Kitchen and Dining Furniture Picks So Far

I've been absolutely hanging out to show off my new furniture purchases for the dining room and kitchen but I wanted to wait until I have it all set up pretty with a rug and dining chairs for the table but I just can't wait any longer so I'll show you what I have so far ... and what I still need to find.

 

I stuck to my daring design dreams and bought these fun yellow Replica stools for the kitchen island bench.
 

The stools are from Go Go they have a fantastic range of replica furniture and really reasonably priced, I scored these stools for $47 each and couldn't find them cheaper anywhere else or in the bright fun colours they stock. We opted for the medium height 66cm so the tops of peoples legs don't knock the bench top and be annoying and potentially spill my wine can't be having that!

Hows about the colour? I love that yellow is the feature colour in this room and works really well against the black and white in the kitchen. I have a yellow pineapple jar from Pigeonhole and a yellow clock, frame and some art to bring in pops of yellow in the room. As much as I love yellow it's such a contrasting colour it needs to be used sparingly!

 

 

The dining room table was an Ikea find - a Torsby 6 seater white frosted glass table top with shiny chrome legs. It was reduced from last year's price of $229 to $199.

Mr P said and excuse the Aussie slang it would be "a piece of piss I'll put it together in 20 minutes" to which I scoffed more like 2 hours thus the bet was made - a carton of beer to put the table together in 2 hours - and he won and did it in 40 minutes. But then so did I because I got a dining room table assembled in record time! That's a win win I say :)

The table is the perfect fit for the area and can be pushed against the wall when not being used so it doesn't block the walkway. It's big enough to sit 4-6 people for a dinner party. I like how the frosted glass makes it blend in with the wall colour which we painted a light grey (Dulux Mountain Peak).

Sadly, the idea of the ottoman or bench seat against the wall isn't going to work with this size table so we are going for dining chairs instead. I want to find a chair with similar silver legs and a low back that sits level with the table top so it's not intrusive to the walkway. I think leather or fabric will work well, all the plastic and metal chairs we sat on we slid right off of so although they look good they're not really practical and suitable for dining.

So there you go there's a sneak peak of the kitchen stools and dining room furniture. Still to find are some dining chairs and the perfect sized rug to anchor the table and create a dining zone.

The next project and the one I absolutely love the most is to decorate! I have a stunning big mirror from Freedom to hang on the wall above the dining table, my wall of clocks and art  I'm still tweaking but should be ready to hang up this weekend. I'm struggling to find a frame for a tea towel  I want to frame as art but I won't give up I know the right frame is out there somewhere!

What do you think of the furniture so far?

[All images my own]

 

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Decorating In Spring Colours - Green and Yellow

Today is the first day of Spring and I've been decorating my TV cabinet and adding some pops of green and yellow to lure in the sunny Spring weather!

Starting with this retro styled lamp I grabbed the very last one at Target when they were half price at $55.

I had hoped the lamp shade would be larger and when I bought it imagined a large over sized one hanging over the couch but as it was smaller I thought it looked more in place behind the TV.

The 16 is our house number I bought from Typo for an outrageous $1 each.

I plan to put the numbers outside near the front door once the front fence and courtyard is built.

A mix of green vases brings out the rug colour - the tall one on the left is from Freedom and on the right Target and my quirky owl vase

Pops of yellow in the flowers bring out the art ... I am in love with all things yellow

My terrarium has had a break from the guest bedroom and looks right at home out here

It seems the cold Winter mornings are behind us now as we move into Spring it is such a pretty time of year.

I love changing up the colour pallete in this room.

Do you change your decorating colours in Spring?

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[All images my own]

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Interior Design Course: Week 2

Here's a recap of what I learnt in Week 2 of the Interior Design course

WEEK 2

Flooring and Lighting
Types and Applications of Floor Treatments
Types and Applications of Lighting

In the Flooring session there was a lot of talk about the different types of flooring and the pros and cons for each - we covered floorboards (my favourite), tiles and carpets. We also went into concrete floors, stone, vinyl and the old faithful cork. There are so many choices and each have good and bad qualities.

We went for a walking tour around the Home Expo centre to look at the different types of flooring. There is nothing better than being able to stand and touch and see flooring up close, compared to viewing paper samples of a product. Never commit to a product by a paper sample (says she who picked a paint colour from a computer screen!). With flooring you have to stand on it and imagine how it will work in your home with your kids, pets and furniture. You need to think about how it will wear, how often you can clean it, and how long it will last you. 

We then had an exercise of drawing and colouring in a floor using shades of colours that you see in the floor. I picked jarrah floorboards (of course!) and picked up colours of red, orange and brown.

Next we moved onto lighting and all the different types of lighting and where they should be used. The most efficient choice of bulbs for leaving lamps on all night, new types of led lighting for kitchens which take up no room and don't get hot, and using pendants in proportion so they aren't too big or small for the area.

I have pretty much sorted the lighting in my home and besides the disastrous high hanging pendant in my living room I'm pretty happy with my light choices so far. The kitchen however will need a lot of planning to get right with  proper lighting under benches for chopping and cooking. I absolutely love the dramatic bubble type chandeliers and want to build a two story house just so I can hang one in the stairwell!

The lighting homework was to cut out all the different types of lighting - General lighting, Spot lighting, Task lighting, Down lighting and Decorative lighting

I also asked about the landscaping section that was missed last week and apparently there are only notes in our files but no slides to look at because there's not enough time to cover it all. They run a separate course on landscaping that covers outdoors in more detail so I might be tempted to go to that as we have the entire front house to landscape and design, as well as a big backyard.

Week 1 you can read about here
Week 3 is all about Kitchens, Bathrooms and Laundries

[First image my own and homework floors and lighting images my own
All other images from Home Base Expo - Stairs here, Timber Floor here, Epoxy Floor here, Stone Floor here, Travertine here, Lights 1 here, Lights 2 here, Skylight here]



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I'm so disappointed

I'm so disappointed with the living room light pendant that was installed recently (the other lights we had installed as well and I'll share them when I'm less angry!)

It's hanging at the wrong height it's way too short and basically sits on the ceiling and so you can’t see the top of the light feature which should hang down from 3 wires. I was so worried about it being low and hitting our heads while we flung our arms around playing Xbox Connect that I didn’t think about how it was going to look that high up.

Two electricians and I spent about 3 hours fitting this light. The wires were tangled so we had to undo them all and then we couldn't get them screwed back in again. Tiny little ball bearings kept falling out and getting lost in our shag rug which looks like grass and there I am trying to find them with a magnet and torch and had to give up in the end. So they just had to tightened it with a lock nut thingo instead. Hmmmm dodgy.

I was not happy

I was home alone and my phone was flat so I couldn’t ring Pete who was at work, to ask his advice. The power was off so I couldn't charge my phone either.

I can’t change the length now that it's up because the lines have been cut short

This light fitting is the most expensive of all that we bought it cost nearly $600 and I feel that it doesn’t make the statement that it should

I've even dreamt about the damn thing for 2 nights in a row. Shows how it's playing on my mind. I'm so disappointed. And angry at myself for playing it safe. And frustrated. Grrrrrrrrrr.

That is all

I do feel a bit better now I've vented, so thanks and sorry you had to hear all that!

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Shades of Green

I wanted to add a bit of colour to the Living Room to ward of the winter blues so I went a bit crazy on the weekend buying a few different shades of green accessories. The grey throw rug and cushions have gone into the cupboard for some winter hibernation ...

BEFORE

AFTER

Now there's a mix of greens to contrast against the art and feature pistachio rug

I know I'm being brave mixing shades of greens and mixing patterns but I think it works and besides I thought I'd better take my own advice and go for some wow factor.

Teal throw rug Coles $15, Teal and fuchsia cousin Target $13, White pattern cushions Freedom $6.50 each and Green vase Freedom $35.

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The Rug Hunt Is Over

I fell in love with the bright green cushions in this photo and for months and months I've had my heart set on finding that same shade of green in a rug for the now finished living room.

But alas it was not meant to be rugs are just not made in that colour (trust me I've looked in every rug store about 3 times over!). So in the end I had to compromise and opted for this lighter shade of green instead.

I didn't want a rug with a pattern as I thought it would compete with other colours in the room like in the art or cushions (when I get them!) whereas plain is a good solid background colour. The rug I picked is below, as you can see it has a border of thick shag and the inside is soft and plush. Its a fun contrast.

Yes it does look a bit like grass (it's ok you can say it!) but I think it will be a really striking contrast against the jarrah floorboards and the dark leather couches. Now I'm on the hunt for all things pistachio to bring the colour scheme together (thanks Bright.Bazaar for directing me to a name other than lime green!)

[Images from Decor Pad, Ideal Home and here]

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Never Give Up

Who would’ve thought finding a black and white swirly girly rug would be so hard? It’s only 2 colours and a bit of a pattern. Not much to ask I thought. Well let me tell you there aren’t too many white rugs out there. Beige no probs. Off-white plenty of those. But bright white? Oh no we don’t have that type sorry. Ugggh.

Why do I always want what turns out to be a difficult, one of a kind, pain in the ass to find? But did I give up? Hell no!

Me and the boy drove around the country side and checked out about half a dozen rug shops and when we pulled into the last shop about 15 minutes before closing time I wasn’t hopeful. But my ears pricked up when the salesman said because we were the last customers of the day we could have any rug on the rack we were looking at for $165. Some were labeled up to $450 so suddenly orange and brown and crazy patterns became appealing. But then I decided not to give up on what I really wanted and explained exactly what I was after. He showed me one he had and it was near on perfect but it was way too big for the room. So as we were heading for the door defeated and deflated he said he’d check out the back ... and he came back carrying the perfect size and the perfect pattern. I could’ve kissed him!

Just to prove even if you think your getting a bargain, you can probably get a better one, I fluttered my eyelashes a bit more and we took it home for $150. Sweet.

It went straight into it's new room the Craft Room/Study. I love how it makes such a bold statement in such a small room. It's just what I was looking for, just goes to show NEVER GIVE UP!
 

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