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.

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.