Annie Sloane Ladder in "Florence"

Here's my inspiration: an old painter's ladder picked up off Trademe for $16. As we have 2.8m ceilings, we often need a ladder to reach shelves.

Treatment:

• Wash with Sugar Soap
• Putty up a few old borer holes
• Sand these off
• One coat of Annie Sloane Chalk Paint in "Florence"
• Sand back with 100grit sandpaper, paying especial attention to the centre fronts of treads and outer edges where they would naturally wear the most. This will expose the original paint drips.
• Wax roughly with Annie Sloane Clear Wax, one area at a time
• Follow this immediately in each area with Annie Sloane Dark Wax
• Buff until glowing

Here's the result.

Multifunction Room

143m2 isn't that small, is it? What about for a family of five? I didn't think so...before we tried living in it. One of those five is taller than me, another is the same height, and a third is not far behind. Only one is still a respectably small size. 

It's not just their size that causes complication in a smallish house. It's the stuff that goes with them. Yes, I admit we no longer have ride-on motorbikes, lego strewn across the floor, pens pencils and crayons covering tables, and blocks lying in wait for bare feet to tread on. Life has moved on somewhat. Now we are contending with infinity number of balls - rugby balls, soccer balls, netballs, basket balls, hockey balls, tennis balls, and whatever other kind of ball it is possible for a kid to own and use constantly under my feet. But what is worse is that even more often these balls are being bounced, hit, smacked, pushed, kicked and whacked inside my house. It's just a matter of time...

Initially, when we bought this house two years ago, I thought 143m2 meant less cleaning, less clutter, going along with the current trends of decluttering, reducing, only keeping what you love and can't live without. 

I was wrong. 

A smaller house means more cleaning as the dirt is still there, it's just condensed into a smaller space! It means incredible organisation...either that or just giving up (on seeing any horizontal spaces) for the next ten-odd years. I chose the organisation for the moment. Sometimes I change my mind. 

Recently, we've moved on a bit from multiple balls rolling around the floors. We're up to multiple devices cluttering up tables and benches. All my kids need devices for school, plus there are the ones they already had (iPods etc) and then there are also phones as they reach an age where they need one. Along with these come the recharge cables, headphones (so I can't hear their games!), cases etc etc. I have put so much time and consideration into purchasing the storage we need to keep things orderly and in their place, mostly to avoid constantly being asked where something is. However somewhere along the line, a crucial point was missed...

In our house, the dining room is the centre of the house. We usually come in the back door into the laundry, which opens onto the kitchen. Then, to get to all the bedrooms, family room, lounge, bathroom, toilet and front door, you have to go through the dining room. In our last house our dining room was huge, with a vaulted ceiling and two big french doors. We had a beautiful big 8-10 seater dining table with tall black leather chairs which my husband refused to sell on when we moved into this new house. It just never quite sit right in our new house, with it's cute cottage style.

The other big feature in the dining room was a coal range. A previous owner had installed it when this part of the house was added on in the '80s. It was cute, the brick work was very nice, but as a coal range it was just a bit difficult. It wasn't by the kitchen, it was really low so we had to crouch to use it, and coal isn't a local resource here in Wellington. We decided it had to go as space was at such a premium. It sold very quickly on Trademe which was great, but my husband wasn't terribly happy about taking it down the 4 flights of stairs to the road! 

The dining room also had some other nice features, such as a dresser with (fake) lead-light windows on the wall between kitchen and dining, lots of book shelves and cupboard space. But there were some elements that bothered me, such as the a single curtain on one side of the french doors, and the fact that people constantly used the french doors as the front door, leaving bags and shoes piled up on the floor.

Last summer we decided to take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, which has let a whole lot more light into the dining room as well as warmth into the kitchen. 

 This was the opportunity I needed to get a much-needed office space built into the space that the coal range had previously occupied. I was sure that with some organisation and a spread sheet or two, we could create a functional office 'nook' that would hold all the clutter that was bugging me.

 We lined the back of the office nook with t&g to match the ceilings which were t&g douglas fir painted white. Our builder put in four shelves in good, solid pine, and I built a desk which could fit the lovely carver I had bought and painted under it. Lastly I got hold of a great little metal draw unit to fit under. Now I have no end of space to store every known file box or book, baskets, boxes, pens, pencils, mail, printer, computer, phone, magazines, and even a bunch of photos, quotes, and pictures. 

The room isn't quite finished yet, as we are still waiting for the breakfast bar to finish the transition from dining to kitchen, but I will upload some photos of the drinks trolley, the new curtains, and the piano wall once I get some. We finally have a home for the fabulous world map my sister sent us as a house warming present.

The return of the lounge

In 1976, two young couples sat down together in their cold, dark lounge. One pair had just returned from their OE and their close friends had cleared a space for them in their little sea-side cottage to bunk down in until they got their feet.

As they sat together and discussed their plans for each of their futures, the ideas bounced around off the dark, scrim-covered walls and crumbling plaster ceiling. Before you could say "arts and crafts", the two men had grabbed their builder's apprentice tool-belts and were taking out the walls, determined to modernise and update the tired little house. 

By the time they had finished, there was no longer a cold, dark little lounge in the corner of the house, off the cold, dark little hallway and cold, dark dining room. Now they had a cold, dark but huge lounge that merged into the dining room and had a front door in the corner of it. Brilliant thinking, just like so many of those great '70s ideas! 

As it resulted in the rather awkward situation of the open fire sitting in the centre of the room, they rustled up a bag or ten of mortar and a couple of hundred recycled-recycled bricks and built a brick wall-of-China to 'blend' with the old open fire. It still looked a little lonely, so they extended the raised hearth and topped it with gorgeously trendy brown terracotta tiles, creating a groovy space to sit and cook fondu on. Now they could all chill together and listen to their latest cassette tapes of "Pink Floyd" and watch "Happy Days" on their new colour television set.

This is what the lounge looked like when we bought it, 40 years later:

Unfortunately for my husband and children, I have inherited some determination. You have no idea how hard it is to decorate an L-shaped living area, when it has coming off it: 4 bedrooms, the dining room, the front door, and a massive 3-sided fire in the centre of the L. It looked a bit like this (no, actually exactly like this):

The first thing to come out was all those bricks! I think it took us about 2 weeks, on-and-off, and the kids helped, husband helped, I did some, and finally we got some labourers in to finish it off as well as barrow down the rubble to the 2 skips we filled!

As you can see, in such a tiny house (143m2), the fireplace took up a huge area!

After this, I marked out the location for the 2 new walls that we were putting in, which interestingly proved to be exactly where the original walls had been, when we pulled up the carpet. Like I said, it's a small house, so we also went to the effort to have the wall between the new lounge and my youngest son's room sound-proofed as he hates being kept awake by the TV or conversation from the dozen or more teenage we have here each week!

I hadn't realised it at the time, but these two walls would necessitate the redecoration of every wall, floor, window, door and ceiling in three rooms - the new lounge, entrance hallway, and family rooms these created. This also involved stripping off very old wallpaper throughout, as well as skim-coating over virtually every original wall and plastering up the new ones. All the rimu skirting boards and architraves needed painting white, the doors and windows all needed to be painted to match the architraves and skirting boards, the rooms needed scotias installed and painted, the stained douglas fir t&g ceilings needed painting, the walls all needed painting or wallpapering... And when you go to this much effort, it makes sense to also replace the window dressings with new, insulating curtains, recover or replace the furniture which no longer matches, and replace the trashed carpet with new, soft carpet and the thickest underlay possible! 

This is the result so far:

The couches and chair recovering has been mentioned in a previous post. This has been amazing and so worthwhile. I can't wait to cover more! I made all the cushions (I'm a little obsessed) and also made the curtains. These I also lined with thermal lining and interlined with polyester 'bump' for the best insulation possible! 

I picked up all the old pictures from charity shops for $5 - $10 each, and mostly kept their original old and battered frames. The round side table is an outdoor table I don't have a use for that helpfully had a glass top! I had been looking for one online or at shops for weeks and suddenly realised this annoying table outside I had no use for would be great covered with excess fabric from the windows and my little collection of Carlton plates would look great on it! 

The hydrangeas are fake and I love that they're fake! And the phone actually works and rings just like an old one! 

A bunch of wool and fluffy blankets on the couches both keeps the arms clean as well as keeping kiddies cosy, and the colours all blend so well.

The final part of the story will be an entire wall of bookshelves from floor to ceiling and wall to wall over the entrance door to the lounge. I have started sketching ideas for this and can't wait to get it made and finished as we have moved our piles of hundreds of books about 5 times already since moving in! Once the shelves are complete, I doubt I'll have much space left for decor as I think the books will about fill them!

And all those bricks? The unbroken ones will be going on to a new life as a pathway in our spring garden...that hasn't been dug yet.

Lightening the mood

How old do you think this chair is? 100 years old? I wouldn't be surprised. Yes, another trade me purchase that could go either way.

The stuffing is bulging at the back and underneath with springs very clearly getting close to the end of their life. But it has a back high enough to rest your head on it and a deep seat with low arms so you can curl up in it with a cushion or two.

What do you think of it now?

...And onto a new life

I'm terribly excited: I finished slip-covering my revolting couch. I'll admit it was somewhat daunting and at times overwhelming, but it's done and I love it. Possibly white wasn't the best option for a cover...I am beginning to see this already. I thought that now that the kids are older there wouldn't be the same need to run screaming at the thought of white upholstery. Unfortunately it seems that though children grow past spilling spaghetti bolognese all over the floor, once they get older they somehow persuade us naive parents that they can now eat in the lounge...need I go on. 

I now keep two king-sized sheets in the footstool storage, for whenever the kids have friends over! 

The second photo also shows the new curtains I made. I'll show them off with some better photos on another post. Also, I love the cushion fabrics I imported from Cabbages & Roses! 

Passing the blame

I like to blame my kids for things. I blame them for a lot of things, in fact. I'd like to blame them for things like my waistline, but I think in fact that could be my gene's fault. I can certainly blame them for any grey hairs I get, but I don't have any yet. I'll definitely blame them for the broken window in the front door. And it wasn't from playing ball outside, you can be sure of that.

I can say, hand on heart, that the overhaul of my pantry was my kids fault. After all, there is only so many hundreds of times one can tell them to SHUT THE PANTRY DOORS! Well, one day I got sick of it, so I took the doors off and put them in the garage.

It worked brilliantly. 100% success. I can now say, hand on heart, that I have not had to tell my kids even once to SHUT THE PANTRY DOORS!

However, as I'm a normal mother, the inside of my pantry looked...well...rather a jumble. And since I had just taken so much effort to redecorate my kitchen in a pretty, vintage style, the piles of half-empty packets of flour and tea bags, bags of chippies and a very ugly microwave, along with plastic boards, electric frying pan, and bottles of oil and vinegar really let the whole room down. Isn't it funny how 99% of a room can look great, but the 1% that's at odds is all that you see?

So I had to do something about it of course.

Out came the pale blue gingham to make some gathered curtains for the unsightly wire baskets and extra packets of food. I emptied Uncle Bills of apothecaries jars and tipped every known baking supply into these. Now I had the problem that the kids can't tell the difference between salt and sugar; baking powder, baking soda, icing sugar and cornflour; and self-raising flour, plain flour and gluten-free flour! I printed off some cute labels and tied these on with brown string. The microwave 'luckily' stopped working properly so I replaced it with a little rounded white one, and all the plastic boards were replaced with wooden ones.

In the kitchen upgrading process by a previous owner, the butter-yellow formica bench tops had been replaced with granite everywhere except the pantry. I'll admit, it did brighten up the kitchen no end on a dull day, but it's not the kind of 'brightening up' that I am partial to. However there is nothing, and I mean nothing that paint can't fix, so with a coat of chalk-paint (adhere's to anything!) and a wax, it's now white.

I still need to find a way of removing the old catches and things but it's become quite a lovely view, rows of baking and cooking supplies on the shelves. One of these days it might inspire me to actually bake something!

But I think it's more likely the kids would actually shut a door before that would happen.

Death warmed up

Here's a good 'before' photo for all you up-cyclers out there. Isn't it foul? That dark colour on the arms isn't shadows, by the way. Note the cat-scratched sides and lumpy cushions.

I bought this little beauty along with it's bigger sibling off Trademe for $50. I've mostly enjoyed the challenge of purchasing a great preloved deals online and then turning it into something quite unique and lovely with a little diy and google. However I must admit that when we went to collect this treasure, the preloved condition was bordering on skip-material. It's one redeeming feature is that it's incredibly comfortable.

I had been quite taken with the lovely, squidgy features of the Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture sofas. However, with a price tag of between $5000 and $7000 I decided perhaps I'd look at other means of achieving the same look. I had the shape and style in mind and then trawled through auctions. This delightful specimen had the low, rolled arms, cushioned back and skirted base that would be perfect for our room. Also, as the room is only 3.6m x 4.8m, and I needed to fit in two couches, they had to be smaller in dimensions. These two fitted the bill. Damn it.

So watch this space for the 'after' photo. I certainly am!

...and here you are:

Smelly memories

Isn't it funny how smells and sounds take you instantly to another time and place? There is a certain squeak (that ought to be followed by a loud bang) which whenever I hear it I am certain if I turn around I will see the kitchen door into the laundry closing with a slam. Of course, it is in my parents house almost 20 years ago that I heard this regularly, but it still stays in my subconscious and the sound triggers an almost tangible conviction that I am back in the farmhouse kitchen.

Less pleasant is the smell of school buses. I have been on plenty of school trips with my kids over the last 10 years, being a full-time mum, and any that involve a bus trip are a little more challenging than the others. I have to firmly push down the urge to gag sometimes, recalling bus trips back in the country district that I grew up which involved nearly an hour of extremely windy roads. I'm sure my siblings and I were the most unlucky students, as we lived only 7 km from the school, but as it did a large loop and finished at the bus-driver's house, he dropped us off last, 1 hour later. I tell you, all us students in those days were lucky to be alive. My mother would occasionally relieve at the school also and has reported to my father once she returned home, having taken the school bus, how the bus-driver, bless him, had gleefully shown her his foot flat on the floor with the brake pedal - he had no brakes and was only using the handbrakes on these hair-raising hills and corners. And that was not at any slow speed either. I'm sure it would never happen now, but somehow kids were a little more dispensable then possibly? ;-)

Lately I've been back in my grandparents 'attic'. At least, in my mind. My grandparents sold their house of 30+ years last year and built themselves a little granny flat on my aunty's property, but their last house will be forever etched in the minds and hearts of my family and me. The attic was not an attic as you would imagine one - dark, dusty, cramped. Their attic took up the whole area above their garage, accessed by the customary steep, narrow staircase, but carpeted, light and airy. Three low, narrow beds were lined up against the far wall, covered with quilts and feather pillow from Bali, Norfolk Island and England. Some of them were probably 60 years old but they were all so cosy for us when we stayed with them. 

Over one side of the room stood a large, high table covered, enticingly, with pieces of coloured glass. My grandfather made lead-light lampshades and windows there. Of course, we weren't allowed to touch them and amazingly, we didn't! In another area stood my grandfather's desk, with his desktop computer and printer. He had got into computer programming and mucking around with it back in the 90's and often spent an evening up there with a little heater by his feet. For many years his big home-made loom also stood there. He had tried to teach me how to use it when I was about 14, but it's not a skill much in demand these days! But the most fun area was the one closest to the stairs. It held a huge big wood-bound chest which they had transported their belongings in when they immigrated to New Zealand in the 60's, and which now housed the dress-ups. How we loved to dress up in them! The favourite was my grandmother's wedding dress - an embossed satin - and my grandfather's black lecturing gown - great for being the wicked witch!

And finally on another table stood Nana's sewing machine, the cause of this walk down memory lane. You see, I've been sewing and the fabric I have smells like Nana's sewing room. On looking back I think maybe the smell was the wool rugs and loom-work in fact, as the fabric I'm using is a natural linen, but sewing was something Nana taught to Mum and Mum taught to me, so I make that connection without even realising it. 

In fact, I'm very excited that I'm back sewing again. The focus for so many years has been purely structural things, like walls and doors. Then it's been painting, painting, painting. How I hate painting! But finally I have decided I'd get back into some sewing. I bought a nice machine a year or so ago, and it's been wonderful! A couple of months ago I ordered 4 metres of some fabrics from Cabbages & Roses in the UK which is just gorgeous. I'm rather precious with it as it was not cheap, but it's been so worth it. A cushion is a great evening project if you haven't got time (or the room) to do a big project but just feel the need to feel good about yourself! An affordable source of inners is a must though, I have decided. 

As we approach winter, several things have occurred. One is the money is running out. For some reason people don't buy plants when it's winter. Go figure. The second is that it gets cold. And the third is that it gets very cold in the lounge as I built 2 walls and a door around it, cutting it off from the fire, which now roasts the rest of the house. (I still maintain it was a good decision!!). And the fourth is that it gets very, very cold in the lounge as I took the old curtains and blind down to paint it and refused to put it back up. There are 3m french doors and a 2.4m (very old) window in the room and probably very little insulation. Ouch, cold! 

The outcome of this is that I have had to get creative with the curtains that are needed in there. The fact is, there is no way we can wait for spring and it's accompanying stampede of customers wanting to give us their money. In the past I have had curtains made by professionals as they do such a great job and I was quite intimidated by the prospect. I had given up on finding a beautiful, vintage fabric in New Zealand so had priced up 28m of a favourite from the UK and it was almost $2000 just for the main fabric. Just in the nick of time, a friend mentioned a wholesale fabric shop in Wellington city was worth a visit. And wouldn't you know, I found several gorgeous fabrics. For a good deal less than the price of fabric from UK I got a beautiful floral linen, thermal lining, interlining (for the ultimate in warmth!) and thermal lining for another unlined curtain I had at home. 

Unfortunately, I find that the best part of the sewing process is the point where it's all nice and neatly on a role. Full-stop. Once it's unrolled, it's all downhill baby. However I have found this time to be surprisingly un-downhill. I admit I haven't used a pattern as, well, how hard can it be to make a curtain, right? And it's amazingly all come together like a dream. The only problems are that I don't have any floor areas large enough to lay out a 3m x 3m piece of fabric, and the carpet is so filthy that I wouldn't even if I did! I am fortunate enough to have a large dining room table and a king-size bed, both of which have been invaluable. And it's amazing how much of a curtain you can actually sew while it's hanging from the curtain rod!

This morning I found the perfect curtain rods: right colour, right diameter, right lengths, right style, right price, and even came in 2 pieces each so I could fit it in my car! I've got one pair of curtains up ready to be hemmed, and so far the curtain rods haven't fallen down. Fingers crossed they last 15 years or more. I am absolutely thrilled with the effect, and can't wait to make the second pair - the bigger ones, gulp. The room is finally coming together. 

I just need to scrape the paint off the windows, recover 1 and a half couches, make up about a half dozen more pillows, frame and hang about 10 more pictures and have a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelf built including an attached ladder... (Before photo below)

Cheap romance

Next time you feel like you can't afford dinner out with your partner, be a little creative...

picnics

poetry

daisies

photo booths

ferris wheels, roller coasters, and merry-go-rounds

reading aloud to each other

back rubs and foot massages

boardwalks

fireworks

flirting

sugar hearts

faux pearls

ferry trips

sparklers

two straws in a milkshake

jumping the waves

love letters

(Mary Emmerling)

A vintage kitchen revival

Doesn't everyone love a nice '80s kitchen? Yellow formica bench tops, orange rimu cabinets, marbled vinyl, ground-breaking multi-bowled sink, brass knobs, Robin Hood range hood, about a million power-points but none in the right place, oversized dishwasher and all? And all shut away from the rest of the family.

I had the good fortune to have had part of my kitchen updated in the last 30 years - most of the yellow formica bench tops had been replaced with brown and white granite. I think that was about as far as the good fortune went. Here it is in all it's glory:

Taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room was not on the budget yet, so we had to work with what we had. I don't believe in throwing out perfectly good things, especially when the replacement would be about $15,000, so the kitchen units all stayed. The drawers were original sliding ones without runners, and frankly fell apart in my hands many times. However the rest worked just fine. Plenty of space - in fact after a couple of months I found a cupboard at the end of the kitchen units that I hadn't realised was there! Go figure! 

I hated the boxy orange fake wooden shelves most of all. I had a vision of lovely open shelves filled with pastel crockery, preserves and cut glass vases. Finding nice wooden brackets was another story altogether. I had to get my father to help me cut some out of timber boards, which looked so cute once painted up! 

And here began my love affair with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paints. Oh baby. I am fortunate enough to have a lovely little shop about 20 minutes away which stocks her paints, so I have made many a trek out there to stock up. I actually went in intending to get Pure White as all kitchens are these days, and came out with Duck Egg. One stroke and I was hooked. Its incredible how panelling looks so much better once it's painted. 

The cabinets took two coats, a very, very light sand with 240 grit sandpaper, and a wax with clear wax. The ugly dishwasher even got the treatment until I could replace it! I'm not sure exactly what door pulls I'd like, so for the time being I have simply painted the existing brass knobs with the same chalk paint. 

One thing you can't see is the ceiling. As I have mentioned before, it was a gorgeous orange douglas fir in tongue and groove. Ugh. My long-suffering husband painted the ceilings in the kitchen for me and it's a million times better. I always loved a white t&g ceiling! The lighting was pretty marginal - old brown spotlights that could not work and a suspended bulb. I replaced these with white metal shades and every one of them got an LED lamp to help with the electricity bill.

A quaint and very practical feature of our kitchen is the eating nook. It is not even 1.5m wide and 2m long and juts off the side of the kitchen. It is on the north-eastern side of the house, and gets the most amazing morning sun. For the first few months it seemed a little pointless as we had no furniture suitable to fit in it, but trade-me sorted that out for me. After trialing a few different ideas with our camping furniture, I made a wide built-in window-seat at the end of the nook, with an upholstered cushion seat (perfect for curling up with a book in the sun), and bought an old oak table which fit under the window. This had already been painted Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in blue with a blue wash on the top. The blue of the legs clashed with my Duck Egg kitchen unfortunately, so a quick paint and it was white!

Add to this little corner our old family bench, a little stool so that all 5 of us can sit there, a few botanical prints and water-coloured hydrangeas framed in white, roman blinds covered with tiny pink roses, and a pile of turquoise and pink floral cushions, and it's a corner we use all day, every day. In fact, we eat every meal there and it is used for boardgames by the kids, coffees and planning for me, and every other family activity that requires a table.

The last thing to be added is a butchers block. I picked up the base of this from a little junk shop in Newtown, and we added a shelf at the bottom with casters, and a thick macrocarpa slab on the top from my parents farm. This stayed in it's very raw form for several months but I have finally managed to plane it back, sand it, and then waxed with raw bees wax. It began with Duck Egg but this was a little overdone, so it changed to Pure White and looks great. So functional and useful - I wouldn't be without it!

Wall colour: Resene's Quarter Spanish White - so vintage!

Window frames, skirting etc: White acrylic enamel - nothing flash

Cabinet colour: Annie Sloan Duck Egg

Furniture colour: Annie Sloan Pure White & Clear wax

Apron: Cabbages & Roses Vintage Amelia

Pendants: Lighting Plus Forge in white

And that's my kitchen! Now you can look forward to (!!) the next instalment which includes a wall demo, relocation of oven and fridge, some bamboo and two very large beams.