TaDa!

Remember this dark coloured hutch thingy that was going to get a makeover? Well it has!

After taking the glass doors off to paint and then deciding they could stay off and they could take their vertical supports with them (after checking with Mr Fish who said they were allowed to go too), it looks a lot more open and different.

The vertical pieces were surprisingly easy to remove with a bit of tapping using a rubber mallet (thanks Mr Fish) and the shelves had hardly any damage to them where they were nailed in.

After coating the top half in a generous slather of zinser and filling in a few nail holes we were ready for painting. ( I did the painting in top half and bottom half to break it up a bit)

A couple of coats of Antique White USA in a semi gloss and the transformation was almost complete. Add in a few new door knobs and a nice bit of duck eggy looking blue to the back of the shelves and we have ourselves a new looking display piece which is now conveniently located under a down light to give it a bit of a fancy look (pure chance that the down light thing happened, it was already there). I only put the pretty things on display as there was too much stuff and it was getting pretty crowded in there before, only the best op shopping finds made the cut!

(Don't tell Mr Fish that all his beery type stuff will not be going back on this lovely new looking hutch, he probably won't notice unless it's pointed out to him)

The helpers and the next room getting prettied up.

Don't you just love helpers? They were very keen and didn't cost much. We paid them in strawberries.

The other half of the kitchen is getting the star treatment at the moment. The buffet/hutch thing is going into our new dining room (new for us, the rooms always been there we just like to move around a lot).

It is getting painted at the moment and will look a bit different when it is all finished, and yes you can have a look when it is done.

This is oldest fish "helping " to drill the screws into the new cabinets that are going in the kitchen.

This is what her sister did the whole time I was trying to take a picture, she just stands in front of me and does that. As if to say 'I'm ready for my close up'. So I had to take one of her as well.

This is the kitchen minus the buffet/hutch thing (I never know what to call it so apologies if it's got a real name).

It is getting a new benchtop to match the other one and the drawers will be painted the same once the wood putty sets properly. It would more than likely help if someone stopped poking the holes and ruining my putty applying skills. The poker has little fingers so I've narrowed down the suspects.

Very observant people might have realised that the wall has been painted and is now natural white instead of pacifica. This has brightened up the room a huge amount and there is now no need to put a skylight in ;)

And I even painted the cupboard doors as well. I'm thinking I'll leave the alcove where the fridge is the Pacifica colour as it looks okay.

So there you go, more work is being done and now oldest fish comes up to me (usually standing on a chair) and says "are you painting again?" in a sighing sort of voice. I promise I'll be finished soon....

Well that didn't take as long as I thought!

Thanks to a week of very wet weather our reno is finished!

Mr Fish had last week off and we got stuck in and the last few things to do were actually done.

The bookcase was made with some assistance from the little fishes (they have quite good hammering skills) and when that was in place and secured we thought "why not put the floor down while we're on a roll". So we did.

Once we figured out the correct way to click them together the floorboards went down pretty easily. And watching a 'how to lay a floating floor' dvd that came free with a handyman magazine recently certainly helped.

The floors took a day to do and we were a bit buggered by the end of it (since it was raining we had to move the bench saw out the front to the verandah that was dry and go through the house each time a cut was made).

The next day we put the skirting on and I managed to get most of them painted before they were nailed down, and then had to go round and touch up the paint around the nail holes and where some grotty hands had left dirty marks on them.

So we are now moved in and loving it! There's just a little bit of tweaking and decorating to go and then all will be revealed!!

(I never thought I would say it but I'm a bit over painting)

Only one room left in the house to paint and then sewing!

Hallway is complete!

The hallway walls have been painted and the trims all finished for a few weeks but because it is a hallway and is rather boring to look at I have been waiting til it has something in it to make it more interesting before I show you!

There have always been 3 holes in the wall at the same distance apart and on a slope and because someone took the time to measure them and get them lined up I figure I'll take advantage of that and keep them where they are! So thank you previous house owners, you've made hanging things a little bit easier. There used to be 3 little wall hangings in the hall but they were a bit not beachy and a little bit daggy (I can say that as I made 2 of them).

I wanted to hang some different things after painting and decided to do one frame and two other things (not that I knew what the other things were when I decided this - details, details)

The framed picture is one we were given last xmas from Sand (little fish calls her that so she shall now be known as Sand, plus it fits with the beachy theme!) It is a very nice photo of us (the Fishes) at her wedding and as we don't have that many photos with all of us in (someones got to take the picture!) it is nice to have on display. It is also a good reminder that we scrub up alright when we bother to get dressed up, despite Mr Fish being the only one to have any shoes on, well it was rather muddy! The frame was a standard 8 by 10 that I painted with a brown paint then one called shell white which was rubbed back giving it a distressed old timber kind of look.

The other 2 things turned out to be a lovely "shells hanging in a net" type of thing that I found at a shop called Inner Labrynth (I was nearby at the bank doing some Kindy banking and it kind of beckoned me over to look at it). It clearly wanted to come home with me as I had to take the two little fishes into a store that should only be ventured into alone (lots of lovely but breaky items that little fishes should not stand close to, or even breathe on). They managed not to break anything, though there was some touching of some items and I held my breath for the duration of time we were in the shop.

And the other thing that was to hang in my hallway thus making it interesting again was a driftwood hanging made on the front lawn with Poppy's drill (or a driftwood xylophone as little fish proclaimed) which was very easy to make. I'm still not sure what I am going to do with the wheelbarrow load of sticks left over so I forsee some more projects (maybe another mirror?) to use them all up. The little hanging is made from some short sticks and is hanging off a curtain rod bracket in the kitchen (the curtain was taken down for painting and I kind of like not having one there now, though the brackets can stay as they make good hanging spots.

So there you go, now I just have to figure out if I can make a toilet look interesting enough to show you! (that's the other room that has been painted recently)

painting update and some driftwood letters

Remember my kinda recent post about our bedroom transformation? Well I finally got around to taking a pic of the other wall in there. There are four 8 by 10 prints hanging up (one set either side of the big window, the other set either side of the mirror) that are all handmade. The two prints by the window are shots taken on the beach (blogged about earlier, one is a heart drawn in the sand, the other a heart made with cowrie shells on the sand). The other two are simply word prints done in paint shop of things that are relevant to us (one is a humerous quote about our family and the other is a list of the places we have lived).

We already had the mirror sitting on the drawers but it seemed a little dark after our nice calming makeover so a friend suggested I dry brush a little silver paint over the frame to lighten it up. It worked so well I dry brushed all the black metal draw pulls as well! And the silver works well with the soft blues and greens. So that's our bedroom transformation complete now!

Onto some other random stuff now, Here's what you can do when there is a huge stack of driftwood on the nearby beach. I managed to find some funny shaped pieces to form a word (okay I cheated with the 'E' and had to use a bit of glue) The possibilities are endless once the glue comes into play but I wanted to try and make something as 'natural' as I could.

And finally, this is what has been keeping me busy of late. It's called shorewood and is a lovely grey/brown/driftwoody sort of colour. The main living areas are going to be painted this colour as I continue on my tranformation efforts. So to recap for anyone who is interested (that's you family and friends!) The bedrooms are all some similar shade of pale green/blue now (biggest fish didn't get a paintover yet cause her room was done fairly recently). The rest of the house will be shorewood and the kitchen is white and pacifica (turquoisey green blue) for a pop of colour.

The room out the back is being worked on (slowly) but I'm hoping to get most of it done in the next 2 months as I don't have to work weekends as much for a bit. Will show you some pics when there is a bit more progress made.

That's all for now! Happy painting/crafting/blogging!

Littlest fishes bedroom is done!

Littlest fishes room is finally done! It took a while as after the painting I had to get some other jobs finished before I could do any more. We got rid of the bright aqua turtle curtains (which lasted thru 2 fishes so they did alright) and gave the room a change from the 'white that looks a bit grey' paint. She recently graduated to a toddler bed from a cot so that was a bit change in itself, the room looked a lot bigger without it. (if you look really carefully you can see my cutting in work! As usual I forgot to take a proper before pic)

The bookcase was handy but a little messy as she liked pulling large volumes of books out to look at. The change table is a bit full as we have some bags of clothes under there waiting to be given to a friend. (hopefully it won't be around for too much longer!)

The blockout blind on the window has been letting light in the gaps at the sides so we had to fix that problem quick smart.

Here's the solution! I got a longer blind that would cover the gap where the light was coming in and hung it from above the window to make sure no light came in above. I also put the brackets for the curtain rod up near the ceiling and as you can see they are in funny spots.... That is because I have hung the curtains to balance the wall and make the window look a bit more centered instead of nearly in the built in! (you'll see a bit further down)

Here's her new little art gallery! I've been collecting lots of cute prints and cards for a while and thought they'd look good as a group. Most of the frames were cheap wooden ones that got painted white so they all matched and the larger frames were hung with a picture hook. The smaller ones were attached with stick on picture hanging strips that can be pulled off. If we find some more lovely pictures we can add them to the collection!

We swapped the bookcase for these cubes that were in the other fishes room. So the older one got the books (which is fine with her) and we just put the age appropriate ones back in here along with her favourite toys.

Here's what happened with the curtains. They cover nearly the whole wall and by hanging them evenly along the wall with just half the window showing in the centre, it looks like the window is in the centre of the wall, which made centering the bed a bit easier so it looks balanced. And you can't tell the blind overhangs the window on one side as the curtains cover it. (curtains are made with white cotton) And the paint is a very pale aqua/blue/green colour called Nippon 'seabird'. It's pretty without being too obvious.

lastly the little nook where a chest of drawers used to be now houses a little chair and a treehouse with a one woolly wombat wall hanging above them. (made by nanny fish of course) So there you have it, one little fish makeover. We bought the paint and the cotton for the curtains and a new blind. Swapping bits and pieces around meant we didn't have to buy any new furniture and her room looks bigger and brighter. The next thing we'll have to work on is where to put a single bed when she needs one!

I know it's a bit sad.....

I scored these two beauties the other day after swapping a friend an old tv stand for her young un who is soon to be moving out of home and I think I might have got the better end of the deal here- according to me anyway! Now they could be filled with lovely magazines or even some toys as they are sitting in front of the window in the living room (sorry, took the pic at night so the blind is down) but in true "I'm a busy person and I can only paint stuff at night when the fishes have gone to bed" style they are of course filled with paint tins and my drop cloth so I can get paintin' in a hurry and have everything handy. It's a bit said I know and Mr Fish just shakes his head but it works for me and one day they will be a nice home to something a bit more glamorous than paint tins. So there you go....

Kids beachy chair revamp

I found this lovely cane chair at a recent trip to the tender center (it's a kids size one) and thought it would look great with a quick makeover. It was in great condition and just needed a bit of a dust then on went the paint. One coat of zinser and two of antique white U.S.A. and it was all done! (I forgot to take a pic before I started painting hence the white bits on the legs)

After all that lovely paint it of course needed a nice cushion to go on it so we (me and the fishes who were strangely on their best behaviour) braved going to Spotlight and found a square of foam to cut up. Some careful cutting and a bit of nice beachy shell fabric later and we had ourselves a cushion!

Both fishes have claimed it so I'll let them battle it out though it does look lovely with littlest fishes (aka 'bug') nice new paint colour in her room. (more on that later....)

Transformation is complete!

After we moved in to our house about 5 years ago we painted all the apricot walls white to keep things simple and I am finally getting around to painting each room and adding a bit of colour. There are major plans for the whole house but until the rumpus room is finished the bedrooms are the only rooms I can fully transform as the living areas will be moved around a bit. So here you have a hideous picture of just after we moved in, note the shiny green curtains and mushroom coloured blinds! Those along with the apricot was just too much so the walls were painted white almost straight away. The lovely bedspread was the very first quilt I ever made, so even though it doesn't match anything it got to stay on the bed awhile.

Next pic is just before painting began, see the green curtains were replaced with white sheers which lightened things up a bit. And even though you can't see them there are white blinds on the windows.

Here's another angle from just before painting, and no that sheet is not a bedspread. it is covering the bed to protect it. The room is a little brighter but still quite plain and boring.

These next two shots are after the painting has begun. I mixed up a colour that consisted of a tin of Dulux 'white on white' and a sample pot each of Nippon 'pool' and Wattyl 'academy grey'. It's a sort of duck egg bluish kind of colour but a bit more green if you can get your head around it. It is sooo soothing and I feel relaxed just looking at it. Note the trims have been painted a gloss white but the curtains are not up yet....

Tada! The sheer curtains were replaced by white cotton (okay it was white calico) and hung higher than the window to make the ceiling seem higher (and it really worked!) and the rods are a black metal that I dry brushed some silver paint onto to lighten them up a bit. It's hard to see but they look a bit like brushed metal only they were a fair bit cheaper! I was going to just let them hang but I had some shell tie backs that I wanted to use so they were just tied loosely around the curtains.

The other window was a bit trickier as the air con sits just next to it and the window is off centre which was a bit annoying. After much talking to myself and anyone that would listen, I thought that keeping the curtains floor length and the same width as the main window would at least add some balance to the windows. We couldn't cover the air con as it sticks out a bit from the wall and would probably look like we were trying to cover it up so it was just left alone. the curtain covers the cord that runs down the wall and even though the bed is not centered under the window (impossible), it still looks okay.

So there you have it! We've gone from a bit of a mess to quite relaxing and soothing. And it might be hard to see but the fan also got a makeover and the new one is sooooo much quieter. All in all it was an easy change and was done on a budget but I love the result! I'm tempted to paint the furniture white but don't think that will fly!

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