Category Archives: DIY

letters the old fashioned way

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I used to love writing (and receiving!) letters. Back when I was a teenager I used to write letters regularly. I had a pen-pal in Germany for quite a few years, and later I always stayed in touch with people I met by mail.
I’ve always been a social person and love to meet new people. I make friends everywhere I go and love sharing even a few simple words with people in passing in the supermarket or the post office.
Summers on Paros were the best back then. There were always so many people on holidays and I was there, waiting to befriend them and show them the best beaches. Among the many friends I made over the many years I lived in Greece and summered on Paros, a few stand out:
Mark, an english guy who came back to visit a few times and with whom I exchanged many fun, imaginative letters. One memorable letter he wrote to me was on toilet paper. I wrote him a letter and glued all the pages together. We had that kind of relationship.
Another was Inge, a lifelong friend. We met on Paros one year and then spent the next few years catching up on Paros or in Holland, exchanging letters in between.
Believe it or not, while we wrote real letters we were in touch way more than we are now, with email at our fingertips. sigh.
Going to the letterbox was a very exciting time. Nothing compares to finding a letter in the mailbox, ripping it open eagerly on the spot, or taking it to a quiet corner to savour every moment of it…
Back then I would make and send Christmas cards every single year. Now I still make them. but I email them. I post the bare minimum of cards. If you’re not on the computer, sorry. Too hard.
Now, email has taken over letters, but somehow, getting an email doesn’t have the same thrill as find an envelope with a stamp from foreign regions had. Email is quicker, faster, more efficient… but its soul-less compared to real letters….
I spent many days sitting at a table at home, in a cafe or library, pen in hand… picking favourite pens, different papers which would inspire me to write… the smell of new stationery… folding and placing a finished letter in an envelope, addressing it and sending it on its way.
I miss those days.
Back to reality and the era of the word on a monitor!
This is the story of an old in-tray.
I found this little beauty in an op shop somewhere along the line. It was plain and boring. I thought it would make a really pretty wall-hung letter holder.
I did a mock-up in Photoshop to see if it would work.  I liked the idea.
So I got to work. I painted it blue. Hated it. Painted it pale green. Hated that. Ended up a pale grey. Liked that. Distressed it a bit on the corners. Then I painted the inside of the tray with black chalkboard paint. I did it in a way that the edges were rough cause I liked that more casual look.
I then used some old wire, threading it through some holes that were already there and adding a few more. Originally I was going to just put the wire across in a kind of zig zag pattern, using the unevenly placed holes. Then I spontaneously crossed wires to create a rather more unexpected effect.
Like a letter holder on drugs.
I liked it! I did a trial run with a letter I just got in the post. It worked. Good!
To finish it off, I added a wire hanger, then wrapped it with jute string to match the string I tied the chalk with. I wrote “letters” in my bad handwriting. Dressed it up with some old postcards and letters and its done!
So, do you like it as much as I do?
z
PS: You’ll find this item for sale in my etsy shop (in links above). I’ve also added it to the Knick of Time Tuesday Vintage Style Link Party. Go check it out.

photo wheel

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I haven’t been inspired to get out and make stuff lately. I mean, I’ve gone to the workshop and looked around and did a tiny bit here or there, but somehow nothing seems to click. I always have a ton of ideas when I’m at work or lying in bed trying to get to sleep. But come the light of a day when I’m at home and can actually take out a drill or the circular saw, even looking at my list can’t shove me into gear.

Its sad. At least I’ve had a more or less restful weekend.

However, I did manage to do a few smaller things lately – while watching TV in the evening. I love multitasking, don’t you? Here is one such small project.

 
While looking for some old barn wood in the area around the stable, I came across this round, greasy, red metal object. 
I have no idea what it is, other than its most likely part of some tractor the previous owner used to keep in the old shed. This is what it looked like when I found it in the dirt.
I picked it up and gave it a good wash with dishwashing liquid to get rid of the grease and I was happy with how it came up. Clean but not pristine looking. There was a bit of rust on it, but as you may have noticed, I quite like rust.
I decided to make it into a display item. Or a paperweight. I’m not entirely sure what it is. However, it is now a photo display as well as whatever else it wants to be.
I found some photos of myself and Wayne from our first year on the farm. I put them together in a strip using Photoshop. I then reduced the saturation till the image was almost black and white.
Since I wanted it to look old and discoloured, I went to town on it with some tea and coffee grounds,.
I think I overdid the distressing…
 As an afterthought, I found a metal thingy with a point on it amongst my stuff and put the ‘wheel’ on top of it. That way you can spin it around to see the photos.
I know I keep showing the same side of the wheel, but its a photo of me and Billybear, my toy poodle who died a few months after we moved here. I miss my little boy.
z

shabby coat racks

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In my travels, I’ve come across lots of odds and ends in grimy boxes in the back of junk shops. One item I seem to find lots of is the humble towel rail holder ‘cup’. I looked at these cuties and thought “I can do something with them.”
So I began collecting them. I ended up with quite a few in different sizes.
I looked in the pile of old timber in our paddock and found this beauty. An old door or window frame, white paint cracked and chipping, holes where nails once were. In short: in pretty bad shape.
Just the way I like it.
I gave it a good clean, scraped off any peeling paint. I cut the piece of wood in half and sorted out the hardware. The smaller piece of wood got 3 rail holders, the bigger one got four. I attached them to the timber using screws.
I had some big beads and some marbles. I had to find the right size to fit inside the cup without disappearing (I lost one marble, never to be retreived again…).
I used liquid nails (turns out I would have been better to use clear silicone but I didn’t think of it at the time). I filled the cups with the liquid nails and sat the bead/marble in it. Then let it dry.
Here’s a closeup. The liquid nails kind of overflowed as I set the marbles in so when it was tacky I scraped the excess off with my fingernail.
I used the red marbles on the one rack, the white beads on the other. Basically the size of the actual cup dictated what I could put in it – some were too small, others were too big for the beads or marble. I guess if I’d bought new ones they would have matched!
Lastly I drilled holes in either end where the coat racks would be attached to a wall with screws. In order to hang and show them off I used some red and white baker’s twine on the red marble coat rack.
Since the bottom of the timber was black and chipped, I painted the sides (especially the freshly cut sides) black using a bit of vaseline to create the chippy look.
Finally, some photos of the white bead coat rack. This one I hung with some baker’s twine I made myself using some white nylon twine and some blue hay bale twine. I’m nothing if not inventive.
I tried it out as a coat rack – hanging a jean jacket on it…
And with a towel. I think I prefer it as a towel rail in the bathroom.
Kinda cute huh? If you like old paint, cracks, chips and old nail holes. Which I do. I like things with character. And history. These bits of wood have all come out of the old house on our property and have been sitting in sheds and wood piles for many years.

z

This project has been entered into a link party at Funky Junk Interiors.

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

here little piggy

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It all began with a cute little graphic I found of a fat little pig. I thought “I can do something with that!”
I had this piece of tassie oak (some of our leftover mud room cladding). I had already sanded it knowing i would use it but not knowing what for yet. 
The piggy was perfect. I knew this piece of wood wanted to be a little wall plaque with a vase.
First I transferred the image onto the wood using the same method I used for the Fresh Eggs sign.
Then I finished it off using a sharpie and gave it a couple of coats of water based varnish.
I had a few different sized bands (I have no idea what their official name is, plumbers use them). I also have a collection of jars. I found a jar and a clamp that suited eachother. This particular clamp didn’t have holes in it so I had to drill a hole to screw it onto the timber.
Once that was done, the clamp mounted and the jar attached securely,  I drilled holes in the timber and hung it with an old piece of wire.
A few blue marguerites from my pitiful winter garden … I wish I had big flowering hydrangeas. A hydrangea would look so good in this little vase. In summer maybe.
z

toy frame

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You’ve seen them, right? Those cute chalkboards for kids rooms, made by gluing old/broken toys to an old frame, then spraying it a bright colour?
Well, I decided to make one when I found a bag of plastic toys for $1 in an op shop some weeks ago even though I don’t have kids. It looked like so much fun. I added more toys to the collection from other shops till I had enough to make a large chalkboard.
At the exact same time I was getting ready to do this, an episode of Better Homes and Gardens came on TV and that DIY chick was making the exact same thing. Only she did a ‘classy’ one. She said it was easy – just get the hot glue gun, glue the toys to the frame, give it a couple of light coats of silver spray paint and voila! Done.
Well I did that. I sat down at my coffee table/work table in front of the TV one night and hot glued toys to the plain pine frame. Though, first, I have to mention that the frame I had wasn’t entirely flat so I had to sand and plane it to make it flat. Then I got out my friend and enemy, the hot glue gun.
I let it dry, then took it to the workshop where I set up a spray paint area and started spraying it lime green. Why lime green? It seemed like a cheerful gender neutral colour.
I sprayed it in light coats. I sprayed. And I sprayed. I did a ton of coats from every side and every angle.
I still missed spots where the colour didn’t take cause of the texture of one toy or other, or where the nooks and crannies of a toy refused to let the paint in. But that’s ok. I dont mind it being imperfect. It actually looks nice with a tiny flash of red or yellow here or there.
In between the million coats of spray paint, I took image that came with the frame and painted over it with store bought chalkboard paint. I gave it 2 coats and it looked great.
Then I put the chalkboard into the frame, put screws in and wire to hang it and it was ready.
I put it in my car to take to a local shop to see about selling it.
That’s when the dophin came off.
Quick fix glue job. Touch up of spray paint once the glue was dry.
Back in the car to go to the shop.
There’s a new shop in New Norfolk which sells kids stuff – gifts, books, clothing. New and 2nd hand, handmade and not.
When I went to take it out of the car Bugs had come unstuck.
Damn. It worked fine on TV!
Some superglue (which didn’t work) later, I was talking to the lady in the shop. She loved it. She was  excited about the idea of selling it in her shop. Great. I’ll just take it home and glue it again and bring it back next week.
I feel like ripping the toys off and throwing it away to be honest.
But I won’t. I’ll glue it again, using cement this time. See how it likes them apples!
And then I’ll tell the lady in the shop that its to be sold as a decorative piece, NOT a piece for children to actually USE.
How stupid is that?
It’ll work fine as a piece of art on a nursery wall.
So much for following BH&G instructions. Maybe pinterest would have offered more practical suggestions?
z

tomorrow lampshade

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I’ve been buying lamps when I see them in 2nd hand shops lately. When I see one I like the shape of. Sometimes I like the shade, other times the base. Often I get them home and swap shades or paint bases… I think I have too many lamps.

However, when I saw this letter on a lampshade it inspired me to do something with a shade I had removed cause I didn’t like the gold trim. There was a little damage too – two of the metal frame spikes inside had come loose and poked tiny holes on the shade. I glued the spikes back into place and the writing camouflaged the tiny holes.


I used a sharpie to write Garth Brook’s If Tomorrow Never Comes on the shade as its always been one of my favourite songs. Its one of the best love songs ever in my opinion – for anyone at all in your life.

My handwriting leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve never used cursive. In schools in Australia children are taught to ‘print’ not ‘write’. That means that we learn to write single letters. Later we’re taught to join them up, but the Australian way of ‘running writing’ is nothing like American cursive. Its simple, economical in stroke and rather plain compared to the flair of cursive.

When we moved to Greece in 1970 I went to Ursuline (an American Catholic school run by the Ursuline nuns) and had to learn cursive.

Funny huh? My printing wasn’t good enough so I had to sit in the classroom for many lunchtimes learning cursive.

I used it for about 4 years, till I went to the English Campion School for high school where cursive was knocked out of me by one of my teachers. He had me go back to my ‘much neater’ printing.

Thus, in my long winded way, I’m explaining that my cursive is very rusty as it never gets out these days.

And bringing it out to write on a round lampshade was a challenge. Still, if you can look past the wonky handwriting, I think the lamp came up well. I paired it with a plain creamy wooden base. Hopefully no one will look too closely at the actual writing.

Maybe I’ll put it back on its original gold base, but for now it sits on the corner coffee table in the living room.

z

farm fresh egg sign

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Once upon a time I found a small old chopping board. It had a metal handle and was worn and grimy. So, I did what any self respecting DIY/crafter would do. I took it home and gave it a makeover.
First I sanded it to get rid of the stains and make it pretty again.
Then I experimented with transfering images. I tried various methods I found on Pinterest but to be honest, none of them worked very well. For one thing, what on earth is freezer paper? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a supermarket in Australia… Freezer bags, yes, but paper? No. And transfer paper? I asked at Spotlight and they had no idea what I was talking about. Wax paper? We’ve been looking for what I remember mom using way back when me and Noah were kids, but I haven’t seen it around for a long time.
I used a sheet of laminating paper, printed out this image and – ooops. Not exactly right.

So, I sanded it again, got rid of the image, then, while I was at it, cut the metal handle off. I drilled two holes into the board to thread through a rope to hang it with.

Then I tried the image transfer again. This time I added in some type to make it a proper sign. You can see the transfer wasn’t perfect.

I touched it up with a sharpie and it came up great. I gave it a couple of coats of water based satin varnish, then gave it a little sand to finish it off.

I used a vinegar/steel wool solution to age the wood a bit (another Pinterest tip).

Not bad. I kinda liked it.

Then, while photographing I had a sudden inspiration. Those burlap flowers I made last week! I think they add that certain je ne sais quoi, don’t you?

I’m pretty pleased with it!
So what do you think? Keep? Sell locally or esty shop?
z

DIY – remodelling the dining room

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Remember the unfinished dado rail from the living room make-over? Well, the dining room was also painted white (I think the original owners of the house bought it in bulk and used it on everything), with a blue dado rail running around the entire room. And only one tiny corner done in pine panelling.

This is what the dining room looked like when I first saw the house. The grey painted brick on the fire place. The blue dado rail and the white walls.

I apologise for the sizes of the images. I no longer have the original files in some cases and they’re all different sizes.

And the mess.

The other side of the fireplace in what is now the purple room – The walls were sponged blue over white. Not a good job. There was a carpet in this bedroom when I first moved in. My first job was to remove the carpet, sand the floorboards and varnish them.

It looked a bit better once I cleaned up, but not much. The dog pen side was to keep the dogs off the floor in the bedroom till it dried.

The fireplace surround was nice timber, but they’d painted the original old bricks a gloss grey. The pantry cupboard was lacquered pine like the entire kitchen.


Having moved in, I started to make the space work for me… Furnishing with dog crates!

When I started the remodelling in the dining room the pine lining was the first thing to go in, tying the room in with the living room just past the kitchen. The colour I chose in this room was Dulux Vast Escape – I can’t take credit for choosing this colour. It was chosen by Greg, my partner at the time. I looked at it and was not sure at all, but I trusted his tastes in colour. And I love the colour now. In fact I’m wondering how it would look in my current kitchen…

Below is Greg putting in the pine lining for me. I have to admit, his faults aside, Greg really can do things when he put his mind to it. He is a very talented man.

Back to the dining room make-over. The wood panelling was put up in the living room and dining room at the same time. It made sense.

Similar to the living room, the walls above and the panelling below were both painted the same colour and the dado and all woodwork was painted Antique White USA.

I stripped the grey paint off the bricks using paint stripper and exposed the original bricks and some of the old cream colour used to paint them in the past. It looks a bit messy in the photos but I love the texture of those old bricks.

The built in wood heater in this room works beautifully and is positioned in a way that serves to heat the entire house. I’ve just replaced the old one with a refurbished 2nd hand one and now its in better shape than ever.

The fireplace was painted Columbia to match the far wall in the living room to tie the rooms together further.

I painted the pantry and the built-in bookcase the same colour as the walls for a more uniform feeling in the room. 
The floorboards in the dining room and kitchen were all in pretty good condition, they could do with a sand and polish but to be honest, I like the warn, less perfect look.
I always have a rug in the dining room for warmth and with the fire going in winter.

So here it is now. New curtains, re-arranged furniture, my 60s kitchen table and chairs and you have to admit, it looks spectacular.

z

DIY – rennovating the living room

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Another walk down memory lane. Lets re-visit my house in Fentonbury how it was when I first bought it.

So, you may remember this is how it looks right on my real estate listing as I wait for someone to decide its their dream home:

 

And this what what it looked like when I saw the original listing. Gotta give it to the owner and agent for staging huh?

And here it is after I moved in.

 

It was painted white with dark blue and egg yolk yellow trims. Tasteful.

There was a wood heater in the middle of the living room far wall which, I discovered, wouldn’t burn all night and didn’t do much to heat more than just that room.
When I bought the house I came down and stayed for a week just to get a few things organised. It was August and thus freezing cold. I brought down an air mattress and slept in front of the heater, waking up every couple of hours to put more wood on the fire.

Of course, a city like me had no idea about damping down back then… however, the wood heater still refused to burn all night even after I figure it out. It had a tiny firebox so would only fit smaller pieces of wood.
On the area between the bathroom and kitchen there was a laminate built-in wall unit. I used this to dispay items and books. I didn’t do much to the room for a while, just lived in it as it was more or less. At the time most of my furniture etc was 50s as it had come from my 50s style house in Melbourne.

The living room was a newer extension to the house. There was a step up from the kitchen (and a step down again to the bathroom, weird), the ceiling was a bit lower and the window was aluminium (compared to the sash windows in the old part of the house).

First thing I did when I started renovating, was to get pine lining onto the walls and a dado rail. I love that look. The idea was to tie this newer part of the house with the older part. At that stage the dining room had an unfinished dado rail – no lining below it. Once I had both rooms lined with timber below a dado rail the whole area would flow. Seeing at its open plan, that made sense.

The colours I chose were dark brown (Dulux Columbia) for the feature wall behind the wood heater, and a creamy mocha colour for the rest of the walls. Sorry, I can’t remember that colour at the moment. All the trims were painted Dulux Antique White USA.

The room looked warmer and more inviting straight away. The white trims were so much nicer than the egg yolk yellow!

Of course, the carpet was a problem. It had been 2nd hand when it was put in, I was told, and a year of muddy paws running in and out did it no favours. I was itching to get rid of it. However, the floor underneath was not floorboards like the rest of the house. It was chipboard flooring. I had to find a covering which would allow for easy cleaning, be hardy, and look good.

And while I was at it, replacing the flooring, I decided it was time to get rid of the woodheater. The woodheater in the dining room was much better placed to heat the house and more efficient. I liked the layout of the living room much better without the wood heater in the middle of the far wall.

I dislike laminate flooring. I’ve seen it not wear well in others’ homes. I couldn’t afford to replace the floor with timber, so I settled on vinyl. I bought a good quality, non-slip, industrial strength vinyl by Gerfloor. Its taupe in colour and small flecks/flowers scattered through it.

I didn’t want to put vinyl floors that pretended to be something they weren’t. The idea of timber-look alike floors next to real worn floors in the kitchen and dining rooms would have been tacky. And no way was I doing the tile/stone thing either. I wanted something warmer than that. And this vinyl is just that. Warm and easy to keep clean and pretty to look at.
Sure, ideally I’d have liked to be able to afford real timber floors, but this was so much more practical with standard poodles jumping about on it.

An area rug for warmth in winter and a seagrass rug in summer finishes off the room nicely, don’t you think?

z


Note:

This post has been added to a link party at The Thrifty Decor Chic. Why not visit and see other living room makeovers.

Thrifty Decor Chick







DIY – rennovating the bathroom

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I’ve done my share of rennovating. My first house, in Melbourne, was a 1950’s style home with a beautiful deco staircase in front. It needed a ton of work when I bought it – I lived in a construction site for 2 years, only finishing it to sell it. Ain’t that the way?
When I moved to Tasmania I wanted a house I could move into which didn’t need any major work. Not structural work. In Melbourne I had to remove walls and move doors. In Fentonbury I only needed to revamp the kitchen with paint, enclose the back porch for grooming, paint everything… and put in a new bathroom.
I thought I’d share the adventure just ’cause I can.
Warning: the following photos may offend people with delicate sensibilities.
This is what the bathroom looked like when I bought the house. Yet I still bought it.
 
Am I the only person in the world that can look beyond something like this? Our current bathroom is just as bad. And my first house in Melbourne, well… that was worse than both put together. 
There was a small clawfoot tub which I actually really liked. And a cupboard bolted to the floor and wall which acted as storage and a room divider (privacy for the toilet). That had lovely oak doors but was a boring melamine cupboard. And it really took up a lot of space in the small bathroom. The only reason you could get past was that the clawfoot tub was very small.

What about the colour, huh? White walls, ok, blue and white vinyl on the floor, ok, egg yolk yellow trims….

Notice anything? Taps in the middle of the tub… and no shower! Obviously the family of 7 who ‘rennovated’ this house shared the bathwater… eeech. No thanks. I prefer my water running fresh and clean.

The clawfoot tub was gorgeous. It was a small thing, not that practical but oh so cute. I’d love to have kept it, but it was so ridiculous. It was a round type, with the nice lip around it, not squared off like our current one (yes, I have another clawfoot tub). I even loved the pink. But years of filling the tub with water and sitting in it, water splashing behind and under it had rotted the floor/wall. It was only a matter of time till I got in to shower and landed on the dirt below the house.

I needed a new floor.

Interesting wall treatment. In theory. I mean, I used mini-orb to redo the bathroom walls (that’s mini corregated iron in zinc finish). They used sheets of colourbond and they alternated them right way (blue), wrong way (grey) for artistic effect.

Hm.

I hated the vanity unit, and I really hated the taps. Since I had to live with what I had for a while I put up a circular curtain rail and a curtain, got myself a handheld shower thingy with a wall attachment and spent the next few months showering while trying to uncling a cold curtain from my body. I also painted the vanity, changed the knobs to make it more acceptable.

Below are photos of the rennovation started. When the colourbond came off we found holes in the wall. Of course.

I got a friend, ex plumber, to do the bathroom rennovation for me in return for helping him with his show dog. A bit of contra is a good thing when you don’t have much money.

I bought a new bathtub, one that could be built in. Alan put in a new floor for me and moved the plumbing so I could have a shower over the end of the tub.

Having lived through this in Melbourne I was used to living around construction.There’s another advantage to this for a dog breeder: all my pups were well socialized to power tools.

Eventually the bathtub was in place, a large angle rod went up for the curtain and I could finally shower without peeling cold wet curtain off my butt.

I had this great curtain I’d bought at IKEA I was hanging out to use too.

I tried putting in the old cupboard but it didn’t fit. The new tub was much longer and wider than the clawfoot and the space between the cupboard and bathtub was too tight. I replaced it with an old shed door – this formed a simple visual barrier so you couldn’t see the toilet when you opened the door. It also served to hold towel rods.

Since I have dark hair and shed like a collie, I opted for dark vinyl on the floor. Nothing worse than long dark hair on light floors.

The bathroom had originally had a sliding door which I hated. I removed it and replaced it with a 2nd hand shed door. (Have you noticed I love shed doors?) I didnt paint the bathroom side of the door for a long time cause it matched the weathered room divider door.

You may notice I also clad certain areas around the tub and the walls below the mini orb with old fence palings. Going with that rustic look.

Oh yeah, and if you noticed I painted it lime green.

I have no idea why I did that but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was bright…

Here’s the door from the outside, painting started on the door frame.

Eventually I painted the door Antique White USA on both sides, same colour as all the woodwork.

I got sick of the lime green and repainted the walls a gorgeous soft blue colour. I had a friend put panelling on the walls and the bath surround, eliminating the rustic look. I moved a tall narrow bookcase I had into the bathroom, panelled the back of it to match the walls, then painted it blue and white. It became the privacy divider plus great storage for towels and other bits and pieces.

I bought a new shower curtain which was perfect for the new colours and painted my old cane laundry basket white. All that needs now is lining made from blue and white ticking. Lovely.

Big difference huh? From this:
to this:
Much better huh?

It’s a room which actually feels welcoming now, fresh and clean and spacious. And it didn’t cost the earth either. I bartered for some of the work, used what I had where I could, and did as much of the work as I could myself.

Now on to the horrific room that passes as a bathroom here… that will take time.

z