Before and After ~ Garden Arbour Bench

It feels like summer is finally over and Autumn has arrived but before I start packing the garden away I just wanted to share with you a makeover I did on the garden bench.

This bench was given to us by a family member a few years a go but was in need of some TLC which I finally got round to this summer.

Here's the before:

And the afters:

I painted it in two coats of colours paint from B&Q in Bonsai. The outside cushions were from the homebase sale at just £4.99 each and love the pop of colour they add to the garden.

That's all for now, thanks for reading xxx

Today I am linking up with #HomeEtc for the first time in a very long time!!!

New Old Door

We have wanted a new back door in the kitchen since we moved in but they are just so pricey. I was thinking about just re-painting the one we had and adding a new handle to spruce it up, but then I noticed that it was just a panel so we removed it (in the hope that underneath couldn't be much worse than what we already had).

So, here is the before:

And here it is with the panel removed, awful colours but loved the style...phew!! Please excuse the tools and mess :)

Before and After ~ Playroom Floorboards

Once we had put the children into a bedroom together, we wanted to turn the nursery into a playroom. First job was to rip up the laminate floor (see this post for pics), we were planning on putting a carpet down but luckily the floorboards were ok so we decided to paint them.

Before

Before and After ~ Chest of Drawers

Hello, today I wanted to share with you a makeover I recently did on a chest of drawers.

The bow front drawers were an absolute bargain from the charity shop at £30!!

Before and After ~The Downstairs Loo

Our downstairs loo is tiny, its so tiny I hardly ever go in there. We have thought on many occasion about taking it out and having a nice spacious area at the bottom of the stairs - maybe with a desk in or a nice comfy chair and make it a reading area? However we found that it proved to be invaluable during potty training so for now it remains!!

So, as it is staying it has also been turned white along with the rest of the house!

We had a not very pleasant green carpet going from the hall, up the stairs and onto the landing that was there when we moved in - and it was also in the downstairs loo! I hate carpet in bathrooms so I pulled it up, and wish I had done so sooner as these lovely floorboards were under there!

 

I pulled up the gripper rods, sanded them, filled in any holes with wood filler, sanded again, undercoated with Farrow & Ball Wood floor primer & undercoat in white & light tones, and then gave it two coats of Farrow & Ball Floor paint in Cornforth White.

 

It was well worth the effort! Really pleased with the result! Also, love the metal basket from Sainsburys - perfect for the downstairs loo! The skirting is painted in Farrow & Ball eggshell 'Strong White' and the walls are painted in Crown emulsion 'Sail White'.  

As you can see I have gone for a coastal theme, not very original I know but very pretty :) The ceramic bowl was made by my Partner, we have a matching one in the bathroom which you can see here.

 

 Charity shop mirror painted in Annie Sloan 'Old White'.

 

 

As well as painting the floorboards in the downstairs loo, I have also painted them in the Hallway but will save that for another day! The stairs are next eek!

 

Thank you for reading xx

 

 

 

 

Today I am linking up with:

The Dedicated House ~ Make it Pretty Monday

Before and After ~ Chairs and Stools

I can't resist a challenge so when it was a challenge which involved re-loving a piece of furniture I was very excited! Any excuse to get my paintbrushes out!

The challenge was set by Emma at Frugally Peachy, see more details here.

We were recently given two dining chairs and two stools which had belonged to Jonny's Grandma. I had painted the chairs and re-covered the seats but hadn't got round to doing the stools so this challenge was my chance. The stools come in really handy around the house: opening the loft ladder, changing light bulbs, hanging curtains, extra seating etc etc. But they are just not to our taste so a lick of paint means they will still be useful but look good too!

Here are the stools before:

After, transformed with a coat of Annie Sloan 'Old White', two coats of Farrow & Ball 'Dove Tale' and the seat pad re-covered with spotty oilcloth.

Before and After ~ Small set of Drawers

These drawers came from  our old house and they were invaluable there for extra storage in our small kitchen. In our house now they were still in the kitchen but ended up all becoming 'Man' drawers, other words full of junk!

So, last week I decided to empty them and give them a new lease of life.


I gave them two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint 'Old White', sanded them to give them a distressed look and then rubbed down with Annie Sloan clear soft wax. This was my first ever attempt at 'distressing' so was a little nervous, but soon got into it and maybe even over sanded? What do you think?

 

Before and After ~ Bookcase

We bought this bookcase from a charity shop a while back for just £10.

Before and After ~ Kitchen Cupboard Doors

We are updating our kitchen with a seriously small budget! We started by painting the kitchen tiles which was a success! Up to now I have painted the cupboard doors, fitted new handles and made a sink curtain to cover the washing machine but there is still a lot to do.

Here is a reminder of the before with the black tiles:

Before and Afters ~ Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

My dining table resembled an Annie Sloan workshop over the Summer, anything and everything was getting painted!

 

 

Before and After ~ Garden Planter

Good morning, looks like another glorious day doesn't it? I could so get used to this!!

As you may know, I have been trying to turn our ordinary garden shed into a playhouse, its pretty much finished, the children are playing in it and love it, but I just want to finish off a few little details before showing you.

I was recently giving this very dull wooden garden planter and knew instantly it would make a great window box for the playhouse.

Before and After ~ Kitchen Tiles

Our kitchen doesn't get a lot of natural light, and the black kitchen tiles don't help matters, it just looks dark and gloomy. Ideally we would have like to have new tiles, but seen as we are trying to keep costs down I thought I would try painting them.

We bought Ronseal one coat paint in natural stone. Following instructions, I completely scrubbed down the tiles with bleach and thoroughly dried them - my arms were aching before I had even started painting!

Before and After ~ Childs Chair

I recently posted to tell you I had been converted to Annie Sloan Paint! I just love it! I have been painting and revamping lots of items around the home, the first one I want to show you is this simple wooden Childs chair.

I bought this chair for a snippet at 50p from a carboot:

Before and After ~ Side Table

There is a second hand furniture shop in our local town which my Partner, Jonny and I love! (thats a slight understatement). They have beautiful furniture and bits and bobs in that they get from house clearances and who knows where else! The shop has about 7 rooms spread over 3 floors and is a real Aladdins cave!

Jonny and I couldn't believe it when we saw this little side table outside the shop one day for a snippet at a fiver! We had to have it!

It might not look much here with this orange stain on it but we knew we could work our magic on it!!