A Little Kitchen Update

 Hi everyone I thought I would share this DIY project that we did a couple of weeks ago, I have been meaning to share but keep forgetting.  So ever since we moved into this house about thriteen years ago I have had above worktop units all the way around.  If you have seen previous posts you may know that about two years ago I painted the cabinet doors grey to give it a little facelift.

Still not feeling like this kitchen needs replacing as it is a perfectly good kitchen, but there was a little niggle that did bother me.  The main stretch of worktop that I have to work and prepare on is below some of these overhead units, that means that you are working with them directly in front of your face and this has never been the best. For sometime now I have liked the look of open shelving and often save the images from pinterest, however as it is a small kitchen my husband has always maintained that these particualr units can't come out.

Well two weeks ago I decided to get everything out and have a look at the situation, the top shelf I am ashamed to admit had quite a few things out of date as I can't reach it without a chair. So they went straight in the bin, I also had a good tidy and found new homes for the rest of the items, including sorting a lower level cupboard, raising an internal shelf in one of those and putting all sauces etc in little storage baskets so that they can easliy be lifted out to use.

It is amazing how you can fit things into less space when you think about it and also look at what you use regularly or not at all. When all the cupboards were empty and clean I asked my husband to take them down (three over head cupboards) he said you will regret it but took them down anyway thinking it was a bad idea. 

This was on a Sunday, on the Monday morning as soon as I got up I got out my paint and set about painting all of the units again as a touch up, redid the tiles with tile paint, and painted the walls and ceiling  white.  When he came home from work it was all pristine, I arranged the shelves with some of the nicer things I had already in cupboards or else where in the house.   For me it is really just what I had in mind and I am very pleased with it, my husband is getting there he just keeps reaching for the wrong cupboard for the cereal!

The shelves are just loose shelving boards from Wicks and we just chose brackets ourselves, I reused some of the under cupboard trim and painted it grey so it would conceal the lights that are underneath. It is certainly much more light and airy and does not feel closed in anymore when I am preparing food.

 

The items on the shelves I had already, just today I found some pretty china measuring cups for baking my friend bought for me that usually live in a cupboard so I have added those now too.  The one thing I did buy was a print from Whitby at the top of the steps when we were away a few weeks ago, it is not in this image but sits on the top shelf. 

                                                   I still have the under cupboard lighting 

You may think I am crazy to get rid of three perfectly good cupboards but my feeling is the more cupboard space we have the more we pack things in, think about when you move house and have all those lovely empty cupboards.  They soon get packed with nonsense over the years don't they?  I think this is forcing me to be more organised in my kitchen.

Well that is all for today, let me know what you think.   Have a good week. 

A Little Makeover

 Hello everyone I thought i would share this as i actually meant to do so a few weeks ago and forgot!  I have a footstool thingy in my back room where my husband likes to go and sit to do gaming and it is all beaten up from the dogs sitting on it.  It is leather and I don't buy that now but we have had it some years, so I bought some faux leather in grey (well I thought I had ordered grey!) when it came it is a metalic colour and I had not checked the box correctly, well oh well I made it up anyway.  It does look so much better than berfore but it is not perfect.  Here it is....

                        

                              

It was a quick make so I didn't spend too much time on it I just needed to give it a refresh as my husband does use it to put his feet on and there is handy storage inside it.

So if I had been more on the ball this last few weeks you would have seen this already, I have a few other makeover bits that need doing too.  We have recently moved out the troplical fish tank as the last fish bar one had died, the plecostomus has gone to the pet shop to be with friends.  There is now a gap and I have a bit of charity shop furniture that needs to go in the space but not before i have done it up so I will share that with you when I get around  to it. 

This week I have made a jacket for a friend so I must remember to take images of that before she collects it.  Also I have more videos on you tube so if you are not already a subscriber please go and take a look.

Find my channel here

I have got the above book from the library just like I did with my other Tilly  book beofre finding one in the charity shop.  I also have put in a request for the latest one as a buyer request so fingers crossed they get that one in too. 

My husband has a new shirt that I made and he wore it for a night out, so now that I know that he likes that one there will be more to come, I did need to alter the cuffs though I don't know how big they think peoples wrists are, these were quite big before adjustments.

It is a cotton chambray and I have to admit to ironing it about a million times before he wore it.

This t shirt was another tilly make using leftover bits, I am very pleased with this as I love a use it up project.  

Well I hope you are having a good week and enjoy your weekend, take care and bye for now. 

Retro Dining Chairs Make-over

Today I finally have my stair carpet and hall flooring down so it feels more like a home again and not a project.  I still need to source a couple of pictures for my walls as my old ones don't go anymore but I have the idea to possibly reuse the frames and just get art posters.  That would entail more painting of the frames as they are gold but it would save them and I hate waste.

My table and chairs are getting used and look brand new, I am so glad I saved mums chairs from being thrown out because although they were worn and faded they are a strong frame.  In the end I went for a dark grey on these, the paint was from wilko and it is cupboard and furniture paint.  You have to use primer first but at £18 pound a tin I didn't think that was bad to transform some furniture.

I gave them all a good clean, sanded them and primed them and waited twenty four hours, then I gave them all two coats of the paint.  You have to wait six hours between coats.   When choosing the fabric for the seats I went for an Orla Kiely print in mustard as I though it would look good with the grey.

I am happy with the new look and the good thing is if the seats begin to look tired then the fabric can be updated again in future as it wasn't hard to do.  I also added an extra layer of wadding to make them extra comfy.

before

after

Here are the chairs with the primer on, they actually looked like a distressed effect so if you like that sort of thing I suppose you could have varnished or waxed over them at that point.  

The table top had three coats of clear varnish after the original had been sanded off, it is matt not shiny and I also bought the varnish from Wilko. ( I ought to mention at this point that I am not affiliated with that shop, I just thought it was good value for the paints.)

Here are the pictures of the finished stairs and hall, I didn't take a before shot as I just  got straight on with it and then thought oops.  So  it was originally beige walls, with a dark red carpet and light wood laminate floor in the hall.  The walls are now an off white called cotton, white walls and ceilings and grey floors.  I think it looks more modern but we have repainted the banister mahogany (which is the same) as I have an upcycled wood cupboard and I wanted some contrast.   So I hope we manage to keep it all looking tidy for a while, it is a hallway after all.  The little cupboard is for shoes but my sons seem to think it is there so you can kick your shoes off underneath it and leave them there!  I am going to have to wrap it up for today as for some reason my text keeps vanishing every time I start a new line and I can't seem to type anything below these images Argh!! Bye for now. 

Writing Bureau Makeover

Yesterday I managed to finish painting my second piece of furniture which is a writing bureau.  I didn't go in the shop with the intention of buying this but when I saw it I just loved it, I did need something for the corner of my dining room with storage and this was perfect.

I chose a pale grey for this which is called light rain, it is very light and I was expecting a darker shade based on the sample piece in the shop.  The next shade up in this paint was too dark though and I didn't want it looking drab.

So as you can see a very pale colour, my walls are a soft white but the bureau is not very different from them.

I had thought about painting the inside but decided against that as I intend this will get a lot of use I think the finish that is already on will probably be more durable.  I gave it a good clean and added a bit of paper but not on all of the desk as it has a leather inset which you can't quite see in the photo.

While the colour is not quite what I imagined I am happy with it, it was quite battered before I sanded and painted it so now it does look like new on the outside at least.  I intend to keep a lot of my craft stuff in here as it has nice deep drawers and there is a bag of crochet hooks and wool on the floor beside it in the picture that will be going in the bottom drawer!

Here is the before picture, it was a lovely colour wood but in such a state it couldn't have been left as it was.

There were notches in the top that had to be filled and chips and dints everywhere.

I was going to spray the handles silver, but as the colour is so pale I am leaving them black as they stand out well on the new colour.  I am happy that this is another piece of furniture that has been saved and we didn't go and buy new.  My only worry is that as more people do this the second hand shops are starting to put up the prices which may mean that some people think what is the point when you can buy new cheaper.   In a lot of cases yes you can but it is mass produced, often poor quality and the furniture which is already out there is being discarded.   I hope the trend to upcycle continues, it is sad to think of all those items that are going to waste.

The two pieces of furniture I painted over the last two days both came from St Lukes Hospice Shop I also got the lamp which is on top of the bureau, so the purchases also contributed to charity.

Retro Cupboard Makeover

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of items of furniture from the charity shop  with the intention of painting them.  The first is a set of drawers which was intended for my sons bedroom but as he didn't love it as much as I did we did a swap and he had the drawers from our hallway and I decided to keep this new (new to me) set.  I keep a large chest of drawers in the hallway for shoe storage, lined with paper it is a great way to keep them all out of sight and off the floor.

I looked at lots of images of different items of furniture painted in  bright colours but after much thought I decided on a mint green for these drawers but only the frame was to be painted as the drawer fronts are such a lovely colour and go well with the green they will be left.

I love the shape of these and the little legs...

Strange light in my hallway does not give good pictures.

I like the brown with the green but I have found the varnished fronts mark really easily, I may have to coat with more varnish or if they start to get scuffed they may have to be painted to match the rest at a later date.

Temporary cut fabric for candle will be hemmed later.

It was nice to begin with I thought but I think it looks a bit more up to date now it is painted.  The colour I used is called cut grass, I don't know why it is nothing like the shade of cut grass.  It is also one coat paint but I still gave it two one never looks right to me.

Here it was to begin with...

 Right now that one is finished I am in the middle of the next piece which is a writing bureau for my dining room, I am painting that one a pale grey.  Both pieces of furniture were sanded first then given two coats of primer and then two coats of paint.  I will hopefully share the bureau tomorrow if it is finished.

 

Frugal Bathroom Blind revamp/makeover

I redid the bathroom blind last year or was it the year before? Using a bit of fabric from Ikea but as we have recently redone our bathroom it no longer went with the colour scheme.  As it was so easy to do on the cheap last time I had no intention of paying out a ridiculous amount of cash to get the look I wanted.  Lets face it a roller blind is just a bit of fabric with a channel in one end for a bit of plastic and it is attached to a mechanism on a cardboard tube!

Here it is...

This is what I did.
As the bathroom is a damp place and my window is right next to the bath I decided that this time I was going to use the coated fabric. You know the kind you use as wipe-able table cloths, so we went and had a look and found this...

It has little pebbles all over it which will go really well with two pictures I have in my bathroom.

This is the lovely orange one I took down, but don't worry that fabric will be washed and pressed and I am sure it will come in useful for something in the future.

It is a great design but it does not go with the current neutral colours.

All I did was remove the old fabric by taking out the staples from the tube, I lay the new fabric over the top to get the right size and then stitched a new channel at the bottom for the plastic to go in (the bit that weights the bottom down).  If you are starting from scratch you could just make this from a bit of dowel.  I didn't even need to hem the sides this time because the fabric being coated it does not fray.  We just made sure it was lined up straight on the tube and stapled it with an electric stapler.  I'm sure strong glue could probably be used for this bit.

I showed my mum the fabric and she said she could do with something like that as things get splashed on her blind and she has a hard time keeping it clean. I told her to have a look for something she likes and we will do her blind up next.

Cupboard revamp/makeover

We have been in the middle of doing up our bathroom, not because we felt like it but rather because we had a leak that meant everything had to be taken out to get at it and repair it.  We sourced everything cheaply and kept what we could such as the sink and toilet and just added new taps  (found in the discount section but very nice) My husband is very skilled at many things so he installed the new bath and did the tiling and flooring.
One thing I did want was a nice cupboard to keep all the cleaning products and toiletries out of sight.  I didn't want to pay too much for it and also what I had in mind probably did not exist.  We looked in some salvage shops and I have to say they charge an awful lot for junk!  We eventually found one the right size in a charity shop, solid wood for £20.  Very pleased with that I bought a small tin of paint, some sand paper, primer and a new handle.  The paint was for the door and other woodwork also so not really included in the price of the makeover.  I also had a small piece of wallpaper sample (free).
Here is the before and after...

I had already taken off the many gold handles as you can see.

Now this is exactly as I saw it in my head so I am pleased and it goes well with the bathroom.

I sanded it all over and wiped off all the dust, then it had a coat of primer.  Then two coats of gloss 24 hours apart.

The wallpaper piece had the effect of panelling so I used a baking paper template to get the size of the insets in the mock drawers.  I then cut out four and stuck them on with paste.  The handle was £3.45.  It just needs the paper sealing with a clear varnish and we have some of that in the garage.

Total cost £30.

When I was looking for this cupboard we went in one shop and it was a vintage shop.  We saw a small cupboard that looked like it needed painting as it was all patchy and flaky looking.  We asked how much, thinking we could get it and do it up, the lady said oh that is £40.

  It was much smaller than mine and my husband said really?  She said oh it cost me loads for the Annie Sloan paint I can easy sell that for £40.  Well I have to say I have seen how much that chalk paint is and it is expensive, if people like it good for them but I like finish of regular paint better, if something is freshly painted I want it to look that way.

The old caravan makeover

I recently spoke about our caravan holidays and how they are a great way to get away without spending a fortune. well I would like to share the makeover we did on our previous caravan with you. it was a four berth marauder and we got it about four years ago, my husband had been wanting a caravan for a while as he always loved the caravan holidays he had with his family as a child and his parents had one.  I wasn't too keen at first and one of the main reasons was the initial outlay for equipment and all the accessories, I also wasn't sure if it was for me but after some persuasion we decided to have a look on ebay.  We looked at loads and the main thing that put me off at first was the interior of a lot of the caravans, I didn't want to spend too much but I also didn't want to holiday in something that I though was ugly.  We decided that the best thing to do was look for one with cupboards that I could live with as the seating, curtains and flooring we could change.  We found the Marauder which was in good condition and put in a maximum bid of £900 and got it. Here is what it looked like when it arrived.

Now it wasn't bad but what you cant see from the picture is that the seating is a really washed out blue and pink and with two dogs that dark blue carpet was not practical as I would need a washable floor. The units were good though and not too dated being a light colour with simple silver handles. Here is the other end of the van.

I decided to re-do all the seating so took off all the cushions and went to Dunelm Mill and managed to get some fabric I liked in the reduced rolls. I made fitted covers then hand stitched each one to the seats so they wouldn't move about I also covered all the fabric buttons and my husband made me a gadget to push the button through the cushion so they looked professional. This made the cushions look much more fitted.  We discovered a bit of damp so my husband opened the front wall and replaced some of the board and trim and also put down a laminate floor with some left over from our previous house.  This had been stored in our garage( glad we kept it now!).  I then papered the wall around the window as the board had been replaced. Looking back on these photos I'm quite sad we let it go as we put a lot of time into it and had lots of cheap holidays but my older son needed a bit more room to sleep and the bunks in this one were quite narrow.

Here it is after its makeover.

I decided to keep the curtains as they were in good condition and went with the colour scheme. After 3 years of holidays in it and getting away about 5 times a year we resold it on ebay for £1100, the man who bought it was very pleased with it and it was just for him and his wife. The caravan we have now is a five berth and a bit younger and at the moment we haven't made any changes but we may do at some point if needed. I think part of the Marauders charm for me was that we made it our own.