in my studio | before and after

Posts Tagged With 'before and after'

Oct
29
2012

{before + after} DIY quatrefoil table stencil

This is our revamped side table with a quatrefoil design. Lately I’ve been into contemporary Moroccan latticework patterns. They are absolutely pretty! I’ll show a step by step on how to stencil this table. There are a couple of ways to do it, either paint it with your bare fingers (using a template or use a sticker stencil) I’ll show you the stencil way. First, get yourself an old table. We picked this up from an ad on Gumtree for $15.

I measured the diameter of the table and whipped up the patterns on illustrator. Feel free to download the pattern template here. I made it available in a PDF version so the vector works remain if you wish to resize it.

Then print it out onto sticker paper and using a stanley knife or scissors, carefully cut out the stencil template.

Give the table a good sand thoroughly.

Paint the base colour, I chose a light grey. Give it two coats.

Once dried, apply the sticker stencil. Press to make sure they are no bumps. And finally spray it white, two coats again. Leave it to dry for a day before removing the stencil.

Once you remove the stencil, sand the edges using a fine sand paper to enhance the edges and also to give it a rustic look.

And now we’re done!

Total cost of project:

Side table $15
Spray paint $3
Sticker paper $2

Final total:$20. An absolute bargain!

It makes for such a pretty indoor or even outdoor side table.

2 lovely comments
Category: before + after, décor, do-it-yourself, freebies, in my home, in my studio, living/lounge

Mar
30
2012

living 101

So I finally managed to finish off our living room. I kept changing my mind and the decor along the way but I knew I’ve always wanted a bright, serene room hence no wallpaper or paint was used. The furniture and decor speak for themselves. The reason why I changed it 101 times is because going from a newborn who pretty much doesn’t touch anything to having a super energetic toddler, I had to remove/reposition many decor items. They either were given away, stored in the garage or placed at a higher level. I also had to be careful to not over-do or under-do in terms of decoration. And also because most items are not brand-new-straight-from-the-stores-costing-me-a-bomb, it took me a while to source them. I did quite a bit of research and looked around second hand shops/ebay/gumtree and even managed to scavenge things found on the street. This is me and I am proud of it, I simply love recyclable materials!

Our living room is not the best shaped room for a living/lounge… very rectangular and long, which makes furniture positioning a bit tricky. If you see the before photo, two pieces of bulky furniture were placed in front of each other making the room feel tight and crowded. Of course when you have guests, that’s probably the way to go however this wasn’t our concern. We (the family) spend more time in this house so we had to make it a functional space for us to live in. We wanted the TV right in front of our comfy couch. Yes! That dark brown couch is super comfy. And sorry, I wasn’t able to fit a picture of the TV in the photo, but just imagine it sitting opposite the brown couch. Considering the living room is pretty small, we could fit 7 sitting people without it looking crowded. Woohoo, problem solved!

The old wall gas heater is not fully working and it would cost us an arm and a leg to get it replaced, so we decided to scrap that and position a light beige couch in front of it. More space saving for us! We also installed a split system heating/cooling above the fireplace and are now looking to get underfloor ducted heating throughout the house. Melbourne can get very cold in winter and one heater isn’t going to heat up a whole house!

You can find the post for this hand sewn ‘love’ cushion here. Note: I did not make the cushion cover, it came with one of the couches we bought from Gumtree.

For the mantel piece decor, I made this lovely frame with chalk writing and the post can be found here. Its very easy, just pick up a frame from a second hand store or a timber yard.

I am yet to make a post about this gorgeous timber scrap “Bismillah” art, which translates to ” In the name of Allah” in Arabic. I hope you’ve been thoroughly inspired. Its nothing glamorous, just a simple and functional space as I like to call it.

1 lovely comment
Category: architecture/interior, before + after, décor, house 101, in my home, living/lounge

Nov
21
2011

back entry 101

back of house

Welcome. This is the back entry to our home aka the shoe room. Yes, we go in and out through the back door. Its much easier as this is where we store all our shoes. The front entrance has not been touched yet as we still need to figure out what we want to do with it. We’ll come to that soon…the joys of renovating are never ending!

photo before

This picture was taken just after my husband started ripping out the 40 year old wallpaper (that was glued on the brick masonry wall). Sorry for the poor quality photo, it was taken with an iPhone (of course). I am pretty dissapointed that I didn’t get a photo of the wallpaper while it was still attached. This shoe room/entry reno was a spur of the moment thing. I walked out one day and realised he started ripping it off. No time to get the camera out!

back entrance

A bit of scavenging from the garage and we have ourselves a wooden welcome rustic sign. Now this area has definitely brightened up 10 times more than what it was before.

Catch more glimpses of our home renovation with before and after photos, here.

1 lovely comment
Category: architecture/interior, before + after, house 101, in my home

Nov
14
2011

sew your love

I like being creative in my spare time, not that I get much time to myself, but when I do, I make use of it even if it means doing something small around the house.

A few months ago, we bought a second hand two seater fabric couch on Gumtree Melbourne. It was the perfect couch and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the ad said ‘Freedom couch $60’. Freedom! Freedom is one of my favourite furniture stores in Melbourne, but with a price tag of course. Our first couch we bought was from Freedom when they had a massive sale and I vouch its one of my best purchases. If (God forbid) something would happen to my house, I’d drag the couch out with me-darn I love that thing! (pictured above)

So back to this Gumtree couch, its a beigy grey colour and came with 2 matching cushions (seriously, who would put cushions on a sofa in the exact same colour and fabric?!!) Anyhoo, I gave it a good scrub & wash, got out a needle & a thread and started sewing my love on…And of course, filled it with a new fluffier cushion insert!

1 lovely comment
Category: before + after, décor, do-it-yourself, in my home, in my studio

Nov
07
2011

what’s the time on the clock?

Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down!
Hickory Dickory Dock.

This Piro clock was originally bought from Ikea many months ago. They are no longer selling it now, so I was glad that I managed to get one. I knew it had potential rather than just using the default pattern that it came with but it never crossed my mind to use it for my daughters room. As I was reading to my daughter ‘numbers’ one day, it clicked to me that maybe I should design her a clock with huge colourful numbers. And so I did. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, bright, colourful and really child friendly… the opposite to the ‘dull’ black that it originally was. Now, my daughter knows how to point with her finger number 1 (and slowly showing number2) whenever we say 1,2,3 and mashallah she is only 15 months!