beautiful bright bentwood

My bargain $20 Bentwood is now ready to make our bedroom it's home, after two coats of paint and plenty of sanding and priming! Here is the BEFORE. I even like it in white..

I'm glad I'm now able to tick this project off my 'to do' list. It brightens up the bedroom and works in well with the Bespoke Press print.

a revamped bentwood - from drab to (almost) fab!

I decided to get my act together this weekend and finally do something about my Bentwood chair....4 months after I first mentioned it! I'm very good at getting inspired, not so good at finishing a job. I get lazy and unmotivated. Maybe it's that 'nesting' pregnancy thing but it had been bugging me that I seem to be good at starting projects but not finishing them. So with some free time on the weekend, I got cracking.

Here's what the chair originally looked like. I had done some sanding months ago here (told you I'm slack!) so this is what I was left to work with.

First step: sanding. I hate the prep work associated with painting! I'm so impatient. 

Once the sanding had been done (which I gotta say I did a pretty good job!), it was time to add 2 coats of primer. I used British Paints 'all in one' sealer/primer/undercoat.

Two coats of primer and I'm ready to paint the first coat of my chosen colour which I blogged about here. I find it really hard to pick paint colours (am I the only one?) but in the end, I went with Taubman's Solar Burst. It's not a sunny yellow, more of a citrus lemon/lime colour which at first I wasn't sure about but now I'm loving it.

Ta-da! After 1 coat of Solar Burst the chair is almost ready to rock and roll!

L is making the chair a new seat cover (from an old laundry door) which I have to prime, clamp on then paint 1 coat. 1 more coat all over and it will be ready to grace our bedroom with its presence! I can't tell you how good I feel for achieving something this weekend...woo hoo :)

if you surround yourself with things you love, your home will make you happy

says Michele Adams from Lonny. I couldn't agree more.

A daybed on a new deck in the backyard could make me very happy! On my interweb search for the perfect daybed I came across Ashley Ann's daybed (via Apartment Therapy and ohdeedoh) which happens to be in her daughter's nursery (total coincedence!). The daybed is dubbed the 'reading pallet bed', made from wooden shipping pallets. The bedhead is an old door.

I can see my dream of owning a daybed not being so unattainable after all! We have a lolly factory down the road always getting rid of wooden pallets - we'd just need some castors, a big single or twin bed and some lovely bedding and cushions.



What I love most of all was that she filled the room with handmade objects, keepsakes such as family photos and gifts given by family such as quilts, art prints, antique handkerchiefs and a mirror which was a wedding gift. It doesn't all match but it works.



And as another coincidence, like the first image in my last post, Ashley hung lanterns to great effect. I love this look and the more I see it the more I want to do it! I don't like the idea of hanging lanterns above a cot, but above a chair (or daybed as Ashley has done) could work..



Find out here how Ashley hung her lanterns.

Images via: 1 - Apartment Therapy, 2 & 3 - Ohdeedoh. All images copyright Ashley Ann Photography.

colour & light: one gorgeous wedding

I'm back this week to share photos of a gorgeous wedding we went to yesterday. The table settings, flowers and candles were absolutely beautiful. Set in an old barn with paper lanterns - it was magical. See for yourself...

My gorgeous friend B (the bride) arranged the flowers and collected all of the jars herself. It was an explosion of purples (her favourite colour), white, cream, red, pink, yellow and lilac. Together with the candles it looked amazing!

I love this type of floral table arrangements at weddings. I had only ever seen this done in magazines or blogs at American weddings. It's not cookie-cutter but shows real thought has gone into it - the picking of the flowers, the many months spent sourcing jars and the time spent arranging the flowers.

We were lucky enough to take some jars and flowers home. I'm now inspired to do this at home or for a fancy-pants dinner party.

p.s These photos were taken with my iphone using the Hipstamatic app!

yellow in the kitchen

I have a slight obsession with yellow at the moment. I love how it's been used in this kitchen. I'm not sure I could pull off the use of yellow like they have done here but I think it works great mixed with white and the tan/yellow tones of the floorboards. I admire how some people use colour in such a bold way. Then again, it's only paint so you can always paint over it, right?!

Image - Beckers via Desire to Inspire

mellow yellow bentwood

I really hate picking paint colours. I'm scared I'll get it completely wrong and eventhough you can paint over, who wants to spend more time painting? Painting is fun for the first 5 minutes, then it sucks. My husband and I painted our home (with help from family), and a couple of years later repainted our bedroom in one weekend. Both times I wished we'd had the money to pay someone to do it. But, it doesn't quite suck painting a chair, that's fun! I suppose if I get the colour wrong I can paint over the Bentwood quite easily. I quite fancy a slick black Bentwood anyway as I love everything black (I want black walls - L.O.V.E).

I've chosen Taubman's Solar Burst - what do you think? I know the actual colour will differ from how it displays online but I have tried to match it as much as possible with the example here. Now that I've put it out there I've got to make sure I start this project this weekend!

i'm loving...

I started this blog as a creative outlet but also to capture the things that make my heart skip a beat (you know, the kind of thing you see that you madly 'want' and convince yourself you 'need'!). So I thought I would dedicate every Friday to things that I'm loving right now. It's a good way for me to capture and share some of the things that may find their way into our home when we renovate, hopefully next year (fingers crossed).  
What are you loving right now?

Images 1 & 2 - Urban Outfitters, Image 3 - Whiteport

mellow yellow

Around the corner from our house is this gorgeous 'golden wattle' tree, which I pass most mornings when I catch the bus (if I'm not walking as we are 1 mile from the city). Apparently this is Australia's national flower, but I love it because of the intense but lush yellow colour. It reminds me of another yellow flower called the 'billy button'...

I fell in love with the billy button and styled most of my wedding around the colour of this flower. We ordered them for my bouquet, the buttonholes and table centrepieces. But having a 'destination wedding' on Magnetic Island in Queensland, and organising a wedding in general, taught me that nothing ever really goes to plan! The day before our wedding I found out they weren't delivered because they weren't available (despite being told the opposite!). It didn't matter in the end as flowers is not what a fabulous wedding makes. Still, with such a cute name I can't help but love the billy button and it's colour which is slowly trying to creep its way into my home...

Images 3 & 4 (I think) - Once Wed