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.

You already know I love Orla Kiely so I couldn’t resist sharing this fantastic kitchen makeover by The Bee & The Bobbin that I spotted on Apartment Therapy.

I love that instead of replacing everything new-for-old, they kept the fabulous original mint green oven and rangehood, which looks perfect with the Ms Kiely’s stem wallpaper.

Get the nitty gritty here.

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.

We’re friends, right?

Good, because you’re getting a peek at something I doubt too  many people would be volunteering to share on the internet: their toiletries drawer.

Lately things have been so hectic with work and social commitments that I admit I’ve let things slip around the house and have not been following my rule of leaving things as you found them. My bathroom drawer is just one such example.

I was just shoving stuff in there until it got to the point where I couldn’t find anything and stuff was falling over the back of the drawer into The Man’s below. I know it’s only a little problem, but when it was causing frustration at least twice every day and would only take a few minutes to fix, I had no excuse.

Eek, right?

My method? I started by taking everything out of the drawer and wiping it out.

I laid everything out on the floor and grouped similar items. I discovered I had not one but FOUR wide plastic hair combs (which would be overkill for anyone but ridiculous for me since I rarely even use a comb). I also found two brand new boxes of hairties, the second one of which I bought not realising I already had one somewhere in the depths there. I kept the hairties because they wear out quickly but ditched all but one of the combs. Also in the bin went the bent bobby pins and the pink bobbly hairties (which I have no idea why I owned in the first place). The gross makeup-covered headband went into a bucket of bleach.

Believe it or not, these drawer dividers were actually in the before photo (scroll back up and see if you can find them, Where’s Wally style). I got them years ago and they’re really handy.

Ahhh, so much better. It literally only took five minutes but has made my morning and evening routine so much smoother. Bonus: I should save money but not buying duplicates of items I already own.

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.

Design*Sponge were kind enough to feature another one of my makeovers recently, this time our laundry.

It reminded me of this fabulous laundry makeover.

It almost makes me want to do my ironing with a glass of champagne in the other hand.

Almost.

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.

This is an angle of the kitchen that you’ve never seen. There’s clearly a reason for that: even after our kitchen makeover, this side remained decidedly blah with that huge white wall o’ nothing and the appliance pile-up in the corner. Add to that the fact that since we replaced the old step bookcase with the entertainment unit in the lounge oh, maybe eight months ago, our cookbooks had been sitting in a pile on the floor.

(That is not what I call a blog-worthy scene.)

A floating shelf was the perfect thing to break up the wall and add much-needed storage. We also mounted the microwave on the wall to free up bench space.

My cookbooks now have a home and we can enjoy looking at some of our cute kitchenware all the time.

Tomorrow I’ll share all the juicy DIY details.

A little while ago I discovered IHeart Organizing and was immediately addicted to the daily dose of inspiration. So I was thrilled when the super sweet blogger Jen agreed to share one of my own organised spaces with her readers. You can read her feature here.

Thanks so much, Jen!

If you’re here visiting from IHeart Organizing, welcome! You might like to start by browsing the organising category or project file. You can also find full details of the laundry-related projects:
Initial laundry makeover 
Installing taps 
Removing window film 
Gallery wall – postcard art, greeting card art, book art

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?