Hall transformation

I haven't written anything for about a year, but I havent done much DIY, if any at all apart from brainstorming. But one thing was definitely planned, was getting rid of that horrible carpet in the hall! As we are only renting, there is very little we can do in DIY regarding floors, walls, doors etc.. as it is lost money really for us as it is something that we will never be able to take with us. But above is the before/after transformation with the unit I transformed. After lots of looking and searching we had decided to go for a Tuscany effect laminate which we felt would compliment our beautiful unit.

Looking around I could only find it at B&Q

And this is the result :

Excuse the ugly skirting boards, but England seems to think it looks great when they use glossy paint on wood!! Awful to get off and too much money for something that isn't mine.

Im so pleased though! 

Have a good week everyone.

Safari Animals Wall Decal

I purchased them on Etsy as well, here is the direct link.I had requested a tester to be sent to me as the wall I have planned to stick them is a bumpy one and as right above the heating I was worried they would unstick in the winter with the heating on every day. Well so far it hasnt come off one bit! So I bit the dust and purchase them a couple weeks ago.
My package finally arrived last week!! I had planned to put them along my heating in the lounge. With the orange wall, it'd look really exotic. Its not a big details in my lounge, but less is sometimes more. Looking forward to adding them to my wall - again i'll take a picture with decent warmth to it to get most of it out and show off my favorite wall in the house!! So excited !! My lounge is almost complete.

Pillow cases... finally!

Look at what arrived last week!!! My  lovely pillow cases for in my lounge!! I bought them from Etsy.com




How exciting I love them!! They fit perfectly in my lounge and I cant wait for some sunshine to take a picture in natural and warm light to show off. Stay tuned!!

PS: Something else arrived which I will post in a second post.... because it's worth it !!

IKEA bedstand DIY

Another one of my on-going works in the bedroom, as our bed is quite high, I put the table the other way round which makes them higher. I decided to paint them the same color as my IKEA Rast side tables with French Linen Chalk paint, found some lovely pink glass vintage knobs at TK Maxx (I love browsing this shop!) and decided to hide our junk (books, laptops..etc..) behind a little door to make it look a bit more tidy. I went to the Handyman in Horsham who cut me 2 pieces of Plywood in the right size. I painted all of it :

Ikea Rast Side Table

A couple years ago we had to get rid of our chest of draws as my growing kitten kept going into the drawer which made it heavier and heavier. As we are looking to hopefully have a cot in the corner the piece of furniture is at the moment, we had to opt for a smaller chest of drawers that fits on the other wall below the window. I was looking everywhere for the perfect one, but it just seemed impossible to find a small one! Never realised I had one under my nose all along, as my parents had bought one for my bedroom back in the day.

But then I came across Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to make vintage furniture and thought I could do that furniture my way. So I researched the internet and found I believe it to be (couldnt even find them on Ebay!) the only shop in my area to sell them, its called With Love. I fell in love with it. I decided to go with French  Linen and clear wax :







So I bought from Homebase lovely glass knobs instead of the horrible wooden ones :

So then I started.







The above picture shows one plain with the one below with the chalk paint without wax. The next picture shows the finished product, including knobs!

Wax still needs to dry properly but I shall take a proper after picture once the wax has dried completely (the color of the furniture will lighten again back to the color it had before I put the wax on) and the furniture is back in its place.

I'm impressed!

The magic of White Distilled Vinegar

Please check the following blog that I follow for some ideas : vinegar-magic

I discovered about vinegar while browsing Pinterest, my favorite website on earth which I discovered a few months ago. I could sit all day and all night on there and browse, pin, like and browse some more.

These are the following tips I have tried so far myself with vinegar
- cleaning the washing machine, with bleach and vinegar on my hottest wash (90 degres on mine) and even though I use Calgon (remember it only softens the water, doesnt get rid of the stuff) in every wash I could literally see bits in the water! So was definitely worth it.
- use it as a comfort softener in all my washings, it doesnt make my clothes hard and doesnt make them smell of vinegar either and is a natural product instead of Comfort chemicals
- use it to rinse my hair after my wash, leave it for 5min and then rinse with running warm water. Any dandraft and it'll be killed off after a few washes and rinses!
- use it with baking soda and bleach to clean grout in the bathroom, as well as hard water stains on the glass which I spray diluted with 1/3 water, let sit for a couple hours depending on how bad the glass is, then wipe, rinse and use my squeegy.
- used the same baking soda, bleach and vinegar mix for my windows as i have mold showing from underneath the fillings around our new windows. Our landlord claims this happens, but I have never seen this before so I believe whoever did that job did a BAD job. Mold should NOT come through after cracks.
- filled a spray bottle, put orange/clementine peelings in there and left for a few weeks to infuse naturally. That way it doesnt just smell of vinegar and actually the vinegar smell itself reduces.
- use it to clean my fridge, disinfects and removes smells ! You can also leave a little pot with vinegar sitting in the fridge which apparently removes odors from the fridge, not tested yet but I shall do so soon.
- clean floor, tiles in kitchen and bathroom, windows, toilet, sink and especially around the tap where hard water stains sit and stain. Spray with vinegar, let it soak/sit for a while and then wipe clean, the hardwater comes off at once!
- in my wipes bag I add vinegar when i buy a new pack of kitchen/bathroom wipes.

There are plenty of tricks to try out with that, like cleans oven, make up brushes, removes stains and odors off carpets which I havent tried yet, but will do in the spring when it gets warmer and i clean our carpets i'll add vinegar in the water and before that actually spray our carpets with vinegar prior to cleaning them to make sure all the stains are soak and come out with the machine!

Has anyone else got any other tips I havent mentioned? Anyone else hooked to vinegar? :)

Bedroom inspirational pictures

Pictures are taken from houzz.com and Pinterest! I am addicted to these websites, to an extend the wife shouts at me! I have planned to do a similar headboard with my current one, need to get some basic wood, and age it in the end. Im so looking forward to it! As I wanted a soft headboard It thought this bench cushion would be perfect. I can make my own! As I have quite a laaarge headboard I will have to do 2 medium sized cushions and hang them up like that.
I have also two of the small cheap IKEA chest of draws which I have changed the knobs into glass knobs (the pack of 6 was as expensive as the actual piece of furniture, unbelievable!) which makes the furniture look really elegant as per the above photo. I will paint my chest of draws in the same annie sloan chalk paint.
I currently have a big puzzle above the bed which I will remove and put the canvas 'collage' with our wedding photos instead, similar to the one pictures above.

I cant wait to get started!!!!