All Things Lovely

Ikea Herringbone Rug

The old Ikea hack. It's one of the best isn't it?! After being inspired by so many people online with the 'paint your own' Ikea rug I did my own about a year ago. One of my dearest friends always loved it, so for his birthday this year I painted an Ikea Egeby rug for him (lucky guy).

Although the pattern I used was three colours and very structured, he only wanted two colours, and I decided to make the pattern a little more freehand after seeing this amazing herringbone patterned wall. Using Dulux White on White and Domino I painted the first coat fully white, then taped it up rather haphazardly, and covered the entire rug in the black. Make sure you get enough paint. I started with one litre of each colour. I ended up having to buy more, so it turned out to be about one and a half litres of each colour to fully cover it. Also, I recommend buying a cheap brush as you'll destroy it.

I added an additional step in this rug in that I sprayed it with a clear sealer after everything was dry. I find that my rug gets dirty quite quickly so I'm hoping the clear sealer just helps it to stay a little bit cleaner.

Fortunately he absolutely loves it! 

Chevron Bedroom Wall

I seem to be having quite a love affair with chevron, and it's near relative herringbone. I pulled out the herringbone pattern for the Ikea rug I recently painted for my kitchen.

I wanted to do something for one of the walls in my bedroom and after seeing a myriad of options on Pinterest of different feature walls such as patterns and stencils I settled on a simple chevron pattern, inspired by this amazing room.

So, just to give you an idea here's what I started back way back in the beginning. First step was to paint the entire room a lovely soft grey.

Now to the details. The pattern may look simple but my goodness, the work involved in prepping the wall took ages! I estimate it took about 8 hours over a couple of nights to measure out the walls and get it all taped up. I didn't want a dramatic V shape, so my vertical lines were further apart than some might like. From memory I think they were about 43cm (17") apart (apologies for the disgraceful iPhone photos!)

I started in the very middle of the wall and, using my level drew vertical lines up the wall and then measured down. Again, from memory it was about 23cm (9") down. Getting a perfect V with the tape was fiddly, but it's worth the work in the end.

This project is such a cheap one, for a sample pot of paint and some painters tape, it makes such a difference. The wall was already grey so I just had to do two coats of white, which is Dulux Antique White USA. The grey colour is Dulux Tranquil Retreat if you like it...such a beautiful grey.

I'm madly in love with the finished result. It was totally worth all the hard work!

Like the beautiful candle beside my bed? It's from Made It store Take Me 2 The Queen.

What are your thoughts on chevron? Hopefully it's a style that stays around for at least a little while longer.

Feature Walls...In Or Out?

Happy Monday!! How was your weekend? Mine was so lovely, I tried to relax and make the most of some time off. Didn't even pick up a paintbrush even though the kitchen looks like a disaster zone.

I know I'm in the middle of one project, but I always keep thinking of the next thing I want to do. I'm telling you, it's a disease. Next on the list, before I get the art wall done in the lounge room, is perhaps painting that wall a slightly different colour. Currently, it is technically a 'feature wall' but when I first painted it, the actual paint colour was only marginally darker than the rest of the house. Oops. I swear it was darker in the sample pot!!

I'm not sure what colour I want to paint it, although I don't really want it to be much darker than the rest of the walls. Just a slight feature, perhaps using a metallic or pearlescent paint. I guess the bonus is that it's cheap and easily fixed if it's a disaster.

Wow, I certainly can ramble can't I? The question I want to ask is, 'Do you think feature walls have come and gone?' Are they a thing of last decade and before? I personally don't think they've had their day, but I am also not a huge fan of overtly bright and tacky colours. These are a few I really like, but I'd love to hear your opinions. Do you have one or more in your house that you'd like to share?

Image thanks to Ideal Home

Image thanks to House To Home

 

 

Last three images thanks to Living Etc

There's A Chair In There

When thinking about my new studio, I wanted to have a chair sitting in the corner just looking pretty. I was chatting with my Nana about this, and she said that she had an old chair that my Pop had made about 45 years ago, as their kitchen chair. She had it sitting outside on her verandah and said I could have it. This is really special to me, as my Pop died when I was only about 5 or so, and I don't really remember much about him. To have something he made is pretty amazing.

So, my challenge was to create something beautiful from this old chair that had been sitting out in the elements for years! Here's what I had to start with, which actually wasn't all that bad. It had been painted a pale yellow, so I just gave it a good sand, and a bit of a wash and let it dry for a day to make sure it was completely dry.

Then, it was onto painting. I went with a semi gloss enamel, and used Dulux's relatively new Aquanamel, which is basically a godsend. It's water based so no need for litres of turps, and it doesn't have that dreadful smell. Choosing a colour however was quite a mission! In the end, after a lot of help from the lovliest man at Bunnings, I chose a half strength Antique White USA from Dulux I only needed two coats, and I think it's come up looking lovely.

You might also notice the colour on the wall, I've just finished painting it this week. After looking at a million sample colours, I settled on Aqua Frost Half by Dulux.

Uh Oh, More Paint Colours

I'm still on a search to find the perfect colour for my studio. I've now fallen in love with this colour, which I found via the Fixing Adam's House blog. This is Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore. Now that would all be well and good, and I'd be dashing out for a sample pot, except as far as I know it's not a brand that is stocked in Australia!

I've just used the colour viewer on the website to recolour this bedroom to get an idea of the look. I really like it, and I know it would look beautiful with white furniture, but will it go with the fabric I've picked and want to use for recovering chairs and other little features?

Does anyone know how I would get the formula for this paint so I could try and get it made up here with another brand? Granted, it may not be perfect but I could give it a shot!

A Bedroom Makeover

My bedroom needs a makeover. When I moved in two years ago I was very much in a pink phase. Now, I'm not so much in that phase!I still love pink but perhaps not for my bedroom. So, I plan to repaint and buy new bed linen. I need a change, a more grown up room!

So, my big question is what colour to paint? I love the idea of a feature wall, and my colour palette is neutrals. I'd like a white/cream doona cover which I can then jazz up with beautiful coloured cushions and other accessories. Most of the rest of my house was painted in a lovely light mocha colour so I'm able to match anything to it. As unadventurous as it is, I'm thinking of doing the same thing with the bedroom for the time being.

Here are the colours I'm looking at. I really love Vintage Cameo and Old Charm together, but even though they are on the 'neutral' British Paints colour card they still have that tinge of pink. I guess I need to wait to see it on a wall. I also love Coffee Break and Sanity together, the Faded Leather is just in there for fun - but I'm not liking it much now!

Thoughts anyone?