Old Dresser Turned B&W Hall Table

How is everyone this fine morning?  I'm hot, and not in the good looking sense.  I'm sick of this weather, it's so temperamental.  Up, down, up down.

But I am happy that I finished this table.  I found this little dresser through Freecycle.  It came with a beautiful bevilled mirror but unfortunately when my husband went to collect the dresser he cracked the right side of the mirror :(

Rather than spend money replacing the right mirror, I decided to make the dresser into a side/hall table.  A few months ago when I visited Stepney Salvage (a great - but very expensive salvage store), I saw a white table with black and white diamonds on the top.  Mum and I thought it was breathtaking.  But with the $600 or so pricetag it came with, it took my breath away again but for the wrong reason.  It inspired me to try it myself.  I only did the one lot of diamonds rather than have it as both black and white diamonds for fear of it being too much.  What do you think?  Leave as is or add the second lot?

I lined the drawers with some fabric that I picked up cheap at Spotlight.  I love the idea of lining drawers with fabric and was inspired by Chrissie at Chrissie's Collections.  She paints the inside of her drawers a different colour and lines them with gorgeous fabric.  I think it really completes the project and makes it look so much more expensive.  Pop over to Chrissie's blog and have a look at the beautiful furniture she has made over.

Ignore the skirting board at the bottom.  The wall needs painting after renovation.  I wonder if my husband knows a good painter - seeing as HE IS ONE!!!!  Grrrrr...

Anyways, back to the table.  Here is a little guide from start to finish as far as the stencilling goes.  I lined it up using my husband's big spirit level/ruler.  Then using painter's tape I taped it up.

With a small brush I then painted along the insides of the tape with a little white paint to seal the edges to fill any gaps in the tape and prevent leakage of the black.

I then did an undercoat with grey before enameling with black.

VIOLA!



Not everyone's cup of tea, and not as big and full on with the diamonds as the $600 table I saw, but I really like it and it looks great in my hall.  I already had the paint, the dresser was free, handles $11 and fabric $6.  So the whole project cost me $17!  Hooray!

Megs x

Gorgeous Table by Mum

Check out this beautiful piece of work by Chris.  This is table no. 2 of the three tables that my husband found on the side of the road.  The last one is my shed waiting for her to work her magic!  I really love this one though...

This is one of the three identical tables that we scored, and how it originally looked.  Two down, one to go - and its MINE!  Hooray!

Here's Table 1

Again, love love LOVE this latest one.  Her instructor has again asked her to start teaching.  She's still thinking about it. 

To see more of Chris' work, click on the "Mum's Mosaics" tab at the top of the page.  My Mummy's very talented :)

Megs x

Creepy Nonnos and Renovations

I'm trying to keep my focus as I type this, but it is hard with the old Italian couple across the road screaming at each other.  Tony is listening at our bedroom window to see if he can understand what they're saying to each other, but it's a different dialect to his and they speak awfully fast!  Yeah yeah, don't pretend you haven't turned the lights off and listened in on someone's argument at night... ;o)

Speaking of Italian, I have spent all day painting these horrible little men that Tony's uncle had asked him to freshen up.  I have loads of projects sitting in the carport waiting to be painted, but instead I was painting these horrible things.  They're not gnomes as they are quite tall and go up to my hip.  They look like scary woodland creatures.  He had them sitting in the carport for ages and I could not go out there without feeling their beady little eyes watching me.  I call them the "Creepy Nonnos".  They have to go.

One word - UUUUGLY!!

Anyhoo, the following photos are waaaay prettier.  Here are some before and after pics of the front and back yards.

Before:

After... (with an extension!)

I love me some lawn!  Yes, half the house is blue.  The house still needs rendering and painting.  Funny how I'm married to a painter and yet it has been like this for almost two years.  Hmmm...
Here's some of the back...

The big blue brick wall is now gone and replaced with a lovely new fence.  Good thing since it was about to fall down.

Our house backs onto a creek which makes living near the city and the sound of the main road bearable.  I sit out here every day with a cup of tea.  It's all still a work in progress but I've been enjoying every minute of it.

This big boy is "Curly", a peacock who took up residence behind our fence for about four months until some idiot chased him away.  He now resides further up the creek and we hear him every night when the sun goes down honking away.

So, you can see we have put in quite a bit of elbow grease.  Both the back and front were even more overgrown when we first moved in.  The previous tenant was a drug dealing prostitute who had the massive front fence put in.  When we moved in there was a security camera on the roof of the carport and an intercom at the front fence which was always padlocked.  The owner spent six months trying to evict her.  Luckily for us we have had no unsavoury characters darken our doorways in the last six years.  All she left us was a crusty g-string in the wardrobe :(

I wish I had some nice "afters" of the house, but these renovations are taking forever.  Hopefully by the middle of this year we will have a new kitchen and I can show you some befores and afters.

Megs x