Bench seat love

The nest

This beautiful piece belongs to Samantha from the nest, (Love her blog, you must go check)

You see Ive moved things around a bit in my kitchen, it wasn't working for me. I had put an island bench where there really was no room for one and It seems that lately everyone's been bumping into each other, falling over each other and generally getting in the way, it was becoming frustrating and I was annoyed at myself for making what is a pretty good sized kitchen unnecessarily small, we ended up with stacks of unused space behind the island and no-one was using it to sit at anyway.

This house is small enough and I had effectively made our most important room smaller and non-functional.

Brilliant 

See here 

And with the door open

The stools were moved to this side because the door kept opening on people.

Which then gave us very little room on this side, the busy side.

The other side (and my beloved op shop find pantry... Adore..Sigh)

I still really like this layout, just not for a family with busy kids.

See the wasted space.

Not to mention that the lights visually lower the ceiling height.

I knew all this at the time but im so stubborn I convinced myself Id be able to live with it.

All because I fell head over heels for that table.

I was going to incorporate it regardless. 

I love that table.

But I love my family more.

And my sanity.

So the table has to go.

Here's where the bench seat comes in.

The inside of Samantha's bench

I want somewhere comfortable to sit so people can hang out with me in the kitchen.

We need a place for Ruben to dump his school bag and stuff.

Perfect solution.

Im just not sure where to find one around here.

Do these even exists in this country?

Id love an old one .

New will be absolutely fine though.

Any Ideas.

Has anyone seen these in Aus?

xx

P.S. I received my very first blog award the other day from the lovely  Laura of My summerhouse, thank you so much Laura, ill be posting about it soon. 

Can you settle an argument for me?

The table.

The mirrors stays as is, it has a really nice aged peeling effect from being ... well, old..

 (you cant see it in this bad photo, sorry for the quality)

But the table...

I say paint it white.

Soft chalky waxy white.

With a new handle.

Possibly glass.

Then the mirror would shine.

The other half says sand and stain or wax (he cant decide)

He wont be actually doing it but he's pretty insistent lol.

I bought it with "Slap some paint on the bargain find " in mind,

and besides that Id have to sand it properly and painstakingly carefully and I utterly detest sanding.

(way too many years of doing it has left me bitter and impatient)

What should I do?

What would you do?

All of the other furniture in this room is white.

Am I resisting the big job just because I hate it even though it would be best.

 Have my instincts been 'blinded by the white'

Or is white really the best option?

Vanity

This was my first option.

These are what I was actually looking for the day I found the bath.

Ive since changed my mind. 

Cute.

Im absolutely having two.

The other half doesn't understand why we need two.

He'll see.

And he'll love it.

Practical storage

Something like this could work

(just not so yellow, iekk)

Pedestals are nice though.

Hmmm.
What to choose.

(Fist pic country living all others living etc)

Rustic Kitchen love

There is something about each of these I love.

The charm

The proportions

The rustic timbers

The sense of space

The natural light

Whatever it is

Id feel at home here 

xx

All Images Elle Decor

Lovely legs... How I completely wasted precious time !

I picked this up for a bargain.

Very nice legs and the promise of a stunning top under the revolting cover.

The man (what knows stuff...apparently...) at the charity shop told me so.

"You're a lucky girl " he said "She'll be a beauty when you sand her back, solid top and quiet old she is too".

I was ever so excited to have acquired such a piece.

Fantasy's of solid scrubbed pine running through my head.

Delighted.

She will be my new kitchen table! 

So I spent a day sanding,scraping and scrubbing with love, removing mounds of glue and weird black goopy stuff.

Only To Find...


... VENEER ... 

Badly made veneer too

Stained and chipped and lifting apart.

Utterly deflated I delegated her to the junk room study to be burdened by clutter until I decided what to do with her.

Finally the new shed is ready and we need a table for it.

Excellent, but I had to do something with the top, I didn't want it getting more damaged.

"I know",

Im clever, ill just quickly chuck an oilcloth cover on it. No need to glue or prepare it properly as its only a fast temporary fix. 

So I cut

And Stapled.

Ran out of staples.

Only had single ones floating around the bottom of the bag which I painstakingly loaded into the gun 1 by 1.

The whole exercise took an hour and a half!

All that effort.

 So I could make it look

EXACTLY THE SAME... ONLY DOTTIER...

Im a genius.

Its not even smooth.

Sometimes I am astounded by my talent...

She will do for now.

Yes I have learnt my lesson.

xx

Much happenings

Huge week. 

Lots of big things happening.

Good and Bad.

 It left no time for blogging.

(Cant seem to get the balance right yet, still learning, I will get there)

Mini break time.

In the meantime here's some pretty's for my bathroom folder.

Love much.

xx

I ADORE THIS

Image=?

Hex tiles definitely  

La La lovely

Love a trough, very hard to find here though.

Back Soon. xx

Ok this is weird.

I went scouring some charity shops on the other side of town with a friend the other day  (she is the best friend to go thrift shopping with because we are interested in completely different stuff so there no fights over cool finds, hehe) Anyway, remember how I found these handled milk glass things (what are they actually called?) and the Pyrex pie dish? 

Well look what I found this time, 

In completely different charity shops miles away from each other at completely different times.

They're not even the same denomination.

Its the same pattern, ohhhh spooky.

I have a matching set now.

And this

 

Yes a bigger Pyrex pie dish.

(incidentally Ive been searching for these pie dishes for ages with no luck and I also needed the two sizes) 

I love it when stuff like this happens.

Does this happen to you guys?

Id love to know your story's. 

Fabric Inspiration

This came while ago

Once again Ive had no time to enjoy it and I "Gasp" actually forgot about it.

This is something I desperately need help with, we currently have no cushions on the lounge (or curtains either) because I cant get my head around what direction to go in, I don't really want to vintage everything up, or maybe I do, oh I don't know, see... confused. I really hope this helps, Ill let you know what its like.

Find it here

Saturday finds (on a Wednesday)

I had the opportunity to go thrift shopping last Saturday. Thrifting is normally a rushed weekday sport for me so this was real treat. It didn't disappoint either.

Christmas in July displays are in every thrift shop.

American milk glass (It says Anchor Hocking, Fire King on the base, anyone know anything about that particular brand?) I just love milk glass so wasn't leaving these baby's behind.

And an Aussie Pyrex pie dish.

And my personal fave.

(I have a thing for kitchen scales)

Another great day thrifting.

xx

Oh what a week and some vintage domesticity

The title says it all. Last week was one full week, joy and challenges in abundance. 

It has been doing lots of this.

Which in turn led to this

(This is where it started.)

(This is where it ended)

Yep, that's my kitchen floor flooding.

Again.

(This happen's every time it rains, long complicated story, this one was quiet a small flood)

Lucky I was home.

LOTs of ugliness and chaos ensued.

As it is school holidays and raining, there has been lots of inside fun.

.

And craziness.

And mud, did I mention the mud.

Oh and of course "We're bored,there's nothing to do"

But we couldn't  leave the house.

It has also left WAyyy too much of this.

(Source unknown, id love to know though? isn't it pretty)

Oh if only...

The truth is more like this

(Not including the massive mounds on the laundry floor not done yet, you see

we can't wash and dry at the same time as it trips the circuit, ahh the joys of an old cottage)

(Impact lab)

And with the man of the house being called away on business unexpectedly for the weekend I was starting to feel a little like this.

Amy Neunsinger

Actually, after having to abandon the shopping half way through because it started pouring and waking frequently at silly hrs to protect the house.

The reality is more this.

(No idea where this came from?)

But thanks to a knight in shining armour (in the form of a father in law) who rode in and fixed the flood problem

and babysitters (in the form of the mother in law and cousin) allowing me a full nights sleep and some good time off. 

I was able to do lots of this.

(the joy of nesting)

And achieve such domestic joy as this.

smartypanties.com

So now I feel better (nothing soothes like a clean tidy house) so clean in fact it would be worthy of a visit from  the vintage housekeeper herself. This woman has saved my domestic backside on many occasions, she is where I go when Im in desperate need of motivation and guidance on all things homely and lovely.

So now the rain has stopped,

The children are happy,

The house is sparkly, dry and warm.

I should be able to get back to normal transmission.

xx

Shower curtains

I know Im jumping the gun a little but as Im obsessing over my new bathroom I need to know what style of shower curtain Ill be making. I made this one for our current sad excuse for a bathroom because I loved the  Anthropologie ones but it needed to be a half size and besides that Im cheap and impatient so I wasn't forking out dough and waiting for delivery when I could do it myself immediately.

This is our current bathroom.

Teeny tiny and old.

(You cant see it here but the bath is broken in many places and green, ugly green, not cool.)

Im thinking.
Something like this one perhaps!

(Apologies, Ive had this so long I now have no idea of the source, Anyone ?) 


Or maybe some vivid colour!

Desire to Inspire

Or simple, perhaps even linen!

Living etc