Main Bathroom - A little dreaming

 

How lovely is the bathroom above?! It's from Home Beautiful (August 2012) and ticks all my boxes. The following picture is the main bathroom as was when Adam bought the house. It is newly painted white and the ivory toilet was replaced with a cheap white Bunnings one when it gave up the ghost. We have no plans of renovating it any time soon - it is quite beautiful and the bath is great and roomy to bath the rug rats. It will get an overhaul come 5 years time I think. Or it may be made redundant and the main bathroom might move downstairs.

 

 

The painful part is the lack of storage and the dodgy mirror. The shelf on the mirror collects all sort of junk and always looks cluttered. We have been looking for something suitable for a while, including the Hemnes range from Ikea. Probably in white. But it would just be a band aid in the interim and I'm not rushing out to buy anything.

 

{Image via Ikea}

 

{Image via Ikea}

 

These are a couple I love on Pinterest. I love the floor tiling on this one:

 

 

{Image via Pinterest}

 

Amazing tiles, wowzers:

 

 

{Image via Pinterest}

Love the drama of the mirror and chandelier. Not sure if it would be unnerving watching myself in the tub!

{Image via Pinterest}

Love the flooring and storage:

{Image via Pinterest}

A little dreaming never hurt anyone... or cost anything!

William's Room - A few after and inspiration shots!

 

I had always wanted to do a gallery wall and looked forward to finding suitable prints for Will's room. That is the outcome above - I think it turned out pretty well! I used two Pinterest pictures for inspiration:

 

{Image via here}

 

{Image via here}

 

Mum made some co-ordinating bunting and I used the fool-proof Ikea spice racks (a cheap $2.50 each) as little bookshelves for his special books. I am yet to paint them! (So many unfinished jobs!)

 

 

The Ikea spice rack inspiration picture has been circulated and pinned so many times over. It is gorgeous:

 

{Image via here}

 

 

And roughly some Red Plum linen and striped cushion and a wheel cushion on the throw-out pile at Target.

 

Our house faces West and it is really difficult to get good photos in Will's room, the lighting is always off. I will try and get a couple more with his Ikea expedit and chair.

Madeline's Room - A spot of painting!

I'm no DIY queen but you have to start somewhere! I bought some bookends from Kmart for $5 and thought I would give them a paint. I also had a small wooden M from Typo so gave that a couple of coats of pink.
 

I survived! They look quite cute just placed on the bookshelf but will put them to full use soon.
 

Lighting - A trip to Restoration Station

 

Last Saturday we ventured to Restoration Station at Ashgrove (http://www.restorationstation.com.au) and found so many beautiful things (and breakable things - note to self, leave toddler at home next time). We adored the above chandelier for our entryway and it is quite reasonably priced at $500-ish. We also loved the light below - possibly for our dining room. We have asked for the chandelier for Christmas - we shall see what Santa brings!

 

 

I also loved these, would be nice to name our home.

 

{Taken from here}

 

We plan on taking another trip sometime soon without the kids!

Madeline's Room - The big M!

 

I purchased this large wooden M not long after Madeline was born and have had it on the wall since. The problem is, it is a huge wall and it looks... lonely! So after seeing the following shelving at Pottery Barn I commissioned Adam to make some Bunning's knock off for $20.

 

 

{Image via Pinterest}

 

 

There is one for either side.

 

 

I also found this in Home Beautiful from April 2012 (styled by none other than Anna Spiro - my favourite) and love the blend of colours and frames so am using this as inspiration for the shelving.

 

The shelving needs to be painted white and for Adam to hang them, another job for his list!

Living Areas - A little wall of photos

So I saw the above in an old Home Beautiful (April 2012) and love the look of the black with the white. I had quite a few things framed in our master bedroom in black so have brought them out to go up on the wall. Including the 'New Yorker' from when we were engaged, some travel and engagement shots and some bright prints we purchased from New York. (P.S. I adore the black flooring above - bookmarked for the downstairs reno!)

We were given this New York picture for our wedding and it proudly hangs at the end of our hall. (Our master bedroom is to the right). I am planning on using the wall to the left which is a bit of a void and has the air conditioning controls! It's kind of a nook that I can use without using the heavy black frames in the main areas. I'm sticking to silver/glass/crystal out there for the time being.

So now to get Adam to hang it for me! He really loves hanging them for me... As much as he loves poking himself in the eye! (Please excuse the poor quality iphone photos - learning as I go!)

It's the little things...

Adam decided that he wanted to update the door and window 'jewellery' to be chrome to stand out. It's an expensive process, I must admit I was sceptical - but now he has started it looks fantastic.

He has purchased the new jewellery from Recollections, Bunnings and also an online retailer.

Our door handles are slowly all resembling:

{Image via Recollections}

And a couple of doors and windows use these latches:


{Image via Recollections}

So of course, I am now completely converted and need to get all power sockets changed too!

{Image via Recollections}

While we were at Recollections, they were running a promotion on fans. We wanted to upgrade all the fans and make them all the same! So we have four of these waiting to go, at 125ea, not bad.

{Image via Recollections}

And the lights! There are currently stained glass pendants in all rooms, apart from Will's room.

We are looking for suitable replacement for them, we have a chandelier for our bedroom:

We need to replace the pendants in the kitchen and dining but I'll include that in another post.

Living Areas - The before

When Adam and I first met, the interior of the living spaces was pink - filled with brown furniture. It was, lovely. (There used to be a matching brown wall cabinet on the far wall - it went recently - I hope I have a picture!)

And yes, Ollie the lab used to sleep on a recliner during the day. O.M.G.

This is a real estate picture of the living/dining areas as they were before Adam bought the house.

 

 

It was a longstanding mission of mine to paint everything white. And fill the house with white furniture! After a total of 5 years together, we decided to have it painted just before the arrival of Will. It was painted by a handyman whose quote was by far the cheapest. It took a couple of weeks and I, in my third trimester and wrangling a toddler - was so grateful when it was done.

 

The photos below were taken when the painting had started, the white leather couches had been purchased by this time. The toys! Oh the toys - I long for our build in downstairs! Ha! I will follow up post on how it looks now with white and our cabinetry!