• Feb
  • 19
  • 2013

DIY Wall art for living room nook

When the husband wants something, he just has to say the word and then I’ll take care of the rest. This time he wanted an armchair, for more comfort.

I wasn’t exactly sure where else I could put this extra armchair seeing that our living room isn’t a big room, so I had to compromise some things and move around. The photo below was the old living room decor nook, where the floor lamp is. And this is where the new armchair will go.

So when we put the new armchair there and moved the floor lamp to the opposite nook (gotten rid of the magazine rack), the walls behind the armchair looked rather plain. I decided to DIY some art from the stuff we already had and picked up a couple of things from the junk yard. I got this timber tray for $2.50 each.

Above: Sanded timber tray (before)

Below: During the process of painting

The picture below are the 3 DIY wall art.

1- Exsiting Ikea MALMA mirror that I stencil and painted with a quatrefoil design.

2. Junk yard timber tray turned wall art – digital design print.

3. Junk yard timber tray turned wall art – hand painted.

For the quatrefoil mirror, I cut out a stencil and traced it all around the mirror with a pencil.

Then using acrylic paint, painted it with love and care.

Here is a close up of the timber trays, they are painted to make it look a bit rustic

As for art #2, Its a digital design art that I made in illustator and printed it out. I’m also selling it in my Etsy store.

The cushion was purchased online from eBay.

 

 

 

 


  • 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.


  • Mar
  • 30
  • 2012

living 101

living1

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!

living2

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!

living3

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!

living7You 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.

living4

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.

living5

living6

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.

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