All Things Lovely

Cute Little Tile Coasters

Happy Monday!! How was your weekend? Did you get up to anything fun, or creative or new? I had a lovely weekend, but I'll share more of it throughout the week.

I did however finish off this project, finally! I've been wanting new coasters in my living room for ages and so thought, what the heck, I'll just make some. Now, I'm sure there's a gazillion tutorials on the net on how to make them, but what's one more?

Start off with everything you need. I've used four 10cmx10cm glossy wall tiles, some Mod Podge, sealer, a sheet of thin cork and some sheets of scrapbooking paper. For this project I've used a sheet of Crate Paper Dreamy and Gathering.

Start off by measuring and cutting your paper out. Given my tiles are about 10cm square, I cut my paper about 9.5cm square since I wanted a bit of the tile to show through. It's obviously up to you what you want to do.

One you've got it all neatly cut out, apply a good dollop of Mod Podge to the back of your paper and spread it all out. Make sure you clear out any air bubbles, and get your paper all lovely and centred on your tile.

Then it's the boring bit for a little while to let it all dry. Once dry, paint over with some sealer. I've used Plaid Folk Art Outdoor Sealer. I will admit, this was the only sealer I could find when I was looking so I'm sure there's possibly better sealer to use. Let it dry between coats. I've gone for three coats and I'm happy with that, but if you want to do another one, I won't stop you.

Once all that is dry, it's time to finish them off. Cut from a sheet of cork squares about the size of your tile. I've tried to cut mine as close to the size of the tile as possible as I really don't want to wreck my furniture. However, my sheet of cork is very thin. The thicker you go, I guess you could make it a bit smaller. 

Get out your trusty Mod Podge again and smear some over the back of the cork. Carefully stick it to the back of your tile, and you're done. New coasters!

I thought I may as well make some for a gift as well. Very cheap, and too easy!

The Kitchen Renovation - Part One

I've finally started doing some renovations to my kitchen which I'm pretty dam excited about! I really have done nothing to it since I moved in except change the handles from very ugly wooden ones to silver ones. Here's an idea of the before.

You may remember a while ago the lovely Nicole from Making It Lovely kindly did a photoshop mockup for me to have a look at what it would be like with new benchtops and a few other little changes.

 
So, with that in mind I looked at my options. New benchtops in Australia aren't cheap, but another option for the interim was White Knight Laminate Paint. I'd never really heard of anyone using it on benchtops but I did some research and found people who had used it along with another product by White Knight, Bench Top Clear. I thought I couldn't stuff it up too badly, so I'd give it a shot.

So, preparation is key! First of all, everything needs to be well and truly cleaned and sanded lightly. Taping up is one of my least favourite jobs!

Then, a laminate primer is applied. This just goes on with a brush and is dead easy.

 
Once primed you're ready for the first of two coats of laminate paint. I chose the colour Spicey Pepper, but they have heaps of colours. The can says to apply this paint with a brush, which I did for the first coat. The paint is very forgiving so brushmarks aren't a huge problem, but after a light sand in between coats I chose to do the second coat with a gloss roller. I was much happier with that finish.

 
It almost looks like a granite bench...if only! Once it's all dried for about 24 hours, the Bench Top Clear is applied. This is all done with a roller and gives a nice protection to the paintwork. This needs about 7 days to really harden up, and it also takes away the glossy look.

So, here it is!  
 
 
I could almost leave the cupoards grey, but I won't. I've started painting them all white so hopefully I can get that finished soon. I'm pretty happy with it. For under $200 on paint, it's a pretty dramatic change for the time being. I can't see it lasting more than a few years, but when I have new benchtops put in, I also want a new oven and sink so it's a big expense.

So, there we go. Part One of the renovation done!

Yes, it's Pink!

I've been wanting to do this for quite a while, but finally got the time to do it. Paint my outdoor setting. I bought it about a year ago, but it's been bashed around a fair bit outside, and started to look pretty dodgy. Inspired by Nicole at Making It Lovely, I took the plunge and painted it.

Here's the dreadful before so you can see what I was working with!

I decided to use Wattyl Solagard to paint it, they have a fair few colours, but I chose Fig Sweet.

And here you go! Yes, it's prety bright. I think I'm happy with it, but I'm happy to incorporate some charcoal into my garden to kind of tone it down a bit.

 

Cute Covered Magnets

I'm sure you've seen these around but I decided to have a play at making my own magnets to go in the new studio. If you want to play along at home, I thought I'd do a little tutorial.

First up, gather your materials. I've used self covering buttons, some 15mm magnets, you'll need some pliers, really good glue and fabric scraps. I'm using scraps from the chair I covered and pillow I made so that it all matches.

Unless you can get buttons with a flat back to them, you will need to grab your pliers and cut off the little bit on the back.

Once they're all done, it's time to start covering your buttons. Line up your fabric if you're fussy about what you want centred on the button, and then push the button cover and fabric into the special little doovalacky that they give you. Trim all your fabric down so that the back of the button will fit in well.

Press the button back in and make sure you push firmly so that the button back is secure. Then dab some glue onto your buttons and magnets. Don't make the same mistake I did and glue the wrong side of the magnet. Who knew that magnets are only magnetised on one side sometimes? Not me! My glue says to let it sit for about a minute until it's a bit tacky, and then press together.

Then press your magnets and buttons together and voila! Cute little magnets.

I put them on my new whiteboard in my studio. Oh, the calendar is from Etsy seller Ola Design. I bought it last year, and I've framed some of the gorgeous pictures.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway as well! It ends this Sunday night.

A Productive Weekend

My weekend project was to try and get my house, especially upstairs in some order. I have friends coming over next weekend and I wanted to show them all the painting I've been doing, which means things have to be organised!

I'm still not done, but one project I needed to get finished was my old blanket box. I've had this for quite some time, it was raw when I originally bought it and I stained it to match other furniture in my bedroom. It then became my coffee table when I moved into my own home, and now is upstairs in what will be my studio, serving no real purpose except to store Christmas decorations and look pretty.

Since all the other furniture is now white, it was time for another face lift. I sanded it back and painted it white to match everything else, and then covered it with some new fabric. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here's what it looked like before:

And after. It's had a coat of paint, then I went back to my new favourite store, Clark Rubber and just bought some cheap foam to slightly pad the top. Got out my favourite tool, the staple gun and went to town.

I've used more fabric from the Drawing Room range, but thought it was overkill using what I'd used before. I'm slightly disappointed though that the background on this is creamy and the other fabric is whiter. The pitfalls of buying online I guess, I just thought from the same collection it would all be the same. Oh well, it's done! Another job off the list.

Now I guess I'm just trying to decide whether it needs anything sitting on it. I'm just not sure, perhaps a cool cushion or something... hmm, I'll keep thinking.

A Chair Makeover

Do you remember the 99 cent chair I won on eBay? One of the biggest bargains I've ever managed to wrangle! I felt so bad when I went to pay the poor seller, I tried to offer her $5 but she wouldn't take it, so I figure OK, it's meant to be. This weekend I finally got around to doing something about it. Here's a recap of it before.

The plan is for it to be my sewing chair to go in my studio, so after sanding it back and washing it I painted it white to match the other chair and other furniture. Then came time to recover that seat, it is far from comfortable.

I went down to Clark Rubber and they cut me some foam for the seat. I bought high density foam so hopefully it will stay comfy enough for quite some time. Of course, I'm using fabric from the Drawing Room collection by Anna Maria Horner.

First I gave the seat and foam a light spray of glue, just to keep it from slippping around while I covered it with a light wadding, just to slightly round off the edges of the foam and give a nicer look and feel under the fabric. I also gave the wadding a light spray glue as well, just to keep it to the foam. Using my trusty staple gun I then just pulled it taut and stapled away. That part is fun!

Then it's on to covering with fabric. Position your fabric exactly how you want to. I also gave the fabric a light spray with the glue as well, but it's probably not necessary. Trim your fabric and then start stapling. My tip would be to actually press down on the foam as your pulling it taut to make it as tight as possible. I would recommend two people, I did this by myself and while it's definitely do-able, I think the extra hands would not be unwelcome.

And voila! I'm done. It's certainly far from perfect but I think I'm happy. I'll be giving it a good test run so hopefully it goes OK. I can't believe how easy it is to give an old chair a new lease on life, the whole thing probably only cost be about $35 - including the chair, so I think it's definitely worth a little bit of work.

A Covered Lampshade

I am so late on this project. I bought this beautiful fabric from Joel Dewberry's Ginseng range for my 'Winter Themed' lounge room colours, you know, to match the new cushions I made to give the room a warm feel. Now that we're well and truly into spring, I've finally got it done. I'm annoyed with myself, but that's life I guess! In a week or two I'll switch to 'Summer Theme'. :)

So, I got this lampshade that I've been using for the past two years and decided to cover it. Before, it was just chocolate brown suede, which did work but didn't inject much colour into the room. Rather than buying a new one to cover, I figured I'd just use the old one. The lampstand was actually made by my uncle when he was back at school (35 odd years ago)! I love having things from within the family.

After cutting out my fabric to roughly the right length and width, I quickly sewed a hem on one end to keep it all neat and tidy. Using spray adhesive, I covered both the lampshade and my piece of fabric and waited until they went tacky.

Once the fabric was stuck on, I went around and gave it another little trim just so there wasn't too much overhang. Once it was trimmed, I stuck some double sided tape to the fabric and pressed it down around the inside rim of the shade.

I also stuck some ribbon on inside the lamp just to cover the ugliness of the fabric inside. it took all of about 10 minutes and now I have a lovely new lampshade, which gives some really nice colour to the lounge room.