves on the opposite wall for more storage-probably for beach gear and sports equipment.  I've been pinning like a crazy person! At the moment the surfboard racks will probably stay where they are, but in the future we may look to moving them, and putting in a fridge/freezer in there. 

Our plan is to go for a flatpack-probably Bunnings or Ikea, but we will figure all that stuff out over the coming few months. We will do most of it ourselves, with the help of a carpenter friend for the new wall, plus plumbers and electricians. It's exciting. It will also mean we will be getting rid of more of the lovely green paint, and getting some nice new flooring in there too! YAY!

garage storage

We are really lucky to have a big garage, but it was one big mess. We had one set of shelves we bought from Bunnings, but they weren't organised, and everything else was on the floor. At times it was tricky to get the car in there, or get out of, and around the car. For awhile we actually gave up trying. I wish I was kidding. It totally stressed me out-even though it's a boy zone primarily, I hated knowing what it was like!

Well, that's all changed. L has DIYed three storage solutions that have made such a difference! We aren't quite done yet, and have some more big plans for down here (not these ones!) that I'll tell you about in the next post.

First was a surfboard rack. L got a length of wood, screwed some dowel into it, and covered the dowel with pipe insulation. There are eyelet hooks to link the jockey strap through.

A massive improvement on this... 

Where our camping and beach stuff
used to live

Next was some wall hooks for tools. Again, he screwed a long piece of wood into the wall (so the hook placement could be where we wanted, rather than in the studs). The hooks are from Bunnings. 

Next we will be put a work bench next to the door (where the lawnmower is) with a peg board on the wall behind for tools. We will probably look on Gumtree for some kitchen benches, so we can have cupboards underneath, or L might DIY something. 

I'll give you our shameful befores, so you can really see the difference. This was at it's worst, when we were midway through building our side fence. Sorry for the crappy iphone pictures. There was no car getting in there. 

But now-shelves! Made entirely by L, with my help to hold things steady. 

It has meant we can get almost everything up off the floor. They aren't properly organised yet, I want some more storage boxes so that everything has a place, and all the paint tools are together, all the sanding stuff is together etc. But we will get there. Not only do the shelves have all our DIY type stuff up there, they also contain our camping gear, our fold up chairs, L's fishing stuff, beach stuff-like cricket sets and umbrellas. 

Don't mind the empty paint tin drying out-the car still fit, and the tin has now
 been disposed of

It's made such a difference!

terranium

Hi guys,
I took a bit of a social media break. I was tired and run down after the wedding, and the crazy lead up, and just needed to simplify everything for a few weeks. I've literally not been sick for over 2 and a half years (one of the benefits of working in special ed-super strong immunity!) but I entirely lost my voice for a week! So lots of sleep, yoga, beach, walks, reading, outside time, Homeland and greens has hopefully put me back on track!

Now the wedding is over, we have a heap of house plans that are ready to go! The paintbrushes and the drill have been going overtime! You might have seen over on instagram that I've started the mammoth job of painting our verandah railings.  So time consuming and fiddly! I'll keep going when the wind dies down.

I've been a little in love with terrariums at the moments, so made one yesterday afternoon. It was super easy and quick.
I bought a glass container from a cheap-shop. This one actually had a lid originally.


I added rocks for drainage-I just used the white rocks we have on hand (we have trailer loads of them in all of our garden beds!), and potting mix. I visited a local market and picked up some cheap succulents. I tried to pick a few different colours, and leaf shapes, and heights. Some of the little pots I bought had some rocks on top, so I scattered them around the top of the terrarium too.

I'm not entirely happy with it, and may actually re-do it. I think I needed smaller rocks on the base, as the layers between the rock and the soil isn't as defined as I would like, but I might not too.

I ticked something off my pinterest to do list-yay!

just adoorable....

This was my last weekend of holidays. My last holidays before the wedding. I had the house to myself. Originally I planned to pretty much relax, go for a walk or two, do some yoga and some school work to get ready for the term. Then on Thursday afternoon I decided to go to two shops to buy supplies for not one, but two entirely separate projects.
Remember these cupboard doors in the spare room? We had matching (but bigger) ones in our bedroom. We always hated them, and planned to paint them, but just never quite got around to it.

Before-boring, matt chipboard

Now look at them! White paint is magic!

After!

Bright and glossy!

It ended up being a bit harder than I thought. I planned on having all four doors in the garage, and do them all at once. I took the two spare room doors off and carried them downstairs to the garage. I took one of the ones from our bedroom off, and realised two things.
One-Being taller and wider it was a lot heavier-I couldn't actually carry it by myself.
Two-Even had I been able to carry it, it was too tall to fit through the doors, and I don't think I would have been able to negotiate the corners and furniture.

I ended up having to do the doors in our bedroom one at time, in the bedroom, on saw horses, which wasn't ideal, and added quite a bit of time to the project because once I finished the other three doors, I still had one to go.

My working environment!

I lightly sanded with 180 grit, vacuumed the doors, and then washed them down. Then 2 coats of the sealer/primer-quite a bit of the colour was showing through after 1 coat, and I was afraid they might bleed through.

I was getting pretty worried while priming the last door. They were just sucking in the primer on the first coat, I wasn't sure I would make it! I was literally scraping the last of the primer out of the tin. 

I am so happy with how they look-they really make the rooms so much brighter, reflecting light around. I can't believe we left it so long. L was pretty impressed with me too! 

I did another project over the weekend too, stay tuned!

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! :)