A little bit of D.I.Y.

Greetings dear friends & readers,

Just after my last post Sid went away with his parents for a holiday to the Sunshine Coast of Australia.
As I didn't have to look after him for the week I decided this might be a good opportunity to paint my Hallway.

My first EVER homegrown freesias picked from my garden - their fragrance is divine !!~

My hallway is only small but it leads to our Utility rooms & - although tiny - it has 3 doorways & 2 cupboards 
leading off it.
And not much room to move either !!

It used to have an exterior glass door at the end but we removed this when we did our lounge reno & made it 
into a craft cupboard - you can read about it in this post Here
So now we have no natural light coming into the hallway at all.

Firstly I needed to nail quarter round moldings to the corner of the wall that the builders never finished off  - this then 
had to be filled & primer/undercoated.

Then I began painting the walls & YES - I had constant unwanted supervision throughout the entire process !!! 😉

It was a very small space to move around in & it is only fair to say - I got paint everywhere !!~!
My dear old Dad was a painter & he would've been turning in his grave if he saw how I worked !!

Once I got two coats on the walls & the door frames painted, I decided to paint the door at the end (my craft cupboard) in pink.
I had a Resene testpot in the colour Pale Rose
Once I had done a coat of this, I didn't like it at all - it reminded me of pink primer paint ... so I tried out some blue colors I had in testpots.
By this stage it was resembling a bit of an ugly patchwork quilt 😉

Finally - after a day of walking past it - back to cream the door went !
In hindsight I am so pleased I kept it the same color throughout as it's such a small space & it helps to lighten it a little

Plus I had decided to apply the leftover transfer from this little upcycle project that I did Here
This whole process was to be very much using up what I had on hand & not buying anything !

The sweet little china cross was a birthday gift from my lovely friend Jane.

These gorgeous vintage frames were purchased last year from my friend Sallys online vintage store - I loved them but had never found the right spot for them to hang
You can see in this picture & the one below, that my hallway had once upon a time, been wallpapered in a heavy duty textured wallpaper.  I simply painted right over this & loved the effect of it all.

A simple bevelled glass mirror - an op shop purchase - was my final decoration to the wall.
As our cat's litter box goes into the hallway at nights I chose not to place any other furniture in the narrow passageway.

But I do plan to make a long rag mat (from scrap fabrics) for the floor - once I catch my breath.

Next up I wanted to do some sort of shades for the 2 lights in the hallway - I found these old wire frames in my sleepout so I chose a pretty Tilda fabric from my stash, that echoed the plummy colors in the door transfer.

I tore strips, ironed them & then wound them round the wire frame - my only purchase was 2 of those skeletal light bulbs that have the filaments showing  (not photographing especially well here today)

It has certainly freshened & lightened it up but gosh I am SO pleased it is all done & I hope I don't have to do it again for many, many years! Give me a piece of furniture to paint anyday in preference to a room !! 😉


During the course of last week & in the midst of my painting spree - I remembered my lovely friend Sally had a birthday coming up.

I found this old wooden box in my sleepout so I painted each of the 4 sides with some black chalk paint & my stencil

Then I lined the whole box with a black rubbish bag & planted it with a punnet of snapdragons (antirrhinums) - these have such a long flowering period & if you pinch the centres out, I find they bush out nicely.

A little chalk board sign & the planter box was complete.

The next day I made up a batch of lemon dusters as I knew Sal would enjoy using these.
 I also made a Citrus Slice - some to enjoy & some to gift to Sal, as we seem to still have an abundance of lemons & oranges on our trees.

Thanks so much for staying with me through this lengthy post dear friends.
Before I sign off, I just wanted to share this delighful photo of dear little Sid on holiday in Noosa.

Isn't this just the picture of a little boy in absolute heaven ?! 💙
Wishing you a wonderful weekend dear friends,
Be kind to yourselves & to each other,
With much love & friendship,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0