Refreshed Office!

I've been meaning to show you this for a while... the photos weren't coming out amazing (it's a small room) but hey, I'm fairly pleased with how it's all come out so here it is anyway!

Unfortunately I wasn't very good at taking before photos, so just imagine boxes of junk surrounding a tall roll top timber desk with random things blu-tacked to the wall... and that's about it. 

I sold the roll top desk and for the same price bought this white desk from a friend. I love that it has lots of storage and the rustic paintjob means I don't have to worry about the surface if I'm painting or cutting!

Did you know it's really cheap to make your own shelves? I purchased the brackets on sale at a local hardware store for $5, and the timber cost about $4 - so under $10 for a shelf exactly the size I want! I painted the shelf with left over paint from my window frames (a warm white gloss). I really liked the industrial type look of the brackets.

The floor lamp means I don't have to use bench space for a lamp, and it's adjustable for projects that need a little more light. The frame is actually from our engagement party decorations and the poem is:

"The sun brings forth beginnings,
The moon holds in darkness,
As above, so below,
For there is no greater magic in all the world
Than that of people joined together in love"

Cute huh?

On the wall, the wire organiser I found on ebay, and the J is also from our engagement party decorations which I bought from Typo! In the frames I have a cute little postcard made by a local artist to Bruny Island, which I picked up when I was over there about a year ago. If you have never been to Bruny, I highly recommend it. Beautiful beaches, great places to eat and so much inspiration! We camped for a week along a river right near the sea and it was lovely, I didn't want to come home... "Linger" is handwritten by me as a reminder to take time to be in the moment, relax and just enjoy the right now. I'm not very good at this, always looking into the future, the next step, and thinking about the ways I can make things better... but sometimes the truth is that life is pretty perfect right now, there is nothing wrong with the here and now so it's my little reminder of that. The third frame is actually a piece of wrapping paper! Its embossed metallic copper which I just love, it wrapped a gift for our engagement from my mum so not only do I love the paper but its a reminder of all the things that my mum has given me, and how even though I might not see her as much as I would like she loves and cares for me always. The little compass I have had for years, I love compasses, they remind us that no direction is the wrong direction!

I realised when doing this post that I haven't done a very good job of taking a photo of the shelf but as you can see I have my lovely print block purchased from A Creative Lifestyle and my timber pencils from Trees 4 the Wood. Also the brass scales from the market are up there too!

It's not finished yet, I want to get a board to clip up inspiration things (the frame won't be staying) and some more items for the shelf... I want to stick with the grey/black/white theme my house has but I'm feeling like its missing something. What do you think? Do I need colour, or a plant, or just some more things? 

Market Find: Brass Scales

Wasn't the weather on the weekend just magic? I love the hot, muggy feel in the air before a storm, and it was so much fun watching the clouds roll in across the river. 

I decided to kick the year off with a visit to the Sorell Market on Sunday, and met a lovely lady with a great collection of vintage and antique items for sale. I almost didn't ask how much this lovely piece was, but when she mentioned the rock bottom price of $5!!!! I couldn't say no!

When I asked her where the scales come from, she said they lived in her dad's shed for many years. A lot of the items for sale were from her grandparents and dad's years of hording, and although its hard to let good items go, a person just doesn't have the room and after all you always have your memories! I'm glad she told me the story, I couldn't help but think of my own dad and all his collections, and how my sister and I are still wondering where to keep them all...

I couldn't wait to get the scales home for a polish, and posted a sneaky picture on Instagram to try and make everyone guess what my find was! The guesses were great (vase, hookah, candle holder, door knob, barometer!) but no-one guessed correctly!

And here they are all polished up! I love the little enamel flowers, and I think it looks so much better all shiny.

I can't wait to give them a home in my office revamp!

Transforming a step ladder - complete!

A few weeks ago I showed you my step ladder transformation project. I was a bit stuck on what to use as a bedside table in my teeny tiny guest room, until Pinterest inspired me and a little step ladder destined for landfill came my way - for free!

The stool was a little worse for wear and as the bed in that room is a timber finish, I wanted this little guy to be painted.

I would definitely encourage anyone to try a little project like this, it's so much fun, fairly quick and very rewarding! 

First step was to take the stool apart and give everything a sand. Sanding down creates a rougher surface for the paint to adhere to, and if the timber has been varnished you want to get most of that off. It also gives you a good up close and personal look at what you're working with, and if you are a perfectionist (not me) you can patch up holes with putty.

A good orbital sander definitely helps out with a job like this, but there's still plenty of nooks to get in by hand. The grit of sandpaper you use depends on how hard you want to sand the item back. I don't mind things with dents and holes so I just went over with a finer paper.

Next step is undercoat! If you were after a perfect job (see above, not me), you would need to use a stain blocking undercoat first. This will stop the varnish and colour of the timber coming through the paint at a later date. But word of warning! Your perfection comes at a price and that price is, stain blocker is a hard thing to use! I've tried a couple of different brands, and to apply with brush or roller it's stinky (being oil based), dries so quick you don't have time to smooth your brush strokes and is very annoying to clean off your brushes! This stuff comes in a spray in some brands and I would definitely say its worth a go to save the drama.

So this time I used a normal undercoat (one coat). I've found the trick with undercoat is to get your brush strokes all nice and pretty. It saves on sanding later on and makes for a nicer job, and I think its more important than a perfectly even coverage. But that's just me!

I also decided to paint the hinges and bars from the stool in black, as they had marks a sand wouldn't remove. Sometimes however its nice to leave the trimmings the way they are to leave some age on your piece of furniture. After all, you don't want to take away all it's story!

And here it is, complete and in place!

It's a perfect fit, and the pale grey fits in perfectly. 

I have no idea how other people do such a good job of hiding cords in their photos. Photoshop? Cable ties? Fake lamps?

I'm so happy with my little step ladder come bedside table!

Have you ever rescued a piece of furniture? Tell me about it!