Kitchen Wall Stencil

Since we moved in, this wall has annoyed me. It runs out of the kitchen and joins the hallway, so anything we did to it needed to be subtle and fit in with decor choices we make for the kitchen, bathroom and hallway. We decided on blue, but that was as far as our decision making went. And yesterday I was staring at this wall again and decided I'd had enough.

See what I mean? Unfortunately we are not currently able to replace the heaters, so decorating the wall would have to do. I had the perfect stencil in mind, I saved it a long time ago hoping I would one day get to use it and now was that time. It was subtle, cheerful and I could do it now. So I popped upstairs to the office, printed it out and covered it in sellotape (a poor mans lamination) before cutting it out. It was a slow, painful process but I got there in the end and could finally get to work.

And I discovered the hard way that using a brush wouldn't work, even though I had been careful it had bled through.

Luckily tissue and water cleared it quickly and I headed back to the drawing board. Then it hit me, my original idea had been to use a sponge. So I googled and sure enough, it could work. So I grabbed the big bag of make up sponges I bought last year (£1 in poundland!) that I insisted I needed, finally they are earning their keep. And yes, it did make my husband laugh.

Isn't that so much better? I liked the sponged look, but if you want a solid look you could do a couple of coats. How much prettier is the wall now?

And here's a little before and after!

Coffee Table Makeover

I've been in love with addicted2decorating for as long as I can remember.
She always thinks of practical as well as looking good and being a mother (and in a small-ish home) that's something I really can appreciate.

Well I happened to spot this on her blog one day

Before

After

How gorgeous is that!?
I've never quite been able to get it out of my head.

You know the Galaxy Minstrels advert (if you don't, click here), well that's me over this coffee table.

Well a while bag we acquired a lovely coffee table. But it really wasn't "us". We're more farmhouse/vintage/cottage. So it never really fit in with us.

We noticed it was looking a tad sorry for itself in some places (we got it for free, so it's been very well loved) and suddenly it hit me. I knew exactly what to do with it!

Please excuse the mess, the weather down here has been a bit dodgy so I had to do this in the house (with windows open of course).

I stuck on a movie, grabbed my sandpaper and set to work. It took almost four hours to sand it back ready (no manicures or wedding rings were harmed in the sanding of this coffee table).

Eventually I got the chance to start painting and was very pleased with the results.

Two coats of paint later and it was done. I left it to dry over night and we should be moving it to somewhere around the house tomorrow. We're just trying to decide exactly where haha.