Finished table!

Yay we finally finished our table! I am so happy with how it turned out, it brightened up our little space so much and gave us lots more room without having the massive chairs there anymore. I am finding we are using it so much more than we ever did before so totally worth the effort!

I took some photos along the way so you can see what we did. Pretty self explanatory really :) We sanded the top then took the table apart. From there we sanded all the legs and sides, gave the table a wipe down and then painted it. And voila! I must warn you though in case anyone is thinking of tackling this job, all the sanding is a real leg work out! (and when i say work out, I mean just standing up for the next few days hurt !)

Kirsty X

DIY painted table stools

In our quest for a new awesome dining suite we came across these cute stools. We has already decided to keep and paint our old table white so thought that these could be perfect in replacement of our current brown high backed chairs that didn't really fit our suit our space. Bonus, these stools can totally fit under the table! Once we got them home we decided that they could use some colour to really make them pop and to add a little bit of excitement to the look. So here's what we did: (ps. will post pictures of the fully finished table soon!)

Step1: Buy cute, cheap stools - these were $12 each from The Warehouse. Originally we were planning on making our own but wood here (surprisingly, since we grow enough of the stuff!) is super expensive. It would have cost us more to make one stool than to buy 4 of these ones already made! 

Step two: Decide how much of the chair leg you want to keep white and measure a line around each of the four legs. Make sure to do this carefully, you don't want each one to stop at a different height! We left approx 20cm white.

Step three: Masking tape your lines to ensure you get a clean paint job and don't paint anything that is not supposed to be painted!

Step four: Start painting! We used Resene test pots and picked four different colours.

We had to give each stool about four coats of paint to get a fully covered, smooth look.

 

Happy painting! Kirsty X

Guest Bedroom Inspiration

We have been in our adorable little home for about 18 months now, the exterior has been painted and a garden planted; and so the indoor renovations begin. And it is non other than the spare bedroom once complete with stunning bright purple wall  that now awaits my personal touches.

I decided one wet miserable weekend, when I would usually turn to a creative DIY project to keep me entertained, that it might be a good time to start the interior renovation process.

So armed with enthusiasm I declared this idea to the partner and somehow gained his approval. To the paint laden wall paper we took. A trip to the local hardware store for a eco friendly chemical product that said it would make the 'hard work easy' and a nifty little cutter tool that would piece through the layers - bollycocks I personally don't think it made any difference! Successfully stripping off the purple layer I was guttered to find a momento from the 60's still firmly in tact - hard work, made harder. I won't bore you with the details, but some frustration later we had it all off.

'So...' parter started, 'what colour are we painting these walls? Are we getting new curtains'? he asks expecting from me non other than an excited walk through of every little detail of this room....but receiving a blank look in response. I havn't really confirmed all that detail yet....

But im thinking light and bright, fresh, a pop of colour, but lots of white....time to conjure some inspiration....

I thought I loved the idea of wistful white walls all clean and bright; but with the white undercoat on and white roman blinds, im not quite convinced of the white on white on white trend...not for the tiny room I have anyway.

But perhaps it would be better with pops of fresh colour like orange, love it! So bright and fun....maybe I want this in my own bedroom though!

Im loving this green wall colour....a bit bright perhaps.....i'm shying away from replacing my bright purple for the same tone in another colour.

LOVING this light, fresh green off set with all that white, this would be amazing - SOLD!

I can't wait to share my re-vamped guest bedroom with you all very soon...so excited, have a great day everyone - Lisa x

I want you! DIY

I saw this super cute sign over on one of the blogs I love - Bleubird and really wanted something like it for my room. So, since it was sold out on Esty i decided why not make my own! We happened to have some planks of wood lying around for firewood anyway and I have stocks of paint so this turned out to be the best kind of DIY - free!

What you will need:
Plank of wood
Sandpaper
White, black and red paint
Small paintbrush
Pencil
Letter stencils
Hammer/crowbar (anything to rough up the wood)

First cut wood to your desired length, this will depend on how big your letter stencils are. Sand you wood until semi smooth and round off the corners.

Paint a base coat of white and allow to dry.

Using your stencils, trace your letters lightly with a pencil.

Using a small paint brush fill in the words "I want" in black. You will most likely need to do two or three coats.

 Now begin filling in the word "you" with red - do two to three coats. Allow to dry.

Now your painting is done! Next is the fun part...

Grab your hammer or crow bar and go nuts! Tap and bash the wood until it looks a little roughed up and aged.

Finished! Now find a cute place to hang it, step back and admire your handy work. Kirsty xx.

Lamp shade DIY refresh

I think it's those chilly winter days stuck indoors that make me start to look around my home and desperately want new items! Rugs, lamps, duvets you name it. But new items come at a price so sometimes it's best to make the most of what you have and find a way to spruce it up a bit. 

I am the tad bit embarrassed owner of an old red lamp shade and the urge to swap this out overcame me this weekend.

But what to do, fabric it? Hmmm not so keen on heading out into the stormy deepths of the winter, ah paint! I have a huge albeit random collection of test pots and a fab dark charchol....perfect!

It's so easy too, stick on a coat of paint, let it dry and then pop the light on...you'll then be able to see if you have missed any little bits, touch these up with some more paint. Let dry, and voila, your done!

Polaroid box DIY refresh

Lisa and I found this cute box and the markets last weekend and I just had to have it. I think it was once someones tool box but when I got it home I realised it would be the perfect thing to keep my polaroids in. The only thing was, it did look like it needed a bit of a facelift. I decided to paint it the same colour as my polaroid camera and put a cute printed paper on the lid in the inside (this was a hard decision as I was sorely tempted to keep the cool old worn off stickers!)

So here is a little DIY on how I did this:

You will need:

Wooden Box

Sand paper

Paint of your choosing

Paintbrush

Letter / number stencils

Pencil

Cute scrapbooking paper - I printed my one from here

Sissors

Glue

 

1. Lightly sand and then clean your box. 

2. Paint 1 - 3 plain white base coats depending on the original colour of your box.

3. Mix up the paint colour of your choosing. I picked a light blue to match my camera.

4. Paint around 3 coats onto your box until you get a smooth, fully covered finish. Allow to dry.

 5. Using your stencil, trace the numbers of your choosing on to the top of your box with a pencil, making sure to keep it light.
6. Mix up the paint colour you would like for you numbers and then slowly fill them in using a fine brush. Allow to dry.

 

7. Measure the inside lid of your box and then cut your paper to size.

8. Using a paintbrush spread your glue on to the lid of your box, making sure to get it all the way to the edges.

9. Carefully stick your paper to the lid.

Your done! Now step back and admire your handy work. Kirsty x