House updates

Hello, yes it has been a while since I've popped in here.  Just busy with you know, life.  

If you follow along with my Facebook page you'll know I am still alive, and have an idea of what I've been up to ;)  It is so much easier and time-efficient for me to update a facebook status than write a blog post.

Furniture is taking a little bit of a back seat for a while as I focus my time and energy into freshening up our home. We've lived in it for about 14 months now so it is about time we made our mark on it.

Our major transformation has been the downstairs living area, which we took from this

to this...

(Yes I painted the tiles on our bar. I will do a separate post about how I did this soon).

to this...

to this...

The 'before' photos are all from the real estate agent from when we bought the house and show the previous owners' style.  Lucky I saw through it ;)

The ceiling, as you can probably see, is still a work in progress.  After sealing it twice with the best stain blocker, something in the timber is still bleeding through, so we are going to reline it.

The major transformation in this room is the planked wall. It has lightened the area up no end and I absolutely love the cute rustic effect.  

I am writing a separate post on how we did this, it will be up later in the week.

I've also been slowly working on repainting some of the rooms, which were all this very dated 90's yellowy-cream. This is the guest bedroom...

With green carpet, no less!  That carpet came up the day before we moved in...no way was I leaving it there!

Here it is with the previous owners' furniture in it...

And here it is now...

I still have the paint the trim around the wardrobe doors white.  I did find it quite hard to get good photos of this room**, and I'm not sure the paint colour is reading true (it might look a bit purple, which it is definitely not).  The colour is Taubmans Zurich White, a lovely beachy driftwood grey with the slightest hint of taupe in it.  It is just the colour I was imagining and I am so glad I found it.
**(Edit...I've had another go at the photos at a different time of day...they are a little better I think!)

The way I did find it wasn't my usual paint-colour picking method...a couple of weeks ago on Selling Houses Australia they updated a very dark home with lots of brick internal walls by re-lining the walls and painting them in Taubmans Taupe Grey.  I thought the colour looked lovely so off I went to Bunnings to check it out.  While I was looking for the colour chip I also came across the Zurich White and just knew it was what I had been looking for. I bought 6 litres on the spot and since then have splashed it on our guest room, the kids bathroom, and the toilet.
The upstairs hallway is next on my hit list ;)

Here is a close up of the blind.  I got it on clearance at Spotlight for around $40.  The grey pattern is lovely and ties in nicely with the wall colour and the mortar in the brick.

I love the internal brick walls in our home, they may not be the 'in' thing right now but I love the character they add and I have chosen to work with them rather than get rid of them.

On my 'still to do' list for the guest room:
- new lampshade/light fixture
- paint the trim around wardrobe
- new duvet cover (maybe grey stripes?)
- change artwork?

So that's what's been keeping me out of trouble lately.

Back on the furniture subject, I am taking a break from the markets for now, and am selling my smaller furniture items at Paradiso in Hastings River Drive, Port Macquarie.  Still open for commissions if you are wanting something of yours updated :)