Furniture Makeover!

For a while now I have been in two minds whether or not to paint some wooden furniture. I have been looking at Pinterest and Instagram as a source of inspiration and often wondered if it really is that simple to give furniture a new lease of life.

The bookcase I wanted to paint

I had three particular items in mind. First one was a huge mirror hanging on the wall in the hallway. I loved the size of the mirror but I wasn't keen on the orange pine frame. Next was my dining room table and chairs. I couldn't help but think they may look nicer painted cream. The final item was a bookcase I found and bought in an antique shop for just £10. Like the mirror, this was also orange pine. I have nothing against orange pine but it didn't match with the rest of my light pine furniture. 

I decided to go for it! I bought some runs of Rust-Oleum chalk paint in white and cream. I wanted to paint the mirror white to match the walls in the hallway. I began with the mirror. 

I used masking tape to protect the mirror edges

As It was raining, my husband carried the mirror (it's very heavy!) into the garage for me and I began the makeover. I used masking tape to protect the mirror edges as I painted the frame. I cleaned the frame with sugar soap before painting. I applied two coats of paint before lightly sanding it and then finished it with the wax. I must admit I was pretty surprised at how easy and quick the whole process was! Why had I not done this before?! 

The finished mirror hanging in the hallway

I couldn't wait to get started on the table and chairs. I decided to paint the chairs and table legs cream but keep the table top pine. I had actually seen a table like this that I wanted to save up for! Again I was very happy with the results. 

My 'new' table and chairs

I painted the bookcase cream too and once again it surprised me how quick it was to paint the item. 

The bookcase afterwards

I am thrilled with the results! I certaintly have caught the painting bug. Next on my list is my dresser. Watch this space! 

Have you given furniture a new lease of life with chalk paint? I would love to see pictures if you have. 

Bathroom Makeover

I knew the bathroom needed working on as soon as I saw the avacado suite! It wasn't just about the colour either, the bath was in poor condition and was very deep and narrow. The pink and white patterned tiles were not to my taste and the room felt cold, dark and small. Unfortunately I do not have any before pictures of the bathroom!

We had several quotes to fit a new bathroom suite but all designers insisted it was not possible for us to tile the walls ourselves. Apparently it needed doing as soon as the old suite was taken out. We wanted to keep costs down so in the end bought a white suite from the DIY store and found a local plummer to fit it for us. 

It took 2 days in total and then we could get working on tiling. I say we but I mean my husband!

The work begins! I chose big cream tiles to make the room brighter

 I chose big cream tiles for the bathroom so the room would look nice and bright.

Keeping the décor natural meant that I could have a variety of colourful accsesories and change them as often as I wished. I have several sets of bath mats, towels and flannels. At the moment mauve is my favourite as it's soft and gentle looking and very Spring like.  

 

I picked some Cows Parsley but it did not last long in the bathroom. It looked really pretty though!

I think my husband did a fantastic job of the tiles, considering he had never done anything like this before.

The little jug is from B&Q! At only £4 I think it was a bargain.

The bathroom feels really nice now and it is so nice to unwind in the bath after a long busy day with a few candles lit.

Dreaming of a Garden

I love a pretty garden so I was quite disappointed to discover that we only had slabs. Not one flower bed to plant flowers, no lawn for my dog, no trees, plants or shrubs, nothing! As soon as the weather began to warm up I set about creating a garden.

The garden was such a mess!

My husband, at my insistence started by lifting up slabs where I wanted a lawn to be. I debated whether to sow grass seed or buy turf and in the end I went with the latter. I knew it would be impossible to keep my dog off the patch whilst waiting for the seed to grow and didn't much fancy muddy paw prints in the house. Instead I ordered rolls of turfs and before I knew it the day arrived to lay our lawn! 

Once the lawn had been created we started work on the flower beds. We had to lift up chippings and then a black liner before digging over the soil. Lots of weeds too! Along the garage wall, mounds of soil had been placed against it. Well above the damp course. It took ages to remove it all before we used left over slabs to cover it up. 

The rubbish by the garage wall!

I'm so pleased with the transformation and the garden is well on its way to becoming established. Dog loves the lawn and spends ages lying on it. Trouble is, he also likes to dig parts of it up! Oops. Nothing that a bit of grass seed can't fix.

A Smashing Time!

I never liked the frosted window that was between the lounge and the kitchen. I suppose the point was to bring more light into the kitchen but as soon as I saw it, I knew it had to come out!

The frosted window and hardboard door in the lounge

I visualised French windows so I could open both doors in the summer and close them during the colder months. I knew I wanted wooden doors that I could wax or varnish, with obscured glass. 

I spent ages looking at different doors, waiting for offers and finally I ordered 2 lovely wooden ones, just like I pictured. Before my husband could hang them, he needed to take out the frosted window and wooden panel underneath it so we could work on the frame. The frame was painted with white gloss and I wanted to strip it back to the natural pine to match the doors. 

Dog and I were confined to outside whilst my husband put masking tape on the window before literally smashing it to pieces. I was watching through the kitchen window in great satisfaction. Once the glass had been cleared up, we could start stripping the frame back to natural wood. We used a heat gun to peel the many layers of gloss before sanding it. It looked really nice but we had a problem.

After the door and window was taken out

Trouble was, the frame was not built for French windows and we were left with a gaping big hole in the frame work. My husband threw some ideas around before realising that we needed to replace the door lining.

The door lining and frame was too bad to repair

After many visits to DIY stores, we realised we couldn't find a lining wide enough. A neighbour mentioned a local wood yard so we paid them a visit. The man in charge was so helpful and made us a custom lining to fit in the gap. Two days later it was ready for collection. 

My husband had never hung doors before and found videos on the Internet to be very helpful. After much measuring, sawing, plaining he finally hung the doors and fitted the hardware! I lightly sanded any rough edges and coated them with a clear varnish. 

The doors!

Of course, it didn't stop there! I wanted all the doors replaced. I chose another glass panelled door to go inbetween the hall and the lounge and then wooden panelled ones for the rest of the rooms. We're so happy with the result and proud of my husband for hanging them all and replacing all the linings and architrave.

It is so nice to have these doors 

Home Sweet Home

My first blog post! Hi, thanks for dropping by. I'm Nikki and I can be found nestled amongst the meadows in my little home. My husband and I moved into our home 16 months ago and have been renovating ever since!

Our home over looks meadows so I feel very lucky to live here. It's very peaceful and the views are breath taking. Our dog loves living right by fields and enjoys lots of walks through the long grasses and wild flowers.

The view from my garden

The property was very run down when we first moved here so many improvements needed making. So far we have replaced the kitchen, bathroom, hung new doors, decorated the hallway and created a lawned garden from scratch. 

By writing this blog I hope to create a record of our journey into making our house a home and gain inspiration from other blogs out there too. Please drop by and say hello! I would love to visit your blog. 

Have a lovely day! 

Nikki x