Seven months after we purchased the brackets to mount our new TV, we have finally mounted it!

Here are some quick snaps of the totally unedited and unstyled before and after, complete with a) The Man reclining with a book and b) clutter all over the sofa because I didn’t realise you’d be able to see the reflection.

Zero points for decorating, I know, but I’m still loving the difference. Don’t you think it looks so much more airy and less of a big dark boxy blob?

It’s a really big TV for such a small space so having it that bit further away from the couch makes it feel much less in your face. Being able to get rid of the chunky stand means I’ll have the whole surface of the entertainment unit to play with, rather than having to work the decor in the two awkward end spaces.

Next challenge: dealing with the ugly cord situation.

I was intending to do a post on doors upcycled for various uses… until I found like a hundred great examples just for headboards so I figured it deserved its own post.

Dreamy Whites via HGTV

Fresh Home Ideas | Better Homes & Gardens via Apartment Therapy

Under the Sycamore via Design*Sponge

Sherry Hart Designs via Emily A. Clark

Birdhouse Interior Design

Hus & Hem via Remodelista

A Pair of Pears

House Beautiful

Design*Sponge

Daisy Woodworks

Country Living | Better Homes & Gardens

Remodelaholic

Cluck Cluck Sew

HGTV

Studio 30:31 via Design*Sponge

Dirt Cheap Decor

Do it Yourself

I’ll tell ya what, if my bed didn’t already have a headboard I’d be scouring the roadside for an old door straight away.

Who doesn’t love that warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing you’re reducing waste by reusing materials? One of the most versatile items to upcycle into furniture, it seems, is the humble wooden pallet.

Coffee table by Norske Interior Blogger.

Daybed in this too-cute-for-words nursery by the crazy talented photographer Ashley Ann.

Perhaps the little one needs a real bed like this one (via MonkeyZen).

…or yourself. (I still remember reading this article years ago in Home Beautiful. Styling by Pia Jane Bijerk and rediscovered on Design*Sponge.)

Maybe just a headboard is all you need (Stylizimo via Creature Comforts).

Put it all on display like chris.shutter.

Katrin Erens’s farmhouse plate racks via Remodelista.

Vertical garden by Life on the Balcony.

Great display shelving available from IndianSummerGarden.

This looks like it’s in a restaurant but on a smaller scale it would be great for a domestic dining area or office.

Add some hooks and pegs to make a cute rack (See Saw Design).

You could even construct your entire office from pallets like Most Architcture did! (via Javakonindo)

Yesterday I shared how I updated a tired old buffet, but the interior still left a lot to be desired.

Can you imagine storing your cutlery on that scungy green felt? Yech. I’ll be using to store craft and packaging supplies so it doesn’t have to be good enough to eat off but still definitely needed to go.

I assumed the felt was inserted separately into each section, but it was actually one whole piece so it was a little trickier than anticipated.

It also left a lot of residue, but that was easily removed with a damp cloth and a paint scraper.

I swear I drove all over town looking for some decent wrapping paper that would suit the room’s palette of yellow, grey and white (and now blue). I didn’t find what I was looking for, but this silver and white contemporary lace pattern will do (it is only inside a drawer after all). I just cut it by eye (if anyone has any tricks please leave them in the comments!) and stuck on with some double-sided tape. The metallic finish was hard to photograph, so here’s a closeup:

I suspect all the other drawers in the house are feeling a tad jealous.

Our office was working quite well storage-wise after we revamped it. Then I started working from home and suddenly the room was overrun with the supplies, equipment, paperwork and work-in-progress that comes with running a stationery business. As well as storage space, I also needed more surface area for assembling and packaging jobs.

While I love my office and think it’s probably the most cohesively-designed room in our home, I’ve also felt that the contemporary white look didn’t quite fit with the rest of the house.

With all that in mind, I set about finding a traditional storage unit that could use a splash of colour.

This art deco buffet was perfect… and only $50 (can I get a WOOT WOOT?).

Now, before I hear cries from wood-loving folks that I have commited sacrilege, can I just point out that it was not in good shape at all. It had been sitting in the shed of someone’s beach house and looked as if it had seen a hard life prior to that.

Here she is now:

How did I choose the colour? I thought I’d break up the grey, yellow and white with a bright, contrasting colour. I found inspiration in the miniature swan chair, which you can see at the bottom of this photo of the office shelves:

Back to the buffet… as you can see, the brass handles were quite tarnished.

They’re not perfect, but the Brasso did a pretty good job. I also added a new pull to the glass door as it could only be opened by the (missing) key.

That was the easy part. Then came the problem of getting the bloody thing upstairs. Remember this is not one of your modern flimsy plywood numbers, this is a solid timber piece and by god is it ever heavy. Also remember that we have a steep, narrow staircase at the end of which is a very small landing.

I don’t know how on earth The Man and I managed to eventually do it, but we did. Personally I think it should go down in history as a feat of human strength. If walls (and buffets) could talk, I doubt they’d agree though: unfortunately they got a bit knocked around with all the manouvering and had to be touched up.

To save you scrolling all the way back up, here’s the quick before and after:

Phew! My idea of a quick makeover turned into quite the epic project, but I love how it turned out, even if I now owe The Man a month’s worth of back rubs.

We were in desperate need of book storage. My design books and The Man’s teaching books had a home in the office bookcase, but we didn’t have any shallow shelves to store our small but growing collection of novels. In my desperation, I ignored my normal ‘be patient and wait til you find the perfect item’ mantra and went out and bought an emergency piece of furniture.

Big mistake.

Sure, the shallow shelves of the bookcase (it’s actually a pair of CD/DVD towers) are the perfect size for holding paperbacks and the unusual staggered format is eyecatching and provides cute little display niches. But the honey-coloured laminate veneer? Not so hot. In fact, it looked cheap and nasty.

Enter the transformative power of paint:

So much crisper and classier, don’t you think?

How did I go about it? Thanks to Centsational Girl, I’ve learnt that you can paint virtually anything if you use the right product for the job. In this case, I needed a primer that lightly ‘eats into’ smooth surfaces such as laminate so that paint can adhere to it. I used the spray version of ESP (Easy Surface Prep) to get into the nooks and crannies of this piece. You just spray it on, wipe it off after three minutes, and paint after 90 minutes. I followed that with a few coats of satin black spray paint.

I’ve still got a lot I want to do with this little space at the top of the stairs, but I’m loving this as a start.

Have you ever had a ‘what was I thinking?’ moment with a purchase for your home?

I’ve mentioned before that I use suitcases in our bedroom for extra storage. But that’s just one way to repurpose a vintage suitcase. For some gobsmackingly creative ideas, scroll on!

Giftwrapping boxBetter Homes & Gardens

Collect all your wrap, tags and tape in one place in a mobile wrapping station.

Sewing kit

Mini macs

Similarly, use it as a hobby or sewing kit to keep everything together and make it portable.

Blanket boxDesign*Sponge

Use large trunks at the foot of the bed for blankets, shoes or out-of-season clothes.

Shelving

Casa Sugar

Add shelves to a trunk to create a mini closet or shoe rack.

Liquor trolleyApartment Therapy

Go one better and add wheels to create a rolling booze cabinet.

File rack / pinboardDesign*Sponge

Affix to your study wall for a memo board and hidden file storage – genius!

Vanity/medicine cabinetVanity Case

How incredible is this vanity cabinet?

Bedside table

Apartment Therapy

Simply plonk a suitcase on a stool for an instant bedside table with plenty of storage.

Table
Bijou Kaleidoscope

You could add legs for a sturdier option.

Pet bedDesign*Sponge

Add a cushy insert to give your pet the coolest bed around.

Chair
Recreate

Or make some human-sized furniture.

What would you do with a spare vintage suitcase?

I love my little office, I do. But without a proper system, the mountain of papers associated with running a business was beginning to get out of control. Let’s face it: digging through an ever-growing pile on your desktop every time you need that one piece of paper is not a recipe for productivity.

So began the hunt for a suitable file sorter, which, as with many of my searches, proved much more difficult than anticipated. Honestly, who would have thought that a plain white file sorter would have been so rare and expensive? But joy of joys I finally found one at an online office retailer. At about $70 (yes, seriously) it was pricier than I hoped, but it was the perfect thing. Until they called me and said it doesn’t come in white anymore, and would I like it in poo colour instead? 

Sensing I was out of options, I said, ’Yes! I would love to order your expensive and ugly goods.’ After eleventy billion (OK, maybe closer to seven) coats of white spray paint, I have exactly what I wanted. If anyone is interested, it houses (from top to bottom): quote requests, job bags, jobs in progress, invoices, business stuff (marketing, wholesaling, product development etc) and printer paper.

To refresh your memory, here is the same corner before. Sure, it doesn’t look as cute when you compare the two here, but remember you’re not seeing the enormous tower of paperwork. You may have noticed the letterpressed song lyrics have been moved to the gallery wall. 

We’ve also made another change that the room has been crying out for since day one. I didn’t feel I could justify the cost of a good quality (and good looking, of course) chair, so I was resolved to making do with our crappy office chair. That is, until The Man said, ‘You spend so much time on that horrible thing and it’s not good for your back. Let’s get you a really good one. Eames is on sale at Milan Direct.’ {blink} Yes, folks, that would be my husband not just agreeing to a purchase of designer furniture, but actually initiating it.

Isn’t it just the sexiest chair ever? I love how much brighter and sleeker it makes the space feel and it is so comfy that I haven’t had a tense back since.

With my paperwork in order and my I’m The Boss chair, I feel so much more in control. What tweaks have you done that have made you feel instantly more on top of things?

All this talk of the lounge lately and I’ve never shown you the other end of the room which acts as a dining area. Here it is with the former owner’s furniture:

Just to orientate you, that’s the laundry door, the doorway to the kitchen is just out of the picture on the left and the timber you can see in the corner is the staircase.

This is how it looked for the first 18 months we lived here. I see a dining setting as an investment and was happy to wait until we could afford something special so we lived with the in-law’s wonky 70s hand-me-down pine table instead of wasting money on a nicer but temporary solution.

Our engagement brought lots of requests for gift ideas, so we asked for contributions to a dining setting. I was not expecting much change from four figures for a seriously good dining table, but I found this Tasmanian oak beauty for less than $300 at one of my fave antique stores. It came with chunky old upholstered chairs and the owner wouldn’t sell it to me without the chairs, but then the delivery guy offered to take them off my hands in lieu of payment for delivery – sweet! I love mixing old and new, nowhere more so than dining tables and chairs, and these replica Eames chairs from Milan Direct fit the bill. The crisp, glossy white is a beautiful contrast with the traditional style and natural imperfections of the table, but the timber legs prevent it looking too jarrring.

There are still a number of finishing touches I’d like to make, but I’m really pleased with the progress.

We have made quite a few changes to the lounge over the last few months since I last posted about it. I didn’t take any photos to share because, along with new furniture, we also had a room strewn with boxes of wedding supplies and in-progress DIY projects. Now that the chaos has subsided a little, let’s have a look!

Here’s a reminder of what it looked like three months ago:

And here it is now:

I am now the owner of my dream coffee table (knock-off Noguchi) – loving those mid-century curves.

We’d been saving for an entertainment unit, but I hadn’t been able to find one that I liked and that fit all of the necessary storage criteria so I designed a custom unit and got a few quotes. I expected a custom built piece would be pricey, but five grand? Seriously? I got discouraged and couldn’t figure out a plan C, til I found this one at a furniture store that is normally known for poufy sofas and shouty ads. I was hoping for a walnut-coloured, solid timber piece with sleek design, but at literally 20% of what we budgeted (and only 4% of what a custom unit would have cost!) I am definitely not complaining.

New couch – woohoo! Previously we had a black leather lounge suite which was a hand-me-down from my parents (purchased for their first flat almost forty years ago!). They were good quality and reasonably comfortable, but they weren’t cutting it in the practicality stakes let alone the style. The couch was so tiny there was barely enough room for the two of us to sit comfortably, and the combo with two armchairs meant it could seat relatively few people compared to how much floorspace it took up. The light colour has really brightened the room, plus there’s now room for stretching out – bliss!

The ‘art’ above the washstand is simply a piece of fabric tacked onto a cheapo canvas. It balances out the size of the washstand and ties in with the colour and pattern of the granite top.

What’s that in the corner? Yep, we now have curtains. Since their main purpose was asesthetic, cheap sheers do the trick.

The room has come a long way in a few months, but there is one more big change coming soon that I can’t wait to reveal. Any guesses?