Friday, September 26, 2014

Wardrobes-Part Three

Finally!  The wardrobes are done!


As a reminder, we played the great furniture switcheroo to get the wardrobes and then I painted and painted.  The wardrobes were at this point...and that's where they've stayed.  They are a bit tilted, but have been so great!  Lots of great storage, pull-out drawers, easy access for two little girls.



We waited until Kenny the Joiner had a space in his schedule.  This week it was our turn!  In one day, he built a base to raise the wardrobes, placed and leveled the storage, and boxed everything in.


We had every inch of skirting and facing in the house painted 16 months ago and every bit of it has yellowed.  Perhaps you can tell in the photo below where the skirting/base board is yellow and the doors are white.  Maybe not?  But in person, very apparent!


Kenny put in some fancy crown molding, and reattached the doors.



I painted some more and voila!  The girls' wardrobe is all done.  I told the girls Kenny came to make their wardrobes fancy, and I think he did a pretty excellent job!



Project Breakdown

Furniture £65
Paint and Supplies £60
Labor £150
Total £275

It has taken all summer, but it's so much easier to go from this


To this!

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Bird Chandelier

The bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling is kind of okay by me.  We've had the 'look' is almost every room in the house for a year.  Our babysitter finally told me that it looked kind of pathetic, but she said it in a nicer way.

For the girls' room, I decided to make a 'bird chandelier'.  Something like this.  I tried and tried to find a reasonably priced wire pendant lamp shade.  I'd heard Ikea had some (like a lamp covered in paper that had wire underneath), but after several visits I came home empty handed.

Finally, one night I just bought a cheap lamp shade, tore it apart, and used wire to 'weave' a very homespun looking cage.  With a baby wipe box as a support.




I spray painted it, and then looked high and low for imitation birds.  Holy Hannah, they're hard to find.  I miss Michael's and the abidance of fake birds for pennies the US has on offer.  I finally broke down and purchased six birds on clips from pippi.  With a discount code and shipping I think they were around £20.


Hello birds!


And finally, the naked pendant light is covered, kind of.  The girls love the light and consider it a treat if I unclip the birds and let them hold them for a few minutes.