Some New Kitchen Artwork

Well in my last post i mentioned i wanted to do a collage of pictures on the kitchen wall with some white picture frames I have been hoarding for sometime.

This included this cream picture frame which i bought in the sale for £1 and after cracking open my new white spray paint and giving the frame a few thin coats - it was white to match the 1000 frames i own!

The sheet and box are to catch the spray- although ideally you should do this outdoors

The 8 is the papermache one i bought last week from Country Baskets- I just started spraying it out of interest really to see what it would look like white!

Anyway back to the collage wall- it was this space between the kitchen window and the french doors on the back wall

There was a clock on this wall when we moved in but since i moved across the kitchen i think this wall seems really bare. So this morning I tried to arrange a collage of the frames. I always start by taping the paper inserts from the frames on the wall to get an idea of what they'll look like before I start randomly hammering nails!

Except after we after we agreed this layout and started hammering in the picture hooks i decided I didn't like the picture collage idea anymore...Yes i can be slightly fickle!

Anyway then it was time to go to Ikea! Whilst we were there I honestly thought Max was going to kill someone me when i picked up some more white picture frames. When he said- why don't we just have 1 big picture there instead? So that's what we did

We bought this large frame (which is the same as the one above our sink) and this black and white print of New York. 

All in all very happy with it- so glad not to have a bare wall anymore! We wanted to get a new clock whilst we were there but we didn't see anything we liked enough, so for now we are stuck with the old wooden hexagon clock which was here when we moved in.

The frames which were going to go on the wall i have added to our hallway gallery- which actually looks really good and a bit more "beefed up" with the additions!

So thats one thing ticked of the list! The next thing is to sort out that airing cupboard, so we bought a few bits and pieces from Ikea so we will be doing that over the next few days...

Easter Weekend

Yay its the weekend! Well it is for me anyway as I have some holidays to use up I've been on holiday since 1pm. So obviously i have got lots of things planned for around the house (including a trip to Ikea- since meatballs are back on the menu again!!)

Projects planned for this weekend are:
1. Sort out the airing cupboard.
Something i have been meaning to do for a while,especially since we finished renovating the cupboard under the stairs (more on that here).

Yes-it's very messy- with the (overflowing) ironing basket and toilet rolls on the bottom and then the shelf filled with towels, toiletries and cleaning stuff. To make matters worse yesterday at work was a toiletries sale - 12 items for £10; so I need somewhere to put these!

So the plan this weekend is to sort the cupboard out and make it organised- I have recently become addicted to Pinterest and there are some great organisation tips on there so I will have a look through and come up with something! Our trip to Ikea is bound to bring something to fruition- i am thinking of something like this on the back of the door...

2. Kitchen Wall Collage

Ok for some time now i have been hoarding white photo frames, i have finally got them all together so they can go on the kitchen wall as a collage and i have done some sorting to work out what will go in them! Except one of the frames is actually cream (i bought it in the sale for £1 here) so I need to crack open my white spray paint at last and make it match the others before I can arrange them on the wall...

3. Some crafty-ness

In general really. Last week we went to a warehouse sort of shop which supplies florists to get some artificial flowers to decrate our wedding cake and ended coming back with a bit more than artificial flowers (well it was really cheap!)

So i need to do something with my purchases which include a book of paper (all differnt prints- actually from TK Maxx) a papermache M and 8 a set of cast iron keys and some corkboard.

Also i have ordered some little owl figurines from ebay which i need to collect from the Post Office and spray white just like i saw on Pinterest!

Oh this afternoon i have already done one little project- some artwork switcheroo above the kitchen sink. We had this print of a london bus we bought from B&Q when we fIrst moved in to fill the space which we have temporarily moved to the living room (well everything is a mess and un-matching in there anyway!)

 

I bought a large white frame from Ikea a few months back and have bee looking for somewhere to put it and something to put in it. So when i found this Eat Seasonably calender on Pinterst, printed out in A3 it was actually Max's idea to hang it above the sink

Excuse the horrid kitchen and washing up- next year will be a new kitchen including a dishwasher!!

So here's to many more posts this weekend :)

The Hallway Renovation- Part 2

My favourite part of any renovation project has to be the finishing touches; although it always seems to take such a long time to get there!

So after the walls were stripped of the wood chip paper, the walls were filled, smoothed and had 2 coats of white undercoat we finally got round to painting the walls in the top coat:

We then ripped up the patch of carpet in the hallway (which our lovely cats had also been using as a urinal) and replaced it with a very cheap pack of wooden flooring from B&Q- next year we will replace all the downstairs flooring so it's more of a temporary measure:

Next we wallpapered the wall behind the radiator- this wall used to be a doorway but was boarded over as a (very small and strange) door way was opened in the dining area instead. The wallpaper was a better option to try and smooth the wall out a bit. 

A bit more stripey than I imagined- but its better than before! The radiator cover serves 2 purposes- covers the horrible small yellow radiator, covers the premature wallpaper trimming i did around said radiator- oops! We also replaced the old light switch with the chrome toggle one, got some owl tea light holders in the M&S boxing day sale and of course a plant from Ikea - I love plants because they purify our air!

Then we ripped up the old carpet - re-painted the skirting boards and had a new carpet installed by the same people who did our bedroom. We got a good discount- about 35% through a) bargaining b) agreeing to dispose of the old carpet our selves and keeping the old gripper rods we already had

Then time to put the old dresser which was in the house when we moved in back into position at the top of the stairs- we also installed a new dark wood venetian blind

Another Ikea plant purifying our air!

In the frame is a silk picture of an Elephant which we bought in Jaipur, India. We also have a bigger one we need to find a spot for!

Last finishing touches- a new curtain pole across the front door which was much harder to put up than we Max imagined, as there is a concrete lintel above the door:

 

We added a large mirror onto the wall at the bottom of the stairs- i bought it a few years ago when it was half price and a bargain! Then a photo gallery of a mixture of white frames up the wall- there are a few more i want to add soon

W

 We replaced the old light fixtures with two new ones which we bought for half price in the boxing day sales; we fitted them ourselves (i held the torch) and it took about 2 hours thanks to a wave of problems to do with wiring (you should probably get a professional to do it to be honest if you're not sure). Max grandad used to work in electrics so we were ok - after switching off the mains!

Oh and at some point we painted the door frame to the kitchen white- it was originally dark wood stain and it took over 10 coats of eggshell white and a new door handle

 

Eventually we would like to replace the bedroom and bathroom doors upstairs as they are the original doors to the house and are a bit "hollow" and cheap. The door to the airing cupboard though is quite cute and has got the original little handle which is the same one as the hatch in our bedroom so that will be staying

The 8 is from Posh Graffiti- we like the number 8!

 So that's it- this year we need to paint the banister and replace the doors but aside from that we are quite happy with the whole job!

The Hallway Renovation - Part 1

You've guessed by now- these posts are like buses- none for a while and then 2 at once! That's mainly because we both work full time and commute about 4 hours a day (don't ask!) so if/when I get a chance to sit down at the laptop I can bang out a few posts at a time. Today I have got a day off work using up my annual leave before the end of the financial year!

So the hallway - took a.long.time to complete partly because we were finishing off the bathroom at the same time and it needed so much doing. So I am going to split the renovation into 2 posts.

Here is how it looked when we moved in:

This is the view from the bottom of the stair up to the landing

This is the day we moved in- rubber gloves for scrubbing disgusting kitchen!

View from dining area

Looking at these pictures- I cant believe how bad it actually was! All surfaces (walls and ceilings) were covered in wood chip wallpaper which had been painted buttermilk colour. The hall, stairs and landing were all covered in the same pink "pub" carpet which is still :( in the living room and dining area.

There was also a lovely brown net curtain across the window- and golden light shade with sequins on.  At the top of the stairs there was a brown chest of drawers which was left when we moved in. In the end we decided to keep this in our end design as it fits the space so well.

The very first thing i did was rip down the net curtain (along with all the others in the house). Then for a few months we did nothing. It was OK for parties and shifting furniture upstairs as we weren't precious (at all) about the carpet being ruined!

But like many things in this house the renovation started with an impromptu session of stripping the wall paper:

This is after we stripped all the paper and removed the hand rail (this took a few months!!!) Like all walls hiding beneath wood chip wallpaper- they were in a bit of a state. We couldn't afford re-plastering so lots of filling with Polyfilla and caulk ensued. We also bought some paint sample pots (you can see painted on the wall above) and settled on Crown Toasted Almond. We scored a deal when they were buy-one-get-one-free so we paid £17 for 2 big tins.

After eventually stripping off all the little bits of paper- (and with eternal thanks to our friends who lent us a wallpaper steamer!!) and filling in the cracks and scratches we got to sanding the walls and giving the walls and ceiling a coat of white undercoat

You can see in the background I had started stripping the wallpaper in the spare room too by now!

Here's Max filling in the enormous holes left in the wall when we removed the hand rail- it was fixed into the wall on wooden blocks. We left the old carpet in whilst we painted as it kept the house a bit warmer and it didn't matter about splodges of paint!

Making a Fabric Heart Garland

I bought some scraps of fabric from eBay a while back with the intention of doing something with them! So after some Googling i decided to make a heart garland and a heart door hanger which you have seen here on the recent cupboard door makeover.

 

So I started with the above desk-full-of-stuff:

1. A pack of plastic heart shaped cookie cutters

2. A whole load of fabric scraps (bought from eBay for £1)

3. Garden twine- 65p from Wilkinson's

4. Haberdashery scissors (these are sharper than regular scissors i think!)

5. A marker pen (not a felt tip pen but not a Biro- a sort of hybrid of the 2)

6. A selection of needles (large ones) and yarn

7. Some ribbon- bought from a local market for 29p

You also need some cushion wadding- I just cut open an old cushion and used what was in that!

 I started by taking one of the cookie cutters and outlining it on the fabric with the marker (on the side which would be sewn as the inside):

Do the same for both pieces of fabric which you are using and then cut both out using some sharp scissors- it really does help if they are sharp:

Then you want to sew the two pieces together -what i realised from practise it's a lot easier to hold the 2 pieces together with pins whilst you sew. You can use any method of sewing- like sewing on the inside and turning it out or i sewed round the edges as per the below (i have no idea for the names of these stitches!!):

I have used a twine coloured yarn which is thicker than ordinary cotton which i had in my craft box from something similar i did at Christmas. When you have sewn 3/4 of the way round stuff the heart with the wadding;  I used a crochet needle (blunt end) to help push all the stuffing in:

 

Then sew all the way round and knot the end of the yarn off. Use the scissors to trim any excess and any fraying of the fabric to make it look neat:

 

So then i used exactly the same method to make a few more hearts some in different sizes so i ended up with this:

Measure out the garden twine to the length needed and then take the largest needle you have and thread the twine. Once the twine is threaded through the needle then you want to thread it through each heart like so:

Carry on and thread through all hearts (some fabric is harder than others to get the needle through!) until they are all threaded. Then you can slide the hearts as needed up and down as needed on the twine

 

Then you are done! Hang on mantle piece, head board or shelf like i have done! I actually removed some of the hearts from mine to make it fit the space

I used exactly the same process to make a door hanger for my under-the-stairs cupboard door handle. I just used a bigger heart template and used some satin ribbon (sewn on the top of the heart) to make the hook.

You can also use the hearts to make key rings- just add a piece of ribbon to the top- loop round a keyring thingy and sew to the heart- that's what i did with one of the small hearts left over from the garland.

Just for an experiment I added the door hanger i made to sell on eBay and was pretty surprised when it sold straightaway for £4! It only took me 10 minutes to make another one- but I don't think i'll be giving up my day job just yet!