Can you believe it’s only three days until Christmas?! Sheesh.

The fact that I have no idea where this entire year went is my excuse for not having given you an update on this project since, um, April. Oops.

So, at long last, here is the famous blue buffet in situ in my office. (Sorry for the odd cropping, it was impossible to get the whole thing in without the filing cabinet creeping in the foreground. Note to self: get wide-angle lens.)

For the first few months it was looking great (so much decorating potential!)… until my printer died. Yes, the one that was hidden oh-so-neatly inside the desk cupboard had to be replaced by this absolute monster. It’s an awesome printer, but see how it’s so enormous it hangs over the edges? And that’s not even fully extended. Here is the beast in all its glory:

Ack! Anyway, ugly techno-stuff aside, let’s talk decorating. I decided to reuse the clipboards that held our wedding menus to display new designs while I mull them over. Thing is, I haven’t really been using them in that way so now they just look boring. I could easily find some cute pieces to pin up, but this is a very hardworking room and I can’t justify a whole wall of impractical prettiness!

The type drawer is another piece reused from our wedding (kindly ignore the awkwardly high hanging – I just used the existing hooks). This time last year I used it as an advent calendar but apart from that I’ve been struggling to find a use for it.

I’m still in love with the awesome colour pop and much-needed storage and workspace that the sideboard offers, but I’m not loving the overall look of that area. I have a few ideas in mind that I need to consider and I’ll let you know how I go!

We recently ticked off a project that’s been on our to-do list for the last four years. Namely, the closet in the study.

From looking at this photo, you could be forgiven for thinking that the problem was with the interior fit-out but that the doors could be kept, but it was actually the other way around. Those doors look innocent enough: neutral and perhaps even nice and modern. In reality, it had a huge pelmet meaning the top 40cm was unusable, the temporary paint job that we applied during the office makeover to cover up the shoddy doors was easily chipped, each door was two-thirds of the width of the closet making the centre third inaccessible and the doors had dropped so that every attempt to open them required a fair amount of upper body strength and was accompanied by a high-pitched ‘SCCRRRRRWWWWWWOOOOOOAAAAAAR’ noise.

Time to get rid of the chipboard shelving, contact paper and scuffed walls.

Tip of the day: Demolition is always a good way to get your fella interested in helping you with a home renovation project.

Here you can see the cream paint that originally featured in the rest of this room, as well as the same light blue that was in the kitchen and laundry when we moved in.

The back of the pelmet was a tad overengineered…

…or perhaps not.

The new robe didn’t require the panels of wood either side so out they came. Unfortunately half the wall came with it and it was right back to the brick so that, plus all the holes and removing the corner round, meant we went through a serious amount of putty.

Ah, what a difference a bit of a tidy up and a fresh coat of paint can do.

The new interior fit-out and doors are done, but I have done zero organising so far, so I’ll be back with part 2 next time!

Light fittings are often overlooked but they really can take a good room and make it look a lot more resolved. We have been sloooooowwwwly replacing these shoddy light fittings in our joint. We’ve just done the lounge and dining and here’s what it looks like now:

Cool huh? I love the texture and warmth they add.

I love low-hanging lights but because of our low ceilings, this is actually as low as we could hang the pendant in the lounge area without The Man’s head banging into it. But if we hung the one in the dining area at the same height it would sit awkwardly between the laundry door the ceiling beam. I wanted to hang it low and centred over the table, but it wasn’t worth the expense of moving the socket, so we looped the cords and hung it from the beam instead.

We were wracking our brains for weeks trying to figure out a way to loop it through so that it would stay there. The guy at the hardware store suggested adhesive cord managers but that was complete fail. I don’t know why it took me so long but I finally I worked out that we could use fishing line to attach the pendant’s inner metal frame to the cup hook in the beam. Success!

Here are the before and afters, starting with the dining area:

And the lounge…

I’d had my eye on these babies for the longest time but never quite had the budget for them, then I spotted them for like 60% off at Beacon so I quickly snapped them up. You’ve gotta love a project like that!

I love spaghetti but not the black kind that spills out of electronics, like our TV in the above picture after we mounted it.

Ideally, of course, we would hard-wire the TV into the wall cavity. But realistically, we are not going to be living here forever so it wasn’t worth the investment.

Instead, I picked up a steel cable cover (I can’t remember exactly where from but it might have been here), cut it to length, painted it the same colour as the wall and attached it using removable mounting squares. Too easy!

Placing decorative objects in front of the area obscures it even further.

I’d love to know: have you mounted your flatscreen telly and if so, how did you deal with the cables?

I feel like I haven’t been the best blogger lately, and here’s why:

You see, I’m exhibiting Akimbo at the bridal showcase The Eclective in a few weeks. Since it’s my first show, I need to set up everything from scratch, so you can see here I’ve got thousands of business cards to make, samples to assemble and new products to package. And this is just the jobs you can see. There is so much behind-the-scenes stuff to arrange in addition to my normal workload that everything else has fallen by the wayside (case in point: there are at least five half-finished home and craft projects in this scene alone).

As embarrassed as I am to reveal the chaos that I currently live in, I thought I’d share this photo because I don’t want anyone getting the impression that decorating bloggers live in some fantasyland of perfect homes. We struggle with clutter and finding balance and piles of laundry just like everyone else.

You can’t say I don’t keep it real around here!

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.

You may remember earlier in the year I told you how we removed the window film in the laundry. It’s a really small window but was an absolute PITA to remove, so it’s taken me this long to get over it and tackle the much larger windows in the kitchen.

The before shot I took doesn’t show the true cruddiness of the window, so here is a lovely shot from when we first moved in. Someone clearly thought that cleaning the window with steel wool was an awesome idea.

Before:

After:

I know there doesn’t appear to be a huge difference in the photos (especially since part of the view in the ‘before’ is overexposed) but you can definitely notice how much clearer and brighter it is in real life.

It had taken us four weekends of on-and-off attempts to scrape the film off the left window pane (I would get the size of the postage stamp done before my arm felt like it was going to fall off). The secret to removing it, as we found out last time, was elbow grease. This time, however, we learnt that there is definitely such a thing as too much elbow grease. The Man had just started working on the second pane when he heard a *CRACK*. Uh-oh!

Fortunately, since we’re in a Strata Title home, any damage to the building itself is covered by the Strata’s insurance so we didn’t have to shell out the 250 bucks (!) to have the broken pane replaced.

Unfortunately, the new pane is held in place with exposed silicone, so I’ll have to paint the outdoor trim (as you can see, it clearly needed it anyway).

Very happy with the results from inside though, and glad we don’t have any other windows with film! The view from the kitchen window is so clear now it makes me want to get outside and tidy up the garden.

We’ve had a teensy issue under our stairs. Bear in mind that this is not hidden in some rarely used corner, it’s right in the middle of our small open-plan living/dining room.

It started when The Man and I got engaged, oh, almost two years ago. We (er, I…) started collecting decorations for the engagement party, then the wedding. After the wedding the boxes just, well, stayed there.

I have sloooowly been picking away at the pile, donating something here, repurposing something there. Until finally, miracle of miracles, it is now back to how it should be and I’m no longer ashamed to have anyone see it.

Does anyone else have that one problem area in your home? Please tell me I’m not the only one.

As you may have noticed, we haven’t done too many big projects on the house lately.

But there have been a few small additions, like this candlestick. The shape is much more formal and traditional than I’d normally like, but the glass makes it so much more modern, don’t you think? It makes a nice little touch to my quite girly dresser.

On the other side of the bedroom, we’ve replaced the chunky old CD player…

…with a compact new iPod dock. We already had a dock actually, which we use frequently when entertaining outside, but for the bedroom we wanted one with a radio and alarm clock. Apart from being a lot sleeker in appearance, I love that it is so much smaller and less intrusive.

For downstairs, I scored this fantastic laser cut felt table runner for $2 and the local bargain shop! It really dresses up the table without getting in the way.

I had been eyeing off these cute matryoshka doll measuring cups since they came out a couple of years ago but could never really justify the purchase for myself. Imagine my surprise when my friend gave them to me for my birthday! How did she know? They are the perfect addition to the new kitchen shelf.

What are your latest fave finds?

We were given some fun, brightly coloured tealight holders as a housewarming gift. I do like a nice bright colour here and there, but a whole bunch of them together I found difficult to work into our decor and as cute as they were I was never quite sure what to do with them.

Fast forward to last Christmas when I received a whole box full of craft supplies from my in laws (squeal!) including a silver leaf pen. I was itching to do something with it but couldn’t work out what, until I remembered the candle holders.

As you can see, they’re more of a satin metallic rather than a true silver foil like the vase, but that’s fine. I think the pen is designed for small embellishments not to cover large areas like this so you’d definitely achieve a better finish by using actual leaf. But for ten minutes’ work and zero dollars I’m happy with the result. I think they’ll prove much more versatile now.

Check out examples of my work or drop me a line to enquire or place your order.