Buon Viaggio!

Whoa, I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I wrote a post! There's been a lot happening, just not really on the renovation! Today we take off for a six week European trip and its fair to say that between planning that and managing all the other things life has been throwing us there just hasn't been time for renovations!

I did have some spare time to re-vamp this cute side table that was gifted to me by my sister in law (thanks Chelle!) and it's looking great in its new home in our lounge room.

Stick with me though, there will be no excuses when we return from our trip so there will be plenty of reno love to share! In the meantime I'll be sharing plenty of pics of our trip on Instagram so if you're not already following me (@erin_od) please come along for the trip!

Ciao!

Erin

Slowly but surely

Sometimes the speed of this whole renovating business is so painstakingly slow, especially when a number of things are on hold waiting for a big piece of work. While things are definitely not moving as fast as either of us would like, sometimes you need to stop and look at the things that have been done. So that's what I'm going to do and when I stand back and look at it, we've actually done some stuff!

I'm sure it won't surprise anyone that there's been a tweak to the floor plan! I had an "a-ha" moment a couple of weeks ago (at about 11.30pm and then had difficult sleeping) which will see the front of the house stay predominantly the same and return the facade to what it was originally. It's very important to us to try and restore/retain the original features of the house where we can and then the re-building of the back will be more contemporary.

I've been inspired to get back into planning and I've realised that there are so many decisions to be made that don't have to wait.  In fact, it will be go, go, go once we start and I'm sure we won't have the time then, so it makes a lot of sense.

The first decision on our list was picking paint colours- exciting! I have a serious home magazine addiction and I've been paying lots of attention to paint colours. I decided a while ago that white was the way to go and after some gentle convincing Paul has finally come around to my way of thinking (yay!).

Dulux Antique White USA was definitely the front runner for me but because there are so many shades of white (mind blowing!) and they can look different in different light we headed off earlier in the week to get some samples. We came hole with two colours- Antique White USA and Natural White. I was really happy with how they look on our walls and there was no trace of yellow tones. Although there's not a huge amount of difference, we both agree that Antique White USA is the perfect colour for us.

We also had another win this weekend with the cement in front of the garage finally being completed. The shed was finished at least a year ago (there was an old single car asbestos ridden garage there before) but we've been waiting for the gap to be filled between the end of the driveway and the new garage.  It's looking good and it's really nice for Paul to have it finished. We can also finally put the cars in there!

Paul has built the frame for the side gate. Of course it's an electric one (we don't have keys for our doors, we have remote controls!) and now we just have to make a decision about what material we're going to use for the gate and the front fence. Once that's done it can be finished and the old gate can be pulled down (the demolition part of everything is going to be fun!). We won't talk about the fact that the position of the new gate covers where the laundry door was going to go!

I'm also in the middle of a couple of furniture painting projects which of course I'll share when I'm finished.

Erin xx

Weekend project: Paint dipped stool

It's been a busy few weeks around here, but not with renovating! We've been confirming our itinerary and booking accommodation for our July Europe trip.  I'm getting really excited about it but I have to say that I find the whole planning caper exhausting and frustrating! However it's mostly done now and now I can relax a bit.

Amongst all the planning, I managed to squeeze in a trip to the op shop where I came across this little stool for $5! Did I actually need a stool you ask? Well, no but come on it was $5 and it had project written all over it!  With my little stool (which in my head was lovingly handmade by a local Nonno for his grandchildren!) secured in the boot, I headed off to Bunnings to buy some new paint.

After much deliberation over the colours, I decided that I would paint dip the bottom of the legs in Taubmans Painted Parrot (Turquoise) and the rest in Taubmans Summer Splash (Yellow) so I got a sample pot of each of the colours.

 I gave the stool a clean and a really light sand and then got painting.  I started on the Summer Splash first (I just realised that it's actually someones job to  make up these paint names!), and then with some help from painters tape taped up the legs at the height I wanted the Painted Parrot to start.

It was a bit tricky to get the tape straight on the round legs, but I did ok.  If I was a patient person (hmmmm!) I probably would have painted the whole thing yellow, waited for it to dry completely and then tape it at the right height and paint the dipped part.

But I'm not patient and it was the first time I've ever done anything like this and I guess it's all about trial and error. So I did it the hard way and had to do some detailed paint work where there was some gaps between the two paint colours (you can see the gap in the picture (left)- I had to re-tape it at the yellow level).

That being said, it ended up coming out quite well and after three coats of each of the colours I finished it off with two coats of clear lacquer.


Here it is inside- it still doesn't have a proper home yet, but it's in our bedroom until the next furniture shuffle!

As usual, I got a bit excited about the paint and also decided to paint these little planter pots that I picked up from Aldi for $10! That's including the 3 pots, the tray, little chalk board tags, dirt and seeds- bargain! The paint just went straight on and again, I did three coats of colour and finished off with a coat of the clear lacquer.




Happy ANZAC day to all the Aussies and Kiwis- I hope you've had a lovely day off today and took some time to stop and think about all those who have fought for us.  I'm sure the smart ones are also taking tomorrow off, but not me! Although, I can't really complain too much about going back for a day then off again for the weekend!

Erin xx