Working with a floral lounge.

After searching for months for a lounge for our front room (referred to as the library) I was struggling to find one. Every time I found an old fashioned style lounge for sale within my budget, when I inquired someone also beat me to it! I was sick of searching and then...I got lucky. My mother-in-law offered one they had in their 'junk room' that they didn't use.  I just love it's shape and style and it also happens to be quite comfortable.The pattern is quite an intense pattern but I'm kind of a fan. However I always like couches with cushions and throws since they make them feel more welcoming and comfortable. After searching the net for hours attempting to find information on how to style a couch with a strong pattern, I was a little stumped. Emily Henderson (I just love her style) did a great video on styling a plain couch by mixing patterns and her rule of thumb was no more than two patterns and three colours.

Since I already had one such intense pattern and three shades of brown on the couch, I stuck to the browns...not my typical colour choices said the girl who loves yellow, black, white and grey. While brown patterns are interesting, I do feel I'll be saving up for some reupholstery in the future. I also have high hopes for a larger rug for the room so all the furniture can fit on it, some built in shelving and new lighting.

I ended up deciding on using two brown cushions to give the couch some extra comfort. I went for different textures (one silky and one fluffy) to make the couch feel more homely and layered. I'm always searching for affordable cushions- the silk one was from a garage sale and had a border of beading around the outside which I removed, while the fluffy one was from kmart.

I feel like I can now use the front room as there's enough seating for a group of people. We had a small church discussion group at our house last week and we could comfortably fit 13 people in the front room (bringing in some chairs from other rooms too). Finally a rarely used room is getting some use which is so important to me- what's the use of having a nice home if it's not filled with people and shared? Also it happens to be quite far away from our room (aka where Henry sleeps) so we can be a bit more noisy in there. Win!

If you have any suggestions for other items to style on the couch or how you think I should reupholster it, I'd love to hear your ideas.

Lisa x

The painting process-library.

When you enter our home, the first thing you see is the 'library' (it has all our books in it but really is just an room with a few books in) and I was pretty over staring at some pink walls so finally we got round to painting them and sparkling up the room. This room is a great size and needed some wall love to showcase it's potential. Warning...this post is fairly photo heavy as I wanted to make sure I was documenting each of the steps.

before

It was pretty easy decision to use Dulux 'Antique White' as it's my favourite shade of white and I just knew white was going to brighten up the space. This room is quite huge so white was going to make it feel even bigger and grander.

ah, a lovely white wall!

The first wall was painted white about a month ago (we were feeling inspired one day) but the rest of the room cried out for a paint job. Since we have been painting so many rooms lately, I thought I'd share a bit about the painting process for any people out there who haven't done a lot of painting before.

Step 1: prep
As you can see in the before photo, we had already started the prep which means filling in the holes and removing unwanted hooks etc. Some holes may need to be filled, sanded back and refilled again before they are great. I am not an expert at prep but I feel confident enough filling most holes and cracks (though bigger ones would call for an expert). If you have a new house though (or one with walls in better condition than ours) you may be able to skip the prep step and go straight to the primer coat. The photo shows quite a big crack that needed filling.

Step 2: Undercoat and paint the ceiling

We always paint the ceiling first and have used Dulux 'pure white'  for all the ceilings in our house. It is truly amazing how much better the room feels just with a freshly painted ceiling. We do the edges first with a brush (this requires some patience) before rolling the middle section. We usually do an undercoat followed by 2 top coats. However because the roof was so dark we needed to do 3 top coats but this is not the norm.The library has crown molding with a marbled edging. I'm not the biggest fan of the marbled edging but my parents have convinced us to live with it for a while as apparently marbled painted is expensive and fancy and they think I might regret painting over it. I'm really not sure. Because of the marbling we decided to use some dulux 'silver dollar' paint around the edges so the difference between the marble and the white wouldn't be so starch. This took a bit of extra time and patience but I think it is more successful that just white and marbled. Silver dollar was the colour we also used in our front entrance way and hallway beside the kitchen so it's a colour that has been repeated through the house.

 Painting the corners of the roof and cutting around the light and air conditioning vent.

 After the ceiling had been rolled

 

Painting the 'silver dollar' trim ( you can see the big difference between the grey and original pink trim)

Step 3: undercoat and paint the walls.

The walls require the same process as above; do the corners and edges first and then roll in between.

Step 4: let the fun begin- styling!

*disclaimer- I have not finished styling this room at all, lots of the furniture in it is from the guest room (the room that we are currently painting.
The library is a big room oozing with potential but we're not able to buy any new furniture at the moment and have more important things to spend money on in the immediate future. However we could still use a whole bunch of previous DIY projects in the room. The library is home to our upholstered window seat, painted bookshelf and reupholstered baroque style chair. This room is the only room in the house to have gotten new wooden flooring- every other room is still embracing the green carpet of the previous owners. Having a new floor really makes this room feel even more finished from the start.

The lighting in the room is quite tricky to work with so while the before and after looks relatively similar (in terms of paint colour) the wall was originally much darker (like the photos taken while painting). This room is expansive and fairly empty and I believe the styling will evolve as we collect more treasures and work out the exact purpose of this room and the mirror currently sitting on the window seat will find a new home shortly in the guest room.

For the future I'd love to:
-find an amazing comfortable vintage couch for the room
-create built in bookshelves around the window and more storage
- change the lighting
- find some more artwork

Hopefully anyone who comes across this might find this guide to the painting process useful. With this room painted now, we only have two more rooms to paint (craft room and guest room) and some outside painting. I'm not sure it'll all get finished before the baby comes but we've made a pretty good effort!

Lisa x

Making a window seat for the library.

It's been a joy to go through my parent's old furniture stash and see what items might just work in our new place. It's good for both of us as I get free furniture to fix up and they get to declutter and have more space. One particular item that caught my eye was a chest that was in great condition but not very attractive. It was just the right height and width to fit underneath the window in the library and seemed like a good cheap way to get us a window seat. I love giving life to old things and finding cheap alternatives for finishing off the room.

before

It was an easy choice to paint the chest white as I wanted it to match my white painted bookshelf. The chest needed a sand down and a coat of primer, before being given two coats of white.Once it was painted white, the next challenge was finding the right materials to change the chest into a window seat. My goal was to get make a nice chair using materials that were comfortable and didn't cost too much.

After looking around at different fabrics I settled on a green gingham print which would go nicely with the reupholstered baroque chair that was already in the library. I usually always go for neutral colours but I'm really getting into different shades of green lately and fell for the fabric (which using a voucher was only $1.30). Foam is never that cheap so I stretched the budget and bought a big piece that fit the top and was about 10cm high. Hopefully I will get lots of use from this seat! Then I cut some old mdf, from a stash in the shed, to the size of the bench top and started the upholstery process.

Cut the fabric to size leaving around 10cm on each edge to staple down. Line the fabric up straight (easier with non gingham print fabric). Then I used a staple gun to staple down the top longest sides. 

Corners are always the trickiest and I'm not perfect at it but I've included an underneath photo to show how I decided to do the corners.

To finish off I put the upholstered bench seat on top of the chest and now I have a new seat. This room is starting to feel a bit more purposeful and like it will actually get some use.  Now four people can sit in the room :) I'm no pro upholsterer but this seat is the perfect size for on top of the chest and looks neat and nice. I would show a whole room photo but we are currently painting the walls (from a hideous shade of dark pink) so the room is not in a photo worthy state- but hopefully will be soon!

Still to do in this room:
- paint walls and ceiling white
-find a lounge or larger item of seating
-hang up some artwork
- find a bigger bookcase for the other side of the chest? (one day I'd love to have built ins but for now this girl is gonna dream).

Lisa x

Baroque style library chairs.

I'm loving working on the library at the moment (like fixing up this library bookcase ) and have been thinking about ways to mix crisp white furniture with some baroque style vintage furniture.I have plans for built ins, a window seat and a chaise.

I love baroque style furniture and am aiming to find some more as it's so beautiful, fancy and special. In the past I got a baroque style armchair from my mother in law and recently my parents found an old baroque style chair on the side of the road while out walking. It was in quite dismal condition with a floral print over it but good, fancy bones. My Grandpa lovingly repaired the chair. He has so much skill and the chair now looks new and just so pretty.

Choosing material is always a bit tricky as it needs to go with everything else in the room and there isn't always the best range at the local material shop.
However after much debate I chose a pretty green spotted print upholstery fabric and some matching trim for the chair. The material ended up costing $14.20 but I still have lots left over for future projects- maybe one more fancy chair or a matching bench?

We'll see what furniture turns up for me to up cycle in the future. For now I am very happy with having a second baroque style chair and look forward to finding other items over time to finish off this room- oh and finishing painting the walls which have only had one coat of white on the main wall so far- the rest of the walls are still a delightful dark pink. I do really like how the chairs connect with the original fireplace and a curved coffee table I picked up for free the other day. It's great to be able to see change and the room evolving on a very tight budget.

Lisa x

Library bookcase.

It's painting time again! I think I'm getting obsessed with easy transformations involving paint. In our 'library' there are really no decent bookshelves and books were stored in rickety pieces of wood and crates. When my parents showed me a bookshelf they had in their garage that they weren't using, I just knew I needed to fix it up and create some space for books so they don't just line the floor in crates.

Before:

Pine is just not my thing. I like being adventurous with paint but as this bookshelf is kind of meant to blend into the room and just showcase pretty books I opted for sanding, a coat of primer and then two coats of a china white paint (my go to paint for  the crates, the rattan chairs and the nursery built ins. It just makes me smile so much to have fresher brighter furniture with the house. 

While the white bookshelf is just a small change to the room, I had a great time filling it up with so many pretty books. I'm no expert at book styling but I decided to go a little different and sort the books by colours. I also used some thrifted bookends for an extra touch.

When cleaning up the yard I found some beautiful green pots and while they've just been cleaned up for now, I'm planning on having a go at some indoor plants and greening up the room a little.

I still have many ideas for the space, including getting another similar bookcase in the room and ending up with a space that draws on beautiful antique items, like the old fireplace and marbled ceiling trim but also combines then with modern items collected from travels. I also look forward to the day when the pink walls are gone for good.

If you haven't tried arranging books by colours, give it a go, it's very relaxing and the end result is just so pretty. Rainbows always make me smile :)

Lisa x