LINEN PRESS REFRESH

I inherited this pine linen press in the guest bathroom when we bought the New Home. It is a very useful place to stash towels (luckily  because it can't be moved out of the room). As part of my re-fresh of the guest bathroom I  also re-furbed this cupboard.

Inherited pine cupboard - Before

Inspired by some  photos I spied of dark cabinetry I decided to paint the linen press Dulux Domino in a high gloss finish. I thought about painting the inside white, but then went with the dark colour but decided to line the shelves with some Porter's Maharani wallpaper.

I was hoping to use a set of glass door knobs which I bought at the Chelsea Garage Market in New York (here) - but unfortunately one was too broken to use. So I have used a pair of black and white ceramic ones from Anthropologie. I am really pleased with the finished product.

Pine cupboard - After

Anthropologie door knobs

Porter's Maharani wallpaper as shelf liner

PS. Check out this amazing linen press on 47ParkAve.

POTTING TABLE PROJECT

While I had some time on my hands, I actioned the potting table project. Well - less, a table for potting as such, and more a table for holding my collection of small pot plants (and cups of tea while sitting in the afternoon sun).

I had my eyes out for a wrought iron table base, but a couple of months ago, I ended up coming home with a bentwood style wooden base. It was of course covered in several lawyers of different coloured paint so I sanded it back a little and painted it with matte black paint.

The table base came with a rather ugly and mis-fitting stone top. I worked out it was mainly ugly because it was covered in some kind of sealer which had yellowed and the exposed stone underneath was actually an OK colour. So I took it to the local stone mason who re-cut it to fit the base and re-honed it to remove the sealer. There wasn't much saving compared with buying a new stone top, but I didn't want to waste the existing piece of stone. 

With our "Santa money" we purchased a pair of black Ikea Storsele chairs. And this is the finished product (and I have even managed to keep the succulents alive for a couple of months!).  

WORKS ON PAPER

Almost a year on, we finally organised ourselves to have the house warming works-on-paper (here) framed and hung in our living room. Thanks Spiro - they look fantastic! 

RETRO CHAIRS & TRIPOD LAMP

Last week was an exciting week of deliveries. First my retro chairs arrived from the upholster - they used the one of the vintage army blankets I had previously sourced on each chair (here). One is blue / grey with a stripe running horizontally across the front and seat and vertically down the back. The other is khaki with the stripes running around the outside of the arms. They are actually quite comfortable (which was a bit of a punt given they couldn't even be sat on in their original state) and the wool is hard wearing.

And the tripod to lamp conversion is also complete. 

PS: GUEST ROOM BEDSIDE TABLE

A follow-up from my post on my guest room bedside table project (here).

I remembered I have purchased a vintage street map of the area I grew up in from David Met Nicole many years ago. I hadn't ever found a use for it, so I decided to use it as a drawer liner.

KITCHEN DRAWER PROJECT

I have officially gone mad. After seeing these extremely attractive and organised drawers on Kara Rosenlund's blog (top two) and A Country Farmhouse (bottom). 

I have purchased a couple of bamboo adjustable drawer organisers from Howard's Storage World and pulled my drawers into better shape (although nothing like the ones above).

GUEST ROOM CHAIR

Remember this pair of chairs and this inspiration shot?

Well I am now in the process of recovering one of the pair for the guest room. The guest room is home to our old queen bed with beige bed head & white bedding, the blue & white lamps and painted bedside drawers and a wooden blanket box & bedside cupboard (imagine a mash-up of these two photos take years apart in different houses!).

Being a guest room I am on a fabric budget (less than $50 per sqm). I  looked at lots of blue and patterned fabrics from this Etsy store and the block prints from Pigott's Store. But chickened out on so much blue & white.

Then I saw this photo of a display in Piggott's Store and went in search for an apple green linen which I found but it turns out it doesn't work with the wooden elements of the rooms so that was also scrapped (but hopefully will find a home somewhere else one day).

I have ended up choosing French Grey fabric from No Chintz (fourth fabric from the top of the pile below) and will have white piping as per the inspiration photo. Can't wait to see the result from the upholsterer.

As for the rest of the fabrics: I think I will also splurge on getting some cushions made from the blue & white block prints (third fabric from the top). The linen on top is being used for a roman blind and the white is leftover from the master bedroom blinds and is being used from lampshades. The blue blanket was a gift from my Nonna and I have had the ticking Euro pillow cases for yonks.

GUEST ROOM BEDSIDE TABLE PROJECT

One of the first projects I completed in the New Home was this small set of drawers. Early 20th Century Australian basic piece of furniture which I bought in a Retro on Regent in Redfern. Its top was painted yellow, with the base and drawers in the original wood.

I sanded it back and glued some wobbly drawers. The drawer pulls were all rusty, but came up a great dull bronze colour once they were rubbed with steel wool. It got two coats of Dulux's Silt (lightened somewhat) which looks great with the bronze pulls.

The colour was inspired by the photos of this similar set of drawers in the window of Black and Spiro.

And this set of drawers from The Newlywed Diaries. 

I originally bought it thinking it could be a hall table but the proportions were all wrong (too low). So it was re-deployed as the second bedside table in the guest room. Here it is with its new lamp on top.