The guest room/office project : the desk area

My latest project is the guest room/office and I thought I'd share with you the creation of my 'new' desk. The desk was a little freebie find which was just the right size for the space I had available in the room. Complete with three drawers, it was in reasonable condition and just needed a  few coats of paint.

The before photos show it after a little bit of mending and sanding had taken place- I'm always to eager to get into these craft projects and forget to take before photos.

I'd found some pretty little gold flower handles on a garage sale for $1 each and they looked quite cute on the finished drawers. I just have a thing for pretty little handles and these were so delicate and smart looking. Once the desk had received the usual treatment- repair, sand, prime and 2 coats of oil based paint (seemed to wear better), the handles were attached and the desk was put inside.

While there were three drawers to fill, it wasn't quite enough so I decided to add some shelving. For the shelving my Dad actually cut some melamine he had a home to size and ironed on white edging. For the brackets we used Ikea EKBY brackets (currently sold for $4 each). These don't come in gold so with some gold spray paint they were transformed (and also a chalkboard frame I already owned). I just love the pop of gold- it just feels like a very classy and nice place for me to work now. I have plenty of spray paint left over now so I'm dreaming up other things I can give a gold makeover.

The top shelf houses beautiful brass giraffes I received as a baby, a favourite Roald Dahl quote and  some storage boxes.

 The middle shelf is home to lots of paperwork including my 2014 memory box and also a little elephant from India.

The bottom shelf is home to some special photographs, prints of Henry's darling little newborn feet and a frame from a previous project that I updated using gold spray paint. There is also a little brass piano from my childhood doll's house...can you sense my eagerness to find any gold items I could in the house and give them a new home? You know you are running short on brass items when you have to raid your childhood dolls house... though every room does need a little quirk in it.

Then on the wall is another old project that was updated to suit the new style of this room. The frame was given a coat of gold spray paint and I just love the end result. It really changed the whole look of the frame.

And there you have it, my new little office nook. While the desk is now in full use (I'm sitting at it right now writing this post), I'm still looking to finish off the workspace a bit more by adding more pieces of paper to my pinboard and working out how best to use the desk space. I am also working at finishing off the rest of the room and look forward to sharing other progress around the room soon.

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

Living with less

I continually feel challenged by the amount of 'stuff' I accumulate. Now we have a bigger house, we just seem to be getting more and more to fill it up. I find clutter oppressive. It makes large rooms feel crowded and provides endless extra items to clean. Since Henry was born, the enormity of items needed for a baby has also overwhelmed me. A solution for this has been setting up a playroom where all Henry's things go (as the nursery is small and really just a sleeping, changing room. Although right now it is just a changing room as Henry sleeps in our room. With frequent night feeding our bedroom seems to be the best place for him. My husband jokes that really every room in the house is now Henry's as his cradle and feeding chair fill our bedroom, his bathtub, towels and bath toys take over the laundry, he has his own playroom and nursery and still there is often a play mat and toys strewn round the lounge room. It's kind of true that our house screams new parents (hopefully not in the messy way) but having all these areas set up has made being a stay at home mum easier. 

Anyway as you can clearly understand- adding more baby stuff to our home means just a bit too much stuff. For the last 40 days I've been getting rid of a bag a day of clutter from our home (some days it's a few bags and other days none but in total 40 bags+ a few bits of furniture etc.) By bags I am referring to your typical sized shopping bag... I wouldn't have made it if I'd used garbage baths. It's been extremely liberating and I've grown to be quite ruthless. My wardrobe was hacked to pieces as I came to terms with my new 'mummy curves' and the craft room was stripped back to those items I love as the realisation that my days of endless crafting in my holidays were over for a while. 

I still have a huge penchant for thrifting and my bargain loving self got giddy last weekend about 'the garage sale trail' happening all over Australia. I made up a map, secured a thrifting buddy and most importantly got husband babysitting with a large supply of pumped milk prepared for him. However as I've gotten rid of so much, I made sure I was very restrained and sought only the most special treasures. Above: The little cane planter and faux apples were perfect to add a touch of green to the library. I was given that beautiful vase by Mum after she found it on a trip interstate and now it no longer sits empty.

I also picked up some very cheap second hand clothes for Henry. I just adore these prints (especially the gnome and mushrooms one) and as I pack away more and more clothes that he has outgrown, I feel that good quality secondhand items are the way to go- there's no use spending too much on clothes he outgrows so quickly- but I still want to dress my little man in cute stuff. In my opinion I could put him in anything and he'd still look gorgeous but indeed I am bias.I also picked up Mr Beethoven as who doesn't look a head statue...I am sure plenty of people but I happen to be someone who does. I think this statue will look lovely on a shelf in the library/front room.

I now have a bag permanently in the front hall solely for items I no longer want/need and will continue to fill it and donate each bag when it's full and while I'll forever struggle to drive past a  little cardboard sign announcing a garage sale, I am not coming home with anything unless it has a clear purpose, place and is just lovely.

Lisa x

Recent thrifting finds.

It has been a long time since I've gone out to garage sales in the morning and a long time since I've shared a few thrifty finds! I initially tried a few times when we first moved back to the city but this was around the end of my first trimester, start of second and I was just crazy tired in the mornings and struggled to get to them. Now approaching the end of my third trimester I wanted to get in one more morning or garage sales. There were six in a five minute radius of our home due to the pleasant warm May days we have had this last week. I was pleasantly surprised with a few finds and thought I'd share a few of them.

A beautiful 1950's mirror

I am ALWAYS on the look out for cheap art deco mirrors as I just love the glam beautiful look of them. For $8 I was sold on this beauty for above the bedroom dresser. I'd love a whole wall of mirrors in this style but it's pretty rare to find one so cheaply so I'll just count my blessings for now.

Love birds artwork

I love individual art and have developed a little thing for bird drawings lately. This cute hand painted picture of two love birds had me sold even before I found out its $2 price tag. Its just right for above our bed and such a fitting picture too. I love being able to encorporate newly thrifted items into our recently painted master bedroom to give it some extra interest and style.

Teacup and saucer

There is something so special and lovely about tea parties and I'm always searching for pretty complete teacup sets. I haven't found that many at bargain prices but this spotty one for 50c was a lucky find. After all I have a display cabinet to fill. 

I will forever be the girl who loves the thrill of a bargain.

Have you thrifted anything great lately? Happy thrifting!
Lisa x

Lamp table.

I got this pathetically ordinary lamp table for free the other day and wanted to make it into something a bit more special that could hold the new lamp I upcycled. I had no where to put the lamp so this little find is the perfect solution and also a place to hold some beautiful brass giraffes that I was given as a baby by an Aunty.

Like I always believe, a coat of paint can make a world of difference. Even after a coat of primer and two coats of white paint, it was looking far more like something I'd have in my house and want to use.

But a white table is just a little bit boring, I changed it up every so slightly by using some leftover 'silver dollar' grey paint to make a bit of interest to the legs.I considered changing up the top too but for now the white paint just makes the lamp and giraffes pop.

 

And the room is certainly coming together as I've also recently bought a second hand cot and rocking chair so all the furniture in the room is now purchased. The lamp table will need to move when bubs starts crawling and walking but it is a nice solution for the moment and looks cute between the growth chart and gallery wall.

There is still three months to go but I am so pleased to have this room almost complete. Now I just need to stock the cupboards and actually have this little baby :-)

Lisa x

Getting down and organised.

Lately I have been able to complete more craft projects recently and am really enjoying finishing some of the projects that have been lying around for ages. It is satisfying to be not have such a huge to do list and see progress around the house. It's also meant I've had more chances to blog and have enjoyed being able to share a different project everyday. I've been trying to write a new post each day and would love some feedback, ideas from you readers out there about any other DIY projects you'd like to see or other details you want when I'm sharing projects send me an email at thethriftychallenge@gmail.com.  

Now for today's DIY projects which all involve making the nursery a more organised space...

 

First up I decided to update an old pinboard that was lying around for the nursery. When bubs arrive I'm sure there will be lots of cards and many photos taken so I thought it would be lovely to have a little spot for these things.Updating an old plain pinboard is very easy. All you need is an old pinboard, some fabric and a staple gun. I also chose to use some grey paint (leftover silver dollar from the hallway) to paint the frame so it matches nicely with the fabric. This particular spotted deer fabric has certainly made it's place in the baby's room as it was also used on the quilt, pillow, elephant softie and ottoman.

I removed the frame from the existing cork board and used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the cork board. While the frame was removed I gave it a light sand and two coats of silver dollar paint. Once secure I then reattached the frame and it was ready to hang.

Now there's a space in the room to hang special photos and paper memories. This technique for upcycling a pinpoard is very simple and a quick way to create a cute pinboard and you can just use whatever material you have lying around.
Having places to hang items around the nursery is also important for me. I don't just want things thrown across the floor. These next DIY items came to me by accident. I was buying a little sewing basket from a garage sale and in the basket were some sewing goodies. However when I got home I also found these hooks in the basket, I quite liked them and thought they'd be useful to hang things from such as towels,  bags and changes of clothes. They were quite nice but needed a tiny bit of work to fit in with the nursery aesthetics.

before

After

I wanted the hooks to be a little bit more interesting so instead of just painting them white I used some paint tape to seal off the top half and gave it two coats of white. I like the end effect of wood and white and they look sweet hanging on the side of the wardrobe and holding some little booties for now ( I would have taken a wide photo but there are a few other little projects I've been working on nearby that I didn't want to get into the photograph).

And to finish off this productive day or making space for mementos and hanging items, I also thought I'd create a little growth chart for baby. If baby is anything like me in height this won't last that long.

I had an old ruler in my stash of randomly thrifted items and quite like it's vintage look. Without needing to do anything else I lined the ruler up along the door and attached it using two screws- a simple and easy growth chart that I look forward to using with bubs although I'm still not 100% sure whether I'll mark growth on the wall or door pane. I think I might add a little mark too for Maisy as she's the only current family member less that one metre tall. Her mark should never change as I'm certain my four legged friend is fully grown.

This nursery is making me so excited- so much cuteness is one space. I just need bubs to get here safely so we can start to enjoy the beautiful room. This definitely has been one of my favourite spaces to create so far and it's so nice having a room coming together and almost finished. I'm working on a few more things including what to do for a cot and chair and then I'll be happy to share a full room tour.

Happy upcycling. 

Lisa x
Today I'm linking up with  A Creative Princess,All Things with Purpose,Rhinestone Beagle,Glued to my Crafts,Artsy Fartsy Mama,Sweet Haute,A Glimpse Inside,It Happens in a Blink

Nursery gallery wall.

I wanted to have a gallery wall in the nursery that tied in my colours of choice (green and yellow) and some cute art I'd collected over the years or made myself.  Finally I had collected enough items to create a display. While all the artwork is really just a mishmash of pictures I like and thought were pretty cute. I really love being able to see all these beauties together and not have them hiding away around the house.

The deer head, zebra and box were thrifted while I lived in the country. The giraffe and Eiffel tower and giraffe and cat drawing were gifts and the smaller black picture frame and black and white giraffe were bought while travelling. I have already shared how I made the embroidery frame art, sewn giraffe picture and deer print and you can click the links to see how to DIY your own.

It's great to have a little gallery wall up and giving the room some charm and visual interest. The whole process of hanging the frames involved a lot of practising layouts on the carpet and a lot of measuring prior to any nailing of hooks. The only things to find now are a few more cute knicknacks for the shadowbox. So far it houses a little Eiffel tower giraffe and a basketball man so hopefully I can find a few more cute little things to fill the shelves (although I'll probably leave a few empty shelves for any special little gifts the bub might get or collect while growing up). I only have one more blank wall to add features too and then the walls will be finished. Then the process of buying/thrifting all the baby stuff will begin so the bub actually has the necessities.  Here's hoping thrifting lots of these items will be easy!

Lisa x
P.S I'm linking up with
Live Laugh Rowe
A Glimpse Inside
Bloom Designs

Thrifting for the nursery.

As I put together a gender neutral nursery, I wanted to find as many items as possible second hand rather than resorting to buying things new. There are still a lot of things I need to get together ( and plenty of time to do this) but so far everything has been thrifted or made with love and that's the way I like it.  As you can see too, the nursery is now crisply painted in 'sea bubbles' by taubman as it's just such a light pretty green. I found this cute little hanging basket and hook set a while back but they may excellent storage.  The hanging onesie was too cute to pass at a thrift shop and could be worn by either a little girl or boy. I also managed to thrift about thrifty white and yellow vintage look coat hangers for $4 which I just love and they look so lovely hanging in the wardrobe.

 

There is also a whole checklist of things you really need for a nursery ( or so I have found while googling) and change table was on my list. I found this lovely white dresser nursery for $30 on gumtree. I am so pleased with all the storage available for all the items this babe will undoubtedly need.

If you want to see other things we've been doing to get the nursery ready check out the nursery art and how we painted the built ins.
Have you had any recent thrifting luck?

Lisa x

Make me white.

There seems to be nothing like a fresh coat of paint to spice up a piece of old furniture. Now that I am on holidays I finally have the time to coat a range of different thrifted items with some white paint to make them shiny and new looking.Each item required the sand process; sand, prime and then 2 coats of white.

Remember my old rattan chairs? Well they look amazing now they're white.

BEFORE

To make the chairs more comfortable, I picked up some gorgeous circular chair pads on post Christmas sale.

I also painted up a towel rack that I found on the side of the room recently and half a ladder that I picked for $2 from my last ever garage sale in the country town. These look so much better white, though I wish I hadn't got quite so excited and remembered to take some before photos.I will be using both these items in the guest room and can't wait to find the perfect spot to mount the ladder and use it hold some pretty blankets.

These items spice up spaces in the new house and really look so much nicer with just a coat of paint! I just need to paint the walls now too, I can't wait to lose the pink walls :)

Now time to tackle the 100 other craft projects that I've left on hold lately.

Lisa x
P.S I'm linking up with 
Someday Crafts

Cheaper outdoor chairs.

For Christmas husband and I decided to just write each other thoughtful cards and get a combined present of an outdoor table. 

We found a beautiful recycled teak 8 seater for 1/2 price and immediately snapped it up. It was perfect and arrived the day before christmas. However there was a small issue- we didn't have any chairs!

I've been eyeing off some replica tolix chairs for $69 each but they weren't really in the budget.Then I found the solution with chairs just over $20 each. While Christmas shopping I spotted some adorable striped directors chair covers for 1/2 price (only $20 per cover) so I picked up 8. Then came the task of thrifting the chairs. Gumtree had 6 directors chairs advertised for $15 so I quickly bought them. They are all sturdy but don't look amazing; 1 is green, 2 are white, 1 is maroon and 2 are striped but with the covers you'd never know. Now I just need to keep my eye out in hard rubbish and on gumtree to snag two more.

For now I am so happy with the new outdoor setting and it looks so much better than the collection of mismatched bits and pieces in the atrium before! I just need to hang my swinging chair (which also has a matching black and white striped cushion) and work out the best layout of plants in the area.

Lisa x

The new dining area.

It's been a while since I shared some of my thrifty finds and I've been loving decorating the house with lots of thrifty finds (and a few special new purchases).

This table was actually found by my Dad on hard rubbish (when people put free items on their curbs) and it's really well made. I haven't had time yet but when I do I'll sand it all down and stain the top. I am unsure whether to paint any of it or just enjoy the real wood- any thoughts? I like having a dining room table that I don't feel too precious about. When we first moved in I used a range of thrifted chairs including those from my 1950's chrome table and rattan chairs (which were also found on hard rubbish ).

After browsing online I fell in love with these beautiful replica eames DSW chairs and browsed online till I found a coupon code. After selling my old dining room table, I had almost enough to get the chairs and I'm just loving the new dining room set up. The chairs are light, bright and perfect for our new space.

Next on the list is changing up the pale green curtains for some crisp white ones and probably some table sanding. The lovely flowers on the table are fresh from the front yard. I'm loving setting up the new house. Have you ever found something amazing for free?

Lisa x

Room to craft.

Well the new house is officially unpacked and it already feels like home. I forgot how much I missed all the conveniences of city life and it's been hard leaving behind the new house and returning to the country for work. When husband and I first got married I don't think either of us realised how much time we were going to spend living apart in the first few years of married life. We've already done the back and forth living for two terms at the start and now it's another term at the end. But life is full of blessings and these experiences have shaped and grown us as a couple. Now back to the point of this post...

Our new house's floor plan looks like this:

Yes, that's right. I finally have a room to craft away in to my heart's content. It's not really photo worthy yet but I took a few snaps to show how it's developing and I'm starting to put it together.

When you enter there is a deers head on the door. I just have a thing for deers head and this little beauty was thrifted from a recent garage sale for $1.

Every house has it's little kinks and our house has some extra sinks! There is just a random sink in the craft room which is actually kind of perfect for using to wash paint brushes etc. The frames, mirror and basket were thrifted, the hand mirror was a craft project with washi tape and the tissue box was made from a wooden box and small frame purchased from the local craft store (see below).

As for furniture I picked up a next to new ikea expedit secondhand for $100 less than a new one and have put it together. It's just perfect for the room and I used the $100 I saved to buy some perfectly shaped boxes and drawers for it.  So far it's pretty scarce on the top except for a few vintage jars and my favourite floral lights.

I can't wait to share with you more progress as I make it and the many crafts that I will make in this room.

Lisa x