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? 

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!

Transforming a step ladder

For the past couple of years I, with the help of my family, have been renovating my plain little suburban house in Hobart.  It was a "renovator's delight" back in 2011, and has slowly been transformed into a bright and modern home. By current standards, my house is small - only 10 squares, with a single bathroom and three small bedrooms. I love it though, especially now that the major works are done and it's just the trimmings to complete.

The part I have enjoyed the most is decorating and bringing together the interior with furniture and art and items I've collected over the years. I've had to be mindful of the potential resale as this house is also a stepping stone for me, which means a neutral interior - white walls, pale floorboards, grey tiles... perhaps not very inspiring but its a palate which allows me to bring in colour where I want it, and means when its time to sell I don't have any major changes to make with floor coverings and wall colours, and not doing things twice sounds pretty good to me!

Out of the three bedrooms, one is mine (obviously), one is a guest room and one is an office and craft room. The guest bedroom has a double bed, and even by putting the bed hard against two walls, I only have about 35cm for a bedside table - and let me tell you, there are not many options out there for very small bedside tables!

So when I went looking for inspiration I fell in love with these:

Aren't they just the sweetest?! Lucky for me, I just happened to have my eye on the perfect little ladder! I bided my time and when the poor rickety old thing finally gave in and its owner decided it was destined for landfill, I quickly whisked it home for its new life!

Here she is! Obviously in need of some serious TLC, I'm looking forward to transforming this little piece into something new and great!

This poor step will need repairing or replacing.

With old furniture, I can't help but wonder what it's story is. The marks underneath means its probably home made. Was it a school project, proudly bought home by a budding furniture maker? Did an experienced man whip this stool up for his wife to reach the heights of her pantry? Maybe it was a gift, or simply an item made from scraps someone had lying around....

I will never know its story (the previous owner can't remember where she got it from), but I look forward to adding to its useful life, and showing you how it comes out along the way!

Local Creator: Opaque Handcrafted

Pic stolen from Lilla's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/opaquehandcrafted

Nothing quite makes my soul sing like someone delving into a creative adventure, following their heart and dreams and putting their hand to something completely new... and the venture being a great success!

That's why I absolutely have to share Opaque Handcrafted with you. I met Lilla a few years ago, we worked alongside each other for a few months in Launceston. She is one of the funniest and stylish people I know so it didn't surprise me at all to find she's been making the most amazing jewellery!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but I am a hands down, tree lover. My folks are tree people - I think I knew how to spot different types of deciduous trees before I could complete my times tables as a kid (I'm still pretty rough on the times tables!) so to see Lilla using beautiful Tasmanian timbers in her work meant I was always going to be a hands down fan.

The timber paired up with the pastels of the resin work beautifully, and when Lilla started using copper, well, I had to make some mine! 

Over the moon when my package arrived, how sweet is her logo?

And here they are, sweet as can be, I absolutely love them.

Pic stolen from Opaque Handcrafted on Instagram - Lilla takes far better pics than me!

Shameless selfie wearing my new bling!

Well done Lilla on putting yourself out there and making such a stunning product - I can't wait to see what new stuff you come up with in the future!

You can find Opaque Handcrafted on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opaquehandcrafted

*This is not a sponsored post. Although I know Lilla, she never even told me about Opaque Handcrafted, I had to stumble onto it myself on Facebook!*