Bedroom Makeover

We re-organised/ re-furnished our bedroom late last year. Having moved into a quite small, basic 3-bedroom house with a growing family, I have been determined to make every bit of space work well. Our bedroom and bedroom furniture was not working well:

Our previous bedroom furniture was very budget-friendly. We were actually given our bed-frame as a very generous wedding present from a couple at our old church. The chest-of-drawers and filing cabinet were mine, from my high-school days. The bedside tables (which didn't match), were picked up at op-shops. That furniture served us well for over 8 years (and is now residing in one of the spare bedrooms at my parents' house). 

Since people don't really see the main bedroom very often, ours was becoming a bit of a dumping ground. It was crying out for some attention...

Our first step was to create a workspace for Matt and I (not that Matt uses it much - he prefers the dining table!). Of course, we went straight to IKEA. You may remember I posted about that last year. (And, despite easy access, the sewing machine has still received remarkably little use).

After the workspace was complete, I got thinking about the rest of the room. We decided to fork out for a new bed with added storage (IKEA - $339 + blood, sweat and tears to assemble):

... which led to new bedside tables ($99 each, IKEA) and wall lights ($19.99 each, IKEA)...

I made the covered canvases for our bedroom at our old house. They are now sitting on a picture ledge ($14.99, IKEA). It was good to cover this wall (which contained some picture hooks/ holes from the previous owners) and add a bit of prettiness to our room.

Our bedroom now feels like the "calm oasis" that Oprah (or someone like that) tells me it should be! If you have a small space and/ or small budget, I don't think you can go past IKEA. I am slowly IKEA-ising our whole house...

Are you an IKEA fan? Or, more importantly, are you NOT an IKEA fan? If not, why not?! 

In which I finally do some sewing

Those who are not long-term readers of this blog may be surprised to see sewing get a mention. I am not the best sew-er in the world. Although I don't mind doing it (I actually quite enjoy it once I get going), it is not something I tend to prioritise. Since my days of Textiles and Design at school, I have sewn about 3 items (and mostly with help).

But, I do have a space to sew:

And, I did have a project I have been procrastinating on:

We bought these large cushions about 5-6 years ago. The covers on these suited the decor in our old lounge room (green, as below)

We no longer need the cushions in our lounge room, so I thought I'd add them to our bed. I love the look of a cosy bed with lots of cushions. (Unfortunately my husband doesn't share my love of multiple cushions on the bed). This is the kind of look I love (below) - a bit country, a bit pretty, a bit kitsch, but not too cluttered:

Finally today, I decided to procrastinate no more

This is what I ended up with. It is a very basic sewing job - straight seams down two sides and a hem at the top.

Please excuse the hasty positioning of the cushions - I could have made it look more artistic!

The experts' verdict was "nice and comfy". (Please excuse Mr 2's underpants. I took three photos and this was the best one!)

There is just one problem. I have to finish them off. What would you do here; buttons or ties? I can do ties without help. Buttons I know in theory, but I haven't done them recently...

 

Your advice?

Kids' messy space

Our kids (like most kids) love making mess. Not only do they love it, but I must say, they are quite gifted in the making-mess department. There is really no better way to make mess than with paint, and stamps and ink, and stickers, and glue, and tiny bits of cut paper...

With mess being inevitable, it is probably obvious that I do not want our kids to do their messy, crafty activities in their bedrooms (carpeted) or in the lounge room (on the rug), but I still want them to do them! Enter, the messy space...

I was inspired by finding some "art spaces" online. If you know where to look online, inspiration abounds...

Credit

Credit

Sadly, I knew that our messy space would not be as beautiful as the spaces above. For space reasons, we needed to construct our messy space in our old fibro (detached) garage. There are no internal walls (e.g. plasterboard walls) on the garage, so you have to look at the back of the sheet fibro, which isn't too pretty. The lighting is also not brilliant in the garage, so we usually keep the roller door open when we play in there. I didn't want to spend much money on the space, so I needed to use what we had available. (I think the only things I bought were the plastic tubs you will see on the bottom edge of the blackboard/ easel).

Here is what we have ended up with:

The table and chairs originally belonged to Matt's grandma. (The table is one of those marble-type topped ones, that are very retro and fashionable apparently!). 

This was a wooden shoe-rack purchased several years ago at a discount store (I think it was $10). We used old jars and tins to store some essential art supplies. You may notice our foam box gardens from a while ago. They were on their sides to dry, after we had a little rain leak through the roof onto them. (We have since disposed of these!)

The wire drawer set was used in a wardrobe at our old house. I think they are available at Big W for about $40, or Bunnings or similar. The drawers are organised with paper craft and stickers in the bottom drawer, paint and paint brushes/ rollers etc above that, jars of bits and pieces above that (googly eyes, pom poms, pipe cleaners, feathers etc), and tubs with stamps, ink, spare chalk, spare crayons etc in the top.

I originally painted this old sandpit cover (marine plywood) to use as an outdoor chalkboard. We haven't figured out where we want it outside yet (or how to attach it), so for now, it is in our art space (easy to nail to the internal beams). Above the blackboard, we attached a curtain wire (about $2 from IKEA). This was a space to hang artworks. In this picture we were still using the hooks that came with the wire, but the kids can't use these hooks themselves (too fiddly), and they kept falling off the wire. I have since removed these and we use regular clothes-pegs to hang artwork.

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This rod was already attached between two beams - made a perfect place for long paper sheets. The coat hanger/ mobile attached to the cupboard was inspired by an episode of play-school. Miss 3 insisted on making it for Miss 1, although Miss 1 was a little old for a mobile by the time we did it.

IKEA again! Easel approx. $20 It has a whiteboard on one side and a blackboard on the other. A paper roll (also from Ikea) can be attached underneath for drawing with pencils/ crayons/ textas too. I bought the attached plastic storage containers when we did the office space in our bedroom. I think they are about $2 each, also from IKEA.

Inspired by Nicole from Planning with Kids over a year ago... a box of recycling materials - for general play, construction or craft. (Can you tell we shop at ALDI?!)

We set up our art space around August - September last year and used it a lot last year. I have found the kids aren't quite as desperate to do art at home now that they do a bit at daycare/ preschool, but we probably still get in there and get messy about once a fortnight or so... definitely worth it on rainy days!

Do you have a designated place for messy play?

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Truly Home

It has been about 3 weeks since our family finished our 'holidays' (I mean the time that my school teacher husband returned to work). I actually worked 2 days/ week during our 'holiday' time, and both Matt and I worked 7 days at home, as always. Still, there was something a little bit more relaxing about the 'holidays'.

You know how it goes with holidays. You stay up later. You sleep in just a little (as much as young children allow). You get out of routine. Sometimes, you lose your focus.

I think this happened for me these holidays. I got completely out of the habit of regular prayer and Bible reading. I spent more time than usual watching movies/ TV (which still wasn't that much, but my usual is almost never...). I spent a lot of time online.

I spent a lot of time dreaming and scheming about this type of thing:

Who wouldn't want a verandah like this?

Or an eat-in kitchen like this?

Or a library...?

There is nothing wrong with any of this. But, as I surfed (the net) and admired and dreamed and schemed the discontentment started to creep in... The thoughts began; "My house is so small. My house is so old. Do we need to do an extension? Should we knock our house down and start again? Maybe we should move...? What will be the best thing for our kids?" (Note: mostly moot points since we can't afford to do any of the above right now!)

But what a relief to get back into God's word and recall:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6: 19-21

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20-21

Our house may be old, but even new houses attract moth, and rust, and termites and thieves. (We have frustratingly already seen how things age or are never quite right, even in things we bought new only 8-9 months ago). Our house may be small, but it is not our real home. We are residents of Sydney, but truly citizens of heaven. 

Heaven will mean no deterioration, and no lack of space. But, most of all, there will be Jesus, who will take the discontent and the envy and make us truly content. He will take our feeble, weak minds and bodies and make them like his. And, that is what is really worth dreaming and 'scheming' about.

Our house: some before, during and afters

It is hard to believe that we moved house almost 9 months ago now. In some ways, I feel like we have always lived here, but in other ways, it really feels like we have just moved in.

Matt was very busy over the summer holidays and we have now pretty much completed our indoor renovations (for the time being). We have a few plans for the backyard, but we plan to work on that slowly and take a relaxed approach (as opposed to the pace we set in 2011!)

Here are a few before, during and after shots of our spaces:

(A) Laundry/ Kitchen/ Dining

Laundry - before

Laundry - during

Laundry - after (behind cupboard doors)

Kitchen - before

Kitchen - during

Kitchen - after

Dining before

Dining - after

(B) Back decking

Back of house - before

Back of house - during

Back deck - after

(C) Bathroom

Bathroom - before

Bathroom - after

We are really happy with how it all turned out. These few changes have made the house so much more livable and easy to organise. Everything also feels much more spacious. 

It is a nice feeling to be able to relax and enjoy the spaces for a while.

Jumping on a band-wagon: our bag nooks.

It seems that having a centralised "school bag nook" is all the rage at the moment. I first noticed this when I read this post at The Organised Housewife, and followed some of the links in the comment section.

We have found coat/ bag racks to be very useful. They provide a little extra storage in a small space. Since moving here we have always kept our nappy bag, some shopping bags and, during winter, some coats, on a rack behind our front door. 

 

When we arrived here, there was also a coat rack behind the door in the girls' bedroom. We used this to keep some backpacks, library bags and play/dress-up bags. After Miss 1 received a daycare backpack for Christmas however, we were finding the position of this rack behind the door quite frustrating. For one thing, it meant that we couldn't open the door completely. It was also set way too high for the kids to reach.

As I am always one to jump on a home organisation band-wagon, I took the opportunity to create a new "bag nook". I'd love to have a centralised one (like The Organised Housewife does), but we don't have an appropriate space for that. Instead, we created one space in the girls' room, and one in Mr 2's room.

For the girls' space:

We moved the existing coat rack from behind the door to the end of the girls' bunk bed (and discovered why the rack had originally been behind the door - a hole in the wall!)

Isn't this the perfect space to do more with? As the girls get older I will probably add a box or basket below the hooks (where they can put lunchboxes, drink bottles and shoes). I also plan to make one of these (for holding homework, notes from school etc):

Not sure whether I would go with the ruler/ multicoloured look, or just paint the whole thing white or pink or something? What do you think?

For Mr 2's space:

My mother-in-law found this cute hanger at an op-shop. It was easy to attach it to the end of our new Expedit shelves (okay, it was easy for my husband to attach it, not me). I realise Mr. 2 will outgrow this one in a few years, but it is quite suitable for now.

Do you have a "nook" for school bags? Have you jumped on the band-wagon?

Blowing the dust off: highlights of 2011

The year that was:

1) We grew

2) We played

 

3) We worked hard

4) We created

5) We moved house...

6) ... near the bush

7) We did some renovations

8) ... and I got (re)organised

9) Our neighbours gave us a free cubby house

10) We found a new church, and continued to trust in God's grace and provision for us

11) And, for the first year since 2005, I spent an entire calendar year un-pregnant. (P.S. Being pregnant - and the end result - is wonderful, but it was nice to give my body a rest!)

What were your highlights in 2011?