The clutter catcher.

I don't normally post about things I do around the house but this idea is so easy to implement and has made a big difference. See I always want the house to be clutter free and clean(ish) so entertaining is easy and I don't spend my days putting away things. This year I've set myself some new goals. I spent the first half of last year fixing up our home and trying to make it into a liveable space (and the second half learning about motherhood) and this year I'm committed to maintaining the home and having more free time (void of cleaning and packing away things).

I want to give away any possessions that weigh me down with extra cleaning and organising. 

I want to live without clutter.

I want to simplify our home and be more purposeful with my shopping.

One thing that has helped is setting up a clutter catcher near the front door. Whenever I am cleaning and come across an item I'm not that fond of or look through a drawer and discover something I haven't used in a long time, I place it in the box (aka clutter catcher). When it's looking full I load it in the car the next time I'm going out and place the items in a charity bin. Easy peasy. However this does mean that every item in the clutter catcher must be something decent and worth passing on.

Sometimes when people come round and pass by the clutter catcher, I offer for them to look through and see if there is anything they want (so if you're a friend outside the internet and come by- please take a look). Since starting it a few months back, I have parted with so many items and it feels satisfying to now open drawers around the house and find them to be emptier and only containing useful items.

Do you have any other ways you stop clutter in your home?

I've read about the idea of one thing in one thing out and also turning clothes hangers round when you actually wear items to see if you wear everything in your wardrobe but I'm always on the look out for other ideas.

Lisa x

Upcycling items for our master bedroom.

I shared my master bedroom a few days ago and today I thought I'd share two little  projects that finally have been completed in our master bedroom. At garage sales many months back (possibly years...) I found a wall house and a wooden ladder that I'd been wanting to put up for a while- ever since I worked out how I could repurpose them for use. With fresh paint on our master bedroom wall, I could finally put these items up (once they had been fixed a little).

I love using thrifted finds in unique ways to add a bit of personality around the place- let's be honest I like a little bit of kooky and unusual stuff. This little house seemed like the perfect spot for storing my collection of mini perfumes. I found it in good condition but decided to jazz it up a tad by painting the inside grey before mounting it on the wall.

My mini perfume collection was sparked by my mother in law often going on international flights and bringing back little perfume bottles. Sure they could be shoved in a drawer but I just felt they were a little too pretty to hide away and each one has it's own unique shape. The little ceramic deer on the middle shelf was found at a garage sale a few years ago, and I just can't help it, I'm partial to deer related finds.

I've always wanted a ladder in the room and found a small one very cheaply over a year ago. This ladder was painted white. By attaching some wood to the sides, I could finally mount in on the wall to hold blankets and other bits and pieces and it has proved very useful.

The resulting ladder is probably a bit more bulky than I would have liked and sometimes find itself home to unpacked away clothing. I do love how it shows off my gorgeous thrifted yellow throw- the pattern is amazing!

These two items cost me a few dollars and a bit or paint and now I have some extra valuable storage in my bedroom. I love finding items and repurposing them for new uses, although I am sure that if you wanted to copy these storage ideas, the little house and blanket ladder could be built fairly easily from local hardware shop materials.

For other thrifted upcycles check out my suitcase plate rack and rake wine glass holder. :-)

Lisa x

And onto the guest room for a new paint job.

Once you start painting, it's hard to stop as new paint just makes everything look so much better. We've only got a few spaces in our home now that are still wearing their old crusty paint job, the rest of the house is fresh and ready to have personality added to it. With paint cans filling the hallway and rollers everywhere, we proceeded to tackle the guest room . This room is in the front of the house and was originally a second dining room but my clever Dad enclosed it with some old blackwood doors he owned. Living back in the city I am unsure how much use the guest room will get (it's only had four sets of visitors through in the last 6 months) but since we've got the space and already owned a spare bed, it seems like just as good a use for the room. In fact husband and I spent 2 weeks in the guest room bed while we were painting our main bedroom. We ended up finishing painting the guest room about a week before Henry came along.

Recently I found out my sister in law and niece are coming to visit from overseas for 10 days so it seemed like the time to get the guest room together before they arrive. It's exciting to add special touches to a room and make it feel that little bit more homely and welcomming.

A before shot: The room was the same dark pink as the rest of the front of the house but with some cracking and necessary filling needed. The before shot was taken with the old owners belongings before we added the blackwood doors.

Even with the doors the room still fells large enough to be another bedroom and the house doesn't feel any smaller than it did previously. We removed the curtains quickly as they really weren't our taste and then had a blank (albeit pink) canvas to plan a guest room in.

If you look closely in the right corner of the picture you can see how the crown molding has fallen down a little. This meant that we needed to remove the crown molding and put it back nice and straight.

The process of replacing it involved using the original pieces and simply reattaching them in a straight line, using screws and nails to hold them in place until the gyprock had dried. Once it was dry the screws and nails could then be removed. Hopefully  in the future we can use some watercolour paints in the future to fix up the marbling and get rid of the white lines left. For now though it is much better that the crown molding is straight and neat.

After this work the room received a few coats of antique white (following the usual painting process) before furniture was moved back in and a few pictures and items we had around the house were given a new home. When decorating the guest room, I used items that needed a home (and I didn't want to part with) and placed them in the room. It is really nice to have a nice, neat, clean room, always ready for use when someone pops round.

The dolls house was built by my grandfather when I was a child, the chest of drawers used to be my nannas when she was a little girl, the bed was secondhand and my Dad built the bedside cabinets (he's so clever). The blanket holder was an upcycled freebie, the Marilyn Manroe picture was purchased in on a holiday in Vietnam and the rest of the items in the room have been thrifted. As my niece is also coming to stay there is a temporary portacot and a few items for her around the room.

I plan to do a feature wall in the room as I loved having the chevron wall in our previous house and would really like to have a special interesting wall in this home. I won't be doing a chevron wall but it will be much more interesting than a plain white wall :)  I also want to keep adding to this room, maybe even some more bunting, to make it more cute and special but it is a far cry from what we started out with.

With a needy newborn I just need to rest for a little before this project will happen but it's always nice to dream of future ideas.

Lisa x

A before and after round up.

Life has certainly changed in the last month as our little man is now a whole month old. I haven't had any time to really do any crafting or diy projects for the last few weeks as I've been lapping up and cherishing my first month as a Mum and it's been fantastic.
Today I thought I'd share a little round up of the busy last six months before Henry entered our family. I've really enjoyed transforming our home into a space that feels like us and since I love a good before and after shot, I thought I'd go round the house and share the progress we have made so far. While there are still many ideas and lots to do, the progress has been great and I'm so pleased with the new space. I think the nursery and half bathroom are the only truly finished spaces (that I'm happy to leave as they are and won't be making any more changes to). However a home is really always a changing space, especially with our new baby forcing us to make more child friendly choices.
Enjoy the round up so far and feel free to ask any questions about sources/projects done.

Kitchen:

While the original before photo makes the walls look white, they were actually a peachy colour and just whitening the walls and shelving has already significantly lightened the feel of the kitchen. Eventually I'd like to paint the cupboards white, install a gas stove and extend the island bench (currently not pictured). I'm trying to restrict all items to display to neutral colours with a splash of yellow and black. 

Posts:

White kitchen shelving

DIY reupholstered kitchen bar stools

Laundry:

Our laundry feels so clean and crisp now with the fresh paint and crisp white laundry sink. We've actually set up Henry's baby bath in this room and the long bench has been perfect for washing and drying off our little man. We've also recently installed a dryer (not in above picture) as washing for three in the middle of winter was getting too much without one. 

Posts:

Laundry shelving and artwork

Fixing up the laundry

 

Half bathroom:

Our house was purchased from an older lady and her daughter and had a distinctively dated feel about it. Removing the curtains and wallpaper frieze was a start, but with crisp white paint, a new mirror and some wall stickers the room really feels a lot more modern and us. 

Posts:
Adding gold wall spots

Lounge area:

 While the after photo looks much darker, it's due to my developing photography skills, rather than how it really is since the walls went from peach to white (the carpet stayed the same and looks like the original photo colour in real life). We added a gallery wall and while the photo doesn't show it well, the room has three defined spaces (the lounge area, dining area and kitchen) combined.

Posts:
Black gallery wall


Library:

Having white carpet in the entrance way was terrible so we quickly replaced it (and consequently the library which is just off the entrance way) with wooden floorboards which have made a huge difference to the feel of the space. The walls are no longer pink, but a nice fresh white and a lot of freebie furniture has been upcycled for the room.

Posts:
Painting the library
DIY window seat
Baroque style chairs
Library bookcase

Bathroom:

Once the wallpaper frieze was removed from this room and it was freshly painted, the bathroom felt much cleaner. We also custom designed and built shelving/ framing for the mirrors which has finished off the room nicely.

Posts

Painting the bathroom 

Custom shelving/frames 

 

Nursery:

The nursery was previously a small and uninviting room that wasn't really used much. We livened up with room with sea bubble (mint) paint and painted the existing sink and wardrobe. The furniture was purchased secondhand or found and this room has been filled with DIY projects as making things for a baby is great fun.

Posts:

Painting the built ins 

Gallery wall 

nursery tour 

the lamp table  

upcycled thrifted lamp 

 cloud shelf 

 the framed box shelf  

 elephant bookends 

 pin board 

"for this child I prayed" artwork  

giraffe canvas 

 quilt 

pillow and elephant toy

Garage:

 In the country we had two large sheds so when we moved to the city, we really needed somewhere to store all our tools, camping gear and other larger items. We have a double garage and now it is getting lined with shelving and we're even in the process of building a little loft so we will have a large amount of storage for our future growing family. It's still evolving and I can't wait to share how much storage we've managed to create and some diy ideas...but the garage still needs work before it's ready to share.

Posts:

Building shelves

Atrium:

One of the key selling points of our house was that all the rooms lead out to a central atrium, thus the house is always bright during the day. The atrium is the only outside area for our dog, Maisy so we needed to make sure there was an area for her to do her business. We've planted some plants and bought an outdoor table but there is still lots we can do to unlock the potential of the area.

Posts:

Planting plants

Outdoor furniture

Catering for the dog

Backyard:

The project we've invested the most time and money into has definitely been the outdoor area. While the before photo makes it look somewhat pleasant, in reality the retaining wall and fence were collapsing and causing some structural issues. Now that we have a blank canvas we need to think of some ways to spice up the space.

Posts:

The clearing process 

And there you have it, a before and after round up so far- I think we've come a long way! In the future I hope to  share the walk in wardrobe, craft room, master bedroom, guest room, a few of the hallways and the front yard. But right now I'm going to give Henry a big cuddle :-)
Lisa x

Nursery tour.

Finally the room is ready to share. I think this will be an evolving and changing space but I am quite pleased with the cute little room we have created. I have shared many of our diys for the nursery on the blog already so I'll be linking back to them throughout the post for anyone interested.

Our goal was to create a calm and peaceful space which used animals as a theme. I wanted to use existing items wherever possible and find colours which were gender neutral and worked with the existing green light, carpet and blind. The room already had a built in robe and sink which we decided to embrace rather than remove- click here to see how we painted the built ins.

As I am not currently working at the moment the budget for the room was very small and total cost for the makeover were around $500 including all the purchasing of materials and furniture. This meant I looked around lots for the cheapest and best supplies but even with our tight budget we did not compromise on quality. Everything we purchased was well made and doing lots of diy projects meant that we finished each project off to the best of our ability. We are fortunate to have parents and a grandpa who happen to be quite handy and can help with lots of these diy projects. I've taken lots of photos of the room which was the first completely finished space in our home.

The details:

The cot is a tasman eco sienna cot and converts to a toddler bed for when baby is older so it should get plenty of use. We purchased it second hand off gumtree relatively new as it's still under it's five year warranty. We chose this cot as it was highly recommended on choice as being very safe.

The change table and rocking chair were also bought second hand off gumtree and the lamp table was a diy project. The lamp was a thrifted lamp that I updated. The cloud shelf above the change table was made by my grandpa, as was the framed box shelf and elephant bookends. The mirror, pin board, "for this child I prayed" artwork and giraffe canvas were diy projects. I also sewed the quilt, pillow and elephant toy.

The hooks in the room were all thrifted, as was the hanging basket and umbrellas.

All other items were already owned except the "sophie the giraffe" which was the first item I purchased when I found out I was expecting...I've just got a little thing for giraffes.

This room is just what I wanted and more and I hope many beautiful memories will be made in this space.  I loved doing lots of diys for the room and making a special room filled with love and unique items.

Thanks for reading through my nursery tour.

Lisa x

The garage organisation project.

My nesting instincts kicked into full swing and I really wanted to turn our garage into a more useable space. We had the amazing luxury of two large sheds in our old home and now have no shed at all (well there was originally one small shed but it needed to go in our backyard makeover to make the walkway more useable). Back to the shed dilema..

We are extremely fortunate to have a double garage as it seems to be a bit of a luxury in our area due to smaller block sizes and we really wanted to utilise this double garage to be our 'shed' for storing all those DIY tools and cans of paint we have accumulated over the last few years. 

To really take advantage of the garage and little bit of extra space in there involved a lot of planning. We needed to think carefully about each area and to make it most useful while still allowing parking space for our two cars. As our family is growing we really wanted more storage than we actually needed to accommodate the items that will probably enter our world in the next few years (like trikes and beach toys).

Before:

 We had a pool fence enclosed and there were a few storage shelves already in the shed. Finding a place for the bikes, lawn mower, deck chairs and other larger items was really important for us.

Lots of little items like sanders, screwdrivers and paint cans were just thrown around the place and dirty, with no particular organisation going on. The left side of the garage was really just a dumping ground for bits and pieces we didn't want in the house.

The first step:

I'm not always good at remembering before photos so the below photo will have to serve as the best before shot of what the right side of the garage looked like (although we clearly had already started the project and built a shelf.

This shelf was custom built by my Dad using some existing wood he had and some bought pieces. The outside of the shelving received a coat of white paint to help it be more durable against the elements. The shelf was built on top of our existing retaining wall and actually takes up no more floor space than if it wasn't there. I know I am extremely fortunate to have a Dad who can custom build a shelf for the cost of materials.

Before the shelf was built though we needed to deal with the existing gap between the fence and roof line. This was fairly easy to fix using metal sheeting and green paint which matches the fence. Now no water can get in and damage our shelving or the items on the shelves.

In total 4 shelves were built and they were all painted white and cottage green to match in nicely with our existing colour scheme.

One of the shelves was spefically cut into to hold the whipper snipper too. Step one complete. Stay tuned for how we tackle to rest of the garage organisation and if you have any good ideas on how to make the best use of this space please share, I'm always keen to work out the best solutions for a space and two (or more) brains are always better than one.

Lisa x

Makeup in the bedroom.

I tend to be a bit of a dreamer and can't stop thinking about ways to make the house more liveable for minimal cost. As our home only has only bathroom, I decided I wanted to create a little vanity area in the bedroom for holding makeup and a place to get ready in the morning. I had gotten a little ikea stool for free recently and thought it would be good to sit on and already had a mirror hanging on the wall. 

After thinking about it for a while, I decided under the mirror would be a great little non invasive spot for a vanity shelf. In this way the space would be used well and the room shouldn't feel any more crowded.

before

I am thankful that my Grandpa is an extremely talented carpenter and offered to make my dream shelf vanity. I drew up some designs and made measurements for him to create me the little vanity shelf. The main requirements were curved edges so future little heads didn't bang themselves and a shelf to hide everything away. I choose to paint it the same white I have painted other furniture in our house as it tends to pop against the grey blue walls.

custom made shelf with drawer photobombed by maisy :)

I have a beautiful collection of extra drawer handles that has grown a little over the years and had a pretty blue one that I'd been waiting to find a place for. The lovely blue marbled knob with gold really suits the colour scheme I'm going for in our room. I knew I'd start working through my collection one day.

The brilliant thing too is that the shelf could double as a changing mat holder for the first few months when bubs sleeps in our room. You can already see the little baby area set up reflected in the mirror with a second hand bassinet, bunting, mini hot air balloon and a few ikea wall stickers I sourced at a garage sale the other day. My Dad helped me to put up the vanity shelf as at 38 weeks pregnant, I really don't have the energy/ability to hold up a shelf for long. I really just ended up handing him tools and using the spirit level as he did all the drilling in place. With a bit of dreaming, designing and help I now have a lovely little nook in our bedroom to use.

While taking up no extra room, the space now has a function.

Having a drawer is really useful for stashing away the makeup and keeping the area looking clean. The drawers pretty packed full at the moment though so some organisation is going to be needed...one thing at a time :)

It's lovely to have this little makeup/getting ready area in our bedroom though down the track I'd like to add some extra lighting so I can make sure my makeup looks right :)

Lisa x