Wooden pallet verandah daybed couch

Hello, here's the newest finished project here at number 88, a daybed for the back verandah.

I'm really happy with the way this has turned out. It's huge and perfect for a napping on long hot afternoons. Or getting comfy with a pile of books.

This is what it looks like among the toys and table that take up the rest of the verandah.

We spend an awful lot of time out here in summer and eat most of our meals at that table.

This is what the verandah looked like before. I really loved those cane chairs, and the squatters chairs… but there were just TOO MANY chairs out there.

It became especially problematic when the Baby became a Toddler. It felt like he was spending all day moving chairs around so everything always looked super messy and there was never any space to play.

Now that I've minimised the moveable pieces for furniture things are feeling much calmer.

The pallets for the daybed where acquired via Gumtree and transported home on the roof rack in one of the more terrifying drives of my life.

Had I selected prettier rustic pallets I might have been able to get away without painting these, but I didn't, and it had to be done.

In the end, they do look good and I'm glad, even though it was a PITA job.

I cut the foam for the cushions smaller than the pallets deliberately so we'd have a handy shelf for popping a mug of tea on around the edges. It turns out it makes a handy step for tiny legs to clamber up on too.

There are still a few more things I need to do here before I'm calling this finished (aren't there always?), like another blind to keep the rest of the afternoon sun off the lounge. I'm looking forward to cozying it up with some more blankets and sheepskins when the weather cools down too.

Suzani bedspread

I've had this gorgeous Meicaxan suzani from Table Tonic for months now. It's been lurking in the cupboard, collecting dust and calling to me to get around to sewing borders on it so it would be large enough to use as a bedspread on our king sized monster.

I do think it looks extra gorgeous on the bed. Look at those colours.

Inspiration for the custom bedspread came from the Table Tonic blog. One of my faves.

Pink kitchen chairs

Husband was not sold on these chairs when I bought them on Ebay.

And not when I sweetly asked him to pick me up yet another can of pink spray paint while he was at Bunnings.

Another can? Really?

What can I say? It was hard to get good coverage. Eventually he became resigned to the idea.

I think they look super sweet. A cheery splash of colour in the kitchen.

Once painted I made new slip covers for the old cushions with this outdoor fabric from Fabric Traders.

Dinah, my fat, white feline likes these chairs a lot. Can you spy her?

Even artichokes have hearts

I've always loved this line from Amelie. The first time Husband ever visited my studio flat he correctly identified it on the chalkboard… and I knew he was the one. True story.

Meanwhile, seven years and mortgage and a baby later I've been fixing up this blanket box we inherited.

This is what was underneath the pink velvet. Pretty but falling into dust.

This is what it looks like now. I've put it in the hall for shoe removal and convenient handbag dumping.

Don't these tomatoes look gorgeous in the sun? I took this in one of the brief sunshiny rain breaks we've ben having.

It was a casual kind of weekend around here, I won't lie. We hardly left the house at all with all this rain.

My singlet is Gorman and the shrug contraption is from Cotton On. The jeans are Target with Punky Brewster patches added by me. The loafers are from Wittner. I kept seeing these shoes for months, each time a little more discounted until I finally gave in. So glad I did because they are buttery leather heaven.

While we're on the subject of fashion look at this. More leopard print and fair isle! It's going to be the combo for winter I'm telling you. This picture is from Susie Bubble.

Heads down. Bums up!

We're looking for a screen front door. What do you think of this one?

This is our front door now.

Ikea Malm drawers change table nursery upholstery makeover

Before Baby was born I prettied up this double width chest of Ikea Malm drawers we bought for his change table.

The idea for the project came from this tutorial and I posted about my inspiration here.

In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best project to undertake heavily pregnant as it involved a fair amount of crawling around on the floor, but I'd still rate it a pretty easy DIY.

I knew I wanted a fading ombre look and chose this scale of yellows in plain cotton.

I used a thin piece of quilt batting underneath the fabric to give the front of each drawer a nice squishiness. I laid each drawer, face down on a cut out rectangle of fabric with the batting between them.

Then I got busy with the staple gun. Pulling the cotton tight over the edges of the drawers

and folding around the corners.

To finish off the inner edges of each drawer and hide the staples from tiny fingers I used fabric tape from Bunnings. Mine was white because the drawers were but this stuff comes in heaps of colours.

I gave each drawer a few coats of Scotchguard as I finished it to project it from grubby fingers. And that's it. We're four and a half months in to operation Baby now and the drawers are holding up well.

I didn't use any glue in this project as the staple gun held everything tightly enough. I like the idea that down the track when Baby is older I can remove all the fabric and return the drawers to their original state or redecorate them without too much drama.

Christmas 2011 - festive finery

I know it's only a few days before Christmas and way late for inspiration posts but I wanted to show off my tree and festive do-dads anyway. I had some grand plans this year for our first Christmas in the house involving garlands made from vintage scarves and handmade decorations. This also being our first Christmas as parents however, most of these plans fell off the list fairly quickly. Some days it still feels like all I do is sit on the couch feeding Baby and not much else. So, we kept it simple. Husband kept things so simple this year that he bought a whole bunch of lights from Bunnings for the outside of the house and they're still in their boxes. We've never been outside of house decorators before and I'm still not sure if we're Christmas lights people. It's question for next year.

I was fairly pleased with the way the tree came out. I retired a bunch of our old, $2 store decorations this year and simplified things with hearts and bits of ribbon tied here and there for colour. The white hearts are from Ikea and the clear plastic ones (and the star on top) are from Anna Spiro's Absolutely Beautiful things online store.

Here are the presents. Brown paper and hand ripped pieces of calico from Spotlight with Officeworks shipping tag labels.
We don't usually do a wreath but I saw a photo of something similar to this online and it seemed summery and appropriate for our bright sunshiny Christmas season. This was a super easy project which only took a lazy late night hour in front of the telly and I do think it looks fab.



Christmas cookies. These are CWA ginger biscuit recipe that is one of my staples (must post one day). I weighed the virtues of a slew of Christmas cookie recipes before finally just making these in festive shapes and I'm not sorry at all.
Merry Christmas.