For some reason I don’t have a photo of the kitchen with the old light (oh yeah, could be because I didn’t like it so I always cropped it out).

But I do have a photo of the same fixture elsewhere in the house. Because when we moved in every. single. fitting. in the house was the same boring builder’s special that you see above.

Ah, I love how pendant lights work to define a space so much more than the ceiling-mounted variety. The industrial brushed metal finish of the Ikea light we chose ties in perfectly with the cabinet handles, and at just fifteen bucks it was a very cheap tweak to the room.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank The Man for installing it for me. x

I’d had these pink box files for some years and they’re really handy, but the colour had faded a lot in the sun and was looking a little drab. Besides, it was the only remnant of pink in the now yellow, grey and aqua office.

They were perfectly functional so I didn’t want to ditch them, instead I covered them with grey fabric for a neutral, classy look.

I used this technique for turning thin cotton fabric into sturdy cloth stuitable for gluing. Getting the flaps to stay put is the only tricky bit but with help from some pegs and rubber bands you’ll be fine. It would work better on a cardboard rather than plastic surface like this, but since I use these files for seldom-accessed items they didn’t need to be super durable.

Cutting out the finger-pulls was going to be a real headache, so I simply stuck on some metal rim tags in the same shape and size. I actually threw out the previous contents of the files and haven’t decided what will go back in them hence the blank tags.

I had the tags, as well as the rest of the materials, already on hand so it was a lovely zero dollar project – and you gotta love that.

This framed art came free with my issue of Real Living a couple of months ago, but I was immediately told in no uncertain terms that such a girly item would never see the light of day in our home. I figured the frame and the print would pass The Man’s test if used invidually but it was the combination of both that was unacceptable.

I removed the sweet print and gave the wooden backing a few coats of blackboard paint that I already had on hand. Now I have a cute mini message board that cost me a grand total of zero dollars.

Does anyone else have to pass the man test when bringing home new decor?

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!

Hmm, I can’t imagine being too inspired in this room. No wonder food stylist and writer Sharlene enlisted designer Elle Uy to transform it into a yummy space.

Gobsmacking, huh?

The wall-to-wall(-to-wall) built-in cabinetry hides all the boring office bits so Sharlene can display the juicy accessories on the oven shelving. I just love the all-white shell so she can easily update the colour scheme in future. The owner wanted an industrial twist, so they added pipes to attach the lights to – what a great sneaky trick!

Right, when do I move in?

Read the full story on Design*Sponge.

I’m always inspired by Jen of I Heart Organizing, but never more so than at the moment because my house is in such an atrocious state.

This makeover proves you don’t have to replace everything to make a big difference: just look at what a coat of paint, updated flooring and a few well-chosen accessories can do!

(Also? I was dying to show you this fab rug. I had come across it earlier and decided that it was my dream rug. Seeing Jen’s laundry confirmed that it is, in fact, the most awesome rug I have ever seen. Unfortunately Mr-Remember-I-Have-Veto-Rights started to make vomit noises at my suggestion. The search continues…)

Hello, dream bathroom.

It’s hard to believe that owner Anile Prakesh turned that ugly specimen into what is hand down the most beautiful bathroom I’ve ever seen. The combination of the traditional vanity and tapware, glamorous marble and chandelier, rustic brick wall and shelves and modern tub work harmoniously to create the perfect balance of textures and styles.

Read how she did it (and see more photos) here.

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.