A Weekend Project: Make A Bed

Hello, did you have a nice weekend? What did you get up to? Oh ya know, bought a new king sized mattress, then realised we didn't have a king sized bed base, so, as you do, just made one. Yup. Made an entire bed base. Timber slat, upholstered side rails and headboard. I think that's what you get when you pair a builder with a designer. Minds set on a project and that's it. There's no stoppin' us.

DIY Framed Photoboard

Ever since Sarah at Bobbyrobin posted about her amazing DIY photoboards, I've been quietly harbouring my desire to make my own with all our holiday snaps. I'm talking, even before we'd been to half the places and taken the photos, I was planning on creating my own photoboards. Nuts much?

My photoboard ended up framed behind glass instead of being on canvas, after I got my sticky mits on an old picture frame that my parents didn't want anymore. I used the 'Poladroid' application that Sarah suggested to turn all my photos into polaroid style, and took them down to Harvey Norman to catch their 9 cents per print sale ($7.20 for all my prints? I'll take that thank you!).

I bought 2 sheets of matte board, and after an insane amount of measuring and sticking I got all the photos in place.

 A very handy builder man who I also like to call my fiance helped me to cut the frame down a little, sand it, prime it and spray it black.

I finally got around to putting it all together this weekend and wollah!

VERY stoked with my photoboard!

Mr. Talented

Here is a sneak peak of an outdoor table that my clever fiance is making for our workaway hosts. It's made entirely from cedar, and that top is around 6 feet in diameter... it's HUGE! They're gonna have some wicked outdoor summer dinner parties round this thing.

The top sits on a podium type base which is actually a clever cupboard in disguise, holding a tap and garden hose, as well as wiring for some outdoor lights.

C has been lovingly staining, sanding, sealing, varnishing... it's taken him weeks and weeks worth of evenings I think! Every time I wonder where he's gotten to he's outside, slapping on another coat.

He's a pretty clever chappy you know, maybe one day he'll make us a table just like it for our house??

DIY TradeMe Trawl

I was trawling through the wonderful finds on TradeMe this morning, dreaming of the day I am in a 'settled' situation and I can snap up some of these goodies, and came across this sweet old 'Don' chair - obviously it is in need of a bit of TLC but it gives me goose bumps just thinking how fab it could look! I think a lot of people don't realise how easy it is to sand/scrape back the timber on these chairs, give them a good oil, and how you only need basic sewing skills to re-cover the squabs. If you can find a really cool fabric, you will have an instant 'new' chair. Check the springs first to make sure they aren't broken (you will need to get an upholsterer to replace them if they are), and check the foam to make sure it isn't rotting or disintegrating inside (this can easily be replaced). If all else fails, and it goes in the 'too hard' basket, there is a fantastic place in Wellington, ES Design, who specialise in restoring and re-upholstering old chairs, in particular mid 20th century styles like this! Check them out here, or visit them at 1 Marion St, Wellington.