The first thing I added is a gallery wall of family photos. These are the first pictures I’ve printed in the past 6 years or so. 6 years! I’m thinking of starting a project of organizing the photos into digital pages and getting them printed. Maybe if I put in half an hour a day I’ll be able to get it done in a… year? or two?
(Sorry about the blurry pictures, I have a “thing” about posting family pictures on the blog)
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Have you ever noticed that when you are given an object as a gift, you are far less critical of it’s actual qualities? That dress that doesn’t fit perfectly but you still wear… The scarf that’s not exactly right for your complexion but you use anyway… The serving bowl that doesn’t match anything you have, but is out on the table every week…
I think there’s something about the fact that you already have something that gives it a special feel, especially if it has the added value of being a gift. At least for me, when I’m at the store, whether I’m trying on clothes or trying to find accessories for my home, I am always far more critical of whatever-it-is I’m trying to buy. I am constantly asking myself: Do I really need this? Is it exactly right?
Sometimes this is a good thing, because I can sincerely say I do not have a lot of junk and that most of my clothes fit and are flattering to my figure. However, sometimes this means that I lived in my last apartment for 6 years or so without a single piece of art I bought myself. Though there were two prints hanging on the walls I had been given as a gift (see? I told you so).
This time, I decided on a new strategy: I would be the good enough decorator. In other words, I would not wait until I found the perfect piece that I absolutely love (never ever gonna happen), I would just buy things that were good enough, not perfect. And if I decide later on that they’re wrong – replace them.
So I did.
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I’ve mentioned before that we moved about 6 months ago, and we’ve been a bit stuck home-decor-wise. Every little thing that needs to be done (not to mention the big stuff…) takes forever to get around to.
In this case, I was inspired by these DIY gold pears shown by Elisheva on Hook ‘n’ Loop Design’s blog. The idea of taking a cheap item and covering it with gold (or in my case – silver) struck me as genius, and I had to try it myself.
Our bathrooms actually got quite a bit of my attention, we have mirrors, towels and I even got some greenery as decoration (ahhhmmm, plastic. Don’t tell any one…). However, I’ve always liked rubber ducks and I just had to buy a few and try it. So I did.
read more →It’s been over 6 months since we’ve moved, and it’s about time to get our act together and start decorating. We had a big “push” right after the move, obviously, but we’ve been stuck since.
The first room I decided to tackle is the family room. This is the room we hang out it – it has the Wii, a TV, a craft table for the kids and a computer desk, and it also doubles as a guest room. Eventually it will become a room for a child – so I didn’t want to put a lot of money in to it only to change it in a few years.
So: low budget, comfy for everyone, durable and washable are in order.
I started out with a more sophisticated vision in mind – grey with pops of yellow, which is definitely one of the trendier design schemes around right now. I filled my pinterest board with grey & yellow inspiration. But then I saw this rainbow bright living room and this “Confetti Pop” room and yellow went out the plain-no-curtains window and strong base colors came in.
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I was looking for a place to put my iron inside my sewing space, in a convenient way: It shouldn’t take up any room on the desktop, and keep the leg space interruption to a minimum. It would have to have easy access to electricity, but not be plugged in all the time (safety first!). I wanted something cheap, so I wasn’t going to get something custom made, and even though it’s on my long term wish list, I don’t do much any carpentry, so making it myself was not an option.
When in doubt: IKEA.
I looked through all of their office and living room and kids furniture and found nothing which was narrow enough, short enough, tall enough etc. Eventually, I stumbled upon the OLTEDAL nightstand. I looked over the measurements and instructions very carefully, and the very next day stopped by the IKEA near me and bought it.
I assembled it without inserting the back because (1) I wanted easy access to be able to plug in the iron and (2) I wanted to use the back as a pressing board for small items. It obviously won’t be enough for making large items, but for small blocks which need pressing – it would save me a lot of fuss getting the ironing board out.
I got the idea here, and here’s how it’s done (it’s really quite simple):
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Nowadays everybody has an work island in their kitchen, or if you’re a carefree bachelor – a bar. With these pieces comes a great responsibility: bar stools. If you’re anything like me, by the time you’ve got to picking out bar stools you’re at the stage where your budget has run out and you’re looking for the cheapest option available. For me that means IKEA. Unfortunately, the simple stools are boring, and not easy on my aching tail bone either. So if IKEA it is, IKEA hack is coming up (in fact, even the fabric I used was from IKEA)!
We’ve had these bar stools for a while, and I’ve already posted their upholstered pictures when I posted about my home makeover. However, they’re so easy, cheap and fast to make – I decided that I must share.
read more →On these last couple of days I turned my attention to our kitchen. We have a convenient work island in the middle of the kitchen, which naturally turned into a junk pile. We decided, as a family, that junk was not the best use for that surface, and that it could be much nicer and cleaner. We also had these IKEA bar stools, and since I usually sit on them and they hurt my back, I decided that some padding would be nice.
To save time and money, I stopped over at IKEA and picked up some fabric and other home accessories and set out to get all the work done in a couple of hours. Well, not surprisingly, it took a little longer than that (but not much). While I was there, I decided to tackle the junk pile on our bedroom dresser as well, and got some candles and a lucky bamboo, which I hope will help keep the junk away in our entire home (and I like the way it looks and that it doesn’t need to be watered very often). It’s not particularly inspiring, just clean and neat, so I’ll spare you the pictures.
This is our kitchen before:
And here is what it looks like now:
read more → Over the next few weeks I plan to make some long overdue changes to my house. Today my goal was to move an unused IKEA bookcase from the kids room to my bedroom and reorganize all my fabrics in “mini bolts” on the shelves. So I did.
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