Dining table clean up

Yay I varnished it I varnished it!

My dining table is rather special. The bargain hunter that I am, I love it more coz I bought it on ebay for 80 dollars!
It came with two benches when I bought it 4 years ago which I later handed down to my brother when he relocated here.

My intial plan was to stain it a lighter shade to match the current dining chairs. But since it is already a very dark shade, the guy at homefix told me it needed to be sanded bare using a machine.

Well since I wanted to do it myself, I had to settle for varnishing it for now.

After cleaning it and sanding it down twice with the help of my very effecient helper..

This is what it looks like now...

I am pretty pleased :)

Fishnet doodle is done!!

Trellis mirror

A bored saturday afternoon, some yellow elastic tape and some crazy thoughts running through my head

Chevron pillow case

With an overdose of the ubiquitous Chevron pattern on pinterest, blogger, instagram and various other places, I swore I would never have anything to do with it. But what fun is it if you dont break your own resolution!

I was in the middle of doing a grey and yellow living room when the Aha! moment happened. I just happened to have an old kurta which I hadnt worn for the longest time. So naturally it had to be revamped.

Sometimes my husband accuses me of the opposite of hoarding. I dispose off of anything I havent used in the previous six months. His clothes usually fall prey more often than mine. May be he has a point ;)

Had an old chair cushion which was soft and pliable. I bent it in half and sewed the ends together to make a sort of lumbar pillow. It is firm yes, but probably not the most comfortable I must confess.

I then cut the bottom part of the kurta- which is roughly a square cloth and sewed three edges to make the cover.

Havent decided on how to fasten the cushion though..for now I just folded the ends inside the pillow.
Very amateurish I know.

Will put up pictures of the living room soon..

The Buddha head

I remembered I never really gave a breakdown of my spray painted Buddha head on my living room wall

Its been two years since I did it and the pictures are not optimal, but what the heck, here it goes..


The nice husband had got me - get this- 50 shades of spray paint as a birthday gift two years ago :)
Ya he knows me well..

The wall is about 12x10 ft
cleaned it first with damp cloth

I did not do primer coz I was feeling lazy..I know it will bite my behind sometime.

Painted it matte black after taping off the edges

Let it dry thoroughly

I downloaded a picture of a Buddha head I liked from the internet

I did a free hand of the head with gold spray paint first. I figured if it didnt work, I can always paint over it.

Fortunately I fluked and managed to get a decent image on the wall ( yeah first timers luck and all)

I used three shaded of gold- metallic, matte and bronze

Once the image was on, the only thing left to do was to play around with the shading

Some gold here some black there to tease out the features

Finally added a ring of turquoise coz my all time favourite combo is turquoise and gold - ya how decadent!

And Voila!

Time flies and So do Butterflies :P

Some people find butterflies creepy
I sometimes fall in that category
Especially when they are in a swarm

But of late Ive been seeing some really cute projects on pinterest

Somehow it seems butterfly wall art has a life of its own
Robust and full of energy
Like the butterflies can unswirl at any moment and spill out of the art and land on your face

Img from pinterest

or am I being too dramatic!


Tried something on a smaller scale in Mikis bedroom using scrap book paper and hot glue

Plan to do this soon...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stencilling

Its that time of the week
when I have the day off
and I am itching to try something new

U see there's every opportunity to laze on the couch and just watch TV
But ofcourse the compulsive self has to be productive


Thus tried my hand at stencilling - from scratch!



Got this Indian/ Moroccan pattern from pinterest

Tried making a stencil with one specially tough cardboard and gave up

Then ripped off the back cardstock of a letter head and got into action





Found a spare wall that was begging for some subtle effect


Saw this idea of gloss on matte effect on the beautiful "whatsurhomestory" blog by +Vidya Sukumaran

Vidya's is ofcourse prettier :)

Voila!

Gloss white on matte white pattern

Whats the verdict ;)

Rest room signage

Ive been planning to put up some sort of signage for the toilet doors since all dors at home look alike! ( Not the best of situations when u have guests!)


Didnt want to buy anything

Saw this awfully cute sign on google ( dont have the link sorry..)

and made this..

Corrugated foam..Isnt it just adorable if I may say so myself ; )
Not a fan of the ikea colours though :)

DIY Lattice shelf/ console/ extra seating

Take a humble peice of wooden seating

paint it red! ( and gold and whatever takes your fancy)

Get the sweet husband to cut out some lattice frames ( with wood or cardboard- wood looks more professional) and spray paint in gold

Stick them on the painted surface with permanent glue on the side.

And if you are brave, in front as well

Stand back and admire your work ( I put 2  together)

Dont forget to thank your husband ( well ) later  ;)

You have your shelf ready!

They still work as extra seating if youre having a dinner party later!

Or like this...

The beholder's eye and such..

Do you decorate your house with the most expensive stuff that money can buy? Neither do I.

For most of us, the value of the objet d'art is not monetory. Sometimes its a memory of a great trip, a great story or just good old fashioned retail therapy! I am all for bargain hunting.

Overpriced snobbish goods put me off at a visceral level. My blood boils when I see so called 'Art' or sculpture which makes no sense with price tags to match.


Anyway, can you guess what these are..

Simply...











These...



Dried...




Upside down...




In a vase....

Doll house

Growing up, we didnt have a lot of fancy things around the house. Living in a small town entailed learning to improvise quickly. Since ours was a kind of joint family with grand parents and cousins living under the same roof, we had our share of the good the bad and the ugly.

 Even though gifts from 'forin returned aunties' were treasured a teeny bit more than our own hand made mud pies and brick houses, we quickly learnt the ephemeral nature of the former.


Thats why Im so happy when my darling girl started making her own doll house with cardboard boxes!


Being the neatness freak I am , I must admit I was initially horrified at the idea of grubby boxes littering her tiny room. I came around fast enough considering how much fun I had when I was her age making inane things out of mud and cardboard.


 This really innovative gal called Jamie Petitio has put up hundreds of videos on DIY stuff and my daughter religiously tries out everything Jamie has to offer.

Mikis dollhouse DIY

Miki made this using an old pillow

Doll closet with shoe box

pipe cleaners fo hangers!

Persian it may not be, creative it is !

 

Needless to say I was smitten too!So Miki and I sat down in the patio to make our very own perfume that wouldve made Tapputi proud!

We only used stuff around the house- jasmine, lime, basil,mint from the garden, cardomom, star anise, cinnamon from the kitchen and ofcourse sunflower oil. On hindsight, olive oil wouldve been a better choice but Im happy to report it smells good after steeping for 1 week in the dark.

Miki doesnt want to use it now since she says the smell of sun flower oil is overpowering! So I tinkered it a bit, added some of my precious rose oil to pass muster. I will probably use it as a cuticle oil or something equally fancy! But I know for sure that whenever I smell a mixture of kitchen spices and jasmine, I would only remember the great time I had with my daughter playing the perfume maker :)

Been doodling..

Thank you for looking at the pictures :) The doodles are personal. Please let me know if you wish to use them anywhere :)

Bathroom reveal

The idea was to give my daughter's bathroom an ethnic colourful update as I was quite bored with the previous white and gray minimalist look.

The initial plan of painting the tile in Jewel tones was eschewed after finding out how laborious tile painting could be and how ephemeral.

But I was itching to cover up the bland white tiles greeting me everytime I sat on the throne.

Meet my 2 dollar a pack of 12 rectangular wood blocks.

Just a spray of metallic gold and voila!

I had bought some pretty fabric from Spotlight the previous day.

This was cut and decoupaged onto the face of the blocks.

                                                           

 My pretty pretty blocks!



Now Something about the decoupage glue. I actually used modpodge as the first coat,  followed by a home made version.

Tapioca starch and water boiled together! ( I remember my mother getting her lovely cotton sarees starched and sundried on the terrace)


PLEASE IGNORE THE UGLY GROUT!! WORKING ON THAT!

This viscous goo actually does a good job of decoupage but on certain surfaces , u still need to use a basecoat of modpodge as its not sticky enough once it dries

I then cut out pieces of the same fabric to cover up the blue tiles around the mirror. Starch did the  job here

                                                       

                                                     

The decoupaged rectangles were stuck to the wall using - sorry I forget the name- Its a powdery tooth paste like glue- could be epoxy.

Lined the mirror with a decorative 'Zari' border

The towel holder was promptly changed

Even the wooden cow I got from the UK got a Desi update ;)

The toilet roll holder wasnt spared either

Borrowed my daughter's glitter glue to face lift an old starburst

My decoupaged lotus on cork board found a place on the vanity shelf door ....

....and the decoupaged tray for the toiletries

Table runner used as a curtain, just for my indulgence :)

Lastly I changed the lighting from incandescent white to a warm yellow.

Im unable to get a good pic of the overall makeover but I have managed to satisfy a very important client - my daughter :)




Thank you +Patricia Torres  Patricia  for the link party :)