Tag: paint

Preparing the chair

Leave a comment

OK, so I’m delaying things until I get paid, but in the meantime I’ve got one book from the library about reupholstering to look at (which I haven’t yet actually opened), I’ve ordered the foam to replace in the arm bits and I’ve been for advice from (ie, facebooked) my friend Michelle about what to do with the actual frame of the chair and stool because she’s amazing and does this kind of thing all the time.  In the meantime, Charlie’s sewing machine is sneaking me little looks and making me feel guilty, but I get paid at the end of this week and I’ll order the fabric and press studs then.

Michelle’s response to my DIY SOS was that she would sand the existing varnish off, prime it if I can be bothered (I think I can) and buy a spray paint made for wood. Then seal it with a matt varnish.  I’m pretty sure I’ll have to do all of this outside as well, which doesn’t help as we’ve just had a load of snow come down.

In the meantime, I’m a man with a plan – I’m in town on Friday and Monday meeting people, so thought I’d nip into Wilkos for some primer.  I daren’t start sanding until I actually have the primer, so I’m basically delaying everything for another few days.

What I don’t want to do is get all the bits and then have the baby early, because, let’s face it, that fabric will be thrown over that chair in the blink of an eye and the poor chair will never see a sewing machine or a paint brush.

Nursery done!

5 Comments

Nursery

The nursery’s now been painted, hurrah!  In the end we went for Sorbet (Dulux) on two walls, which is a pale pink, and then B&Q’s Grey Hints for the rest of the room.  When the decorator was painting the grey, I was worried it wasn’t quite grey enough and it would just look dirty white, but it seems to have dried really nicely and they’re good contrasting colours.

We’d quite like to put a shelf or two up (especially as we have nothing to put the baby monitor and temperature egg thing on), so we’re on the look out for reasonable shelving, although I could always paint a pine one white I suppose.

Nursery paint

It’s really satisfying to have the room painted – the furniture is all finally where we want it now, so we’re just waiting for the arrival to really complete the room!

I’m expecting a few fabric samples from eBay for the nursing chair and stool and then I’ll have a go at reupholstering that – my lovely friend Charlie is going to lend me her sewing machine (thank you!).  And if it turns out like a dog’s dinner, I’ll put a throw on it.  Nobody need ever know…

Pinks and greys

2 Comments

photo 2

We’ve been trying out colours for the nursery in line with the inspiring photo I found and mentioned in this post a little while ago.

This is as far as we’ve got, but I still think the greys are a bit dark, so I think we need to shop around for a paler grey because I don’t want the nursery to be oppressive!

For the pink, we’re sticking with the “Sorbet” from Dulux that my friend Michelle suggested (thank you!), so it really needs to go with that.

We’ve got the decorator in this week to paint the nursery and middle floor hallway (the hallway won’t be very exciting – we’re covering magnolia paint with “Almond White”, but it’ll freshen it up), so we need to decide quickly.

Bedding

We also got some new bedding for our bedroom now we’ve moved the beds around, finally got a King Size quilt!  It’s so soft – if I had loads of money I would just have new bedding on my bed all the time!  It’s pink and stripy, and the alternative set we got is white with a cute little ditsy pattern, I’ll put a little photo up when I change the bed and remember to take a photo.

The neverending tale of the black wall has an end

Leave a comment

Changed radiatorFinally! We’ve had a decorator in for the last few days to paint the black wall that has been looking at me since we half painted it in, erm, well, embarrassingly… March.  Time flies!

Here’s a reminder of how the wall has looked since then.  Yes, that is indeed been like that for eight whole months.

As I mentioned recently, we asked our shiny new decorator, Josh, to split the jobs we’d asked him to quote for into three parts, and he’s been busy doing the first (and cheapest!).  And now the wall is completely black!  Hurrah!

Black wall

Our new wall is not only sleek and sexy, but it sports straight lines and a glossy newly painted bannister.  Oh yes.

Josh has whizzed through quite a few of the “to-dos” on my depressing visual representation of all the jobs left to do: the kitchen post from way back in April – sanding and repainting the rest of the kitchen ceiling and walls, glossing the skirting boards, and painting the stairs wall, ceiling and handrail.

Black wall 2

In fact, we’ve only got two jobs left on that list now – tile the kitchen walls and replace the switches with brushed silver ones.  Both things that can wait a little bit, so I’m feeling a bit smug.  I think I’ve got enough lists going on without that one anyway (do two things make a list?).

We’ve asked the decorator to come back in early January to do the next instalment (middle floor hallway/stairs up to our room/nursery), can’t wait!

Nursery inspiration

5 Comments

I had a look round a lot of websites for inspiration on nursery themes and colours, and this was by far our favourite, from Project Nursery. The soft pink and grey is really soothing and calm, and it’s also very girly, which I love!

My friend Michelle saw this and immediately went and bought a tester pot of Dulux’s Sorbet, which is a similar pale pink, and it seems pretty perfect! We’ll go for a lighter grey than we’ve used in the living room, and try to break it up with the white furniture and pictures.


My friend Helen’s given us a rocking nursing chair and stool which are currently cream, but I think we’re going to try and dye the covers or re-upholster them so they’re grey to match the room.

Quote

1 Comment

We’ve made a tiny bit of progress in that we finally have a quote from a decorator!  Barry had a guy round just before we went on holiday, we then had a lovely time in Majorca (see left, didn’t do much!), and when we got back, a quote was waiting for us on the doormat.

He was quite young, but Barry said he looked like he knew what he was doing and he seems to have a lot of work on, which is a good sign.

Barry asked him to quote separately for three different areas; so the quote is (excluding materials):

  • Finish sanding in kitchen, finish painting, take the black wall up the stairs and gloss the handrail and skirting board up the stairs – £120
  • Paint the middle hallway and ceiling (dealing with nail pops as he goes), the nursery walls and ceiling and gloss everything that needs it – £240
  • Paint up to our bedroom, walls, ceiling and black gloss – £240

So £600 altogether.  When you break it down into the number of days it would take (we think five), it doesn’t seem too bad, considering the same amount of work would take Barry weeks with him having two jobs now and all, but it is a bit shocking seeing it written down like that!  We’re giving him the go-ahead for the first bit so that the black wall is sorted out for Christmas as we’re having relatives over.  Think that will be done at the end of November.  For the other two bits, I think we may wait until January and get them done when I’m on maternity leave so we don’t have to take annual leave.

Still no decorator

4 Comments

Trying to find a decorator is proving to be more difficult than we first thought.  We gave up on the one that never got back to us, and have moved onto another one.  Unfortunately, as we’re in London this weekend, and then on holiday the week after, the next one we rang is only available on weekends.  Normally perfect, but it means it’s going to be another month before we can get him in to even quote!

In baby news, we’ve ordered the pram now we’ve found out we’re having a girl and bought these beautiful shoes out of crazed excitement.  Got a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in H&M for babies!

She’s like the wind

2 Comments

In our endeavour to sort stuff (read: everything) before the baby comes in February, we’ve started by completing the appliances in the kitchen with this beauty…

It’s a condenser dryer, bought just as the sun seems to be coming out again.  As Barry had the foresight to drill a hole for a plug through the cupboard, but not the end panel, we haven’t tried it out yet but we should have it on at some point this weekend.  I’d better buy some Bounce!

Many thanks to Barry’s Mum for the dryer!

Barry did mention that the dryer delivery men had the audacity to ask how long the wall had been like that (i.e. not painted up the stairs).  Think we need to give that decorator a call soon…

Wardrobes

2 Comments

After all I said I was going to get from my mum’s, we’ve decided not to have the wardrobes in the end.  I think it’s overfacing Barry, who seems to have reached his limit on DIY for the year and is staging some kind of protest.

We really need to get cracking again – at least to finish off the last bits of the kitchen and living room, but going on holiday and eating out (almost) every night isn’t really conducive to pockets full of money to spend on picture frames.

Of our kitchen jobs still to do, we have the following left…

1. Sand and repaint the ceiling

2. Cut skirting boards to size and repaint

3. Fit skirting boards

4. Finish painting the kitchen walls

5. Finish sanding and fit the peninsula

6. Tile the kitchen walls

7. Paint the stairs wall, handrail and ceiling

8. Replace all of the switches with brushed silver ones

9. Get a condenser tumble dryer

The living room list’s not much better…

1. Sand and repaint wall and paint skirting boards

2. Paint the skirting boards and cut and fit the beading

3. Paint the kitchen/living room door (both sides) and the doorframe on the other side

4. Paint a radiator

5. And another one

6. Fit the strip thing between the kitchen and living room

7. Create the photo wall – finalise photos and buy frames and prints

8. Buy white drawers and baskets for the units

 

I need a lie down.

Procrastination

Leave a comment

As you may have suspected from my recent posts, not much DIY/decorating’s being done at the homestead at the moment.  We’re obviously very busy people, and now the bulk of it’s been done, it’s so easy to take our foot off the accelerator and be a little bit lazy.

I’m going to make a concerted effort to keep going this weekend and get a bit more done in the kitchen, like painting the skirting boards.  If we can do some sanding of the kitchen ceiling and get the beading done in the living room, all the better.

I’ve noticed that the living room looks really quite empty with nothing on the walls, so come payday, we’ll hopefully be able to sort that out.  Given time, I’ve completely changed my mind about having the plain frames, and am now looking at mixing them up, like these from Ikea, which is where we’ll probably end up.

I had a look at the cheapie ones from Wilkinson’s and they were all imperfect and the joins had big gaps in them, so if we’re spending so much, and putting so much time into sorting the photos, it’s worth spending a bit more to get it right.  We will have to go to Ikea and see them before we buy them though.  These are from Ikea’s website…