Ugly tray to cute chalkboard

I have very little time to go around the shops these days but on my way home from work a couple of nights ago decided to stop at Home Sense.  I drive past it pretty much every day but it's huge and I know if I stop I'll be in there at least an hour.

I don't know if other people are the same but when I go to Home Sense or TKMaxx I'm not always looking for something I can just use straight away but I'm always on the lookout for something I can alter, play with, mess around with or paint...

I almost walked past a pile of absolutely hideous trays.  They are MDF but have been painted to resemble some cheap looking orangey wood.  Hideous as trays but the shape was great and I knew they could make great chalkboards.  There were two rectangles and three smaller oval ones - I bought the two rectangular ones - one is smaller than the other.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Louis Blue around the edge of the frame and rubbed it back a little.  That revealed a 'lovely' shade of bright yellow which had been hiding under the fake wood finish so I touched up the yellow bits with another coat.

I then gave the sides a good rub with clear wax and painted a couple of coats of Rustin's chalkboard paint in the middle and hung it in my kids little TV room (or the Xbox room as it should be called).  I don't think I've shared my kids new TV unit that I bought a few months ago.  I chose to have it made unpainted as it saved about £45 (I'm really tight like that!).  I then painted it white to go with the panelled wall behind it.  Back to the chalkboard....I added a little note to my kids (but mainly my teenage son who may need a gentle reminding from time to time!)

If I'm honest I'm not that keen on the shade of blue - it's a bit too purple.  I would have preferred a lighter, sky blue so may change it when I get the right shade.

Story of my life - nothing is ever done!!

The bigger one will be painted white and will replace the existing chalkboard in my craft room which my sister has already claimed!  I may go back and get the oval ones as they would probably make great Halloween decorations - I'm thinking of writing BOO on them or maybe drawing so spooky images on them like a skull on one etc....

xoxox

Linking up to Jennifer Rizzo: Fabulously Creative Friday linky party

and Funky Junk Interior's Saturday Night Special 

The Nest UK on facebook

I am a real technophobe and haven't really got a clue when it comes to computers.

Until now I haven't bothered setting up a facebook page for my Etsy shop but took the plunge today.

I recently added a few new things to the shop like this mini clay and German glass glitter banner and this paisley print pillow cover.

See the link on my sidebar and checkout my new facebook page.

Hope you 'like' it :)

Any purchases made in the next week will have a 10% discount applied if you add the code FACEBOOK at checkout.

xoxox

Wall project in Lily's room

Between the door into Lily's bedroom and her closet door there's a wall just under a metre and a half long.  I had a bookcase made to fit the space quite a few years ago and she used to have her artwork on the wall above it then .. along came a TV!  I hate how TV's spoil the overall look of a kids room but on rainy days (we get a lot of those!) or days when you just feel like loafing around but your Dad is watching rugby in the living room and your brother is on the x-box in the other living room a TV in a bedroom can be great.

Since I redecorated her room I haven't put anything back on this wall as I hate how it would have to surround the TV.  I couldn't figure out how to put artwork up without it either filling the wall making the TV part of it or putting it just above the TV leaving a blank piece of wall to the right of it.

And then I saw this picture (from here)

We have panelling in almost every room in the house.  The only reason I haven't used it in Lily's room is because her room is long and thin and I didn't want to make the room feel like the walls were closing in on her.

I had the idea to just put panelling behind her bookcase to just above the height of her TV.  That way the wall above  was the only place available for art and the space to the side will then just become part of her bookcase wall.  I also like the way the panelling will act as a kind of bridge between the two doors.

I'm not taking the panelling behind the bookcase as it will always stay here (I think!!) and I didn't want to push the bookcase out.  The bottom piece of panelling will sit directly above the bookcase.  My husband's not happy with it just so so he is going to add a very small piece of trim to the bottom above the skirting.

Here is where I'm at today.  One coat of primer and one coat of oil based eggshell - probably two more coats to go.  I'll give her bookcase a lick of paint too and then we'll start sifting through those big picture books we are both still holding on to!  I love the books and I love remembering how I used to read them all first to Seth and then to Lily when they were little.  Right now she is reading The Hunger Games so I think it's time to say goodbye to 'How do dinosaurs say goodnight!'.

xoxox

My favourite season

Autumn has always been my favourite season.  

We've been having some beautiful Autumn weather lately.  

I was driving past one of my favourite beaches today and it looked so beautiful I stopped and took some photos with my phone.  

Wales has a beautiful coastline.  It's particularly beautiful in the Autumn when the beaches are less crowded and the sun is shining.

I hope this weather continues - it's nice not to have rain all the time like we had all through summer.

Have a great weekend

xoxox

Lucky me!!

I can't believe my luck today.

I've won a place on Creatively Made Home e-course.

I am delighted, thrilled, excited ...

I have a few rooms in my house where I've hit a wall - lack of time, money and inspiration are holding me back.  I'm sure I'm going to set so much from this course and cannot wait.  I'm not going to let the time difference be a problem for me - that's what annual leave is for!  I can see me taking a morning or two off to join in with the live sessions.

Thank you ladies - in case you hadn't guessed I'm super excited!!

xoxox

My craft room today

My craft room is constantly evolving depending on what I'm working on and how busy I am.  I shown it before here and here .  This is what it looks like today - nice and tidy for once (I paid Lily to hoover the room before I took the photos!).  The shelf above is an antique French game shelf - the hooks were used to hang dead birds from ready for plucking - nice!  My little old vintage suitcase holds tape strips I bought in bulk as they were on sale.

Just after the closets my husband worked on earlier this year (see here) is the long cubby hole unit.  A linen curtain hides the multitude of stuff.  I use the door from Lily's old playhouse to display things I want to photograph (I posted about her old door here).  This lady is wearing an Etsy purchase from Faded Plains - a vintage carpenters apron - it looks much better on her than me!

A new addition to this room is an Ikea kitchen cart that my sister was throwing out.  It's the perfect height for me to paint at and I covered the top with a great oil cloth I found which resembles old French grain sacks.

This is my little painting corner.  The carry all holds all my paint which is organised by colour and the table holds my brushes, little French tart tins I used to hold paint and other bits'n'pieces I need.

This is the wall you see when you walk into the room.  I try to keep this wall relatively simple as I don't want to look into the room and see a mess.  This table is where I cut stencils, package parcels etc.

Opposite this wall is my 'messy wall'.  You can't see this wall from the hall.  

The little cubby hole unit is a new purchase and really handy.  All my little jars used to be in a plastic lidded box which I had to pull out from a shelf of other boxes when I needed something.  Now all my buttons, little nails, ribbons etc are close at hand.  This is where I do my sewing.  The tables on each side of the room are matching.

(I know that the picture of Lily has dropped and the picture of Seth has disappeared - he took it to the hairdresser to show how he wanted his hair cut!  Correcting this is on my to-do list!)

A close up of my lovely cubbies!!

This is my view from my sewing table.  

I love working in this room.

No doubt this room will continue to evolve as I'm sure everyone's craft room does!  Watch this space!

The kids are back in school and typically the sun has now come out - we need to change school holidays in the UK to May and September as they tend to have the most sun!

Hope the sun is shining for everyone else too!

xoxox

Linking up to Funky Junk Interior's SNS 151

Creatively Made Home giveaway

Enter here, here or here for a chance to win a place on the Creatively Made Home course run by 5 amazing bloggers with the most beautiful and inspiring homes. 

Good luck 

xoxox

A new bed for Lily

Months ago, when Lily was away with school for a week I repainted her bedroom.  

It used to look like this.

In these pictures the walls look lilac or grey but they are a really nice shade of pale blue.  For a long time we kept her original fabrics and bedlinen until we found the right thing.  We also kept her bedstead although I wanted to change it for a number of reasons: I didn't like the fact that you looked into her room and saw right under her bed, the way the frame was arranged you couldn't use a bed skirt, making the bed was a pain as you had to tuck in all around and I was always paranoid Lily would bang her head on the side rails.  

We went bed shopping recently and she chose one with a memory foam mattress.  I have to say, it is unbelievably comfortable.  It has drawers underneath which I'll use for out of season clothes (in vacuum bags) and spare bedlinen.

For the bedding we found the most gorgeous linen sets at H&M.  We bought a mixture of white and grey.  The duvet cover, bedskirt and curtains are white and the ruffle pillow cover is grey.  We also found a lovely grey and white flower print pillow case with linen covered buttons at the same place we got the bed.

I found two of these chandeliers a few months ago and thought they would be perfect for her room.  They have crystals and droplets hanging inside the metal ball with birds and leaves all around.  It looks cream in the photo but is off white (similar to her headboard).

The headboard may be temporary or may stay.  It's the top end of her original bedstead which we've attached to the wall.  The rest of the bed frame is in the attic.

I am terrible at finishing projects as I run out of steam quickly plus I have to find exactly the right accessories or it bugs me and I end up hating it.  I still have a few things to put on the walls, I need to recover her chair and make new curtains for inside her armoire ...

For now though, I'm happy with how the room is progressing (slowly) and I'm sure in a year or two I'll be ready for a full room reveal!

To see how her room used to look go here

I can't believe I had nothing to say for the whole of August.  I had most of that month off work with the kids but we've had the wettest summer since records began (over 100 years ago) which meant I've had kids indoors all the time so have just been going round in circles cleaning and tidying (and having the odd meltdown!).

Back to school on Tuesday.  Lily's last year in primary school and the start of Seth's first GCSE year so a big year for both of them!

Happy 1st of September xoxox

Sharing at Funky Junk Interiors SNS