Guest room by Christmas challenge

Last Saturday My in-laws George & Sue are arriving from Sydney to say with us for Christmas. They have stayed with us before and do not expect anything special to be done for them. But this is the first time that they have come since my Kids have moved out. So this time its just us and them and we now have a few extra rooms I ceased the opportunity to make one into a guest room for them.So I set myself a challenge 10 weeks to transform my daughters old room into a relaxing guest room.              

this is how it looked before I started working on it. It had become a bit of a dumping zone. I have been hording up all kinds of things that I would like to up-cycle so a bit of a clean out was needed. 

The room looked lovely when the girls were younger, I was so proud of the stenciled boarder I had done. As my girls shared this room at the time I painted it both there favorite colors pink & purple. but this is so dated now its definitely time for a face lift. 

        

I painted the bottom purple half with a light colour paint I had bought for the Kitchen & didn't like how it looked so it made a great base coat. I patched and started cutting in     

 then came the good bit roller painting 

I cant believe the difference a coat of paint can make. I also painted the ceiling as Tamara had put posters on the roof and they had left tape marks.Them the window and trim needed painting the beige was just not the look I was going for it had to be white.

      

                                      

over the next 10 weeks I up-cycled or made nearly everything you see in this room. The paint was the most expensive part the wall & ceiling paint I brought when Masters was closing down so I got that for next to nothing. But the paint I used for the Furniture was chalk paint and cost me $100 for for 2 one litre tins of paint. I love how it turned out George & Sue were very pleased with it & Marty & I have been enjoying them staying with us.        

the overall feel of the room is peaceful and homely with my style of vintage with a slightly quirky feel,   

to read about the bed check out the post Here

 I made this sign out of pallets and add a quote that sums up how I feel about my home.
this sign is available in my Etsy store here

My mum was throwing out these butterfly so I rescued them, & they became the inspiration for the room.I have always loved insects & butterfly's are just beautiful.
  

the black frames my sister was getting rid of so I added butterfly's I printed on vintage music sheet and the dragonfly's are printed on a vintage dictionary page. 

the wooden Prism is my own design you purchase from my Etsy store

here  

the cute little lantern I was for tea light candles but I turner it into a electric bedside lamp. The side table is a log slice my husband cut and I used a stool I found on the road side for the base.  

 I Purchased this furniture from a second hand store I got all of it for only $400 and gave it a makeover myself post on that coming soon  

  

  

orchid from aliexpress & the Large glass bowl was a $2 purchase from tip shop I used oasis foam & bark chips to plant the flowers.  

I adding some personal items help to make our guests feel comfortable.

I hope you enjoy time with your loved ones this Christmas. 

enjoy!

    

Dreams don't work unless you do.

I've had two stand out dreams all my life: Be a  mum & decorate/renovate my home.

I was 18 years old when I had my first baby and had all three by the time I was 22. My young age made realising my second dream difficult. I did decorate but on a limited budget, and for a time I found myself as a stay at home single mum,raising loving kids took priority.
November last year I turned 40 And my baby's are grown and all got there own life's to live,so I am going after dream number Two.

 Me and my hubby run are own wedding and home decor business Saw Dust Art  were I love Designing new products. This gives me a creative outlet but I still find myself dreaming about renovating, we don't have are own home (yet) so this seamed pointless. One night Marty asked me if I would go crazy if I never got my own home to renovate since I spend so much time dreaming about it. This question got me thinking about who I am what I'm here for and how to live the life I belive I was created to live.that's when I decide it's time. So what if I don't own my house,we live in a homeswest house it's a lovely old house and needs work.

 Homeswest sent us a letter letting us know are place was listed as one of the homes to be demolished. This was 10 years ago seams they ran into budget problems to. This has left our house in limbo they don't want to spend a lot fixing the place but are happy for us to do work on it so that's what I'm going to do.of cause we're not  going to sink heaps of money into this place I'm not giving up on my dream to renovate my own place.I'll be doing all I can to build my buisness and save like crazy my chalange here is to renovate using thrifty finds donated iteams and a hole heap of DIY.

 I'v heard it said that vision is seeing the invisible,that sounds like dreaming to me.Whatever you call it I can tell you its scary! There are so many uncertainty it takes courage & determination to make the invisible visible. But what has the potential to send you crazy is having vision  and no where to release it. I mean if someone is constently describing things to you saying can't you see it and you look but there is nothing there wouldn't you think there maybe crazy? There must be a reson why I have been given the sight to see things the way they could be.So from this point on I'm going to face fears,learn a whole heap & transform the space arround me to look the way it looks In my head or maybe it's my heart what ever I'm going to get working and I'll be recording my journey here.

Do you have a dream or vision that you need to embrace? What's holding you back?


                                   Enjoy
                                           Leanne 😀

Sweets tray turned office display

This was a nice and easy little project that has not taken away from how pleased I am with the finished piece.

Its home for the last 35 years has been on a wall in my dads shed. Holding all kinds of bits and peices; old hinges, rusty springs and things that no one realy knows what they are. As a kid I use to love rummiging through Dads shed looking for treasure. Who am I kidding, I still do.

Dad retired 2 years ago him and mum have done a bit of travaling and enjoying life.

 Dad has now decided it's time to clean out his shed and get rid of the old to make way for the new.

In the process he asked me if I wanted this thingy... Is he kidding, of cause I want it! He asked me if I knew what it was, I said "what do you mean it's that thingy off the shed wall it held all those bits and peices." He Then said "no before that?" I had no idea.

 Dad went on to tell me that it had been on the counter in the deli he owned when I was a baby. it use to hold all the 1 & 2 cent lollies. 

I love how things can bring back memories and share stories between people, making them much more than an object. I felt as though it was my mission to save it from the tip and preserve Dads story while adding my own. This now had family history to it.

I didn't want to change it too much because it was already beautiful, it was just a little grubby. I gave it a good brush down to remove the dust, took the back off oh and the plastic pricing strip on the side was removed. Then I gave it a good scrub with sugar soap, water and a damp cloth.

   I love that while I was washing it Bianca, my sons girlfriend, arrived home. (my son and Bianca live in the granny flat at my parents and

  me and my hubby run are buisness from my dads shed extension, my parents are the best) Any how, Bianca was like "Ooohhh what you doing?" Well next thing I know, we are  brainstorming ideas of what to use as the new

  backing. I had; wall paper, 2 types of chicken. wire, chalkboard & pressed tin all as options. We held each one up behind it to see how it looked. Then I thought about the Room Im going to use it in. We both agreed the chalkboard worked best and would make my vintage peices I'm going to display in it pop.

I love how it turned out but most of all I love the memories and new stories that this peice now hold 

And to me that is what restoring is all about; building relationships and creating memories. 

                       

                                        Enjoy