kitchen inspiration

images via Shoot Spaces found via Bliss

Our kitchen progress:

• bought, measured and cut the bench tops
• angle grinded into the solid brick wall for the range hood power point, (and still chipping away to make room for the wiring and conjute tubing.. almost done) DUST all over our new floors. Arrgh!
• finally found the perfect sized white tile - 150mm x 75mm (not as easy as you would think)
• discovered the underground man hole in our flat to add extra power points.

Setback:

• The new stove is electric and to be run directly to the power board. But because the powerboard is so ancient we don't have any spare outlets because the building was built and wired back in the 50's, pre-safety switches we thought it inevitable to have new powerboard installed. Therefore drawing out this process longer and of course more costly.
• The upside is my brother is an electrician, so hopefully even though this is a huge favor for his older sister (who never usually asks for favors) he won't take his sweet old time. In return I've promised to always make time to hem up his work pants, overalls or jeans.

Other notables:

I burnt myself countless times with the hot air gun stripping back the skirting and beading. Why we didn't do this prior the floors being done, you ask? Time poor is our feeble excuse. To anyone who has done their own kitchen renos' you are my idol. I am piss weak. I'm thinking of scribing another blog titled 'idiotic & painfully slow guide to renovating'.

our floors

As much as would love to keep a visually attractive blog, and ideally would prefer not to show the hideous state of the floors before.. I've decided to "keep it real" and show the warts and all.

Before: The kitchen with the ever so lovely vinyl glue.

Before: The yellowy orange lounge room:

After: The kitchen

After: The hallway

The floors are actually not as glossy as they appear in the photos. This was taken before the satin finish was completed. Overall happy with the result, although I could have gone a bit darker. But JD really didn't want to and as he happens to live here too, his opinion was permitted :)

I seriously harassed our floor guy throughout every step and process, popping by to reiterate what I wanted and ensuring he understood. "Not red, no orange.. No yellow.. Satin, yes, yes walnut..." Sheesh what a ball breaker I am! Lucky he was very understanding and super patient.

Hoorah to some colour...

Lovely vintage light weight dress made of 100% Thai cotton but well lined. I had to hand sew the hemline up, but went a wee shorter than I had intended.. Tsk, tsk, tsk, oh when will I ever learn?

Well then good bye for now, see you again in Summer..

Grey pleat skirt

On occasion my op shop purchases will require a little bit of work shopping ie. hemline to be taken up or re-sizing and to be taken in. They currently sit in my wardrobe and are added to my never ending to do list..

So with winter here and hibernation in mind, little niggling projects can now be taken care of. Lets say I aim to alter one piece a week I should have a new wardrobe by Spring.
Here's one I did this week..

Before: Long length skirt

Grey pleated checks

Now: High waist & knee length..

Playing librarians..

When I was little I "played librarians" with with my ChildCraft encyclopedia sets and mimmicked stamping the due back dates in the front cover... 

Throughout high school, I loved contacting and covering my school books. This obsession I have now taken to a new geeky level. A few months ago I googled and found librarian supplies company Bookcover Co  and bought 2 rolls of the clear book covering... And now voila!

The dewey decimal system has yet to be implemented ;)

Hey at least my cookbooks don't get dirty or greasy!!

Once I was an ammunition box...

Now I am a recycle paper trunk.

Finally got round to making it more practical and it now lives in the study (and occasional junk room..)

I bought some  cleat hooks, castor wheels and twine and... ta dah! 

Now, it will be much easier to carry the bundles of paper outside.

I am pretty crap when it comes to DIY. 

Always doing things the hard and long way. I always jump right in and never make assessments prior to commencing.

For example in this situation I just started screwing the screws to attach the castors. I got to the last one & realised the screws were too long and protruded through into the box. So unscrewed and re-screwed.. Hmm, sound familiar? Much like my painting debarkle.

I bought the ammo box from a homewares store I used to work at doing visual merchandising when I was at Uni. It was a pretty cool store, it sold lots of random industrial fixtures, furniture bits and bobs amongst, design, travel and cook books, basic kitchen and homeware staples. But then also sold KitchenAid mixers and blenders, Fornasetti & Wedgewood china, and Jasper Conran glassware. There was something for every budget. The Christmas windows were alot of fun to do.

New but old lights

I am rather miffed about the lack of attractive and affordable lighting retailers in Melbourne. I have been on the look out for new pendant and wall lights/scones, but the only options we seem to have are Ikea, Beacon Lighting and Freedom. The wall lights options are especially tragic. I have now resorted to ebay and second hand finds.

This weekend I finally had our lounge room pendant hung which was an ebay score for $40 - the old couple said they bought it in the early 80's and had it in stored in their shed ever since.

The before fitting was a shabby chic (more shabby, than chic) candelabra, complete with faux plastic candle wax dripping on light bulb fitting. The wall lights are the same design, so I need to find something that suits the one above quick smart.